and a hotel in which Smith and his family should “have place from generation to generation, for ever and ever.” The legislature of Illinois granted a charter for the city of Nauvoo, conferring upon it extraordinary privileges, which enabled Smith, Rigdon, and the other leaders to exercise almost unlimited civil power. They were authorized by charter to organize a military body, which was accordingly formed under the name of the Nauvoo legion, and comprised nearly all the Mormons capable of bearing arms. Smith was commander of this force with the rank of lieutenant general. Besides this office, he held those of mayor of the city and first president of the church. By a revelation given April 6, 1830, he had been appointed “seer, translator, prophet, apostle of Jesus Christ, and elder of the church;” and the Lord had said to him: “The church shall give heed to all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you; for his word shall ye receive as if from my own mouth, in all patience and faith.” The civil and military offices which he conferred upon himself at Nauvoo and the legion at his command gave him supreme power within the city, whose charter had been purposely so framed that the state authorities were almost excluded from jurisdiction within its limits. On April 6, 1841, the foundation of the temple was laid at Nauvoo, by Lieut. Gen. Smith, who appeared at the head of the legion, surrounded by a numerous military staff; and the saints being commanded by revelation not only to contribute to its erection, but to labor personally upon the work every tenth day, its walls rapidly arose. — In 1838 Smith had persuaded several women to cohabit with him, calling them his spiritual wives, although he had a lawful wife to whom he had been married in 1827. His wife became jealous of these rivals, and to pacify her Smith received, July 12, 1843, a revelation authorizing polygamy. This fact being whispered at Nauvoo, much scandal was created in consequence. The imputation was strenuously denied in public, and in 1845 the heads of the church deemed it prudent to put forth a formal denial in the following words: “Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been reproached with the crimes of fornication and polygamy, we declare that we believe that one man should have but one wife, and one woman but one husband; except in case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again.” It was not till 1852 that they admitted the truth, and boldly avowed and defended polygamy on the authority of the revelation of 1843. Meantime Smith in 1843 and 1844 made advances to so many women in Nauvoo, soliciting them to become his spiritual wives, that great uproar was created by the declarations of those whose virtue was proof against his attempts. Among others who repelled and denounced him publicly was Mrs. Foster, wife of Dr. Foster. Her husband, together with William Law and others who had been similarly outraged, renounced Mormonism, and commenced at Nauvoo the publication of a newspaper, the “Expositor,” to expose Smith. In the first number they printed the affidavits of 16 women to the effect that Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and others had endeavored to convert them to the spiritual wife doctrine, and to seduce them under the plea of having had special commission from heaven. This publication created great excitement, and on May 6, 1844, Smith and a party of his followers attacked the “Expositor” office and razed it to the ground, destroying the presses and other contents of the building. Foster and Law took refuge in Carthage, the county seat, where they obtained warrants against Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum Smith, and 16 others. The warrant was served upon Smith, but he refused to obey, and the constable who served it was driven from Nauvoo. The county authorities called out the militia to enforce the law; the Mormons armed themselves, and a civil war seemed impending, when the governor of the state persuaded the two Smiths to surrender and take their trial. They were committed to the jail at Carthage, and a guard stationed for their pr