Elder John
Taylors Account of Interview With Governor Ford
at Carthage.
After
waiting the Governor's pleasure for some time, we had
an audience--but
such an
audience! He was surrounded by some of the vilest and
most unprincipled
men in
creation. Some of them had an appearance of
respectability, but many of
them lacked
even that. Wilson, and, I believe, William Law
were there, Foster.
Frank and
Chauncey Higbee, Mr. Marr, a lawyer from Nauvoo,
a mobocratic
merchant from
Warsaw, Joseph H. Jackson, a number of his associates,
and the
Governor's
secretary- in all fifteen or twenty persons, most of
whom were recreant
to
virtue, honor, integrity and everything that is
considered
honorable among
men. I can well remember the feelings of disgust that
I had in seeing
the
Governor surrounded by such an infamous group, and on
being introduced
to men
of so questionable a character; and had I been on
private
business, I should
have turned to depart, and told the Governor that if
he thought proper
to associate
with such questionable characters, I should beg leave
to be excused;
but coming,
as we did, on public business, we could not of course
consult our
private
feelings.
We
then stated to the Governor that, in accordance with
his request,
General
Joseph Smith had, in response to his call, sent us to
him as a
committee of conference;
that we were acquainted with most of the
circumstances that had
transpired in
and about Nauvoo lately, and were prepared to give him
the information:
that,
moreover, we had in our possession testimony and
affidavits
confirmatory of
what we should say, which had been forwarded to him by
General Joseph
Smith;
that communications had been forwarded to his
Excellency by
Messrs. Hunter,
James and others, some of which had not reached their
destination, but
of which
we had duplicates with us. We then in brief related an
outline of the
difficulties,
and the course we had pursued from the
commencement of the
troubles up to the
present, and, handing him the documents, respectfully
submitted the
whole. During
our conversation and explanations with the
Governor, we were
frequently rudely
and impudently contradicted by the fellows he had
around him. and of
whom he
seemed to take no notice.
He
opened and read a number of the documents himself, and
as he proceeded
he was
frequently interrupted by, "That's a lie!" "That's a
G- d- d lie!"
"That's an infernal falsehood!" "That's a blasted
lie!"
&c.
These
men evidently winced on an exposure of their acts, and
thus vulgarly,
impudently and falsely repudiated them. One of their
number, Mr. Marr,
addressed
himself several times to me while in conversation with
the Governor. I
did not
notice him until after a frequent repetition of
his insolence,
when I informed
him that my business at that time was with Governor
Ford, whereupon I
continued
my conversation with his Excellency.
During
the conversation the Governor expressed a desire that
Joseph Smith and
all
parties concerned in passing or executing the city law
in relation to
the press
had better come to Carthage; that however repugnant it
might be to our
feelings,
he thought it would have a tendency to allay public
excitement and
prove to the
people what we professed - that we wished to be
governed by law.
We
represented to him the course we had taken in relation
to this matter,
our willingness
to go before another magistrate other than the
Municipal Court, the
illegal
refusal by the constable, of our request, our
dismissal by the
Municipal Court,
a legally constituted tribunal, our subsequent trial
before Esq. Wells
at the
instance of Judge Thomas (the circuit judge), and our
dismissal by him;
that we
had fulfilled the law in every particular; that it was
our enemies who
were
breaking the law, and, having murderous designs, were
only making use
of this
as a pretext to get us into their power.
The
Governor stated that the people viewed it differently,
and that,
notwithstanding
our opinions, he would recommend that the people
should be satisfied. We
then remarked to him that, should Joseph Smith comply
with his request,
it
would be extremely unsafe, in the present excited
state of the
country, to
come without an armed force; that we had a sufficiency
of men, and were
competent to defend ourselves, but that there might be
danger of
collision should
our forces and those of our enemies be brought in such
close proximity.
He
strenuously advised us not to bring any arms, and
pledged his faith as
Governor, and the faith of the state, that we should
be protected,
and that he
would guarantee our perfect safety.
At
the termination of our interview, and previous to our
withdrawal, after
a long
conversation and the perusal of the documents which we
had brought, the
Governor informed us that he would prepare a written
communication for
General
Joseph Smith, which he desired us to wait for. We were
kept waiting for
this
instrument some five or six hours.
About five
o'clock in the afternoon we
took our departure with not the
most
pleasant feelings. The associations of the Governor,
the spirit
that he manifested to compromise
with these
scoundrels, the length of
time that he had kept us waiting, and his general
deportment, together
with the
infernal spirit that we saw exhibited by those whom he
admitted to his
counsels, made the prospect anything but promising.
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