Closing Argument of Orville Browning, 29 May 1845 [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 [between ca. 11 Feb. 1944 and ca. 16 Jan. 1968] in “Minutes of Trial of Members of Mob Who Helped Kill Joseph Smith, the Prophet,” pp. 15–20 (first numbering); CHL.
The custodial history of this typescript is unknown. Wilford C. Wood acquired the manuscript from Frank C. Baum in 1944 and thereafter created three typescript transcripts of it. Two of the transcripts, identified as a first copy and a carbon copy, were retained by Wood and are in the possession of the Wilford C. Wood Museum in Bountiful, Utah. At an unknown time, Wood created a third transcript titled “Minutes of Trial of Members of Mob who Helped Kill Joseph Smith, the Prophet” that was donated to the Church Historian’s Office before Wood’s death in 1968. The transcripts contain portions that are unaccounted for in the manuscript. The copy donated to the church is virtually identical to the copies at the Wood Museum, except that some of the documents are in a different order. The typescript was presumably placed in a Joseph Smith name file after its donation. Church Historical Department (now CHL) staff cataloged the typescript in 1973.
Mrs. Frank Baum, Quincy, IL, to Wilford C. Wood, Woods Cross, UT, Receipt, 11 Feb. 1944, microfilm, reel 16, Wilford C. Wood Collection of Church Historical Materials, CHL; Letter, Wilford C. Wood, Woods Cross, UT, to David O. McKay, 16 Feb. 1944, microfilm, reel 16, Wilford C. Wood Collection of Church Historical Materials, CHL.
Wilford C. Wood Collection of Church Historical Materials. Microfilm. CHL. MS 8617.
See “Martyrdom Court Records (typed) carbon 4-c-b-2.2,” microfilm, reel 5, Wilford C. Wood Collection of Church Historical Materials, CHL; and “Martyrdom Court Records (Typed) 4-c-b-2.4,” microfilm, reel 25, Wilford C. Wood Collection of Church Historical Materials, CHL.
Wilford C. Wood Collection of Church Historical Materials. Microfilm. CHL. MS 8617.
See the full bibliographic entry for “Minutes of Trial of Members of Mob Who Helped Kill Joseph Smith, 1844–1845,” in the CHL catalog; and Oaks and Hill, Carthage Conspiracy, 227.
Oaks, Dallin H., and Marvin S. Hill. Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975.
followed an illustrious predecessor (). says he has no doubt but that the substantial features of Daniel’s testimony are true — if so why tell you not to believe him— he goes farther, he says Daniels has made statements which ought to impeach him, in any court— and he has written a lying infamous book, yet he says he believes his testimony is substantially true. goes farther. He acquits all persons of bribing Daniels— or of trying to do so— but you and I cannot doubt it. He is so [blank] and [blank] that even complained of his [blank] being [blank] than he was. Daniels is a most consumate hypocrite— he cares for neither Mormons or anti-Mormons and if he could get his $500 he would, to use his own language, give them all by bail. No human mind can doubt but Daniels has been bribed. He cares for neither God nor man. He was in the market, and no man can doubt but some hell-defying scoundrels in have brought him up. I do not charge the Mormons as a body. Daniels has an interview with the according to his own story— then he has a chance— he sees Smith and communes with him. He then joins the Mormon church. This was just before the last term of the court here. And Daniels has fared sumptuously ever since, though he neither toils nor spins yet he is a cooper by trade. too finds it convenient to become permanently located in and that too just about the same time Daniels goes there, and he too fares sumptuously. He is fed by an unseen hand. He follows no business for a living. Is, to use his own language, professionally a loafer and has followed loafing ever since he went to , and he complains that Daniels has been treated better than he. No man— no, not even the Mormons themselves can doubt that those two witnesses have been subpoened [suborned?].
I will now speak of another witness, and it is with reluctance that I do so because she belongs to the gentler sex. She too went to just before the last term of the court here and I will now here notice our remarkable circumstance (and that is that those three witnesses are all strangers to each other according to their own story, yet they went to about the same time for a common purpose).
Immediately after the transaction she denies to her aunt knowing anything about the matter and never tells any one but her father anything about it until she gets in into . Her father lived at and had come to to see her. Is it not remarkable that if she knew anything about the transaction she did not communicate it to some one while she lived in except her father, a citizen of ?
At the supper she cannot recollect a word said by any except Grover and [p. 18]