| 737 from without, produced troublesome times in and around Nauvoo, and public feeling ran so high that the lives of the Prophet and others of the leading men were in constant danger, and conditions were ripening for the bloody and cruel consummation at Carthage.
On May 6, 1844, Joseph was arrested by officer John D. Parker on a warrant issued by the clerk of the Circuit Court at Carthage, issued on complaint of Francis M. Higbee, one of the dissenters mentioned above. It appears that Higbee claimed five thousand dollars damage, but his complaint did not specify upon what his claim was based; nor was there any crime charged whatever.
Joseph obtained a writ of habeas corpus and brought the case before the Municipal Court at Nauvoo. Before this court he had an investigation on the 8th and was duly discharged. The complainant did not appear, either in person or by counsel.
On the request of the defendant the court allowed the case to proceed, and the evidence disclosed that a conspiracy existed between Francis M. Higbee and others to take the life of Joseph Smith.
Immediately after this a "prospectus" was issued and distributed for a paper to be called the Nauvoo Expositor.
On May 18, 1844, F. M. Higbee and others were expelled from the church for apostasy.
June 7, 1844, the Expositor made its appearance. It contained much that was of a slanderous character, and also affidavits against the character of the Prophet and others.
June 10, 1844, the City Council declared the Expositor a nuisance, and ordered the mayor (Joseph Smith) to have the establishment and paper removed without delay in such manner as he should elect. The mayor issued an order to the marshal, John P. Green, who with a posse proceeded to the office of the Expositor and removed the press, type, paper, and fixtures into the street, and destroyed them.
F. M. Higbee went before Thomas Morrison, a justice of the peace, at Carthage, Illinois, and obtained a writ for the
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