Next morning the witnesses were marched to Independence under a strong guard and quartered in the block-house--formerly the Flourney Hotel. The attorney-general of the State, Mr. Wells, had been sent down by the governor to assist the circuit attorney, Mr. Reese, "to investigate as far as possible, the Jackson outrage." These gentlemen waited upon the witnesses in their quarters, and gave them to understand that all hope of criminal procedure against the mob was at an end. Only a few minutes afterward, Captain Atchison informed the witnesses that he had received an order from Judge Ryland that the services of his company were no longer needed in Jackson County. So the witnesses for the State were marched out of town to the tune of Yankee Doodle--quick time. Thus ended the sickly attempt of the State authorities to "execute the law"--in which execution the 'public,' according to the governor, was interested, but no further interested in this outrage. But, "so far as a faithful execution of the laws is concerned," he presumed, "the whole community felt a deep interest; for that which is the case of the 'Mormons' today, may be the case of the Catholics tomorrow; and after them, any other sect that may become obnoxious to a majority of the people of any section of the State." [A] After this effort by the State authorities to execute the law, doubtless all other sects or parties who were likely to come under the ban of popular sentiment felt secure in their liberties--satisfied with the valor of the officers of the State who had trembled before the bold front of a mob--a mob which had boasted that if the "Mormons" were reinstated in their homes by the authority of the governor, not three months should elapse before they would drive them again! And even while the circuit court was convened at Independence, and a company of militia was in attendance to execute its mandates, and the attorney-general of the State present to assist the circuit attorney prosecute those who had violated the law--yet, in the presence of all this authority, the old citizens of Jackson gathered, and assumed such a boisterous and mobocratic appearance that their bold front overawed the officers of the court; the attorneys of the State telling the State witnesses--who were also sufferers from the previous violence of the mob--that all hopes of criminal prosecutions against the mob were at an end; while Judge Ryland issued an order for the militia to withdraw, just when they were needed to protect his court in vindicating the law!