 their return to Kirtland, where they proposed to remain for five years “and make money,” Smith and Rigdon established a mill and a store, and set up a bank without a charter, of which Smith appointed himself president, and made Rigdon cashier. The neighboring country was flooded with notes of very doubtful value; and in consequence of this and other business transactions in which Smith and Rigdon were accused of fraudulent dealing, a mob on the night of March 22, 1832, dragged the two prophets from their beds, and tarred and feathered them. About a year afterward a government for the church was instituted, consisting of three presidents, Smith, Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams, who together were styled the first presidency, a revelation from the Lord having declared that the sins of Rigdon and Williams were forgiven, “and that they were henceforth to be accounted as equal with Joseph Smith, jr., in holding the keys of his last kingdom.” About this time Brigham Young, a native of Vermont, a painter and glazier about 30 years of age, became a convert to Mormonism. (See Young, Brigham.) He arrived at Kirtland toward the close of 1832, and was soon ordained an elder, and began to preach. His talent and shrewdness speedily made him prominent, and in February, 1835, when a further step was taken in the organization of a hierarchy by the institution of the quorum of the twelve apostles, he was ordained one of the twelve, and sent out with the other apostles to preach the new doctrines. His field of labor was the eastern states, and he was signally successful in making converts. In 1836 a large and costly temple, which had been for three years in process of building, was consecrated at Kirtland; and in 1837 Orson Hyde and Heber C. Kimball, the latter of whom had become a convert in 1832, were sent as missionaries to England. In January, 1838, the bank at Kirtland having failed, Smith and Rigdon, to avoid arrest for fraud, fled in the night, hotly pursued by their creditors, and took refuge in Missouri. In that state, meanwhile, large numbers of Mormons had collected, and had become involved in quarrels with the people, by whom they were charged with plundering and burning habitations, and with secret assassinations; and after various conflicts with mobs, who drove them successively from Jackson co. and from Clay co., they settled in Caldwell co., at the town of Far West, where Smith and Rigdon joined them. The conflicts with the Missourians still continued, and many outrages were committed and several persons killed on both sides. In the midst of their external troubles, internal dissensions broke out among the Mormons. Several of their leading men apostatized and accused Smith of gross crimes and frauds. On Oct. 24, 1838, Thomas B. March, president of the 12 apostles, and Orson Hyde, also one of the apostles, made before a justice of the peace in Ray co., Mo., an affidavit in which March said, corroborated by Hyde: “They have among them a company, consisting of all that are considered true Mormons, called the Danites, who have taken an oath to support the heads of the church in all things that they say or do, whether right or wrong. . . . The plan of said Smith, the prophet, is to take this state; and he professes to his people to intend taking the United States, and ultimately the whole world. This is the belief of the church, and my own opinion of the prophet's plan and intentions. The prophet inculcates the notion, and it is believed by every true Mormon, that Smith's prophecies are superior to the law of the land. I have heard the prophet say that he would yet tread down his enemies and walk over their dead bodies; that if he was not let alone he would be a second Mahomet to this generation, and that he would make it one gore of blood from the Rocky mountains to the Atlantic ocean.” The defiant and menacing tone of the Mormon leaders contributed much to the excitement against them. Rigdon, in a sermon preached at Far West, July 4, 1838, said: “We take God and all the holy angels to witness this day, that we warn all men i