Docket Entry, 1–circa 6 July 1843 [Extradition of JS for Treason]
Source Note
Docket Entry, [, Hancock Co., IL, 1–ca. 6 July 1843], Extradition of JS for Treason (Nauvoo, IL, Municipal Court 1843); Nauvoo Municipal Court Docket Book, 55–87, 116–150; handwriting of and ; CHL.
situation that you are; and Oh if I could invoke that great spirit of the unknown God to rest upon & deliver you from that awfule chain of superstition & liberate you from those fetters of fanaticism with which you are bound, that you no longer do homage to a man. I would advise you to Scatter abroad & never again organize yourselves with Bishops, Priests, &C, lest you excite the jealousies of the people & subject yourselves to the same calamities that have now come upon you. You have always been the aggressors you have brought upon yourselves these difficulties, by being disaffected & not being subject to rule. And my advice is, that you become as other citizens lest by a recurrence of these events you bring upon yourselves irretrievable ruin”
When asked by the court if it was correct? and after reading it, he replied—
Yes, as far as it goes— for continued he, I was present when that Speech was delivered & when fifty seven of our brethren, were betrayed into the hands of our enemies as prisoners, which was done at the instigation of our open & avowed enemies; such as and others & the treachery of . In addition to the Speech referred to, said that, we not be Seen as many as five together. If you are said he the citizens will be upon you & destroy you, but to flee immediately out of the . There was no alternative for them but to flee; that they need not expect any redress, for there was none for them. With respect to the treaty, the witness farther says that there never was any treaty proposed or entered into on the part of the Mormons, or even thought of. As to the leaders being given up, there was no such contract entered into or thought of the Mormons or any one called a Mormon except by . And with respect to the trial of the prisoners at : I do not consider that tribunal a legal court, but an inquisition— for the following reasons: That Mr Smith was not allowed any evidence whatever on his part, for the conduct of the Court as well as the ’s own Words affirmed, that there was no law for Mormons in the State of . And he also knew <that> when Mr Smith left the State of , he did, flee from justice, for the plain reason that the officers & the people manifested by their workes & their words, that there was no law, nor justice for the people called Mormons. And further he knows that Mr Smith has ever been a strong advocate, for the laws & constitutions of his & that there was no act of his life while in the State of according to his knowledge, that could be implied or construed, in any way whatever, to prove him a fugitive from justice [p. 119]