amiable and benevolent. He did
not appear to possess barbarity in his nature, nor to possess that
great talent and boundless mind that would enable him to accomplish
the wonders he performed."

Referring again to the narrative of Ford:

"Joseph Smith was duly installed Mayor of Nauvoo--this _Imperium
in Imperio_--he was _ex-officio_ Judge of the Mayor's court, and
Chief Justice of the Municipal court; and in this capacity he was to
interpret the laws he had assisted to make. The Nauvoo Legion was
organized with a multitude of high officers. It was divided
into divisions, brigades, cohorts, battalions, and companies;
and Joseph Smith as Lieutenant-General was the Commander-in-Chief.
The common council of Nauvoo passed many ordinances for the punishment
of crime. The punishment was generally different from, and much
more severe than, that provided by the laws of the State."

That any Legislature would ever, under any stress of circumstances,
have conferred--or have attempted to confer--such powers upon a
municipality is beyond comprehension. The statement, if unsustained
by the official State records, would now challenge belief.

Under the favorable conditions mentioned, the Mormons were now upon
the high wave of prosperity in Illinois. Their number had increased
to more than twenty thousand in Hancock and the counties adjoining.
The owners of large tracts of valuable land, protected by legislation
that finds no parallel in any State, courted by the leaders of both
parties, and actually holding for a time the balance of political power
in the State--they seemed indeed to be "the chosen people," as
claimed by their prophet.

It needed no prophet, however, to foretell that this could not long
continue. The Mormon leaders failed to realize that to champion
the cause of either party would of necessity arouse the fierce
hostility of the other, as in very truth it did. Politics, the
prime cause of fortune's favors to them in the beginning, proved
their undoing in the end.

Joseph Smith had, soon after his removal from Missouri, been arrested
upon a requisition from the Governor of that State. From this
arrest he was discharged when brought upon a writ of _habeas corpus_
before Judge Pope, a Whig. The ground of the decision was, that
as Smith was not in Missouri at the time of the attempt upon the
life of Governor Boggs, and that whatever he did--if he did anything
--to aid or encourage the attempt, was done in