The Rise and Fall of NauvooRoberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
History
The Rise and Fall of Nauvoo
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saints -- Illinois -- Nauvoo; Nauvoo (Ill.) -- History
Justice Smith dismissed his court without taking any action on the
charge of treason under which the Brothers Smith were still held; but
about eight o'clock the same evening, Constable Bettisworth appeared
at their lodgings at the Hamilton House and insisted on their going to
jail. The Prophet demanded to see the copy of the mittimus which was at
first denied; but upon his counsel--Messrs Woods & Reid--informing the
constable that the accused were entitled to a hearing before a justice,
before they could be sent to jail, to the surprise of all present he
produced a mittimus, issued by Justice R. F. Smith. It stated that
Joseph and Hyrum Smith were under arrest charged with treason; "and
have been," so the paper read, "brought before me, a justice of the
peace, in and for said county, for trial at the seat of justice hereof,
which trial has been necessarily postponed, by reason of the absence of
material witnesses." Now, this mittimus, so far as it related to the
prisoners appearing before Justice Smith was an infamous falsehood,
"unless," as Lawyer Reid says, in the account he published of these
proceedings--"unless the prisoners could have appeared before the
justice _without being present in person or by counsel_!" The same
representation of the case was made to me by Lawyer James W. Woods,
who, at the time was associated with Mr. Reid as the Prophet's counsel,
whom I met in the summer of 1880, in Iowa, and from whom at that time I
received a detailed account of the proceedings.
Joseph and his counsel and his friends protested most vigorously
against this unlawful proceeding, but to no avail. R. F. Smith finding
his mittimus unlawful, appealed to the governor as to what he should
do; to which the governor answered: "You have the Carthage Greys
at your command." That hint was sufficient. What the _justice_ had
illegally begun, the same person as _captain_ must with unlawful force
consummate! Yet when this same governor was appealed to for protection
against this unhallowed as well as unlawful proceeding, he expressed
himself as being very sorry the circumstance had occurred, but he
really could not interfere with the civic powers!
Elder John Taylor went to the governor and reminded him of his pledges
of protection. Elder Taylor expressed his dissatisfaction at the course
taken, and told the governor that if they were to be subject to mob
rule, and to be dragged contrary to law to prison, at the instance
of every scoundrel whose oath could be bought for a dram of whisky,
his protection availed very little, and they had miscalculated the
executive's promises.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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