On January 29, 1844, Joseph Smith was nominated for President of the United States. Neither he nor his friends had much hopes of his election, but it gave the citizens of Nauvoo at least a chance to vote for an honest man who was their friend. Brethren were sent to various parts of the country to make speeches in his favor, and Joseph published his views on how the government should be conducted. One of his ideas was that the government should set the negro slaves free, paying their masters for them. President Abraham Lincoln, twenty years later, also favored this plan.
Meanwhile, Nauvoo prospered and the Church grew. When the weather would permit, meetings were held in a grove near the temple, there being no room large enough to hold the large crowds of people. Joseph continued to give many glorious truths to the Church about the nature of God, the land of Zion, baptism for the dead, and many other things.
The Prophet's prediction that there was a Judas in their midst soon proved too true; and there were more than one. William Law, Joseph's second counselor, William Marks, president of the Nauvoo Stake, with many other leading men proved themselves false to Joseph and the Church. They even planned with Joseph's enemies to have him killed. They were also proved guilty of other sins and were therefore cut off from the Church. After this, these men said Joseph was a fallen prophet, and so they organized a church of their own. It did not amount to anything, however.
Joseph's periods of peace were not many. Apostates were his worst enemies, and they were all the time annoying him by having him arrested on all manner of false charges. These men were very bitter, and they howled around him like a pack of wolves, eager to devour him; but Joseph trusted in the Saints and they in him, for those who were faithful to their duties knew by the Spirit of God that Joseph was not a fallen prophet.
In June, 1844, the enemies of the Saints began to publish a paper in Nauvoo, called the Expositor. Its purpose was to deprive the people of Nauvoo of their rights, so it boldly said. One paper was printed, and that was so full of false statements and abuse against the city officials that the city council declared it a nuisance and had the press, type, etc., destroyed.
This raised great excitement among the enemies of the Church. Joseph and seventeen others were arrested, tried before a court in Nauvoo, and acquitted; but this did not satisfy the mobbers. On the advice of the United States judge for that district, Joseph and his brethren allowed themselves to be arrested again and have a trial before Justice Daniel H. Wells, then not a "Mormon." They were again discharged as innocent of crime.
Now mobs began to threaten again, but the Nauvoo Legion was ready to defend the city. As the Legion was drawn up in front of Joseph's house one day—it was the 18th of June—he got upon a platform and spoke to the soldiers. That speech was long remembered by those who heard it. It thrilled them through and through and at the word they would gladly have marched and met the mob in battle; but that was not Joseph's way. He was always willing to have the laws carried out even if he suffered thereby, so that his enemies could have no just excuse. That was the Prophet Joseph Smith's last public speech.During the excitement Governor Ford arrived at Carthage, a town about eighteen miles from Nauvoo, and the county seat of Hancock county. The governor sent word to Nauvoo that he wanted some explanation of the trouble, so Joseph sent some of the brethren to him. The governor treated his callers rudely. Carthage was full of mobs, and the governor seemed to believe all they told him about the "Mormons." He organized the mobs into troops. Joseph asked the governor to come to Nauvoo and investigate the whole matter; but no: Joseph must go to Carthage. The governor said he would protect him if he would go.
It was on the evening of June 22nd. Joseph and Hyrum had called some brethren together: "All they want is Hyrum and myself," said the Prophet. Joseph and Hyrum both seemed certain that if their enemies got them in their power again they would be killed. Joseph then proposed that he and Hyrum should escape to the Rocky Mountains. Preparations for this trip were made and they were rowed over the river to Iowa, when Joseph's wife sent some of the brethren to plead with him to return. Some brethren also found fault with him in running away to "leave the flock to the wolves."
Joseph replied, "If my life is of no value to my friends, it is of none to myself." So they went back, Joseph saying, "We shall be butchered."
On the morning of June 24th Joseph and eighteen brethren set out for Carthage to be tried again on the old charge. As he rode out the Prophet made many expressions of goodby to his friends. Four miles