Essentials in Church History: A History of the Church from the Birth of Joseph Smith to the Present Time (1922), with Introductory Chapters on the Antiquity of the Gospel and the "Falling Away"Smith, Joseph Fielding
History
Essentials in Church History: A History of the Church from the Birth of Joseph Smith to the Present Time (1922), with Introductory Chapters on the Antiquity of the Gospel and the "Falling Away"
Smith, Joseph Fielding
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- History
No sooner was Joseph freed by the court than he was again arrested
on a second warrant from Broome County, a distance of about fifteen
miles. The constable who came for him forced him to leave that night
without permitting him to eat, although he had been in the court room
all day without nourishment. He took him to Colesville and lodged him
in a tavern. Then, calling in a number of rowdies, he began to abuse
his prisoner with the assistance of his rabble. Spitting upon him and
pointing their fingers at him they cried in fiendish glee, "Prophesy,
prophesy!" Being near his home, Joseph requested the constable to take
him there for the remainder of the night, but this was denied him. He
asked for something to eat and was given some crusts of bread and water.
The Trial at Colesville
The next day the trial began before three justices. The most able help
had been secured to prosecute the case while the defense was again
represented by Esquires Reid and Davidson. Many witnesses were called
who bore false and contradictory testimony. Newel Knight was placed
upon the stand and questioned in ridicule by one of the lawyers, named
Seymour, in relation to the casting out of a devil from his person, but
the testimony turned to the discomfiture of the prosecution.
At the close of the testimony the court deliberated for about thirty
minutes, although it was then nearly two o'clock a.m. and they had been
in session since the morning of the previous day. The prisoner was
brought before the court and the presiding justice said: "Mr. Smith,
we have had your case under consideration, examined the testimony and
find nothing to condemn you, and therefore you are discharged." The
judges then proceeded to reprimand him severely, "Not because anything
derogatory to his character in any shape had been proved against him
by the host of witnesses that had testified during the trial," said
Mr. Reid, "but merely to please those fiends in human shape who were
engaged in the unhallowed persecution of an innocent man, sheerly on
account of his religious opinions."
Statement of Mr. Reid
Several years later, Mr. Reid visited Nauvoo, and in the course of an
address said, speaking of these trials:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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