History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

156 THE STORY OF MORMONISM.
provision the saints allowed themselves rather a wide
latitude, even assuming authority opposed to superior
powers, and sometimes questioning the validity of state
documents not countersigned by the mayor of Nauvoo.
The counties surrounding Hancock, in which was Nauvoo,
were fearful of the prosperity of the saints, and of
their political influence; there were angry words and
bickerings between the opposing societies, and then
blows. The old Missouri feud was kept alive by suits
instituted against Smith and others. 16 An attempt
made to assassinate Governor Boggs was, of course,
charged to the Mormons, and probably with truth.
In fact, if we may believe their enemies, they did not
deny it. Boggs had unlawfully ordered all the Mormons
in Missouri killed if they did not leave the
state: why had not they the same right, they argued,
to break the law and kill him ? 17
Among the reports circulated, besides those of
assassination and attempted assassination, the following
will serve as specimens: That the plan of Smith
1(5 When on his return from Quincy, to which place he had accompanied
Hyrum Smith and William Law, who were on a mission to the east, Joseph
was arrested the 5th of June, 1841, on a warrant from Gov. Carlin to deliver
him to the Missouri state authorities. In return, Joseph Smith brought suit
against J. II. Reynolds and H. G. Wilson for false imprisonment. This as
well as other affairs of the kind kept up a bitter excitement.
17 On the Gth of May, 1S42, Gov. Boggs was fired at through a window,
and narrowly escaped being killed. The crime was charged to 0. P. Rockwell,
' with the connivance and under the instructions of Joseph Smith.' Hyde's
Mormonism, 105, 20G. Boggs swore he believed Smith a party to the attempted
assassination, and instituted legal proceedings. Machay's The Mormons,
130. Bennett, Hist. Saints, 2S1-2, labors hard to prove that Smith
wanted Boggs killed, and said as much, which it seems to rne few would deny.
Bennett states that in 1S41 Smith prophesied that Boggs would die by violent
' hands within a year. In the spring of the year 1842 Smith offered a reward of
§500 to any man who would secretly assassinate Gov. Boggs. ' Joseph O. Boggs,
brother of the governor, writes Bennett, Sept. 12, 1842, 'We have now no
doubt of the guilt of Smith and Rockwell.' Id., 2SG. Rockwell was arrested,
discharged, and went to Utah. 'Brigham has had him into the pulpit,' says
Hyde, ' to address the meetings.' We read: ' Orin Porter Rockwell, the Mormon
confined in our county jail some time since for the attempted assassination
of ex-govcrnor Boggs, was indicted by our last grand jury for escaping from the
county jail some weeks since, and cent to Clay county for trial. Owing, however,
to some informality in t'.ie proceedings, he was remanded to this county
again for trial. There was not sufficient proof adduced against him to justify
an indictment for shooting at ex-governor Boggs; and the grand jury, therefore,
did not indict him for that offence.' Independent Expositor; Niks' Iteyister,
Sept. 30, 1843.