I know what I am about, and the heads of The Church know what they are about, I expect; I have no difficulty with the heads of The Church. I publicly avow that if any one has said that I have stated that General Joseph Smith has given me authority to hold illicit intercourse with women he is a liar in the face of God. Those who have said it are damned liars; they are infernal liars. He never either in public or private gave me any such authority or license, and any person who states it is a scoundrel and a liar. * * * I intend to continue with you, and hope the time may come when I may be restored to full confidence and fellowship, and my former standing in The Church, and that my conduct may be such as to warrant my restoration, and should the time ever come that I may have the opportunity to test my faith, it will then be known whether I am a traitor or a true man. _Joseph_--Will you please state definitely whether you know anything against my character, either in public or private. _Doctor Bennett_--I do not. In all my intercourse with General Smith in public and in private he has been strictly virtuous. In addition to this statement before the city council, Doctor Bennett made affidavit before Squire Wells to the same effect as the above. On the twenty-sixth of May, the case of Bennett came up in the Masonic lodge, of which the doctor was a member, as were also nearly all the principal men of Nauvoo. In the presence of one hundred of the fraternity, he confessed his licentious practices, and acknowledged that he was worthy of the severest chastisement, yet he pleaded for mercy, and especially that he might not be published in the papers. So deep, apparently, was his sorrow, that Joseph pleaded for mercy in his behalf, and he was forgiven as a Mason; but previous to this, the First Presidency of The Church, the Twelve and the Bishop had sent a formal notice to him that they could not fellowship him as a member of The Church, but they withheld the matter from publication, at his earnest solicitation, because of his mother. John C. Bennett, however, had fallen too far to recover from the effects of his deep transgression. He suddenly left Nauvoo, and soon afterward was found plotting with the enemies of the Saints for the destruction of The Church. By this time the Masonic lodge found that he was an expelled Mason, and had palmed himself off on the Nauvoo lodge as a Mason in regular standing, consequently he was disfellowshiped from the Nauvoo lodge, and was also cashiered by the court-martial of the Nauvoo Legion; and thus plucked of all his glory, he was left to wander as a vagabond and an outcast among men.