DEATH OF JOSEPH. 183
out, receiving in the act several shots, and with the cry, "O Lord, my God!" fell dead to the ground.'* The fiends were not yet satiated; but setting up the lifeless body of the slain prophet against the well- curb, riddled it with bullets.^^
Where now is the God of Joseph and of Hyrum, that he should permit this most iniquitous butchery? Where are Moroni and Ether and Christ? What mean these latter-day manifestations, their truth and efficacy, if the great high priest and patriarch of the new dispensation can thus be cruelly cut off by wicked men ? Practical piety is the doctrine ! Prayer
^* Joseph dropped his pistol, and sprang into the window; but just as he was preparing to descend, he saw such an array of bayonets below, that he caught by the window casing, where he hung by his hands and feet, with his head to the north, feet to the south, and his body swinging downward. He hung in t*ia+ position three or four minutes, during which time he exclaimed two or thxc- . .Jies, '0 Lord, my God !' and fell to the ground. While he was hanging in that situation. Col. Williams halloed, 'Shoot him! God damn him ! shoot the damned rascal ! ' However, none fired at him. He seemed to faU easy. He struck partly on his right shoulder and back, his neck and head reaching the ground a little before his feet. He rolled instantly on his face. From this position he was taken by a young man who sprung to him from the other side of the fence, who held a pewter fife in his hand, was barefooted and bareheaded, having on no coat, with his pants rolled above his knees, and shirt-sleeves above his elbows. He set President Smith against the south side of the well-curb that was situated a few feet from the jail. While doing this the savage muttered aloud, 'This is old Jo; I know him. I know you, old Jo. Damn you ; you are the man that had my daddy shot' — intimating that he was a son of Boggs, and that it was the Missourians who were doing this murder. Littlefield's Narrative, 13.
'* After President Taylor's account in Burton's City of the Saints, the best authorities on this catastrophe are: Assasslnatio?i of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the Prophet and the Patriarch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints; also a Condensed History of the Expulsion of the Saints from Nauvoo, by Elder John S. Fullmer (of Utah, U. S. A.J, Pastor of the Man- chester, Liverpool, and Preston Conferences. Liverpool and London, 1855; Message of the Governor of the State of Illinois, i)i relation to the disturbances in Hancock County, December 23, I844. Springfield, 1844; Awful assassina- tion of Joseph and Hyrum Smith; the pledged faith of the State of Illinois stained icith innocent blood by a mob, in Times and Seasons, v. 560-75; A Narrative of the Massacre of Joseph and Hyrum Smith by an Outsider and an Eye-witness, in Utah Tracts, i. ; and I'he Martyrdom of Joseph Smith, by Apos- tle John Taylor, a copy of which is contained in Burton's City of the Saints, 625-67. Brief accounts will be found in Utah Pamphlets, '23; Lee's Mormonism, 152-5; liemy's Jour, to G. S. L. Cit>/, 388-96; Hall's Mormonism Exposed, 15-16; Green's Alormonism, ZQ-1; Tullidge's Women, 297-300; Ols- hausen, Gesch. der Mor., 100-3; Tucker's Mormonism, 189-92; Mackay's The Mormons, 169-72; Smucker's Hist. Mor., 177-9; Ferris' Utah a7id Mormons, 120-5, and in other works on Monnonism. In the Atlantic Monthly for Dec. 1869 is an article entitled ' The Mormon Prophet's Tragedy,' which, however justly it may lay claim to Boston ' smart ' writing, so far as the facts are con- cerned is simply a tissue of falsehoods.
