I really see Liberty Jail as a defining moment,

a turning point, if you will, in Joseph's life.

That’s next on The Joseph Smith Papers.

KJZZ Television, in cooperation with the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, presents this weekly series highlighting the research of scholars and historians as they prepare for the publication of The Joseph Smith Papers. And now your host, Glenn Rawson.

October 31st, 1838. Some 2,500 Missouri State Militia surrounded the Mormon settlement of Far West, Missouri.

Colonel George M. Hinkle, commander of the Mormon Defenders,

brought Joseph Smith and others to negotiate with General Samuel D. Lucas for peace. Instead of negotiations,

Lucas arrested them. Ever after that, Joseph felt that Hinkle had betrayed them.

The next morning, after spending the night in the rain,

the general then held a court martial and found the men guilty

and ordered them to be shot.

Now, these men were not all members of the military.

Joseph was never a member of the Caldwell County militia.

He was not a military man. He never acted militarily.

He was a citizen. One of the officers bitterly opposed the decision, and that was none other than Alexander Doniphan.

He told them, “You cannot try these men in a military court.

They are not military. They’re not state militia.” And regardless

of that counsel and that assessment by Doniphan,

Lucas decided to issue an execution order anyway

and commanded Doniphan, who was a brigadier general,

he was below Lucas in rank, to take the prisoners to Far West

and execute them the following day.

That would have been November 2nd.

Doniphan wrote the following to Lucas: “It is cold-blooded murder.

I will not obey your order.

If you execute these men I will hold you responsible before an earthly tribunal,

so help me God!”

So you have to give Doniphan major credit here for saving the life of Joseph Smith and the others.

Now, General Lucas did more than that when he came into Far West. The following day, he required all the Mormons to bring all of their arms and deposit them in a square, a hollow square, around the militia.

And then required all the Mormons to sign away their land to pay for the expenses of the Mormon war as though he were exerting, exacting a treaty from some foreign nation or a group of Indians,

all of which was outside, beyond his authority.

On the morning of November 2nd, Lucas brought his seven prisoners from their encampment on Goose Creek to Far West. They only had a few minutes.

They had to go to see their families

and gather some personal effects.

And then, of course, they were under strong guard.

And so at this point in time, of course, that later he reflects upon the scene, and in D&C section

122, we recognize that situation

when Joseph writes in this letter in March of 1839,

“if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters;

and with, and if with a drawn sword,

thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife,

and of thine offspring, and thine elder son, although but six years of age, shall cling to thy garments, and shall say, ’My father, my father,

why can’t you stay with us? O, my father, what are the men going to do with you?′

and if then he shall be thrust from thee by the sword, and thou shall be dragged to prison,

thine enemies prowl around thee like wolves for the blood of the lamb.”

Joseph and his brethren were forced inside what were called prisoner wagons. Mother Smith asked to be able to speak to them.

She was brought forward.

Joseph put his hand out from under the tarp of the wagon and touched hers. He said, “God bless you, mother.”

And then they were driven away.

And then another general appeared, and that was General Moses Wilson.

Moses Wilson was from Jackson County.

He didn't want to take them down to Richmond immediately.

He wanted to take Joseph Smith and other leaders of the Mormons down to Independence and to show the residents of Independence, and Jackson County,

perhaps, his great trophy of having Joseph Smith under his

under his command or under his control.

While en route, Parley P. Pratt, a fellow prisoner with Joseph,

recorded that on the morning of November the 3rd, 1838,

Joseph arose in the morning and said to them in a cheerful tone:

“Said he, ’Be good, be of good cheer, brethren,

the word of the Lord came to me last night that our lives should be given us, and that whatever we may suffer during this captivity,

not one of our lives should be taken.’”

I think that's significant in that fact, in the fact that Joseph knows they’re going to somehow get out of this. During this period of time,

Joseph wrote a number of letters and epistles to the Church.

They're valuable to us because they not only give us insight into Joseph, but also his relationship with his family during extreme circumstances. The first of these was written from Independence shortly after he arrived there, to his wife, Emma.

“My dear and beloved companion of my bosom, in tribulation and affliction, I would inform you that I am well

and that we are all of us in good spirits

as regards our own fate.

We have been protected by the Jackson County boys in the most genteel manner and arrived here in the midst of a splendid parade a little after noon.

Instead of going to jail

we have a good house provided for us and the kindest treatment.

I have great anxiety about you and my lovely children.

My heart mourns and bleeds for the brethren and sisters

and for the slain of the people of God.”

He's obviously thinking there and reflecting about the fact that some have lost their lives in the Mormon conflict. And then he again reflects upon his children,

“Those little children are subjects of my meditation continually. Tell them father is yet alive.

God grant that he may see them again.

Oh Emma, for God’s sake do not forsake me, nor the truth, but remember me if I do not meet you again in this life.

May God grant that we may meet in heaven.

I cannot express my feelings, my heart is full. Farewell,

oh my kind and affectionate Emma. I am yours forever

your husband and true friend, Joseph Smith.”

The Mormon prisoners remained in Independence from November the 4th through the 8th,

when General John B. Clark of the Missouri State Militia ordered that they be taken to Richmond for a civil hearing. Before they left,

however, they penned a most unusual letter to the citizens of Jackson County.

It was later published in a local newspaper.

“It is with feelings of no ordinary kind that the undersigned take this method of tendering their most unfeigned

gratitude to you for the kind treatment and great attention they have received at your hands since they were committed to your charge as prisoners,

and such has been your magnanimity, that while we remain prisoners, we shall desire ... For your prosperity in this life,

and rest eternal in that which is to come,

you have the sincere desire and devout prayer of your prisoners in tribulation.”

And then it's signed with Joseph Smith's at the top,

followed by Hyrum, Parley Pratt, Amasa Lyman, George Robinson, Lyman Wight, and Sidney Rigdon.

While Joseph and the others had been treated more or less kindly in Independence, General Clark was up in Far West,

and he was anything but compassionate to the Saints.

It was during this time he basically harangues the Mormons and tells them,

“You won’t see your leaders again. Their die is cast.

They’re there, you won’t, they’ll be, they’ll be gone for good.”

And then he of course tells the Mormons, “Never, ever

assemble again, never gather together again, disperse, get out of the state.”

There is some evidence of rape,

a just terrible behavior of the militia upon these conquered Mormons.

This is not only true in Far West, it’s true especially also over in Haun’s Mill.

Under orders from General Clark,

Colonel Sterling Price transferred the prisoners from Independence to Richmond,

where he put them in chains,

placed them in an old cabin as a prison,

and subjected them to the foul abuse of his guards.

The reason why these brethren are in Richmond is because the circuit judge

has ordered them there so that they can hold a hearing to determine whether or not there is just cause

or reasonable cause to take them to court and indict them for one group for treason and arson and other such crimes.

It was during this period of time, between November 8th and

the end of the hearing, that

Parley P. Pratt records a little bit about the treatment of the prisoners by Sterling Price and his guard.

It's a very, very famous statement made by him in his autobiography, and basically this is the, sometime during the, this period of time, Joseph Smith actually rebuked the guards.

While he was imprisoned at Richmond,

Joseph wrote another letter to Emma, this one dated November the 12th, 1838.

“My Dear Emma, we are prisoners in chains and under strong guards,

for Christ’s sake and for no other cause,

although there has been things that were unbeknown to us

and altogether beyond our control,

that might seem to the mob to be a pretext for them to persecute us.

But on examination,

I think that the authorities will discover our innocence.

I have this consolation that I am an innocent man.

Let what will befall me.

I received your letter which I read over and over again,

It was a sweet morsel to me.

Oh God grant that I may have the privilege of seeing once more my lovely family, and the enjoyment of the sweets of liberty and social life,

to press them to my bosom

and kiss their lovely cheeks would fill my heart with unspeakable gratitude.

Tell the children that I am alive and trust I shall come to see them before long. Comfort their hearts all you can and try to be comforted yourself all you can.

Oh, my affectionate Emma,

I want you to remember that I am a true and faithful friend to you and the children forever.

My heart is entwined around yours forever and ever;

Oh, may God bless you all. Amen. I am your husband,

and am in bands and tribulation, et cetera.

Joseph Smith Jr.”

Now, the Mormon prisoners were in Richmond, Ray County,

for a preliminary hearing before Judge Austin A. King,

the purpose of which was to determine if there was probable cause to bind them over for trial.

In this hearing that lasted for 18 days,

43 witnesses testified and at the end of the hearing, of these 67 defendants,

five of them are charged,

in addition to Joseph Smith, they were charged with treason.

Four of them, including Parley P. Pratt, are charged with murder.

And Sidney and Joseph and the others, because there is no jail in Daviess County, are put in jail in Liberty, Clay County. Parley and his codefendants for murder are put in jail in Richmond

because it happened in Ray County.

He charged Joseph Smith with treason,

and because treason was, since, simply a nonbailable charge, you couldn’t post bail and then reappear and come back when the hearing is held,

it essentially meant that Joseph Smith would have to be incarcerated until that hearing, that court came to order.

During the hearing, some Mormons were pressured to testify against Joseph Smith. Now, while most did not, there were some prominent men who did testify against Joseph.

Some of the witnesses who were brought in and later became defendants, before they were made defendants, were told, “If you will testify against Joseph Smith,

we’ll release you and you won’t have to move out of Missouri.

You can stay, if you’ll just do that.”

One of those was a man named Chandler Holbrook.

He was among the original 53.

And while in the Richmond jail, he was threatened (quote),

“He would remain there until he would testify against Joseph.”

He replied,

“I will stay in this dungeon until the worms carry me out the keyhole and then I won’t.” I love him.

Isn’t that a great response?

I think it was very disappointing to Joseph to see a number of Mormons actually testify on behalf of the state.

Those, of course, included none other than Colonel Hinkle,

the Mormon commander.

I think Hinkle realized that

for him to avoid any sort of prosecution, he had to not only cooperate, but actually had to testify against the Mormons.

So Joseph clearly saw that as traitorous.

It also hurt Joseph Smith to see his dear friend,

men like W.W. Phelps, also testify during the hearing.

So some of Joseph Smith’s closest friends,

he felt, I think, betrayed him in the Richmond hearings,

in their court testimony.

Joseph and his fellow prisoners were sent to a newly built jail at Liberty,

the county seat of Clay County,

where they would remain from December the 1st, 1838,

through April the 6th, 1839.

We know of two visits of Emma to the jail in December.

She came on the 8th and 9th, spent the night on the 8th and 9th of December, so just a little over a week after he had arrived and the others had arrived, Emma came. We know he was, she was also there December 20th through the 22nd, so she stayed for a period covering three days.

Emma also visited Joseph Smith on one other occasion in January,

and we know, at least, on at least two occasions, that Emma brought some of the children, particularly Joseph Smith III, on at least two of those occasions to the jail with her.

I think sometimes it’s portrayed that, in Liberty Jail, they never got out. There’s very good evidence that the prisoners were permitted to go on walks.

We know they visited their attorneys

and began, of course, to establish their court case.

They were taken out occasionally for a dinner at a tavern.

The jail in Liberty, Missouri, was a two-story stone structure with walls four feet thick.

The lower floor was like an underground cellar.

Joseph Smith and the five other prisoners spent most of their time in that cold, dark dungeon that measured 14 by 14.5 feet.

You'd wish that Liberty Jail would live up to its name,

a place of liberty, but paradoxically,

if I can say it, it was a hellhole.

There was no way to build fire in there without getting almost completely engulfed in smoke. There's no chimney.

Terrible conditions: straw beds,

and, of course, those wouldn’t hold up very long;

honey bucket in the corner;

they’re certainly not getting many, many baths.

This was not pleasant circumstances.

And, and most of all, the complaint we see coming from

all of them, or at least from the documents, is the food.

The food is course, secondhand kind of table scraps.

They’ll get what’s ever left over from the jailer the night before for breakfast. The food is just horrible.

They’d complain of sore eyes, you can imagine dark conditions

And then perhaps being exposed to sunlight would cause some problems there. Ragged nerves, to be in close confinement, obviously,

would cause some kinds of emotional things that I just can't imagine being confined with certain individuals for long periods of time. That would be very, very hard.

The prisoners considered their imprisonment to be illegal in the first place. That provoked them to attempt at least twice to escape.

By the winter, the cold winter months,

and if any of you have been here in Missouri during the winter, it is bitterly cold. And the humidity that comes with it makes the cold even more severe,

and it gets in your bones.

They were sick part of the time because of how cold they would be.

And these boys desperately wanted to go home.

And so they would start strategizing whether they could find a way to escape,

where they could rush the guards. Joseph proposed it.

Others decided that they weren't willing to follow through, even though they watched, that it looked like it could work. And when they finally did try it,

it didn’t work as well as they wanted and then there was punishment.

They mention that they also tried to dig their way out,

which was going to be a daunting task, because you can can see how they constructed this jail,

but they tried it, and then the jail was searched.

They found the auger, and more punishment.

These men were desperate to want to go home.

Their faith in the system was starting to be chafed,

and they thought perhaps that the only way for them to survive, as the Lord promised, was not to wait for others to save them, but for them to save themselves.

Now, as we've already mentioned, Joseph wrote several letters from Liberty Jail,

but he also wrote at least two epistles.

One of them was 29 pages long,

written the third week of March, 1839, addressed to the Church.

It would later become sections 121–123 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

And what's interesting to me is that I think for a person who reads this letter, you can see exactly what, what was happening here.

You see Joseph going along and counseling the Saints, or telling the Saints to purchase land from Isaac Galland, or whatever, and then all of a sudden,

“Oh, Lord, where art thou, and where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?”

I mean, you see a letter of Joseph the man,

and then all of a sudden he is elevated to a prophetic voice.

You can imagine the amount of comfort Joseph would have received upon hearing these words in his mind: “My son,

peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high;

Thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.”

A supreme assurance that you’ll be okay.

It’s going to work out,

and eventually you’ll triumph over everyone who has caused you these kinds of problems.

From Liberty Jail, now the Lord tells him, “You just don’t need to worry about anybody. I’m with you.”

Do what you have to do.”

And so what I believe is one of

of confidence goes to just fearless, raw courage.

I really see Liberty Jail as a defining moment,

a turning point, if you will, in Joseph’s life.

Besides the changes that occurred in his courage and his determination,

there were other ways that Joseph’s experience with the law in Missouri redefined him.

As a result of this experience,

Joseph forms at least three resolves,

which informed the rest of his life.

First, he determined to study the law

and strive never again to be a victim of others who subvert the law as a means of persecution

against him and his Saints. Second,

he taught; in fact, this is both of them in one capsule, the two repeated themes that he preached, from Missouri on, the rest of his life in Illinois,

were friendship and loyalty,

and mercy, forgiveness.

And it seems to me that was encapsuled in a letter that he wrote from Liberty Jail that became, in part, section 121, 122, 123 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

“Those who have not been enclosed in the walls of a prison without cause or provocation can have but little idea how sweet the voice of a friend is.

One token of friendship from any source

whatever, awakens and calls into action every sympathetic feeling. It brings up in an instant everything that is past.

And when the heart is sufficiently contrite,

then the voice of inspiration steals along and whispers,

’My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity

and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment.’” To have been imprisoned without justification

And all of us know, had the common experience,

those punishments that we received that we felt we didn’t deserve are the ones that smart the most.

We forget the punishments we didn’t get that we probably deserved, but we surely remember when we've been imprisoned without a cause, and I have had occasion to visit prisoners in jails and prisons. And even though when I go, I know I can get back out and that if they hold me, I have a right to call an attorney, you can come and pull me out if I can’t do it voluntarily;

that notwithstanding, when I hear that clang of the jail door

and I know my freedom is now in the hands of somebody else,

that is a sense of involuntary

confinement, that is a loneliness

of its own. And that's what he had to take without deserving it

for five and a half months.

And when he gets out, get this, then suggests,

he says repeatedly, “Brethren, whatever you do, don’t betray your friends, don’t betray your leaders.

Betrayal is what led to the Crucifixion of Jesus.

Don’t do it.” Moreover,

he was merciful to those who were his betrayers

and welcomed them back with full and open forgiveness.

Joseph’s last letter from Liberty Jail was addressed to his wife, Emma. It was dated April 4th, 1839.

In it, he described what Liberty Jail had been like.

“Dear affectionate wife,

Thursday night I sat down just as the sun is going down,

as we peek through the grates

of this lonesome prison to write you that I may make known to you my situation.

It is, I believe, now about five months and six days

I have been under the grimace of guard night and day

and within the walls, grates, and sqeaking iron doors of a lonesome, dark, dirty prison.”

He describes his condition here.

“With emotions known only to God do I write this letter.

The contemplations of the mind under these circumstances defies the pen or tongue or angels to describe or paint to the human being who never experienced what we experienced.”

April 6th, 1839. Joseph Smith and the other prisoners left Liberty Jail under a fifteen-man guard, bound for Gallatin, Missouri, and a grand jury hearing.

From there, they were ordered to stand trial in Columbia,

Boone County. They never arrived.

Next week on The Joseph Smith Papers,

the escape of the Mormon prisoners and the exodus of the Mormons from northern Missouri. I’m Glenn Rawson.

Thanks for joining us.