When I heard the three witnesses testify to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and that they had in open daylight both seen and heard the voice of the angel, I knew their testimony was true. My first impression of Joseph nearly sixty years ago was that he was a true prophet, and I formed a love for him which increased with our acquaintance. I was with him in the state of Missouri during those trying scenes until his imprisonment in Liberty jail, and subsequently in Illinois, and with the bereaved family and thousands of Latter-day Saints shed a tear over his remains as he lay silently in death's embrace. I took a last look at him in the Nauvoo Mansion in June, 1844. Joseph Bates Nobles stated to me that he was with the Prophet when he was going voluntarily to give himself up to the pretended requirements of the law, on which occasion 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 offence towards God and towards all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me--'He was murdered in cold blood.'" Hyrum also knew of their doom, for on the morning just before leaving for the murderous prison he turned down the leaf of the fifth chapter of the Book of Ether, which reads as follows: "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 to 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 until my brethren whom, I love, [and all who knew him well knew of his mercy and benevolence], until we shall meet before the judgment seat of Christ, where all men shall know that my garments are not spotted with your blood." They were innocent of crime, as had been proven many, many times. It was a conspiracy of "traitors and wicked men," and their blood, as I saw it on the floor of Carthage jail in 1844, soon after their martyrdom, and again in 1888, is still there as a witness against the murderers.