Mormon History
Exposing the Illinois Puppet Governor - 1844
Sangamo Journal – August 22, 1844
THE MORMONS AND GOV. FORD.
The following article and communication from
the Quincy Whig, will arrest the attention of the reader. The communication
furnishes reasons, in addition to those given in our last paper, why the
Mormons, who were indisposed to take any part in the late election, were induced
to go en masse for the loco foco party. We may be certain that so long as that
party are in power in this State, the Mormons will be induced to sustain them,
either through intrigue, or what is nearly equivalent to force, necessity.
We trust that means will be adopted to procure a copy of the letter of Governor
Ford to W. W. Phelps. It is a public document. Tho's Ford was acting in the
capacity of Governor, and it cannot be legally suppressed. We call upon W. W.
Phelps to publish it in the column of the "Neighbor." The people of this State
want to see what Gov. Ford has done in the late outrages; all his acts from
beginning to end. They demand that there shall be no suppression of the
documents" no denunciation of a mass of our citizens publicly, and by a private
communication, apologizing to them. promise them favors for the purpose of
getting into their good graces. -- All the people require is, that they be
informed of all the facts in the case, so that all may have the means of forming
a just estimate of the official services of Gov. Ford.
It is intimated that Gov. Ford promised the Mormons to arrest those engaged in
killing Joseph and Hyrum Smith, soon after the election. But Gov. Ford having
secured the Mormon vote, flushed with success, has gone off to attend a party
Convention at Nashville.
We have good reasons for believing that Gov. Ford is in possession of all the
facts in relation to the murder of the Smiths. He knows the names of the
individuals concerned to a great extent, and especially does he know the name of
the leader. As that leader was a captain in the loco foco party, of course he
was not to be arrested before the election. It might have diverted votes from
his party candidate; -- whereas the scheme in operation was well designed to
secure the votes of the anti-Mormons, as well as those of the Mormons.
We understand that the documents in the Governor's hands state these
circumstances" -- that when it was learned at Warsaw that Joe and Hyrum Smith
were in prison at Carthage, there was a draft among the anti-Mormon troops at
Warsaw of every tenth man; that ____ was appointed Captain; that they disguised
themselves and proceeded to the neighborhood of Carthage; that an arrangement
was made by which they should ostensibly attack the guard at the jail, fire over
their heads, seize them, and then execute their purposes of killing the Smiths.
The plan was fully carried out. The Governor at this time, however, is
apparently too much engaged in politics to give attention to this matter, and it
will probably be not disturbed again until the approach of another election.
We again invite Mr. Phelps to publish the communication of Gov. Ford, unless the
communication is of such a character as to reflect discredit on all the parties
concerned.
From the Quincy Whig.
GOV. FORD AND THE MORMONS.
In corroboration of the statements we made against Gov. Ford, previous to the election, we give the following letter from a friend at Burlington. In publishing his letter contrary to his wish, we urge the importance of the information it contains. It is now manifest to the world that a most base political game has been played to get the Mormon votes, in which that unscrupulous political tool, Thomas Ford, has acted a leading part. Read citizens, read, and see to what lengths the locofoco leaders will go, in tampering with the Mormons. Ford has used that people three times for the benefit of his party. -- But to the letter:
Burlington, Iowa, Aug. 4, 1844.
Mr. S. M. Bartlett:
Dear Sir: -- I have for the last few days been at Nauvoo watching the movement
of things, and I can assure you that your speculations, in the last Whig, in
relation to the intrigue of Gov. Ford for Mormon votes, are correct. The whole
Mormon vote to-morrow will be given to Hoge for Congress, but I trust it will
not be sufficiently large to elect him, though I have my fears. The addresses to
the Warsaw people were without a doubt intended for the Nauvoo market, and I
have it from both the Warsaw and Nauvoo people, that they were sent to Nauvoo
some two days before they were sent to Warsaw. The issuing of that address, was
without the shadow of doubt, an infamous electioneering trick, and it should
consign that miserable little demagogue and party tool Tom Ford, to the lowest
depth of infamy. But that is not all, nor the worst. I was yesterday told by Mr.
Babbitt, the Mormon candidate for the Legislature, that Ford had recently sent a
private communication to the Mormons, covering three sheets, and directed
to W. W. Phelps, who is one of the leaders at Nauvoo and a great locofoco. That
communication contains a detailed explanation of his conduct in the late
trouble, and he seeks in it to do away with the prejudice which the Mormons have
against him. He tells them he thinks it better not to move in arresting those
who murdered Joe and Hyrum Smith till after the election, as he should
have to call out the militia to do it, AND THAT THEY WOULD ALL TURN MOB!! He
also encloses to those rascals the answer of Col. Harney to his requisition for
U. S. Troops, who says that he has not 500 troops at any one station, which he
can spare, and that he has transmitted his letter to the authorities at
Washington. Ford then tells them when he gets the 500 U. S. Troops, he will have
the murderers arrested. The other matters which this dignified Gov. of the great
State of Illinois alludes to in his communication, can well be imagined.
It has been the wish of three fourths of the Mormons not to vote at all this
year, but that would not answer the purposes of Hoge and the unprincipled band
at Springfield, for Hoge's election depends entirely upon the Mormon vote. They
held a meeting at Nauvoo on Friday, to determine whether they would run a ticket
or vote at all or not, and I was told that four fifths of all who went to the
meeting were opposed to doing anything. But who should appear on the spot to
pull the wire but one of Ford's emissaries from Springfield, R. D. Taylor,
commonly called Dick Taylor. Dick "fugles" with some of the leaders -- gets a
committee appointed, who report to the meeting a full church ticket -- with Hoge
at the head of it -- and which, after much confusion, is adopted, and will be
voted to-morrow. Dick then made a speech to them in behalf of Hoge, and in which
he abused and misrepresented Sweat most outrageously.
The above are facts in relation to the last bargain and intrigue for Mormon
votes, which you can use as you may think proper.
Your's, truly.
Sangamo Journal – September 5, 1844
GOV. FORD AND THE MORMONS.
The Governor is becoming sensitive on this matter. He denies in the last Register that he has "honey-fugled" the Mormons. We are not surprised at the Governor's sensitiveness. Public opinion is somewhat against him. Scarcely any doubt exists among a numerous portion of our citizens, that the trouble[s] with the Mormons have been so managed as to secure their votes for the Governor's party. The party action of the Governor -- his interference in elections, as witness his trip to Nashville, and his speech as Jacksonville -- is not calculated to give an extraordinary force to his declaration of innocence.
Sangamo Journal – September 26, 1844
FURTHER REMARKS -- THE MORMON DIFFICULTIES.
The troops mustered into service by
the Governor from Sangamon, are on their march to Hancock County, the
seat of anticipated disturbances, although the last news from
that region represents every thing quiet as usual. The three
independent companies of this city, as in duty bound, promptly
responded to the call of the Governor, without stopping to inquire into
the reasons which influenced the Commander in Chief, to make the
requisition upon them; and of course are in no way responsible for the
consequences that may result to the State from this movement of the
executive. But as conductors of a public journal, it is our right as
well as duty, to lay before the public the facts, as far as they have
come to our knowledge, connected with the past and present Mormon
disturbances, with which his excellency has been concerned; and we wish
it distinctly understood, that in any remarks we may see proper to make
now or hereafter, that we do not intend the slightest reflection upon
any officer or private under his command. We propose to review, the
official acts of the executive of the State, as we understand them, and
leave the public to decide upon the correctness and propriety of our
course.
It is not our intention to go into a detailed history of all that has
transpired since the first founding of Nauvoo by the Mormons. The
public are already familiar with the history of Joe Smith's operations
in Illinois, but they may not be as well informed upon all matters
relative to Governor Ford's connexion with them, as they may desire;
and it is for the purpose of supplying this deficiency, that we pass in
review before them some of the most prominent incidents that have
transpired within the last few months.
It has been a matter of public notoriety throughout the length and
breadth of the State, that the Mormons, headed by those unprincipled
scoundrels, Joe and Hyrum Smith, had established in the county of
Hancock a government which they openly declared placed them entirely
above the constituted authorities of the State; and that they had, in
several instances, set at defiance writs issued by the State
authorities for the apprehension of Joe Smith and other individuals,
and in some instances had gone as far as to imprison the officers
charged with their execution. These and similar outrages had been
committed again and again with impunity by this band of ruffian
outlaws; and yet no measures had been taken by our executive to enforce
the laws and protect the peace and dignity of the State. But this was
not all. It was equally notorious that they had been for years in the
daily practice of plundering the peaceable citizens of Hancock county
of their property, and when pursued into Nauvoo, and the property found
upon the mormon culprit by the rightful owner, they never failed in
proving to the entire satisfaction of the city courts by lying
witnesses, that the property had been their's for months or years
before. If complaint was made to the Hancock circuit court, the result
was the same. The Mormons having entire control of the county offices,
whenever they chose, they could have a majority of the grand jury, and
consequently no mormon could be indicted on the complaint of an
anti-Mormon. The old citizens of Hancock, who had spent years of toil
in securing for themselves and families a home, found themselves
suddenly and without provocation on their part, stripped of their
dearest rights, their property daily and hourly depredated upon without
the possibility of redress by an appeal to the law.
They had time and again called for a redress of their grievances, but
in vain; yet they continued for years longer to bear with patience all
these hardships, in the hope, that in compliance with the provisions of
the constitution, Joe Smith would be surrendered to the authorities of
Missouri, where he would suffer the penalty of the crimes of which he
should be found guilty by due process of law. But in this reasonable
hope they were doomed to disappointment, as the following statement
will show:
Some eighteen months ago the Governor of Missouri made a requisition
upon Gov. Ford. -- The Governor issues his warrant for his arrest, and
places it in the hands of the proper officer. The officer finds Joe at
Dixon, Ills., and arrests him; but Joe takes the officer by force to
Nauvoo, and by the agency of a mock trial, before his City Council, is
discharged from custody. The officer repairs to Springfield, applies to
Gov. Ford for a military force to enable him to execute the writ, and
receives for an answer "That he finds nothing in the Laws or
Constitution of the State to authorize him to call out the military for
such a purpose;" and consequently Joe Smith is suffered to run at
large and continue his depredations on the good people of Hancock
county.
Now, mark the remarkable and extraordinary coincidence. At that time a
canvass was going on in that District for Congress. It was generally
conceded that the Mormon vote would elect the member of Congress; and
it was also expected that Joe Smith would throw the Mormon vote for the
Whig candidate, on account of personal friendship. Gov. Ford's refusal
to call out the military to enforce the law by the arrest of Joe,
reaches Nauvoo about two days before the election, and lo, and behold!
they vote en mass for Gov. Ford's friend, Mr. Hoge.
Joe Smith now considers himself safe, and gathering impudence from a
supposed impunity from arrest, he bids open defiance to the legal
authorities of Illinois and Missouri, and riots in his disgusting
debaucheries, and as a last and crowning act of tyranny and oppression,
he declares a public journal established at Nauvoo, for the purpose of
exposing his corruptions to the public, a public nuisance, and directs
his Marshal to destroy the press, which was accordingly done, and its
proprietors escape with their lives to Warsaw.
The citizens of Hancock now become alarmed for their safety, and
finding that the law had on all former occasions failed to redress
their grievances, and protect them in their rights, and despairing of
all aid from the Executive of the State, resolved to take matters into
their own hands and rid themselves of a public nuisance that was laying
waste their county, and which had reduced the value of their farms from
one and five thousand dollars to as many hundreds.
In the mean time Joe writes letters denouncing the prominent loco foco
candidates for the Presidency, and proclaims himself a candidate for
that exalted station. A warrant is now issued for Joe Smith and his
city council, for destroying the press, by a Justice of the Peace for
Hancock county, and as usual it is treated with contempt. The officer
applies for a military force to aid the execution of the law, and the
Governor very promptly orders out two or three thousand troops and
marches them to the scene of action, and commands Joe to surrender, and
after much parlaying, billet-doux writing and sundry closetings with
Joe's friends; and pledges from his Excellency of immunity from all
harm, Joe and Hyrum repair to Carthage and surrender themselves to
trial, and give bond for their appearance at the next term of the
Hancock county circuit court, to undergo a mock trial before a Mormon
jury with Mormon witnesses. They are now arrested on a charge of
treason against the State and placed in jail until they could be bound
over for trial, which every body knew from past experience would end in
a judicial farce.
The citizens of Hancock, seeing that he was about again to escape what
they deemed a just retribution for his past crimes, and a recollection
of their past injuries, pressing upon them, in a fit of phrenzy, they
break into the jail at the risk of their lives, commit an act over
which we would, if we could draw the veil of oblivion, however much, as
they may suppose and argue there may be in all the circumstances of the
provocation to palliate the act. Of one thing we are assured, by
persons who have visited the Mormon religion, and that is, that
nineteen-twentieths of the anti-Mormons may justly be considered as
accessaries either before or after the fact, and are therefore equally
guilty with the 200 who were actually detailed to execute the deed.
A general panic now seizes the Governor, and he makes a rapid retreat
to Quincy, advising all in his route through Hancock county, to flee to
a place of safety, in expectation that the Mormons would revenge the
death of their prophets. This apprehension proved groundless; quiet was
soon restored, and the troops returned to their homes. The Mormons had
imbibed the impression, in consequence, no doubt, of the blundering and
unmilitary conduct of the Governor, that he had left their Prophets in
Carthage in charge of the Hancock troops, whom they regarded as their
most deadly enemy, for the express purpose of giving their enemies an
opportunity of assassinating them, and thus remove Joe out of the way
of his favorite for the Presidency, James K. Polk.
From that time to this it would seem that he has been labouring to
reinstate himself in the confidence of the Mormons. Immediately after
the death of the Smiths, he publishes a most violent and vindictive
philippic against the citizens of Hancock, in the shape of an official
proclamation, calculated to soothe the exasperated feelings of the
Mormons, at the expense of a repetition of the tragedy that had been
recently enacted, by goading the people of that county on to acts of
desperation. This did not have the effect of reconciling the Mormons to
the Governor and his party, and they resolved not to participate at all
in the election then about to come off for Congress. It was believed
and the result, proved, that if they adhered to their resolution the
Locofocos must lose a member of Congress. Something more was obliged to
be done to avoid so dire a calamity. A second proclamation was issued a
few days before the election, filled with violent abuse of the
anti-Mormons, and lauding the Mormons for their disposition to obey the
law and preserve the peace, and promising them the entire military
force of the State if necessary, to protect them from injury from the
assaults of the "murderous outlaws" of Hancock county. This document
reached Nauvoo a few days before the election; and what follows? The
Mormons reverse their decision not to vote at all, and vote in mass the
Polk and Dallas ticket, not only in Nauvoo, but throughout the State.
Now admitting it to be true, as his Excellency alledges in his recent
letter, that he had acted throughout the entire transactions with a
view solely for the preservation of the peace and the character and
dignity of the State, without the slightest reference to party
considerations; is it not most extraordinary, that throughout his
entire official intercourse with the Mormons, every act should have
operated to the political advantage of his own party friends? And that
every thing should have been so timed as to secure these results, as
certainly as that effect follows cause?
The order issued last week to officers of the different counties
calling out 1500 men; sets forth in substance, (we quote from memory,
not having been able to procure a copy) that "whereas the citizens of
Hancock have advertised that a grand military Wolf Hunt will take place
in that county on the 27th instant, &c."
Thus it seems 2500 militia are called out and marched to Hancock
county, not to execute the law, nor to suppress an insurrection or
rebellion, for nothing of the kind actually exists; but for the purpose
of preventing an anticipated breach of the peace at some future period.
Now, will it not strike the reader as very strange, that the same
Governor who eighteen months ago, could find "nothing in the
constitution or laws of the State to justify his calling out the
militia" to arrest an individual, surrounded by his Nauvoo Legion of
2,000 armed men, and bidding defiance to an officer, charged with the
service of a writ issued by the executive of a sovereign State; can now
find ample authority for calling into service 2,500 men, at an expense
to the State of at least 40,000 dollars, for the purpose of protecting
the citizens of Nauvoo, (who boast of being able to muster 2,000 well
drilled troops at a moment's warning;) against an anticipated
attack from a party of "Wolf Hunters?" We take the following
extract from the Governor's last proclamation, dated July 25th, before
alluded to, for the purpose of showing his opinion then, of the
ability of the Mormons to protect themselves against any force which
the anti-Mormons might bring against them:
I have said to you often that you cannot succeed; by this time you see
it yourselves. What can your small force do against two thousand armed
men, entrenched in a city, and defending themselves, their wives and
their children? Now, we would ask, what has transpired within the last
few weeks to render necessary a militia force of 2500 men to protect
these same Mormons from an attack from this "small anti-Mormon force."
Why this remarkable sensitiveness manifested by the Executive, at
this particular time, for the preservation of the peace, and
execution of the laws, in the county of Hancock?
It is generally conceded by all acquainted with the state of the public
sentiment in the Mormon region, that peace and quietness can never be
restored until one party or the other leaves the country. We are free
to acknowledge that all our sympathies are with the old citizens of
Hancock County. They are identified with us in interest and feeling,
and God forbid that through any agency of ours they shall be driven
from their homes endeared to them by every association and tie that
binds men to earth; in order that a set of lawless debauchees, may riot
in their licentiousness over Hancock county, the fairest portion of the
State, free and unrestrained; and we will not believe that the people
of Illinois will countenance their executive in the adoption of a
course of policy calculated to secure such a result. Are they willing
to [be] taxed to the amount of hundred[s] of thousands of dollars for
the purpose of sustaining in our midst an independent community, with
their Legion of 2000 armed men?
This band of Mormons have in the course of four or five years obtained
undisputed sway over one county of the State. Should they continue to
increase in the same ratio for the future, how long will it be before
they will have entire control of the State?
Since the main portion of this article was written, it has been given
out, by those who appear to have the confidence of the Governor, that
his real object in marching troops into Hancock county, is for the
purpose of arresting the band of 200 men who participated in killing
the Smiths, in anticipation of their resisting the service of
legal process. If this be the Governor's real and sole object,
notwithstanding his orders for calling out the troops would seem to
imply the contrary, we hope the accused will offer no resistance to the
regular operations of the law, but yield implicit obedience to all
legal process; and thus show to the world that the denunciations
against them by the Governor have been uncalled for and without
foundation. He will not deprive them of the privilege of being tried in
a neighboring county, where all the circumstances calculated to
palliate the offence with which they stand charged will have their
weight and influence.
We sincerely hope that nothing will be done by the people of Hancock,
calculated to justify the enormous expenditure of public money now
being made by the executive of the State, or that shall authorise the
assumption of his excellency, that the anti-mormons in that region, are
a "riotous disorderly class of people." Let them hear, and forbear a
little longer, and the people of Illinois will see to it, as we
believe, that their grievances shall be redressed, and they shall be
enabled to enjoy, with the mass of our citizens, the peaceable and
undisturbed possession of their homes and the rights and privileges
which justly belong to them.
Our limits forbid our pursuing the subject further at this time; but we
shall advert to it again hereafter. In the meantime we shall keep our
readers informed of [all] that transpires of interest to them, at the
seat of war.