"If the people will give ear a moment, I will address a few words in my own defense. In the first place I will state to those who can hear me that I never spent more than six months in Missouri except the time I was in prison. While at Liberty, Missouri, I was at work for the support of my family. I never was a prisoner of war during my stay there, for I had not made war. I never took a gun, nor a pistol, nor a sword and what has been said by our enemies on that subject is false. I have always been willing to go to any governor, judge, or tribunal where justice could be had and have the matter investigated. I could not have committed treason as I had no control of affairs except in spiritual matters. I was driven from Missouri by force of arms under the exterminating order of Governor Boggs. I have always been a peaceable citizen, yet there is scarcely a crime that can be committed that is not laid at the door of Joseph Smith. I have been dragged before the courts time and again on charges that were false and every time I have been acquitted. As often as God sees fit for me to suffer I am ready, but I am as innocent of those crimes imputed as the angels in heaven. I am not an enemy to mankind, neither am I an enemy to Missouri, its governor, nor its people. "As for the military station I hold and the reasons for holding it I have this to say: When we came here the state required us to bear arms and to do military duty. As the Church had just {188} been driven from Missouri and our people had been robbed of their property and their arms had been taken from them, they, therefore, had no arms with which to do duty, yet they were liable to a fine if they did not respond to the orders of the state in the matter of military service even though they had no arms. I advised them to organize into independent companies and to ask the state for arms. This they did. There were, however, many elders who had license to preach. They are exonerated by the law from military duties. The officers, however, would not release them on those grounds. I then told the Saints that although I was free from military duty by law in consequence of a lameness in one of my legs I would set them an example and do military duty myself. They wanted me for their leader. From these circumstances and conditions the Nauvoo Legion came into existence and I was made Lieutenant General. It was not because I was seeking for power.