THE TRIAL OF THE MURDERERS.

MEANTIME there was considerable excitement in Hancock County, since the mob party were determined to elect officers who would screen the murderers of the Prophets. The Saints were equally determined to vote for those whom they believed would sustain law and order; and the following were put forward as candidates for the county and district offices and elected: M. R. Deming, sheriff; D. H. Wells, coroner; George Coulson, commissioner; J. B. Backenstos and A. W. Babbitt, representatives.

The account of the trial of the miscreants charged with the murder of the Prophet I take from Gregg's "History of Hancock County," beginning at page 328:

TRIALS AND ACQUITTALS.

At the October [1844] term of the Hancock Circuit Court—present Jesse B. Thomas, judge; William Elliott, prosecuting attorney; Jacob B. Backenstos, clerk; General Minor R. Deming, sheriff.

The following is the grand jury:

Abram Lincoln, Jas. Reynolds, Th. J. Graham, Wm. M. Owens, Ebenezer Rand, Th. Brawner, Ralph Gorrell, Brant Agnert, Martin Getter, Wm. Smith, Th. Gilmore, Benj. Warrington, Reuben H. Loomis, Samuel Scott, Jas. Ward, Samuel Ramsy, Th. H. Owen, David Thompson, John J. Hickok.

Abraham Golden, E. A. Bedell and Geo. Walker excused for cause. Samuel Marshall refused to serve, and fined $5.00.

The court began its session on Monday the 21st. There had been rumors industriously circulated that the old citizens intended to rally and interpose obstacles in the way of the court and considerable anxiety was felt. The judge in his charge to the grand jury alluded to this rumor and said he was glad to see that no such demonstration was made. He charged them to do their duty in the case likely to come before them and leave the consequences. His charge gave general satisfaction.

There was a rumor that a lot of Mormons and Indians were encamped near the town and this rumor occasioned considerable uneasiness. Orders were issued to investigate. The facts turned out to be that a number of Mormons had come down from Nauvoo to attend court, and had gone into camp to save expense. As to the Indians it was ascertained that a company of them had gone through the county on their way to Iowa, for some purpose unknown; but the two facts had no connection with each other.

On Tuesday the grand jury began their work, and on Saturday about noon they brought into court two bills of indictment against nine individuals—one for the murder of Joseph Smith and the other for the murder of Hyrum Smith. The persons indicted were as follows: Levi Williams, Jacob C. Davis, Mark Aldrich, Thomas C. Sharp, Wm. Voras, John Wills, Wm. N. Grover,—Gallaher and—Allen.

Murry McConnell, Esq., of Jacksonville by special appointment of the governor was present assisting Mr. Elliot in the prosecution. Messrs. Bushnell and Johnson of Quincy and Calvin A. Warren, and perhaps others appeared for the defendants.

Immediately on announcement of the indictments most of the defendants appeared and asked for an immediate trial. This Mr. McConnell objected to on the grounds of not being ready. His witnesses before the grand jury had departed without being recognized, and besides, Mr. Elliot had gone. It was finally agreed that the causes should be postponed until next term, and that no capias should issue from the clerk in the interim if the defendants would pledge themselves to appear at the time. Agreed on—a compact which was afterwards violated by the prosecution.

Subpoenas were asked for by the prosecution for between thirty and forty witnesses, among whom were William M. Daniels and Brackenberry, the two miracle men, and John Taylor, Mrs. Emma Smith and Governor Ford.

On May 19, 1845, court again met in special term at Carthage. Present, Richard M. Young, judge; James H. Ralston, prosecuting attorney; David E. Head, clerk; and R. H. Deming, sheriff. The cause of the people vs. Williams et al coming up, Messrs. Williams, Davis, Aldrich, Sharp and Grover appeared and were admitted to bail on personal recognizance in the sums of $5,000.00 jointly and severally. Josiah Lamborn of Jacksonville as assistant prosecuting attorney and William A. Richardson, O. H. Browning, Calvin A. Warren, Archibald Williams, O. C. Skinner and Tho. Morrison for defendants. Motion of defendants to quash the array of jurors for first week, on account of supposed prejudice of county commissioners who selected them and of the sheriff and deputies was sustained. Also motion for the appointment of elisors for the same cause, and absence of corner from county. The array was set aside, and Tho. H. Owen and Wm. D. Arbenethy appointed elisors for the case. These gentlemen had a thankless and arduous duty to perform. Usually it is not difficult to find men willing to sit on juries; in this case few were willing to try the experiment of going into court, with the almost certainty of being rejected by one or the other party, and the position was not an enviable one, if taken. Ninety-six men were brought into court before the requisite panel of 12 was full. The following are names of the jurors chosen:

Jesse Griffiths, Joseph Jones, Wm. Robertson, William Smith, Joseph Massey, Silas Griffiths, Jonathan Foy, Solomon J. Hill, James Gittings, F. M. Walton, Jabez A. Beebe, Gilmore Callison.

The trial lasted till the 30th when the jury was instructed by the court and after a deliberation of several hours returned a verdict of not guilty.

Instructions to the jury had been asked by both parties, the following among a list of nine asked by defendants' counsel, were given, and probably had most influence on the verdict.

"That where the evidence is circumstantial admitting all to be proven that the evidence tends to prove, if then the jury can make any supposition consistent with the facts, by which the murder might have been committed without the agency of the defendants, it will be their duty to make that supposition, and find defendants not guilty.

"That in making up their verdict, they will exclude from their consideration all that was said by Daniels, Brackenberry and Miss Graham. [Witnesses, see note, p. 319.]

"That whenever the probability is of a definite and limited nature whether in proportion of 100 to 1 or 1,000 to 1 or any rate is immaterial, it cannot be made the ground of conviction, for to act upon it in any case would be to decide that for the sake of convicting many criminals, the life of one innocent man might be sacrificed [Starkie 508.]"

Same defendants, for murder of Hyrum Smith were requested to enter into recognizance of $5,000 each (with fourteen sureties) to the June term, 1845. At said term case was called, and Elliot and Lamborn not answering, the cause was dismissed for want of prosecution and defendants discharged.

Colonel John Hay, in the Atlantic Monthly for December, 1869, published an article on this subject. Although but a mere boy at the time of this trial he had within his reach sources of correct information. (He was a member of the State department subsequently.)

He says: "The case was closed. There was not a man on the jury, in the court, in the county, that did not know the defendants had done the murder. But it was not proven, and the verdict of not guilty was right in law. * * * The elisors presented 99 men before 12 were found ignorant enough and indifferent enough to act as jurors."

The fact is, the trial amounted to nothing more than a farce. The law had been outraged, the honor of the State betrayed, her plighted faith was shamefully broken, and there was not virtue enough in the people to demand its vindication. Nor is this at all an exaggerated statement of the matter. The governor of Illinois himself—Thomas Ford—admits all that is here said. Of the atrocious deed itself and his determination to bring the murderers to justice he says:

I had determined from the first that some of the ringleaders in the foul murder of the Smiths should be brought to trial. If these men had been the incarnation of Satan himself, as was believed by many, their murder was a foul and treacherous action, alike disgraceful to those who perpetrated the crime, to the State, and to the governor, whose word had been pledged for the protection of the prisoners in jail, and which had been so shamefully violated; and required that the most vigorous means should be used to bring the assassins to punishment.^[1]

Speaking of the trial, Governor Ford says:

Accordingly, I employed able lawyers to hunt up the testimony, procure indictments, and prosecute the offenders. A trial was had before Judge Young in the summer of 1845. The sheriff and panel of jurors, selected by the Mormon court, were set aside for prejudice, and elisors were appointed to select a new jury. One friend of the Mormons and one anti-Mormon were appointed for this purpose; but as more than a thousand men had assembled under arms at the court, to keep away the Mormons and their friends, the jury was made up of these military followers of the court, who all swore that they had never formed or expressed any opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the accused. The Mormons had one principal^[1] witness who was with the troops at Warsaw, had marched with them until they disbanded heard their consultations, went before them to Carthage, and saw them murder the Smiths. But before the trial came on, they induced him to become a Mormon; and being much more anxious for the glorification of the Prophet than to avenge his death, the Mormons made him publish a pamphlet giving an account of the murder; in which he professed to have seen a bright and shining light descend upon the head of Joe Smith to strike some of the conspirators with blindness; and that he heard supernatural voices in the air confirming his mission as a Prophet! Having published this in a book, he was compelled to swear to it in court, which of course destroyed the credit of his evidence. This witness was afterwards expelled by the Mormons, but no doubt they will cling to his evidence in favor of the divine mission of the Prophet.^[2] Many other witnesses were examined who knew the facts, but under the influence of the demoralization of faction, denied all knowledge of them. It has been said, that faction may find men honest, but it scarcely ever leaves them so. This was verified to the letter in the history of the Mormon quarrel. The accused were all acquitted.

During the progress of these trials, the judge was compelled to permit the courthouse to be filled and surrounded by armed bands who attended court to browbeat and overawe the administration of justice. The judge himself was in a duress, and informed me that he did not consider his life secure any part of the time. The consequence was that the crowd had everything their own way; the lawyers for the defense defended their clients by a long and elaborate attack upon the governor; the armed mob stamped with their feet and yelled their approbation at every sarcastic and smart thing that was said, and the judge was not only forced to hear it, but to lend it a kind of approval.^[3]

And now in conclusion, as promised in the footnote on this page, I quote the statement of the martyrdom as vouched for by The Church, and published in the book of Doctrine and Covenants:

To seal the testimony of this book and the Book of Mormon, we announce the martyrdom of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and Hyrum Smith the Patriarch. They were shot in Carthage jail, on the 27th of June, 1844, about five o'clock p. m., by an armed mob, painted black—of from 150 to 200 persons. Hyrum was shot first and fell calmly, exclaiming, "I am a dead man!" Joseph leaped from the window, and was shot dead in the attempt, exclaiming, "O Lord, my God!" They were both shot after they were dead in a brutal manner and both received four balls.

John Taylor and Willard Richards, two of the Twelve, were the only persons in the room at the time; the former was wounded in a savage manner with four balls, but has since recovered; the latter, through the providence of God, escaped, "without even a hole in his robe."

Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more (save Jesus only,) for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fullness of the everlasting gospel which it contained to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city; and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people, and like most of the Lord's anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood—and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated!

When Joseph went to Carthage to deliver himself up to the pretended requirements of the law, two or three days previous to his assassination, he said, "I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer's morning; I have a conscience void of offense towards God, and towards all men. I SHALL DIE INNOCENT, AND IT SHALL YET BE SAID OF ME—HE WAS MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD." The same morning, after Hyrum had made ready to go—shall it be said to the slaughter? Yes, for so it was,—he read the following paragraph, near the close of the fifth chapter of Ether, in the Book of Mormon, and turned down the leaf upon it:—

"And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord that he would give unto the Gentiles grace, that they might have charity. And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me, if they have not charity, it mattereth not unto you, thou hast been faithful; wherefore thy garments are clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness, thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father. And now I * * * bid farewell unto the Gentiles; yea and also unto my brethren whom I love, until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ, where all men shall know that my garments are not spotted with your blood." The testators are now dead, and their testament is in force.

Hyrum Smith was 44 years old; February, 1844, and Joseph Smith was 38 in December, 1843; and henceforward their names will be classed among the martyrs of religion; and the reader in every nation will be reminded that the "Book of Mormon," and this book of Doctrine and Covenants of the Church, cost the best blood of the nineteenth century to bring them forth for the salvation of a ruined world: and that if the fire can scathe a green tree for the glory of God, how easy it will burn up the "dry trees" to purify the vineyard of corruption. They lived for glory; they died for glory; and glory is their eternal reward. From age to age shall their names go down to posterity as gems for the sanctified.

They were innocent of any crime, as they had often been proved before, and were only confined in jail by the conspiracy of traitors and wicked men; and their innocent blood on the floor of Carthage jail, is a broad seal affixed to "Mormonism" that cannot be rejected by any court on earth; and their innocent blood on the escutcheon of the State of Illinois, with the broken faith of the State as pledged by the governor, is a witness to the truth of the everlasting Gospel, that all the world cannot impeach; and their innocent blood on the banner of liberty, and on the magna charta of the United States, is an ambassador for the religion of Jesus Christ, that will touch the hearts of honest men among all nations; and their innocent blood, with the innocent blood of all the martyrs under the altar that John saw, will cry unto the Lord of hosts, till He avenges that blood on the earth. Amen.

Footnotes

1. Ford's History of Illinois, page 367.2. This the "Mormons," however, have not done; and no well informed "Mormon," regards the story as being vouched for in any authoritative way by The Church. The only authoritative account of the sad martyrdom of the Prophets for which The Church stands responsible is that published in the Doctrine and Covenants, section cxxxv (and which is published at the close of this chapter); and in that account the element of the miraculous enters not at all.3. Ford's History of Illinois, pages 367, 368.