ell of the efforts to get Joseph to Missouri.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE MARTYRDOM.

On January 29, 1844, Joseph Smith was nominated for President of the United
States. Neither he nor his friends had much hopes of his election, but it
gave the citizens of Nauvoo at least a chance to vote for an honest man who
was their friend. Brethren were sent to various parts of the country to
make speeches in his favor, and Joseph published his views on how the
government should be conducted. One of his ideas was that the government
should set the negro slaves free, paying their masters for them. President
Abraham Lincoln, twenty years later, also favored this plan.

Meanwhile, Nauvoo prospered and the Church grew. When the weather would
permit, meetings were held in a grove near the temple, there being no room
large enough to hold the large crowds of people. Joseph continued to give
many glorious truths to the Church about the nature of God, the land of
Zion, baptism for the dead, and many other things.

The Prophet's prediction that there was a Judas in their midst soon proved
too true; and there were more than one. William Law, Joseph's second
counselor, William Marks, president of the Nauvoo Stake, with many other
leading men proved themselves false to Joseph and the Church. They even
planned with Joseph's enemies to have him killed. They were also proved
guilty of other sins and were therefore cut off from the Church. After
this, these men said Joseph was a fallen prophet, and so they organized a
church of their own. It did not amount to anything, however.

Joseph's periods of peace were not many. Apostates were his worst enemies,
and they were all the time annoying him by having him arrested on all
manner of false charges. These men were very bitter, and they howled around
him like a pack of wolves, eager to devour him; but Joseph trusted in the
Saints and they in him, for those who were faithful to their duties knew by
the Spirit of God that Joseph was not a fallen prophet.

In June, 1844, the enemies of the Saints began to publish a paper in
Nauvoo, called the _Expositor_. Its purpose was to deprive the people of
Nauvoo of their rights, so it boldly said. One paper was printed, and that
was so full of false statements and abuse against the city officials that
the city council declared it a nuisance and had the press, type, etc.,
destroyed.

This raised great excitement among the enemies of the Church. Joseph and
sev