# Wife No. 19/Chapter 2
### CHAPTER II.
#### FOUNDING THE NEW RELIGION. — ASSASSINATION OF JOSEPH SMITH.

* The Saints expelled from Missouri.
* They cross the Mississippi into Illinois.
* Forming a New Settlement.
* Arrival in Quincy.
* A Kind Reception.
* The City of "Nauvoo" Founded.
* A New Temple Begun.
* Great Success of the Foreign Missions.
* The Saints flock from Europe.
* Thousands assemble in Nauvoo.
* The Prophet Joseph applies for a City Charter.
* Nauvoo Incorporated.
* The Saints Petition the National Government.
* The Prophet visits Washington.
* His Interview with President Van Buren.
* He coquets with Politics.
* He Stands on the Edge of the Precipice.
* The Saints in Danger.
* The Prophet Smith Nominated for President.
* He tries to find the "Golden Way."
* Mormon Missionaries preach Politics.
* The Prophet looks towards the Pacific Coast.
* The Blind Obedience of the Saints.
* The Real Devotion of their Faith.
* Gentile Opinions.
* How Boggs was shot in the Head.
* The Spiritual Wife-Doctrine.
* Dr. William Law Protests.
* Terrible Charges against the Prophet.
* The "Nauvoo Expositor."
* The Prophet Surrenders.
* He is Murdered in Jail.
Nauvoo Temple.FTER this, crime succeeded crime, and the state of affairs grew worse daily. The Mormons were getting decidedly the worst of the warfare, and their opponents showed them no mercy. At the massacre at Haun's Mills, for instance, men, women, and children were shot down in cold blood by a company of the Missouri militia, the houses plundered and burned, and the clothing even stripped from the dead bodies.
There had been inhuman murders in other places, men ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/54 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/55 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/56 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/57 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/58 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/59 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/60 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/61 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/62 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/63 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/64 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/65 ​tions of the church. Joseph and his adherents, on their part, charged some of the apostates with gross immorality, and they retaliated by saying they had only followed the teachings of Smith. Criminations and recriminations were hurled furiously at each other by the two parties.
Law and some of his associates started a paper called the "Nauvoo Expositor," which they intended to devote to the criticism of Smith's policy, and the denunciation of his character. As may be imagined, it was not a very long-lived sheet, only one number being issued. Enraged by its plain speech, Joseph and some of his followers destroyed the building, broke the machinery, and threw away the type, in their strenuous endeavors to suppress "the freedom of the press."
Affairs had reached such a crisis, that to allay the excitement and to explain some of his "peculiar" moral weaknesses, the Prophet found it necessary to produce the famous "Revelation," giving the most unbridled license to all the worst passions of their nature. This "Revelation" was intended to silence the noisy clamorings of the Saints; for who ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/67 ​of a new religion, which was to make his name known, not only in his own country, but over the world; made by "Divine appointment" "God's Vicegerent upon the earth, and Religious Dictator to the whole world." So much for his spiritual titles. He was no less fortunate in earthly honors; being President of the "Council of Fifty," chief of the legislature of Nauvoo, and Mayor of the city; and at last he aspired to the Presidency of the United States — a position, it is needless to say, which he did not attain.
It is safe to believe that no one man can wear all these "honors" without growing somewhat dizzy under them; and it is no wonder that the Prophet Smith overreached himself at last, and fell a victim to his overweening ambition and stupendous self-esteem, which probably made him believe that he could accomplish impossibilities.