by Mormons, and that they took aim at the house in which the meeting was held. Soon the cry went abroad that the Mormons were in arms, and there were quickly volunteers at hand to help the men of Morley. A. meeting was held, and it was resolved to expel the saints. At the time appointed, armed bands appeared and burned some twenty Mormon dwellings, driving the inmates into the bushes.^^ The people of Illinois were evidently now determined to adopt the previous policy of the men of Missouri. This was not all. Word had come that forces from Nauvoo were moving to the aid of the Mormons at Morley, where- upon the gentiles throughout all that region banded, threatening to burn and drive out the saints until not one should remain. As a beginning, Buel's flouring mill and carding machine, near Lima, the property of a Mormon, was reduced to ashes.^^
And now the men of Quincy, their old friends and benefactors, turned against them; and though not manifesting the deadly hate displayed in some quar- ters, were nevertheless resolved that the Mormons should depart from the state. On the 22d the citi- zens met and agreed that further efforts to live in peace with the Mormons were useless.^*
Indeed, the saints themselves had reached the
'2 Says the Qtiincy Whig: ' If the Mormons have been guilty of crime, why, punish them; but do not visit their sins on defenceless women and children, This is as bad as the savages. ' Sheriff Backenstos thus testifies: ' It is proper to state that the Mormon community have acted with more than ordinary for- bearance, remaining perfectly quiet, and offering no resistance when their dwellings, other biiildings, stacks of grain, etc., were set on fire in theu' presence, and they have forborne until forlDearance is no longer a virtue." Fullmer'.-^ Expulsion, 19.
^ ' Mobs commenced driving out the Mormons in the lower part of Han cock CO. , and burning their houses and property . . . The burning was con tinned from settlement to settlement for ten or eleven days without any re- sistance whatever. The people at Nauvoo sent out wagons and teams to bring those people in whom the mob had driven out of their homes. ' Wells' Narrative, MS. , 35-6. ' The mob said they would drive all into Nauvoo, and all Nauvoo into the Mississippi.' Richards, Rftn., MS., 16.
^* 'It is a settled thing that the pulilic sentiment of the state is agamst the Mormons, and it will be in vain for them to contend against it; and to prevent bloodshed and the sacrifice of so many lives on both sides it is their duty to obey the public will, and leave the state as speedily as possible. That they will do this, we have a confident hope, and that, too, before the last extreme is resorted to, that of force.' FuUmer's Expulsion, 20. Hist. Utah. 14
