tered in the streets. On November 2d thirty saints retired with their families and effects to a point half a mile from town. Next day four of the brethren went to Lexington for a peace warrant, but the circuit judge refused to issue one through fear of the mob. "You had better fight it out and kill the outlaws if they come upon you," said the judge.[1] The saints then armed, and on the 4th there was a fight, in which two gentiles and one Mormon were killed, and several on both sides wounded. One of the store-breakers was brought before the court, and during the trial the populace became so furious that Gilbert, Morley, and Corrill were thrust into jail for protection. The morning of the 5th broke with signs of yet more bloody determination on both sides. The militia were called out to preserve the peace, but this only made matters worse. The lieutenant-governor, Boggs, pretending friendship, got possession of the Mormons' arms, and seized a number to be tried for murder.[2] Further and yet more violent attacks were made; hope was abandoned; the now defenceless saints were forced to fly in ever'y direction, some out into the open prairie, some up and some down the river. "The struggle was over," writes Pratt, "our liberties were gone!" On the 7th both banks were lined with men, women, and children, with wagons, provisions, and personal effects. Cold weather came on with wind and rain, to which most of the fugitives were exposed, few of them having tents. Some took refuge in Clay county, some in Lafayette county, and elsewhere.[3]
Throughout all these trying scenes. Governor
- ↑ Pratt's Autobiography, 105; Mackay's The Mormons, 77-8; Pratt's Persecution, 31-6.
- ↑ In a memorial to the legislature of Missouri, dated Far West, Dec. 10, 1838, and signed by nine prominent Mormons, is this statement: 'A battle took place in which some two or three of the mob and one of our people were killed. This raised, as it were, the whole county in arms, and nothing could satisfy them but an immediate surrender of the arms of our people, and they forthwith had to leave the county. Fifty-one guns were given up, which have never been returned or paid for to this day.'
- ↑ 'About 1,500 people wen; expelled from Jackson co. in Nov. 1833, and about 300 of their houses burned.' Geo. A. Smith, in Deseret News, June 30,
