| 263 a Deed of Trust, at the point of the bayonet, and that Judge Cameron stood and saw the Mormons sign away their property, and then he and others would run and kick up their heels, and said they were glad of it, and "we have nothing to trouble us now." This judge also says, God damn them, see how well they feel now." General Clark also said he had authority to make what treaties he pleased; and the governor would sanction it.
The witness also stated that he never transgressed any of the laws of Missouri; and he never knew a Latter Day Saint break a law while there. He also said that if they would search the records of Clay, Caldwell, or Davies counties, they could not find one record of crime against a Latter Day Saint, or even in Jackson county, so far as witness knew.
BRIGHAM YOUNG.
LYMAN WIGHT sworn. Saith that he has been acquainted with Joseph Smith Senior for the last twelve years, and that he removed to the State of Missouri in the year 1831, when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was organized, agreeably to the law of the land. No particular difficulty took place until after some hundreds had assembled in that land who believed in the Book of Mormon, and Revelations which were given through said Joseph Smith Senior. After nearly two years of peace had elapsed, a strong prejudice among the various sects arose, declaring that Joseph Smith was a false prophet, and ought to die: and I heard hundreds say they had never known the man, but if they could come across him, they would kill him as they would a rattlesnake. Frequently heard them say of those who believed in the doctrine he promulgated, that if they did not renounce it, they would exterminate or drive them from the county in which they lived. On enquiring [inquiring] of them if they had any prejudice against us, they said No, but Joe Smith ought to die, and if he ever comes to this country, we will kill him, God damn him.
Matters went on thus until some time in the summer of 1833, when mobs assemble in considerable bodies, frequently visiting private houses, threatening them with death and destruction instantly, if they did not renounce Joe Smith as a prophet, and the Book of Mormon. Some time towards the last of the summer of 1833, they commenced their operations of mobocracy. On account of their priests, by mating in their prejudices against Joseph Smith Senior, as I believe, gangs of from thirty to sixty, visiting the house of George Bebee, calling him out of his house at the hour of midnight, with many guns and pistols pointed at his breast, beating him most inhumanly [inhumanely] with clubs and whips; and the same night or night afterwards, this gang unroofed thirteen houses in what was called the Whitmer Branch of the Church in Jackson county. These scenes of mobocracy continued to exist with unabated fury. Mobs went from house to house, thrusting poles and rails in at the windows and doors of the houses of the Saints, tearing down a number of houses, turning hogs, horses, &c., into cornfields, burning fences, &c. Some time in the month of October, they broke into the store of S. Gilbert & Co., and I marched up with thirty or forty men to witness the scene, and found a man name of McArty, brickbatting the store door with all fury, the silks, calicoes, and other fine goods, entwined about his feet, reaching within the door of the store house. McArty was arrested and taken before squire Weston, by seven testimonies, and then acquitted without delay. The next day the witnesses were taken before the same man for false imprisonment, and by the testimony of this one burglar, were found guilty, and committed to jail. This so exasperated my feelings that I went with two hundred men to enquire [inquire] into the affair, when I was promptly met by the colonel of the militia, who stated to me that the whole had been a religious farce, and had grown out of a prejudice they had imbibed against said Joseph Smith, a man with whom they were not acquainted. I here agreed that the church would give up their arms, provided the said Colonel Pitcher would take the arms from the mob. To this the colonel cheerfully agreed, and pledged his honor with that of Lieutenant Governor Boggs, Owen, and others. This treaty entered into, we returned home, resting assured on their honor, that we would not be farther molested. But this solemn contract was violated in every sense of the word. The arms of the mob were never taken away, and the majority of the militia, to my certain knowledge, was engaged the next day with the mob, (Colonel Pitcher and Boggs not excepted,) going from house to house in gangs of sixty to seventy in number, threatening the lives of women and children, if they did not leave forthwith. In this diabolical scene, men were chased from their houses and homes, without any preparations for themselves or their families. I was chased by one of these gangs across an open prairie five miles without being overtaken, and lay three weeks in the woods, and was three days and three nights without food. In the mean time, my wife and three small children, in a skiff passed down Big Blue river a distance of fourteen miles and crossed over the Missouri river, and there borrowed a rag carpet of one of her friends and made a
(page 263) |
