On
October 31, 1838, George Hinkle, a member of the Church and a colonel in
Missouri’s state militia, betrayed Joseph Smith. Hinkle told Joseph that the
people who had attacked the Saints in Far West, Missouri, wanted to meet for a
peaceful interview to settle disagreements. When Joseph and other Church
leaders arrived for the interview, the militia took them forcefully as
prisoners of war. For the next month, Joseph Smith and his associates were
abused and insulted as their enemies held them in several jails throughout the
region and brought them before numerous judges.
While the
Prophet Joseph Smith, Elder Parley P. Pratt, and other Church leaders were
unjustly held in a jail in Richmond, Missouri, they heard the prison guards
describe, in filthy language, horrid deeds of robbery, rape, and murder against
Latter-day Saints. In his description of the experience, Elder Pratt wrote:
“In one of
those tedious nights we had lain as if in sleep till the hour of midnight had
passed, and our ears and hearts had been pained, while we had listened for
hours to the obscene jests, the horrid oaths, the dreadful blasphemies and
filthy language of our guards. . . . “I had listened till I
became so disgusted, shocked, horrified, and so filled with the spirit of
indignant justice that I could scarcely refrain from rising upon my feet and
rebuking the guards; but had said nothing to Joseph, . . . although I
lay next to him and knew he was awake. On a sudden he arose to his feet, and
spoke in a voice of thunder, or as the roaring lion, uttering, as near as I can
recollect, the following words:
“‘SILENCE, ye
fiends of the infernal pit. In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke you, and
command you to be still; I will not live another minute and hear such language.
Cease such talk, or you or I die THIS INSTANT!’
“He ceased to
speak. He stood erect in terrible majesty. Chained, and without a weapon; calm,
unruffled and dignified as an angel, he looked upon the quailing guards, whose
knees smote together, and who, shrinking into a corner, or crouching at his
feet, begged his pardon, and remained quiet till a change of guards.
“I have seen
the ministers of justice, clothed in magisterial robes, . . . while
life was suspended on a breath, in the Courts of England; I have witnessed a
Congress in solemn session to give laws to nations; I have tried to conceive of
kings, of royal courts, of thrones and crowns; and of emperors assembled to
decide the fate of kingdoms; but dignity and majesty have I seen but once, as
it stood in chains, at midnight, in a dungeon in an obscure village of
Missouri” (Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, ed. Parley P.
Pratt Jr. [1938], 210–11).
While still
awaiting trial based on false accusations, and without due process, Joseph
Smith and other Church leaders were taken to a jail in Liberty, Missouri, on
November 30. (See History of the Church, 3:188–89, 215.)
During the
next four months, the Prophet, his brother Hyrum, Alexander McRae, Lyman Wight,
and Caleb Baldwin were held in the lower dungeon of Liberty Jail during a
bitterly cold winter. Sidney Rigdon was also with them for a time, but he was
set free in early February. The floor of the dungeon was about 14 feet by
14 feet (4.3 meters by 4.3 meters). The ceiling was between 6
and 6.5 feet high (between 1.8 and 2 meters). Two small, barred
windows offered very little light, and from outside these windows, people
mocked and insulted the prisoners. The prisoners slept on dirty straw on the
floor, and for some time Joseph did not have a blanket. The food was
occasionally poisoned, and at other times it was so disgusting that they could
only eat it out of desperate hunger. They were rarely allowed visitors and were
deeply pained at hearing of the suffering of the Saints who were driven from
Missouri in the middle of the winter.
