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.
Gullability;— it is a contempt for your understandings, your common sense & your integrity, & you ought to thrust it back from whence it came with becoming resentment. But, he tells you tried to make a Speech at the shanties; & suppose he did, what did he say? Payton tells you he said something to the effect that we labored under Mormon grievances & had no means of redressing ourselves— well what if he did; how many hundred who are incapable of spilling blood have said <& felt> the same thing, & this, is the crime of — this, is s fanning the flame of sedition & rebellion & exciting the fury of a mob:— a speech that no man among the hundreds that were there heard a word of but Payton. You know this is too ridiculous for comment. Walker tells you that said the had done all he could do; well, I have said the same & to have you & hundreds within the sound of my voice have said the same, & for this would hang him. But, tells you they were in when the Smiths were killed— that they came here to fill the Carthage Greys with the spirit of [p. 14]