The justices of and have influence and power enough. The[y] commanded the forces of the and the last summer. He would rather have one deacon that [than] all their justices, especially one that can whittel without cutting himself. When he thinks of the situation of things it makes him mad. When he thinks of the government he thinks ‘damn it’. There has been nothing but one continued scene of wrath and persecution poured upon us. They legislate for pe[r]secution. They legislate to take away our rights instead of affording us protection. Then he feels like cursing them, because the prophet Daniel said the kingdom which the God of heaven should set up, should not patch up the kingdoms of the world, but break them in peices. If the government was to [p. [158]]
Robert F. Smith, a justice of the peace at Carthage, presided over JS’s case regarding his involvement in the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor in June 1844 and also served as the captain of the Carthage Greys, the militia unit assigned to guard the jail at the time of his assassination. William N. Grover, who served as both a justice of the peace and a captain in his local militia in Warsaw, Illinois, was one of the men indicted for the murders of JS and Hyrum Smith. (Message of the Governor of the State of Illinois, 14–15; Oaks and Hill, Carthage Conspiracy, 18–21, 56.)
Message of the Governor of the State of Illinois, in Relation to the Disturbances in Hancock County, December, 21, 1844. Springfield, IL: Walters and Weber, 1844.
Oaks, Dallin H., and Marvin S. Hill. Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975.
The primary tactic of the new police force was to intimidate their targets into leaving Nauvoo by following them around town while whistling and whittling with large knives.