History of the Prophet Joseph, by His MotherSmith, Lucy
History
History of the Prophet Joseph, by His Mother
Smith, Lucy
Smith, Joseph, Jr., 1805-1844
week, examining the laws, so Monday passed away without our being
shot. However, it seemed like foolishness to me, for so great
a man as General Clark pretended to be, should have to search
the military law to find out whether preachers of the gospel,
who never did military duty, could be subject to court-martial.
However, the General seemed to learn that fact after searching
the military code, and came into the old log cabin, where we were
under guard and in chains, and told us he had concluded to deliver
us over to the civil authorities, as persons guilty of treason,
murder, arson, larceny, theft, and stealing. The poor, deluded
General did not know the difference between theft, larceny, and
stealing. Accordingly, we were handed over to the pretended civil
authorities, and the next morning our chains were taken off, and we
were guarded to the court house, where there was a pretended court
in session; Austin A. King being the judge, and Mr. Birch, the
district attorney, the two extremely, and very honorable gentlemen,
who sat on the court-martial when we were sentenced to be shot.
Witnesses were called up and sworn, at the point of the bayonet,
and if they would not swear to the things they were told to do,
they were threatened with instant death; and I do know, positively,
that the evidence given in by those men, whilst under duress, was
false. This state of things was continued twelve or fourteen days,
and after that, we were ordered by the judge, to introduce some
rebutting evidence, saying, if we did not do it, we would be thrust
into prison. I could hardly understand what the judge meant, for
I considered we were in prison already, and could not think of
anything but the persecutions of the days of Nero, knowing that it
was a religious persecution, and the court an inquisition; however,
we gave him the names of forty persons, who were acquainted with
all the persecutions and sufferings of the people. The judge made
out a subpoena, and inserted the names of those men, and caused
it to be placed in the hands of Bogard, the notorious Methodist
minister, and he took fifty armed soldiers, and started for Far
West. I saw the subpoena given to him and his company, when they
started. In the course of a few days, they returned with most all
those forty men, whose names were inserted in the subpoena, and
thrust them into jail, and we were not permitted to bring one of
them before the court; but the judge turned upon us, with an air of
indignation, and said, "Gentlemen, you must get your witnesses, or
you shall be committed to jail immediately, for we are not going
to hold the court open, on expense, much longer for you, anyhow."
We felt very much distressed and oppressed at that time. Colonel
Wight said, "What shall we do? Our witnesses are all thrust into
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