On Monday, June 24, at 6:00 AM, Joseph had a chance to say good bye to his familly. At 6:30, Joseph, Hyrum, John Taylor, and fifteen members of the Nauvoo City Council, accompanied by Willard Richards and other friends, on horseback, road to Carthage. Pausing at what had been built of the Nauvoo Temple(it was only half built at the time), Joseph remarked, "This is the loveliest place and the best people under the heavens; little do they know the trials that await them." To the assembled saints, he said, "If we do not go there[to Carthage], the result will be the destruction of this city and it's inhabitants; and I cannot think of my brothers and sisters and their children suffering the scenes of Missouri again in Nauvoo; no, it is better fro your brother, Joseph, to die for his brothers and sisters, for I am willing to die for them. My work is finished."