Thomas Ford

Thomas Ford appears as Illinois’s governor at the point when the conflict around Nauvoo became a test of whether state authority could restrain armed local hostility. His role was that of an executive trying to prevent a wider civil conflict: he demanded that Joseph Smith and other defendants submit to the law, promised protection, and later sent troops and negotiators when violence spread through Hancock County. The account presents Ford as comparatively fair-minded toward the Mormons, but also shows how little a governor’s assurances could settle once armed factions had gathered around the issue of Joseph’s surrender.

Political Setting

Nauvoo was not simply another Illinois town. Under an unusual charter granted in December 1840, it possessed exceptional powers and operated as a theocratic principality under Joseph Smith. The charter had passed when Illinois hoped to attract settlers and sympathy for the Mormons remained strong after their expulsion from Missouri. That arrangement formed part of the setting in which Ford had to act: a powerful local community, organized under religious leadership, faced opponents who regarded its authority with hostility.

By June 1844, the destruction of the press of the Nauvoo Expositor had sharpened that conflict. Ford was described as fair-minded and not unsympathetic to the Mormons, yet he demanded that Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, John Taylor, and others held responsible for destroying the press surrender to face charges in Carthage, the Hancock County seat. His demand placed the governor between two dangers: allowing defendants to evade legal process could further inflame their opponents, while compelling a surrender exposed them to a hostile public beyond Nauvoo’s protection.

The Surrender and Carthage

On June 18, Joseph Smith declared martial law and mobilized the five-thousand-man Nauvoo Legion, anticipating retaliation from non-Mormon residents. Ford warned that refusal to submit might force him to call out the militia and could lead to the destruction of Nauvoo and the extermination of many of its people. He also promised to guarantee Joseph’s safety personally if the prophet surrendered. The promise was an attempt to make submission possible without surrendering the defendants to the unrestrained anger gathering outside the city.

Joseph and eleven others charged in connection with the press’s destruction surrendered on June 24. Their twenty-five-mile journey from Nauvoo to Carthage took place along roads lined with Illinois militiamen and other hostile onlookers, who heckled Joseph. The journey made visible the gap between Ford’s official guarantee and the atmosphere surrounding the prisoners: the governor could set the terms of surrender, but the route itself passed through a public landscape charged with animosity.

Carthage presented a more immediate test. Its streets were crowded with armed, intoxicated, poorly disciplined members of several local militias, many calling for Joseph’s death. Ford, intent on protecting Joseph and ensuring a fair trial, ordered the militias in town to disband apart from one company, the Carthage Greys. That company was assigned to guard the jail and the prisoners. The order narrowed the armed presence around the jail, but the need for it also revealed the precariousness of the protection Ford had promised: custody had to be maintained in a town where hostile armed groups were already assembled.

Violence and Negotiation

Ford’s efforts later extended beyond the immediate surrender crisis. As tensions again reached a breaking point, armed groups of Mormons and non-Mormons ranged across Hancock County, burning and plundering more than two hundred homes. Fearing that the county was approaching full-scale civil war, Ford dispatched four hundred troops to Nauvoo together with a committee of respected dignitaries charged with seeking a lasting settlement. His response combined a military presence with negotiation, addressing both the immediate danger of further violence and the need for an agreement that could outlast a temporary lull.

Brigham Young then informed the committee that the Mormons would leave Illinois and the United States in exchange for a cease-fire. The planned departure was to take place the following spring, when prairie grass along the westward route would provide forage for their animals. The non-Mormon parties agreed to the arrangement on October 1, giving the Mormons a period of relative peace to build wagons and gather supplies. The account does not present Ford as the author of this pledge or as the sole maker of the agreement; it places him among the officials whose intervention created a setting for negotiation.

Narrative Role

Ford’s significance lies in the contrast between formal authority and practical limits. He could demand surrender, promise protection, order militias to disband, and send troops when destruction spread. Yet each measure operated amid competing claims to legitimacy and communities already prepared for violence. His actions sought to channel the crisis through legal process and negotiation, while the armed crowds, threatened city, and burned homes showed how fragile that process remained. In the account, Ford is neither presented as an opponent of the Mormons nor as someone able to control the conflict by decree; he is the governor trying to hold open a legal and political route through an escalating confrontation.