Attempts to arrest Smith and other dignitaries of the church were resisted by military power. The charge of treason was brought against the offending saints. Mormon defense against the Illinois authority was persisted in, and General Joe Smith, and his brother Hiram, at the head of the Nauvoo legion, opposed the state militia which had been called out to enforce obedience to the law. The aspect was threatening; and the governor, anxious to avoid the terrible slaughter impending, proposed to the Smiths a surrender as prisoners to the sheriff and the disbandment of the legion, as their only course of safety for their own lives and for their city. This proposal was at length acceded to--the governor promising them protection against violence from the excited populace on their way to the jail and during their imprisonment. Accordingly, the legal arrests were made; and the Smiths, with Elder John Taylor and Dr. Richards, were conveyed to the Carthage jail. Pursuant to the governor’s stipulation, the jail was placed under a military guard to protect the prisoners against the known existence of an avengeful feeling, particularly existing on the part of those whose domestic sanctums were alleged to have been invaded by the cruel doctrine of polygamy. The prisoners were in the jail but a few days when the guard was reduced by desertion, and in the afternoon of the 24th of June, 1844, the remnant of the guard were overpowered by a mob two hundred disguised and armed men, bent upon summary vengeance for their wrongs. The doors were burst open, the inmates were fired upon, and the Smiths were killed, Elder Taylor severely wounded, and Dr. Richards escaped to tell the tale. Great excitement prevailed, and Nauvoo was in commotion. The governor hastened to the scene, and measures were taken to prevent a general attack. He was incensed because the pledge he gave to the prisoners had been violated, and told the Mormons to defend themselves in the best way until he could send them protection. But further violence was happily averted. The immediate effect upon the Mormons of this appalling assassination, was to throw a halo of glory around his character as a martyr who had sealed with his blood the truth of his divine pretensions. The soil of Mormonism had been fertilized by the blood of the Smiths, and a church founded in falsehood and hypocrisy has been strengthened, if not perpetuated, by its supporting influence. Indeed, it is rational to believe that but for the opportunity thus afforded to fasten in enslaved, superstitious minds the impression of “martyrdom” of their patron saint, Mormonism would ere this have had its everlasting fall.