He afterwards published in the _Neighbor_ full details of this _exparte_ trial with the affidavits of the several witnesses given _in extenso_. Those affidavits make up an indictment against the State of Missouri which brings the hot blush of shame to the cheek of every lover of his country's institutions. In their treatment of the Latter-day Saints the leading officials of Missouri were guilty not only of high-handed oppression, but of such high crimes and misdemeanors as would have hung them had they met the just penalty of their misdeeds. But as those who suffered were members of an unpopular Church, the atrocious and bloody deeds of that state were passed by and no one felt called upon to demand justice in behalf of the oppressed; and those powers that were appealed to for redress of grievances--the President and congress of the United States--claimed to have no power to interfere. Mobocracy had triumphed in Missouri, and there was no power in the government to call Missouri to an account for her wrong doing. At the time of the Prophet's arrest at Dixon there was an exciting political campaign in progress in that part of Illinois where Nauvoo was located, for representative to congress, and also for county officers. Two parties were in the field, Whigs and Democrats; each anxious to obtain the Mormon vote. The Democrats accused the Whigs of being the instigators of this last arrest of Joseph Smith, at that particular juncture, that Governor Ford, a Democrat, might be compelled to issue a warrant for his arrest and thus influence the Saints against the Democrats; and in proof of this referred to the fact that John C. Bennett, at whose instance, doubtless, this last warrant for the arrest of the Prophet was gotten up in Missouri, was the special pet of what was called the "Whig junto" in Springfield; that a special session of the circuit court was called in Daviess County, Missouri, in order to have the warrant act at the proper juncture; that Cyrus Walker, the Whig candidate for Congress, was within six miles of Dixon when the Prophet was arrested; that he refused to act as council for him only on the condition that he pledged him his vote (that pledge Walker was pleased to consider as binding to his interest the entire Mormon vote); that on this pledge being given he cancelled all his appointments to speak in that part of the state and repaired to Nauvoo where the validity of the arrest and warrants on which it was made were investigated. This charge the Whigs vehemently denied and in turn accused the Democrats with having made it to influence the Mormon vote in favor of themselves. Thus crimination and recrimination went on, and whichever party the people of Nauvoo voted for, they were sure to incur the wrath of the other.