It was especially odious to those political leaders on whom the Mormons would not unite their votes. This situation intensified the hatred that had previously met them and they were soon confronted by fresh opposition. It would appear from the text of letters addressed by Smith to Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, prior to the election in 1844, that he was arrogant in a high degree. In those letters he demanded from the candidates a statement of what their attitude toward the Mormons would be in case of their election. Some journalists characterized the demand as insolent and yet suffragettes, labor unionists and other equally respectable leaders frequently make similar demands. On the 12th of July, 1843, a revelation was said to have been made to Joseph Smith and was duly published. A copy is given by Bancroft, (page 160), sanctioning by divine authority the practice of polygamy. This declaration seemed to afford sufficient grounds for a renewed war of extermination. Then followed the bitter conflict between the citizens represented by mobs and the state militia on the one side, and the Mormons on the other side, which culminated in the assassination of Joseph Smith, the prophet, and Hyrum, his brother, by a mob of about one hundred and fifty disguised men, in the prison in Carthage, Illinois, on June 27, 1844, where they were awaiting trial on an indictment for treason. On July 25th, Governor Thomas Ford issued a proclamation to the people of the county (Hancock) denouncing mob violence. The governor's paper is given in _The Star_ of October, 1844. This event occurred during a carnival of crime and murder in the country around Nauvoo, all of which has given rise to such conflicting opinions that the investigator, after conversing with numerous witnesses and reading various journals of the time, cannot fail to conclude that both Mormon and Gentile desperadoes infested that part of the state. Edward Bonney, in a little volume entitled _The Banditti of the Prairies_, gives a thrilling record of crime which he, as an officer, assisted in bringing to light, and which resulted in the execution of a number of Mormon murderers, but I discovered that he himself was brought to trial under an indictment for issuing counterfeit money. A change of venue carried the case to a Gentile court, where he made a successful defense. Recrimination, robbery, riot, and organized resistance by both parties in this war continued until the final eviction of the Mormons from the state. Fourteen years had now passed since the New Church was organized by a few obscure men. At the time of the assassination of Joseph and Hyrum Smith the Mormon enrollment of Nauvoo numbered thousands. The history of other new religious faiths was repeated. Mormonism was strengthened by the persecutions through which its enemies aimed at its extermination.