History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

AFTER THE MASSACRE. 189
seventeenth century destroy the cause of monarchy.
The deed but reacted on those who committed it.
When two miles on his way from Nauvoo, the governor
was met by messengers who informed him of the
assassination, and, as he relates, he was " struck with a
kind of dumbness." At daybreak the next morning all
the bells in Carthage were ringing. It was noised
abroad throughout Hancock county, he says, that the
Mormons had attempted the rescue of Joseph and Hyrum
; that they had been killed in order to prevent their
escape, and that the governor was closely besieged at
Nauvoo by the Nauvoo Legion, and could hold out
only for two days. Ford was convinced that " those
whoever they were who assassinated the Smiths
meditated in turn his assassination by the Mormons,"
thinking that they would thus rid themselves of the
Smiths and the governor, and that the result would
be the expulsion of the saints, for Ford had shown a
determination to defend Nauvoo, so far as lay in his
power, from the threatened violence. Arriving at
Carthage at ten o'clock at night, he found the citizens
in flight with their families and effects, one of
his companies broken up, and the Carthage Greys also
disbanding, the citizens that remained being in instant
fear of attack. At length he met with John Taylor
and Willard Richards, who, notwithstanding the illusage
they had received, came to the relief of the
panic-stricken magistrate, and addressed a letter to
their brethren at Nauvoo, exhorting them to preserve
the peace, the latter stating that he had pledged his
word that no violence would be used.
The letter of Richards and Taylor, signed also by
Samuel H. Smith, a brother of the deceased, who a
few weeks afterward died, as the Mormons relate, of a
broken heart, prevented a threatened uprising of the
saints. 38 On the 29th of June, the day after the news
was received, the legion was called out, the letter read,
38 To the letter was appended a postscript from the governor, bidding the
Mormons defend themselves until protection could be furnished, and one from