Then the Prophet was put before the country for President of the United States. He published his views on the powers and policy of the government, and called upon his friends to support him. By adopting this policy there was a candidate in the field the Saints could vote for conscientiously; and if their candidate from the beginning was sure of defeat, they had at least removed themselves and their religion from the filthy vortex of political controversy. Footnotes 1. Parley P. Pratt's _Key to Theology_. 2. For dates of these marriages, birth of children, etc., see Appendix. CHAPTER XII. A RETROSPECT--A STATE'S CRIME--TROUBLE BREWING. Thus far I have spoken only of those prosperous events which befell the Saints at Nauvoo from the return of the Twelve from England, in July, 1841, to the nomination of the Prophet Joseph for president of the United States, February, 1843. It now becomes necessary to note some of those unfortunate events which befell them during the same period, with all of which Elder Taylor had more or less to do. Missouri was not satisfied with robbing the Saints wholesale and expelling them from her borders, her hatred followed them to Illinois. Of course the Prophet Joseph was the chief object of their fury. In the fall of 1841 he was arrested upon a requisition from the Governor of Missouri on the old charge of "theft, arson and murder," assumed to have been committed in Caldwell and Daviess Counties, in the autumn of 1838. He obtained a writ of _habeas corpus_ and the case came up before Judge Stephen A. Douglass, at Monmouth, who found the writ on which he was held illegal, and discharged the prisoner. In the spring of 1842 an attempt was made to assassinate ex-Governor Boggs of Missouri, and as soon as he recovered from the injuries received, he charged Joseph Smith with being accessory before the fact to the attempted murder. Again the Prophet was arrested under a requisition from the Governor of Missouri, and again he obtained a writ of _habeas corpus_ and went before the circuit court of the United States, Judge Pope of Springfield, Illinois, presiding. Elder Taylor and a few others accompanied him. The Prophet was anxious to have the case tried on its merits, but this Judge Pope held to be unnecessary as he was entitled to be discharged because of defects in the affidavit on which the demand for his surrender to Missouri was made. As the state legislature at the time was in session, there were gathered in Springfield the principal men of the state; and as they were all anxious to learn something of "Mormonism," the Representatives' Hall was tendered the brethren for holding religious service, on Sunday, and Elder Taylor and Orson Hyde were appointed by the Prophet to preach, the latter in the forenoon, the former in the afternoon.