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History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

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224<br />

EXPULSION FROM NAUVOO.<br />

count <strong>of</strong> sickness, failure to dispose <strong>of</strong> their property,<br />

or other adverse fortune; whereat the men <strong>of</strong> Illinois<br />

began to bluster and threaten annihilation. Warren,<br />

who had disbanded his troops on the 1st, received an<br />

order from the governor on the following day to muster<br />

them into service again. This he did; for he<br />

would, if possible, see the treaty between the Mormons<br />

and the governor faithfully carried out, and<br />

while urging the saints to haste, he endeavored to<br />

stand between them and the mob which now threatened<br />

their lives and the destruction <strong>of</strong> their property.<br />

15<br />

Major Warren appears to have performed his duty<br />

firmly and well, and to have done all that lay in his<br />

power to protect the Mormons. In a letter to the<br />

Quincy Whig, dated May 20th, he writes: "The Mormons<br />

are leaving the city with all possible despatch.<br />

During the week four hundred teams have crossed at<br />

three points, or about 1,350 souls. The demonstrations<br />

made by the Mormon people are unequivocal.<br />

They are leaving the state, and preparing to leave,<br />

with every means God and nature have placed in<br />

their hands." It was but the lower class <strong>of</strong> people<br />

that clamored for the immediate expulsion <strong>of</strong> the<br />

remnant <strong>of</strong> the saints—the ignorant, the bigoted, the<br />

brutal, the vicious, the lawless, and pr<strong>of</strong>ligate, those<br />

who hated their religion and coveted their lands.<br />

18 'Thus while with one hand he pushed the saints from their possessions<br />

across the river to save their lives, with the other he kept at bay the savage<br />

fiends who thirsted for blood, and who would fain have washed their hands<br />

in the blood <strong>of</strong> innocence, and feasted their eyes on the smoking ruins <strong>of</strong> their<br />

martyred victims.' Id., 24-5. From Nauvoo, May 11, 1S46, Warren writes:<br />

'To the Mormons I would say, Go on with your preparations, and leave as<br />

fast as you can. Leave the fighting to be done by my detachment. If we are<br />

overpowered, then recross the river and defend yourselves and property. The<br />

neighboring counties, under the circumstances, cannot and will not lend their<br />

aid to an unprovoked and unnecessary attack upon the Mormons at this time;<br />

. and without such aid the few desperadoes in the county can do but little mischief,<br />

and can be made amenable to the law for that little. The force under<br />

my command is numerically small; but backed as I am by the moral force <strong>of</strong><br />

the law, and possessing as I do the confidence <strong>of</strong> nine tenths <strong>of</strong> the respectable<br />

portion <strong>of</strong> the old citizens, my force is able to meet successfully any<br />

mob which can be assembled in the county, and if any such force does assemble,<br />

they or I will leave the field in double-quick time.'

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