apparent from the first.

Migration from other states and from foreign shores continued to
swell the "Mormon" band, and this but angered the oppressors the
more. The members of the Church, recognizing the inevitable long
before predicted by their murdered prophet, that the march of the
Church would be westward, redoubled their efforts to complete the
grand temple upon which they had not ceased to work through all
the storms of persecution. This structure, solemnly dedicated to
their God, they entered, and there received their anointings and
their blessings; then they abandoned it to the desecration and
self-condemning outrages of their foes. For the mob's decree had
gone forth, that the "Mormons" must leave Illinois. After a few
sanguinary encounters, the leaders of the people acceded to the
demands of their assailants, and agreed to leave early in the
following spring; but the departure was not speedy enough to
suit, and the lawless persecution was waged the more ruthlessly.

Soon the soil of Illinois was free from "Mormon" tread; Nauvoo
was deserted, her 20,000 inhabitants expatriated. Colonel Thomas
L. Kane, a conspicuous figure at this stage of our country's
history, was traveling eastward at the time, and reached Nauvoo
shortly after its evacuation. In a lecture before the Historical
Society of Pennsylvania, he related his experience in this
sometime abode of the Saints. I paraphrase a portion of his
eloquent address.

Sighting the city from the western shore of the mighty
Mississippi, as it nestled in the river's encircling embrace, he
crossed to its principal wharf, and, there to his surprise, found