the furious proceedings of the people

On our return, we resumed the subject of the massacre at Carthage, in which it will be remembered, Mr. John Taylor was severely wounded and escaped by a miracle as it were. I told him openly that there must have been some cause for the furious proceedings of the people in Illinois, Missouri, and other places against the Latter-Day Saints; that even those who had extended hospitality to them ended by hating and expelling them, and accusing them of all possible iniquities, especially of horse-thieving, forgery, larceny, and offences against property which on the border are never pardoned - was this smoke quite without fire? He heard me courteously and in perfect temper, replied that no one claimed immaculateness for the Mormons; that the net cast into the sea brought forth evil as well as good fish, and that the Prophet was one of the laborers sent into the vineyard at the eleventh hour. At the same time that when the New Faith was stoutly struggling into existence, it was the object of detraction, odium, persecution - so, said Mr. Taylor, were the Christians in the days of Nero - that the border ruffians, forgers, horse thieves, and other vile fellows followed the Mormons wherever they went; and finally that every fraud and crime was charged upon those whom the populace were disposed by desire for confiscation's sake to believe guilty. Besides the theologic odium there was also the political: the Saints would vote for their favorite candidates, consequently they were never without enemies. He quoted the Mormon rules: - 1. Worship what you like. 2. Leave your neighbor alone. 3. Vote for whom you please; and compared their troubles tot he Western, or, as it is popularly called the Whiskey insurrection in 1794, whose "dreadful night" is still remembered in Pennsylvania. Mr. Taylor remarked that the Saints had been treated by the United States as the colonies had been treated by the Crown.... I heard for the first time this view of the question, and subsequently obtained from the Apostle a manuscript account, written in extenso, of his experience and his sufferings. 

Richard F. Burton

Witness to the Martyrdom: John Taylor's Personal Account of the Last Days of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Edited by Mark H. Taylor. Deseret Book. 1999. p.14,15