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    The Mormons next claim our attention. Nauvoo was now a city of about 15,000 inhabitants and was fast increasing, as the followers of the prophet were pouring into it from all parts of the world; and there were several other settlements and villages of Mormons in Hancock county. Nauvoo was scattered over about six square miles, a part of it being built upon the flat skirting and fronting on the Mississippi river, but the greater portion of it upon the bluffs back, east of the river. The great temple, which is said to have cost a million of dollars in money and labor, occupied a commanding position on the brow of this bluff and overlooked the country around for twenty miles in Illinois and Iowa. This temple was not fashioned after any known order of architecture. The Mormons themselves pretended to believe that the building of it was commenced without any previous plan; and that the master builder, from day to day, during the progress of its erection, received directions immediately from heaven as to the plan of the building; and really it looks as if it was the result of such frequent changes as would be produced by a daily accession of new ideas. It has been said that the church architecture of a sect indicates the genius and spirit of its religion. The grand and solemn structures of the Catholics, point to the towering hierarchy, and imposing ceremonies of the church; the low and broad meeting-houses of the Methodists formerly shadowed forth their abhorrence of gaudy decoration; and their unpretending humility, and the light, airy, and elegant edifices of the Presbyterians, as truly indicate the passion for education, refinement, and polish, amongst that thrifty and enterprising people. If the genius of Mormonism were tried by this test, as exhibited in the temple, we could only pronounce that it was a piece of patch-work, variable, strange, and incongruous.

    During the summer and fall of 1845, there were several small matters to increase irritation between the Mormons and their neighbors. The anti-Mormons complained of a large number of larcenies and robberies. The Mormon press at Nauvoo, and the anti-Mormon papers at Warsaw, Quincy, Springfield, Alton, and St. Louis, kept up a continual fire at each other; the anti-Mormons all the time calling upon the people to rise and expel, or exterminate the Mormons. The great fires at Pittsburgh and in ether cities about this time, were seized upon by the Mormon press to countenance the assertion that the Lord had sent them, to manifest his displeasure against the Gentiles; and to hint that all other places which might countenance the enemies of the Mormons, might expect to be visited by "hot drops" of the same description. This was interpreted by the anti-Mormons to be a threat by Mormon incendiaries, to burn down all cities and places not friendly to their religion. About this time, also, a suit had been commenced in the circuit court of the United States against some of the twelve apostles, on a note given in Ohio. The deputy marshal went to summon the defendants. They were determined not to be served with process, and a great meeting of their people being called, outrageously inflammatory speeches were made by the leaders; the marshal was threatened and abused for intending to serve a lawful process, and here it, was publicly declared and agreed to by the Mormons, that no more process should be served in Nauvoo.

    Also, about this time, a leading anti-Mormon by the name of Dr. Marshall, made an assault upon Gen. Deming, the sheriff of the county, and was killed by the sheriff in repelling the assault. The sheriff was arrested and held to bail by Judge Young, for manslaughter: though as he had acted strictly in self-defence, no one seriously believed him to be guilty of any crime whatever. But Dr. Marshall had many friends disposed to revenge his death, the rage of the people ran very high, for which reason it was thought best by the judge to hold the sheriff to bail for something, to save him from being sacrificed to the public fury.

    Not long after the trials of the supposed murderers of the Smiths, it was discovered on a trial of the right of property near Lima, in Adams county, by Mormon testimony, that that people had an institution in their church called a "Oneness," which was composed of an association of five persons, over whom "one" was appointed as a kind of guardian. This "one" was trustee for the rest, was to own all the property of the association; so that if it were levied upon by an execution for debt, the Mormons could prove that the property belonged to one or the other of the parties, as might be required to defeat the execution. And not long after this discovery in the fall of 1845, the anti-Mormons of Lima and Green Plains, held a meeting to devise means for the expulsion of the Mormons from their neighborhood. They appointed some persons of their own number to fire a few shots at the house where they were assembled; but to do it in such a way as to hurt none who attended the meeting. The meeting was held, the house was fired at, but so as to hurt no one; and the anti-Mormons, suddenly breaking up their meeting, rode all over the country spreading the dire alarm, that the Mormons had commenced the work of massacre and death.

    This startling intelligence soon assembled a mob. But before I relate what further was done, I must give some account of the anti-Mormons. I had a good opportunity to know the early settlers of Hancock county. I had attended the circuit courts there as States-attorney, from 1830, when the county was first organized, up to the year 1834; and to my certain knowledge the early settlers, with some honorable exceptions, were, in popular Language, hard cases. In the year 1834, one Dr. Galland was a candidate for the legislature, in a district composed of Hancock, Adams, and Pike counties. He resided in the county of Hancock, and as he had in the early part of his life been a notorious horse-thief and counterfeiter, belonging to the Massac gang, and was then no pretender to integrity, it was useless to deny the charge.

    In all his speeches he freely admitted the fact, but came near receiving a majority of votes in his own county of Hancock. I mention this to show the character of the people for integrity. From this time down to the settlement of the Mormons there, and for four years afterwards, I had no means of knowing about the future increase of the Hancock people. But having passed my whole life on the frontiers, on the outer edge of the settlements, I have frequently seen that a few first settlers would fix the character of a settlement for good or for bad, for many years after its commencement. If bad men began the settlement, bad men would be attracted to them, upon the well-known principle that "birds of a feather will flock together." Rogues will find each other out, and so will honest men. From all which it appears extremely probable, that the later immigrants were many of them attracted to Hancock by a secret sympathy between them and the early settlers. And so it may appear that the Mormons themselves may have been induced to select Hancock as the place of their settlement, rather than many other places where they were strongly solicited to settle, by the promptings of a secret instinct, which, without much penetration, enables men to discern their fellows.

     The mob at Lima proceeded to warn the Mormons to leave the neighborhood, and threatened them with fire and sword if they remained. A very poor class of Mormons resided here, and it is very likely that the other inhabitants were annoyed beyond further endurance, by their little larcenies and rogueries. The Mormons refused to remove; the mob proceeded to burn down their houses; and about one hundred and seventy-five houses and hovels were burnt, the inmates being obliged to flee for their lives. They fled to Nauvoo in a state of utter destitution, carrying their women and children, aged send sick (if was then the height of the sickly season), along with them as best they could. The sight of these miserable creatures, aroused the wrath of the Mormons of Nauvoo. As soon as authentic intelligence of these events reached Springfield, I ordered Gen. Hardin to raise a force, and restore the rule of law. But whilst this force was gathering, the sheriff of the county had taken the matter in hand. Gen. Deming had died not long after the death of Dr. Marshall, and the Mormons had elected Jacob B. Backinstos to be sheriff in his place. This Backinstos formerly resided in Sangamon county. There he had credit to get a stock of goods, and set up as a merchant. The goods were immediately transferred to his brother, leaving the debt for them unpaid. Here, too, he became acquainted with Judge Douglass, and here commenced that indissoluble friendship between them, which has continued inviolate ever since. Douglass was appointed to hold the courts in Hancock county; and Backinstos, having broken up in Sangamon, had gone over to Hancock seeking his fortunes. His brother had already married a niece of the prophet, and Backinstos immediately attached himself to the interests of the Mormons. Backinstos was a smart-looking, shrewd, cunning, plausible man, of such easy manners, that he was likely to have great influence with the Mormons. In due time Judge Douglass appointed him to be clerk of the circuit court, and this gave him almost absolute power with that people in all political contests. In 1844, Backinstos and a Mormon elder were elected to the legislature; in 1845, he was elected sheriff, in place of Gen. Deming; and, finally, to reward him for his great public services, he was appointed a captain of a rifle company in the United States army. But being just now regarded as the political leader of the Mormons, Backinstos was hated with a sincere and thorough hatred by the opposite party.

    When the burning of houses commenced, the great body of the anti-Mormons expressed themselves strongly against it, giving hopes thereby that a posse of anti-Mormons could be raised to put a stop to such incendiary and riotous conduct. But when they were called on by the new sheriff, not a man of them turned out to his assistance, many of them no doubt being influenced by their hatred of the sheriff. Backinstos then went to Nauvoo, where he raised a posse of several hundred armed Mormons, with which he swept over the county, took possession of Carthage, and established a permanent guard there. The anti-Mormons everywhere fled from their homes before the sheriff, some of them to Iowa and Missouri, and others to the neighboring counties in Illinois. The sheriff was unable or unwilling to bring any portion of the rioters to a battle, or to arrest any of them for their crimes. The posse came near surprising one small squad, but they made their escape, all but one, before they could be attacked. This one, named McBratney, was shot down by some of the posse in advance, by whom he was hacked and mutilated as though he had been murdered by the Indians.

     The sheriff also was in continual peril of his life from the anti-Mormons, who daily threatened him with death the first opportunity. As he was going in a buggy from Warsaw in the direction of Nauvoo, he was pursued by three or four men to a place in the road where some Mormon teams were standing. Backinstos passed the teams a few rods, end then stopping, the pursuers came up within a hundred and fifty yards, when they were fired upon, with an unerring aim, by some one concealed not far to one side of them. By this fire, Franklin A. Worrell was killed, He was the same man who had commanded the guard at the jail at the time the Smiths were assassinated; and there made himself conspicuous in betraying his trust, by consenting to the assassination. It is believed that Backinstos expected to be pursued and attacked, and had previously stationed some men in ambush, to fire upon his pursuers. He was afterwards indicted for the supposed murder, and procured a change of venue to Peoria county , where he was acquitted of the charge. About this time, also, the Mormons murdered a man by the name of Daubeneyer, without any apparent provocation; and another anti-Mormon named Wilcox was murdered in Nauvoo, as it was believed, by order of the twelve apostles. The anti-Mormons also committed one murder. Some of them, under Backman, set fire to some straw near a barn belonging to Durfee, an old Mormon seventy years old; and then lay in ambush until the old man came out to extinguish the fire, when they shot him dead from their place of concealment. The perpetrators of this murder were arrested and brought before an anti-Mormon justice of the peace, and were acquitted, though their guilt was sufficiently apparent.

    During the ascendancy of the sheriff and the absence of the anti-Mormons from their houses, the people who had been burnt out of their houses assembled in Nauvoo, from; whence, with many others, they sallied forth and ravaged the country, stealing and plundering whatever was convenient to carry or drive away. When informed of these proceedings, I hastened to Jacksonville, where, in a conference with Gen. Hardin, Major Warren, Judge Douglass, and the Attorney-General Mr. McDougall, it was agreed that these gentlemen should proceed to Hancock in all haste, with whatever forces had been raised, few or many, and put an end to these disorders. It was now apparent that neither party in Hancock could be trusted with the power to keep the peace. It was also agreed that all these gentlemen should unite their influence with mine to induce the Mormons to leave the State. Gen. Hardin lost no time in raising three or four hundred volunteers, and when he got to Carthage he found a Mormon guard in possession of the courthouse. This force he ordered to disband and disperse in fifteen minutes. The plundering parties of Mormons were stopped in their ravages. The fugitive anti-Mormons were recalled to their homes, and all parties above four in number on either side were prohibited from assembling and marching over the country.

    Whilst Gen. Hardin was at Carthage, a convention previously appointed assembled at that place, composed of delegates from the eight neighboring counties. The people of the neighboring counties were alarmed lest the anti-Mormons should entirely desert Hancock, and by that means leave one of the largest counties of the State to be possessed entirely by Mormons. This they feared would bring the surrounding counties into immediate collision with them. They had therefore appointed this convention to consider measures for the expulsion of the Mormons. The twelve apostles had now become satisfied that the Mormons could not remain, or if they did, the leaders would be compelled to abandon the sway and dominion they exercised over them. They had now become convinced that the kind of Mahometanism which they sought to establish could never be established in the near vicinity of a people whose morals and prejudices were all outraged and shocked by it, unless indeed they were prepared to establish it by force of arms. Through the intervention of Gen. Hardin, acting under instructions from me, an agreement was made between the hostile parties for the voluntary removal of the greater part of the Mormons in the spring of 1846. The two parties agreed that, in the meantime, they would seek to make no arrests for crimes previously committed; and on my part I agreed that an armed force should be stationed in the county to keep the peace. The presence of such a force, and amnesty from prosecutions on all sides, were insisted on by the Mormons, that they might devote all their time and energies to prepare for their removal. Gen. Hardin first diminished his force to a hundred men, leaving Major Wm. B. Warren in command. And this force being further diminished during the winter to fifty, and then to ten men, was kept up until the last of May, 1846. This force was commanded with great efficiency and prudence during all this winter and spring by Major Warren; and with it he was enabled to keep the turbulent spirit of faction in check, the Mormons well knowing that it would be supported by a much larger force whenever the governor saw proper to call for it. In the meantime, they somewhat repented of their bargain, and desired Major Warren to be withdrawn. Backinstos was anxious to be again left at the head of his posse, to goster over the county and to take vengeance on his enemies. The anti-Mormons were also dissatisfied, because the State force preserved a threatening aspect towards them as well as towards the Mormons. He was always ready to enforce arrests of criminals for new offences on either side; and this pleased neither the Mormons nor the anti-Mormons. Civil war was on the very point of breaking out more than a dozen times during the winter. Both parties complained of Major Warren; but I, well knowing that he was manfully doing his duty, in one of the most difficult and vexatious services ever devolved upon a militia officer, steadily sustained him against the complaints on both sides. It is but just to Major Warren to say here, that he gained a lasting credit with all substantial citizens for his able and prudent conduct during this winter. Of General Hardin, too, it is but just to say, that his expedition this time had the happiest results. The greater part of the military tract was saved by it from the horrors of a civil war in the winter time, when much misery would have followed from it, by the dispersion of families and the destruction of property.

    During the winter of 1845-46 the Mormons made the most prodigious preparations for removal. All the houses in Nauvoo, and even the temple, were converted into work-shops; and before spring, more than twelve thousand wagons were in readiness. The people from all parts of the country flocked to Nauvoo to purchase houses and farms, which were sold extremely low, lower than the prices at a sheriff's sale, for money, wagons, horses, oxen, cattle, and other articles of personal property, which might be needed by the Mormons in their exodus into the wilderness. By the middle, of May it was estimated that sixteen thousand Mormons had crossed the Mississippi and taken up their line of march with their personal property, their wives and little ones, westward across the continent to Oregon or California; leaving behind them in Nauvoo a small remnant of a thousand souls, being those who were unable to sell their property, or who having no property to sell were unable to get away.

     The twelve apostles went first with about two thousand of their followers. Indictments had been found against nine of them in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Illinois, at its December term, 1845, for counterfeiting the current coin of the United States. The United States Marshal had applied to me for a militia force to arrest them; but in pursuance of the amnesty agreed on for old offences, believing that the rest of the accused would prevent the removal of the Mormons and that if arrested there was not the least chance that any of them would ever be convicted, I declined the application unless regularly called upon by the President of the United States according to law. It was generally agreed that it would be impolitic to arrest the leaders and thus put an end to the preparations for removal, when it was notorious that none of them could be convicted; for they always commanded evidence and witnesses enough to make a conviction impossible. But with a view to hasten their removal they were made to believe, that the President would order the regular army to Nauvoo as soon as the navigation opened in the spring. This had its intended effect; the twelve, with about two thousand of their followers immediately crossed the Mississippi before the breaking up of the ice. But before this the deputy marshal had sought to arrest the accused without success.

     Notwithstanding but few of the Mormons remained behind, after June, 1846, the-anti-Mormons were no less anxious for their expulsion by force of arms; being another instance of a party not being satisfied with the attainment of its wishes unless brought about by themselves, and by measures of their own. It was feared that the Mormons might vote at the August election of that year; and that enough of them yet remained to control the elections in the county, and perhaps in the district for Congress. They, therefore, took measures to get up a new quarrel with the remaining Mormons. And for this purpose they attacked and severely whipped a party of eight or ten Mormons, which had been sent out; into the country to harvest some wheat fields in the neighborhood of Pontoosuc, and who had provoked the wrath of the settlement by hallooing, yelling and other arrogant behavior. Writs were sworn out in Nauvoo against the men of Pontoosuc, who were arrested and kept for several days under strict guard, until they gave bail. Then in their turn, they swore out writs for the arrest of the constable and posse who had made the first arrest, for false imprisonment. The Mormon posse were no doubt really afraid to be arrested, believing that instead of being tried they would be murdered. This made an excuse for the anti-Mormons to assemble a posse of several hundred men to assist in making the arrest; but the matter was finally adjusted without any one being taken. A committee of anti-Mormons was sent into Nauvoo, who reported that the Mormons were making every possible preparation for removal; and the leading Mormons on their part agreed that their people should not vote at the next election.

     The August election came on shortly afterwards and the Mormons all voted the whole democratic ticket. I have since been informed by Babbitt, the Mormon elder and agent for the sale of church property, that they were induced to vote this time from the following considerations: The President of the United States had permitted the Mormons to settle on the Indian lands on the Missouri river, and had taken five hundred of them into the service as soldiers in the war with Mexico; and in consequence of these favors the Mormons felt under obligation to vote for democrats in support of the administration; and so determined were they that their support of the President should be efficient, that they all voted three or four times each for member of Congress. This vote of the Mormons enraged the whigs anew against them; the probability that they might attempt to remain permanently in the country, and the certainty that many designing persons for selfish purposes were endeavoring to keep them there, revived all the excitement which had ever existed against that people. In pursuance of the advice and under the direction of Archibald Williams, a distinguished lawyer and whig politician of Quincy, writs were again sworn out for the arrest of persons in Nauvoo, on various charges. But to create a necessity for a great force to make the arrests, it was freely admitted by John Carlin, the constable sent in with the writs that the prisoners would be murdered if arrested and carried out of the city. This John Carlin, under a promise to be elected recorder in the place of a Jack Mormon recorder to be driven away, was appointed a special constable to make the arrests. And now the individuals sought to be arrested were openly threatened to be murdered. The special constable went to Nauvoo with the writs in his hands, the accused declined to surrender. And now having failed to make the arrests, the constable began to call out the posse comitatus. This was about the 1st of September, 1846. The posse soon amounted to several hundred men. The Mormons in their turn swore out several writs for the arrest of leading anti-Mormons, and under pretence of desiring to execute them, called out a posse of Mormons. Here was writ against writ; constable against constable; law against law, and posse against posse.

    Whilst the parties were assembling their forces the trustee of Nauvoo being new citizens, not Mormons, applied to the governor for a militia officer to be sent over with ten men, they supposing that this small force would dispense with the service of the civil posse on either side. There was such a want of confidence on all sides that no one would submit to be arrested by an adversary, for fear of assassination. This small force it was supposed would restore confidence and order. And here again was a difficulty, who was to be sent on this delegate service. General Hardin, Major Warren, Colonel Weatherford and Colonel. Baker, had gone to the Mexican war. These had been the officers upon whom I had relied in all previous emergencies; and they were well qualified for command. And here I must remark that the President in May, 1846, called for four regiments of volunteers from Illinois for the Mexican war. The call was no sooner published in Illinois, than nine regiments offered their services. Those of them who were doomed to stay at home were more discontented than men usually are who are drafted into the armies of their country.

    And here, too, I will remark, that the laws do not allow the governor to exercise his own best judgment in selecting the most fit person to command. The militia themselves elect their officers, and all the choice which is left to the governor, is to select one already elected. In looking round over the State for this purpose, the choice fell upon Major Parker of Fulton county. Major Parker was a whig, and was selected partly for that reason, believing that a whig now, as had been the case before with Gen. Hardin and Major Warren, would have more influence in restraining the anti-Mormons than a democrat. But Major Parker's character was unknown out of his own county, Everywhere else it was taken for granted that he was a democrat and had been sent over to Hancock to intrigue with the Mormons. The whig newspapers immediately let loose floods of abuse upon him, both in this State and in Missouri, which completely paralyzed his power to render any effectual service. The constable's posse refused to give place to him, and the constable openly declared that he cared but little for the arrests; by which it was apparent that they intended from the first to use the process of the law only as a cover to their design of expelling the Mormons.

    The posse continued to increase until it numbered about eight hundred men; and whilst it was getting ready to march into the city, it was represented to me by another committee, that the new citizens of Nauvoo were themselves divided into two parties, the one siding with the Mormons, the other with their enemies. The Mormons threatened the disaffected new citizens with death, if they did not join in the defence of the city. For this reason I sent over M. Brayman, Esq., a judicious citizen of Springfield, with suitable orders restraining all compulsion in forcing the citizens to join the Mormons against their will, and generally to inquire into and report all the circumstances of the quarrel.

     Soon after Mr. Brayman arrived there, he persuaded the leaders on each side into an adjustment of the quarrel. It was agreed that the Mormons should immediately surrender their arms to some person to be appointed to receive them, and to be redelivered when they left the State, and that they would remove from the State in two months. This treaty was agreed to by Gen. Singleton, Col. Chittenden and others, on the side of the anties, and by Major Parker and some leading Mormons on the other side. But when the treaty was submitted for ratification to the anti-Mormon forces, it was rejected by a small majority. Gen. Singleton and Col. Chittenden, with a proper self-respect immediately withdrew from command; they not being the first great men placed at the head of affairs at the beginning of violence, who have been hurled from their places before the popular frenzy had run its course. And with them also great Archibald Williams, the prime mover of the enterprise, he not being the first man who has got up a popular commotion, and failed to govern if afterwards. Indeed, the whole history of revolutions and popular excitements leading to violence, is full of instances like these. Mr. Brayman, the same day of the rejection of the treaty, reported to me that nearly one-half of the anti-Mormons would abandon the enterprise, and retire with their late commanders, "leaving a set of hair-brained fools to be flogged or to disperse at their leisure." It turned out, however, that the calculations of Mr. Brayman were not realized; for when Singleton and Chittenden retired, Thomas S. Brockman was put in command of the posse. This Brockman was a Campbellite preacher, nominally belonging to the democratic party. He was a large, awkward, uncouth, ignorant, semi-barbarian, ambitious of office, and bent upon acquiring notoriety. He had been county commissioner of Brown county, and in that capacity had let out a contract for building the court-house, and it was afterwards ascertained had let the contract to himself. He managed to get paid in advance, and then built such an inferior building, that the county had not received it up to Dec. 1846. He had also been a collector of taxes, for which he was a defaulter, and his lands were sold whilst I was governor, to pay a judgment obtained against him for moneys collected by him. To the bitterness of his religious prejudices against the Mormons, he added a hatred of their immoral practices, probably because they differed from his own. Such was the man who was now at the head of the anti-Mormons,* who were about as numerous in camp as ever. After the appointment of Brockman, I was not enabled to hear in any authentic shape of the movements on either side, until the anti-Mormon forces had arrived near the suburbs of the city, and were about ready to commence an attack. The information which was received, was by mere rumor of travellers, or by the newspapers from St. Louis. And I will remark that during none of these difficulties, have I been able to get letters and despatches from Nauvoo by the United States mail, coming as it was obliged to do, through the anti-Mormon settlements and post offices.

     * To the credit of the Campbellites I record, that after this they silenced Brockman from preaching. Before this time, he had frequently been a candidate for office without success. In 1847, he thought he could be elected to the convention to amend the constitution, from Brown county, upon the glory he had acquired in the Mormon wars. He was nominated by a small meeting of democrats; and, in a county of one hundred and fifty majority of democrats, he was beaten by a whig by upwards of one hundred and twenty-five majority.

     But soon after the antis had arrived with their force near Nauvoo, and after some little skirmishing, Mr. Brayman came to Springfield with a request for further assistance in defence of the city. It was now too late to call forces from a distance, if they had been ever so willing to come. It was obvious that if any new forces were to be raised, they must come from the near neighborhood of the conflict. Orders were therefore issued to Major William G. Flood, who was commander of the militia of the adjoining and populous county of Adams, by which he was authorized to raise a sufficient volunteer force in that and the surrounding counties, to enforce the observance of law in Hancock. If turned out, however, that great excitement existed in Adams and in all the neighboring country, and Major Flood being of opinion that if he raised a force on the part of the State, a much larger force would have turned out in aid of the rioters, declined to act.

    To meet such a contingency, he had been instructed that, if inconvenient for himself to act, he was to hand over his authority to some person who would act, and who could be elected to the command of the forces thus to be raised. Major Flood, without handing over his authority to any one in Adams county, went to Nauvoo to use his influence with the contending parties, for the restoration of peace; but failing in this, he handed over his authority to the Mormons and their allies, who elected Major Clifford to command them. In issuing this order to Major Flood, it was not intended to put the Nauvoo volunteers under any different command than what was specified in the orders to Major Parker, as it had already been declared in those orders that the Mormon force, with the exception of the ten men from Fulton county, were to serve without pay. The order to Major Flood was for an additional force, and not to give a different organization to the force already raised. It is my solemn conviction, that no sufficient force could have been raised to have fought in favor of the Mormons. But there was still another difficulty, and everyone felt it. No force under our present constitution could more than temporarily have suppressed these difficulties. It has been the practice heretofore, for the ring-leaders of rebellion in Hancock to withdraw from the State whenever the State forces were marched over there; and from experience in former trials they had found out that no one could be convicted. The result of former expeditions had been to keep the peace during the presence of the military, but so soon as they disbanded the disorders were renewed. The keeping of the peace, therefore, in that county, was some such labor as the work of sisyphus, who was condemned by the gods throughout eternity to roll a stone up hill, and every time he got it nearly to the top, it broke loose from him, and again came thundering down to the plain below. The former expeditions had shown this to be the case, and now there was a general disposition to let the hostile parties bring matters to a conclusion in their own way; and such was the public prejudice against the Mormons that, ten chances to one, any large force of militia which might have been ordered there, would have joined the rioters, rather than fought in defence of the Mormons. *

    * It has been asked, How did Governor Wright of New York suppress the riots of the anti-renters in 1846? This is easily answered. The anti-rent riots were less generally popular than the riots of the anti-Mormons. The governor there was better supported by public opinion than the governor of Illinois. He had the power, and he exercised it, to appoint and remove sheriffs, and other county officers intended for his assistance; and the laws of New York allowed a criminal to be taken without his consent to a distant county for trial. This last advantage was one worth all the rest.

    The history of the law concerning the venue in criminal cases, is a curiosity. By the ancient common law the jury was to come from the very town or neighborhood where the crime had been committed; and this was because it was supposed that they had a personal knowledge of the circumstances of the crime, and of the character of the criminal and the witnesses. It was to guard against oppression, by assuring the accused of a trial by his neighbors and acquaintances, who, if he were a good man, would know it, and deal more gently with him than strangers would. Afterwards, by statute, the jury was to come from the body of the county. Our State constitution, in imitation of the English law, provides that criminals shall be entitled to a jury of the vicinage, which means the same thing. And yet our law says that no man shall be a competent juror who has formed an opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the criminal. If the juror is not to bring his private knowledge, and his bias in favor of the accused, into the jury, but little good is the privilege of having a jury from the vicinage likely to do the prisoner. He might just as well be taken to some other county and tried by strangers, as to be tried by strangers in his own county. It is true that the law of Illinois allows the accused to remove his trial for prejudice in the judge or inhabitants: but the State has no right to remove the case without the consent of the prisoner. One of the complaints urged against me, and some men who held themselves out, but rather falsely pretend to be lawyers, have made it, is, that I did not take the Mormon and anti-Mormon prisoners to some foreign county to be tried. Some thought they ought to have been taken before the supreme court, and others before the United States court at Springfield, as if either of these courts had the slightest particle of power to try them. Before I heard of these complaints, I was not aware that there was so much stupid ignorance in the country, particularly among men who pretend to be lawyers.

    There is now no doubt; but the power to change the venue in criminal cases, which the constitution of New York vested in the supreme court, to be exercised at discretion, has operated well in all cases of local excitement; and probably saved a war with England, which was likely to grow out of the trial of McLeod for the murder of Durfee and burning the Caroline steamboat on the Niagara, frontier.

     But to return to Gov. Wright. Being supported by public opinion, he put down the anti-renters and protected the property of the wealthy. in return for this favor, the wealthy men at an election a few months afterwards united with the anti-renters, and helped them put Governor Wright down. Governor Wright did all he could to secure the conviction of murderers and assassins amongst the anti-renters, who had raised a rebellion against the laws of property. The men of property immediately helped the anti-renters to defeat Governor Wright's second election, and to elect a man who was pledged to pardon these same murderers and cut-throats out of the penitentiary. The next extensive riot against property in the United States Is not likely to be quelled so easily. Public men will hereafter remember the fate of Governor Wright. They will be apt to remember that active efforts against the rioters will make enemies of them, without making friends elsewhere. Upon the whole, this example of the men of property uniting with the miserable faction of anti-renters to put down such a man as Gov. Wright, is one of the worst signs of the times.

Chapter XIII continued on the next page.