Wednesday, June 26, 1844
During breakfast, jailer Stigall told the Prophet that runners had been sent to all the nearby counties and across the river into Missouri the week previous in an attempt to build an army to attack Nauvoo, but Joseph's move in calling out the Nauvoo Legion and declaring martial law had caused the mobs to think twice and abandon their plan to attack then.
After breakfast Stigall had the men take over his own bedroom up stairs to make them more comfortable.
There is much written of this day, and therefore it would be redundant to recount it all, but one item that is often not mentioned was that a man named Royal Southwick from Texas, was in town to see Joseph Smith, and came to Carthage. He was in the Hamilton Hotel this afternoon, and being a stranger, no one knew who he was. Later this evening he would visit the Prophet and tell him that he had been sitting in a public room at the hotel, when in walked a large group of men, including Gov. Ford, and started a meeting. It appeared that they thought he was there for the meeting, as well as the others who were also from out of town. Their discussion centered around Gov. Ford, saying that they were all very concerned about Joseph's political ambitions and stated that his views were catching on in the rest of the country like wildfire and that if he did not win the Presidential election this year it was almost certain that he would the next election. Therefore, he must be stopped. They said to Gov. Ford, we have got him here now and you must make sure he is stopped. Gov. Ford stated, you can consider it done. I have it all arranged. As it turns out, there were present in this meeting in Carthage, a delegate from every state in the Union, save three states! There was more going on than just religious intolerance. This was also a deliberate political assassination in the making. (see Dalin H. Oaks, Carthage Conspiracy, p.6)
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