The description of the Latter-day Saints in Ford’s 1854 History of Illinois resembles what Ford stated here as public opinion. Ford differentiated between “the leaders and the led,” portraying Mormon leaders as “infidels,” “abandoned rogues,” and “broken down, unprincipled men of talents” who sought “to live upon the labor of their dupes.” He described rank-and-file Mormons as “good, honest, industrious people, who were the sincere victims of an artful delusion. Such as these were more the proper objects of pity than persecution.” (Ford, History of Illinois, 355–356.)

Ford, Thomas. A History of Illinois, from Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847. Containing a Full Account of the Black Hawk War, the Rise, Progress, and Fall of Mormonism, the Alton and Lovejoy Riots, and Other Important and Interesting Events. Chicago: S. C. Griggs; New York: Ivison and Phinney, 1854.