Closing Argument of Onias Skinner, 29 May 1845, Copy [State of Illinois v. Williams et al.]
Source Note
, Closing Argument, [, Hancock Co., IL], 29 May [1845], State of IL v. Williams et al. (Hancock Co., IL, Circuit Court 1845). Copied [29 May–20 June 1845]; handwriting of and printed text; thirty-one pages; Wilford Wood Museum, Bountiful, UT; images in Joseph Smith Murder Trial Papers, 1844–1845, CHL.
That they did talk or make speeches, if you please, we do not deny but, they did no more than almost every man in the did & when you cast your eyes about this room they will rest upon hundreds that did the same. You will Consider the circumstances of the times & you will remember that no man under the excited & anxious state of the public mind which then existed, could go from one part of the to another or even into the adjoining Counties, who had capacity of communicating of intelligence but, was compelled to make a speech, at least, a small speech & convey what information on the exciting matters which those of those days, he was possessed of— there are scarcly 50. men in this who are not mormons, that did not do it; and for this would have these men executed,— executed upon proof <of> in detached & isolated parts of a Speech or conversation which in themself <themselves> amount to nothing— show no meaning— no fixed purpose or intention— no connected chain of ideas &, in fact, not a single full idea. You must have all that did say on that occasion— the connexion — the context and from the whole speech you must judge of its character. The time was when men could be convicted of crime on proof of a part of [p. 10]