| 745 and officers of the legion, and citizens generally, which numbered several thousands, amid the most solemn lamentations and wailings that ever ascended into the ears of the Lord of Hosts to be avenged of our enemies!
"When the procession arrived the bodies were both taken into the 'Nauvoo Mansion'; the scene at the mansion cannot be described: the audience was addressed by Doctor Richards, Judge Phelps, Woods and Reid, Esqs., of Iowa, and Colonel Markham. It was a vast assemblage of some eight or ten thousand persons, and with one united voice resolved to trust to the law for a remedy of such a high-handed assassination, and when that failed, to call upon God to avenge us of our wrongs! Oh, widows and orphans! Oh, Americans! weep, for the glory of freedom has departed!
"STATEMENT OF FACTS !
"At the request of many persons who wish that the truth may go forth to the world in relation to the late murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, by a band of lawless assassins, I have consented to make a statement of the facts so far as they have come to my knowledge, in an authentic shape, as one of the attorneys employed to defend the said Smiths against the charges brought against them and other persons at Carthage, in the State of Illinois.
"On Monday the 24th inst., at the request of General Joseph Smith I left Fort Madison, in the Territory of Iowa, and arrived at Carthage, where I expected to meet the General, his brother Hyrum, and the other persons implicated with them; they arrived at Carthage late at night, and next morning voluntarily surrendered themselves to the constable, Mr. Bettisworth, who held the writ against them on a charge of riot for destroying the press, type, and fixtures of the Nauvoo Expositor, the property of William and Wilson Law, and other dissenters, charged to have been destroyed on the 10th inst.
"Great excitement prevailed in the county of Hancock, and had extended to many of the surrounding counties. A large number of the militia of several counties were under arms at Carthage, the headquarters of the commanding General Deming; and many other troops were under arms at
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