This charge the Whigs vehemently denied and in turn accused the Democrats with having made it to influence the Mormon vote in favor of themselves. Thus crimination and recrimination went on, and whichever party the people of Nauvoo voted for, they were sure to incur the wrath of the other.
The Prophet Joseph kept his pledge with Cyrus Walker and voted for him, but the Democratic ticket was overwhelmingly successful in Nauvoo, and in the county and district. As soon as the result was made known the disappointed candidates and their friends were enraged. They began plotting against the people of Nauvoo, and started an agitation that had for its object the expulsion of the Saints from the state. Public meetings were called and committees appointed to correspond with surrounding counties to ascertain how much assistance they would render in expelling the Mormons from the state.
No effort whatever was made to conceal their intentions. The banishment of the citizens of Nauvoo from the state was openly discussed and advocated in public meetings and through the press. Bitter fruit, this, to be found growing on the tree of liberty, in the land of the free--in the asylum for the oppressed of all nations!
AN IMPORTANT YEAR--APOSTATES--AGITATION OF THE MORMON QUESTION--THE NAUVOO "EXPOSITOR"--ITS SUPPRESSION--EFFECT OF SUPPRESSION--GOVERNOR FORD'S ORDER--NAUVOO UNDER MARTIAL LAW.
We have now reached the eventful year of 1844, the year of the great tragedy, the martyrdom of the Prophets Joseph and Hyrum Smith--a martyrdom which Elder Taylor shared.
The situation of the Saints at that time was, to say the least, remarkable. Besides the arch fiend Bennett, the Church had warmed within her bosom a number of other snakes that turned and stung her. Among these was William Law, Counselor to the Prophet Joseph, and yet his most bitter maligner and enemy. A smooth, dissembling villain! The kind that can look like the innocent flower and yet be the serpent under it. Not only was he guilty of the grossest immorality, but he conspired with assassins from Missouri, to take the life of the Prophet; and even conducted them himself to the house of Joseph. They were only prevented from accomplishing the foul murder that was in their hearts, by the faithfulness of two guards, Josiah Arnold and David Garn, who refused to admit them to the Prophet's presence.