n the name of Jesus Christ to come on us no more for ever. The man, or the set of men, who attempts it, does it at the expense of their lives. And that mob that comes on us to disturb us, it shall be between them and us a war of extermination, for we will follow them till the last drop of their blood is spilled, or else they will have to exterminate us. For we will carry the seat of war to their own houses, and their own families, and one party or the other shall be utterly destroyed.” Toward the close of 1838 the conflict between the Mormons and the Missourians assumed the character and proportions of civil war. The Mormons armed themselves, and, assembling in large bodies, fortified their towns and defied the officers of the law. The militia of the state was called out by the governor, and Rigdon and Smith were arrested, charged with treason, murder, and felony. The forces of the state being overwhelming in number, the Mormons capitulated and agreed to quit Missouri, and to the number of several thousands crossed the Mississippi into Illinois. They were soon after joined by Smith, who broke out of the jail where he had been confined awaiting trial. Rigdon had previously been liberated by a writ of habeas corpus. The Mormons were kindly received in Illinois, and Dr. Isaac Galland, who owned a large tract of land at Commerce, in Hancock co., gave Smith a considerable portion of it in order to enhance the value of the rest by the settlement of the Mormons there. Smith accordingly received a revelation commanding the saints to establish themselves at Commerce, and build a city to be called Nauvoo on the land presented to him, which he divided into house lots and sold to his followers at high prices. By this transaction, and by other equally successful speculations, the prophet in a few years amassed a considerable fortune. Nauvoo soon grew to be a city of several thousand inhabitants, the saints being summoned by a new revelation to assemble there from all quarters of the world, and to build a temple for the Lord, 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 184