The Rise and Fall of NauvooRoberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
History
The Rise and Fall of Nauvoo
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saints -- Illinois -- Nauvoo; Nauvoo (Ill.) -- History
The false mittimus on which Joseph and Hyrum Smith were thrust into
prison, ordered the jailor to keep them in custody, "until discharged
by due course of law." But on the afternoon of the twenty-sixth, Frank
Worrell appeared before the jail in command of the Carthage Greys and
demanded that the prisoners be delivered up to the constable to be
taken before Justice R. F. Smith for trial. Against this proceeding the
jailor protested, as the prisoners were placed in his keeping until
"discharged by due course of law," and not at the demand of a constable
or military despot. But by threats amounting to intimidation, Worrell
compelled the jailor against his conviction of duty to surrender the
prisoners to him.
Meantime a mob had gathered at the door of the jail and seeing that
things had assumed a threatening aspect, the Prophet stepped into
the crowd, locked arms with one of the worst mobocrats, and with his
brother Hyrum on the other arm, and followed by his faithful friends,
proceeded to the court house. He had been unlawfully thrust into
prison, and as illegally dragged out of it and exposed to imminent
danger among his worst enemies.
The counsel for the Brothers Smith asked for a continuance until the
next day as they were without witnesses, not having been notified when
they would come to trial. A continuance was granted until noon the next
day. A new mittimus was made out and the prisoners committed again to
prison--their old quarters. But after the prisoners were again lodged
in jail, and without consulting either them or their counsel, Justice
R. F. Smith changed the time of trial from noon on the twenty-seventh
until the twenty-ninth.
This change was made in consequence of a decision reached by Governor
Ford and his military council to march all his troops into Nauvoo,
except a company of fifty of the Carthage Greys that would be
detailed to guard the prisoners. So Mr. R. F. Smith, acting, it will
be remembered, in the double capacity of a justice of the peace and
captain of the Carthage Greys, as a justice altered the date of the
return of the subpoenas and excused the court until the twenty-ninth;
that as a captain of a company of militia he might attend the military
train entering Nauvoo in triumph!
The evening of the twenty-sixth was spent very pleasantly by the
prisoners and their friends--John Taylor, Willard Richards, John S.
Fullmer, Stephen Markham and Dan Jones. Hyrum occupied the principal
part of the time in reading accounts from the Book of Mormon of the
deliverance of God's servants from prison, and in commenting upon them,
with a view, doubtless, of cheering his brother Joseph, since the
Prophet had expressed himself as having a presentiment of uneasiness as
to his safety, that he had never before experienced when in the hands
of his enemies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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