The murderers of the prophets were so industrious in crying "thieves" and charging the Mormons with crimes which were never committed, that soon they not only made Illinois forget her shame in permitting the prophets of God to be murdered, but had her applauding the deed. So bold were the mob in their determination not to be brought to justice, that they threatened Governor Ford, and said if he insisted on pushing the investigation they would make him an accessory to the crime. Nine of the mob, however were finally brought to trial; and such trial! it was but a travesty on the term. The testimony of the chief witnesses for the prosecution was thrown out of evidence; and though the accused were notoriously guilty, they were acquitted. Made bold by the impunity with which scoundrels had preyed upon the Saints, there was a further gathering of thieves, blacklegs and counterfeiters into Hancock County, and all their desperate crimes were credited to the Mormon people, together with many which had no existence, except as they were coined by the lying tongues of men bent on the destruction of the Saints. The city council of Nauvoo took up the matter, investigated it, and defied the world to substantiate a single instance where they had screened criminals from the law. The citizens in mass meeting assembled denied the slanderous allegations; the deputy sheriff of Hancock County denied them over his signature; Governor Ford investigated them, and in his annual message to the legislature, said: "I have investigated the charge of promiscuous stealing and find it to be greatly exaggerated. I could not ascertain that there were a greater proportion of thieves in that community than in any other of the same number of inhabitants, and perhaps it the city of Nauvoo were compared with St. Louis, or any other western city, the proportion would not be so great." Regardless of these denials the charges of thieving, counterfeiting and shielding criminals were repeated until popular prejudice was thoroughly aroused against the inhabitants of Nauvoo, and began to demand their extermination. Made utterly reckless by the success of their misrepresentations, the anti-Mormons held a meeting to devise means for getting rid of the Saints. A number of their own crowd fired upon the house where the meeting was being held. This was charged to the Mormons, and made a pretext for burning the houses and stacks of grain belonging to the Saints in Morley settlement, near which the aforesaid meeting was held.