History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

DEATH OF JOSEPH. 183
out, receiving in the act several shots, and with the
cry, "O Lord, my God!" fell dead to the ground. 34
The fiends were not yet satiated; but setting up the
lifeless body of the slain prophet against the wellcurb,
riddled it with bullets. 35
Where now is the God of Joseph and of Hyrum,
that he should permit this most iniquitous butchery'?
Where are Moroni and Ether and Christ? What
mean these latter-day manifestations, their truth and
efficacy, if the great high priest and patriarch of the
new dispensation can thus be cruelly cut off by
wicked men ? Practical piety is the doctrine ! Prayer
34 Joseph dropped his pistol, and sprang into the window; but just as he
was preparing to descend, he saw such an array of bayonets below, that he
caught by the window casing, where he hung by his hands and feet, with bis
head to the north, feet to the south, and his body swinging downward. He
hung in t' 4position
three or four minutes, during which time he exclaimed
two or tluc . .^es, '0 Lord, my God !' and fell to the ground. While he was
hanging in that situation, Col. Williams halloed, 'Shoot him! God damn
him !
shoot the damned rascal !
' However, none fired at him. He seemed to
fall easy. He struck partly on his right shoulder and back, his neck and
head reaching the ground a little before his feet. He rolled instantly on his
face. From this position he was taken by a young man who sprung to him
from the other side of the fence, who held a pewter fife in his hand, was
barefooted and bareheaded, having on no coat, with his pants rolled above his
knees, and shirt-sleeves above his elbows. He set President Smith against
the south side of the well-curb that was situated a few feet from the jail.
While doing this the savage muttered aloud, 'This is old Jo; I know him.
I know you, old Jo. Damn you ; you are the man that had my daddy shot'
—intimating that he was a son of Boggs, and that it was the Missourians who
were doing this murder. Littlejield's Narrative, 13.
33 After President Taylor's account in Burton's City of the Saints, the
best authorities on this catastrophe are: Assassination of Joseph and Hyrum
Smith, the Prophet and the Patriarch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday
Saints; also a Condensed History of the Expulsion of the Saints from
Nauvoo, by Elder John S. Fullmer (of Utah, U. S. A.), Pastor of the Manchester,
Liverpool, and Preston Conferences. Liverpool and London, 1S55;
Message of the Governor of the State of Illinois, in relation to the disturbance*
in Hancock County, December 23, IS44. Springfield, 1844; Awful assassination
of Joseph and Hyrum Smith; the pledged faith, of the State of Illinois
stained with innocent blood by a mob, in Times and Seccsons, v. 560-75; A
Narrative of the Massacre of Joseph and Hyrum Smith by an Outsider and an
Eye-witness, in Utah Tracts, i. ; and The Martyrdom of Joseph Smith, by Apostle
John Taylor, a copy of which is contained in Burton's City of the
Saints, 625-67. Brief accounts will be found in Utah Pamphlets, 23; Lee s
s
Mormonism, 152-5; Pony's Jour, to G. S. L. City, 38S-96; Hall's Mormonism
Exposed, 15-16; Green's Mormonism, 36-7; Tullidge's Women, 297-300; Olshausen,
Gesch. der Mor., 100-3; Tucker's Mormonism, 1S9-92; Maclcay's The
Mormons, 169-72; Smucler's Hist. Mor., 177-9; Ferris' Utah and Mormons,
120-5, and in other works on Mormonism. In the Atlantic Monthly for Dec.
1869 is an article entitled ' The Mormon Prophet's Tragedy,' which, however
justly it may lay claim to Boston ' smart ' writing, so far as the facts are concerned
is simply a tissue of falsehoods.