Thirty-Four (1839)Joseph’s Escape
Eventually, the prisoners were transferred to Daviess County for trial.^16 Joseph’s
lawyers, with Alexander Doniphan suspiciously absent, sued for a change of venue to
another county. While Joseph’s attorneys were arguing in court, Doniphan was arranging
for Joseph’s escape. Doniphan acted on behalf of the other attorneys in getting the Governor
involved, which greatly upset Judge King.^17 The court granted the change of venue and
ordered the prisoners to be transferred to Boone County.^18
Biographers have tried in vain to give a relation of how the escape came about—
from overpowering the guards to getting them drunk by providing them with whiskey.^19 In
truth, Alexander Doniphan had previously arranged the escape with the Sheriff and the
guards, paid for the horses the escapees would use, and fulfilled the promise he had made
to the Governor,^20 and also to one of the best labor foremen he had ever known. This laborer
had called himself “Homer,” and Doniphan never saw him again. Joseph, of course, knew
him as Timothy. Neither Timothy nor Doniphan apprised Joseph of Lilburn Boggs’
involvement. Had Joseph known, he might not have written such harsh words against him;
possibly, he would have thanked him, which would have meant the end of Boggs’ political
career in Missouri.
Brigham, Sidney, and the Twelve During Joseph’s Absence
While Joseph was incarcerated, Brigham Young acquired his first taste for
authoritarian rule in the Church. As President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles,
Young took control of all aspects of the Church. He visited Joseph at Liberty Jail from
time-to-time to deliver the news of the Church and then returned and acted as Joseph’s
representative to the people—without Joseph’s authorization. Joseph intended for each
High Council to be equal in authority, including the Twelve Apostles, but Young, instead,
put the Twelve Apostles above them all. As the Church was organized at the time, even
Joseph was subjected to the vote and censure of the Church’s councils. Brigham Young
would have none of this. In his egocentric eyes, only God could censure the Twelve, a
philosophy that he would take with him when he reorganized the people into his own
church after Joseph’s death five years later. When Young became the President of the
Church, he converted the principles of authority Joseph had originally set up in the
various councils of the Church into an autocracy, where only God could impeach the
President of the Church (by death).
The year 1839, however, was not yet Brigham’s time. When Sidney Rigdon was released
from custody a few months before Joseph escaped, the rift between Rigdon and Young, which
would last the rest of their lives, began. By the time Joseph escaped on April 16, 1839, there was
a visceral battle between Young and Rigdon that was dividing the authority of the Church.
Once Joseph took back control, he saw the great tension between the two men, as well as the
chasm that had developed between the other High Councils of the Church and the Quorum of
the Twelve Apostles (who still had not received their “special witness” from Christ face-to-face).
Joseph did the best thing he could think to do at the time—send Young and Rigdon away from
each other on missions so that he could restore peace. Because of a previous “revelation”
wherein the Twelve were directed to go on foreign missions,^21 Joseph had an excuse to separate
them from the rest of the people of the Church until he could bring the leadership back to a