| 461 Clay, Caldwell, Ray, and Daviess Counties. He conducted the defense of O. P. Rockwell at the time of his arrest for the attempt to assassinate Governor L. W. Boggs, and of which charge Rockwell was acquitted. There was no evidence connecting Rockwell with the offense, and the General believed him to have been innocent. This was assuring, for so much has been said by those who have assailed the Saints about Rockwell as the agent of Joseph Smith in the outrageous attempt to assassinate the governor of the state of Missouri, that the statement of a man intimately acquainted with the affair at the time of its occurrence, tends to remove the fear that guilt might attach to them against whom it has been charged.
The General was also present and attending to the examination of Sidney Rigdon at Liberty, Missouri, when on a writ of habeas corpus he was before Judge King. Elder Rigdon had few if any friends there, about one hundred were gathered, the most of them "Mormon eaters," as they were called, and terribly excited against those under arrest and in custody. After the counsel had argued the legal conditions of the case, Elder Rigdon desired General Doniphan to inquire of the Judge if he might speak in his own behalf. The Judge said "certainly." Elder Rigdon rose and began; and, says the General, "Such a burst of eloquence it was never my fortune to listen to. At its close there was not a dry eye in that room, all were moved to tears." At its close the Judge said: "The prisoner is discharged the custody of the court, Mr. Rigdon is free to go his way."
The effect of Elder Rigdon's words was such that one of the leading men of the crowd picked up his hat, and turning to the bystanders, said, "We came here determined to do injury to this man. He is innocent of crime, as has been made to appear. And now, gentlemen, out with your money and help the man to return to his destitute family." He circulated the hat and the money was showered into it till he placed a hundred dollars in Elder Rigdon's hands, with the remark, "Now old gentleman, make the quickest possible time to your family, who need you and your help."
It must have been a remarkable scene, for as General Doniphan related it, the remembrance of it lit up his aged face with a glow of animation pleasant to witness.
In answer to the question whether the anti-slavery sentiment which prevailed among the Saints was in any wise at the bottom of the opposition and persecution to which they were subjected, he stated that there could be little doubt that in Jackson County and probably some others, the real reason of the hostility to the church was pro-slavery dislike to the anti-slavery sentiment of the Mormons. Religious bigots opposed to the doctrines of the Saints made the position of the Saints on the slavery question the pretext of their hate.
In answer to the question, Were the leading men among the Saints such bad men as it was urged that they were, the General stated that they
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