XII.

#_Affidavits of Sundry Witnesses_.

And afterwards, to-wit, on the same day and year aforesaid, Justin Butterfield, attorney for said petitioner, filed the affidavits, of which the following are copies:

Circuit Court of the United States,

District of Illinois.

In the matter of Joseph Smith, upon habeas corpus.

District of Illinois, ss.

Stephen A. Douglas, James H. Ralston, Almeron Wheat, J. B. Backenstos, being duly sworn, each for himself, says that they were at Nauvoo in the county of Hancock, in this state on the seventh day of May last; that they saw Joseph Smith on that day reviewing the Nauvoo Legion at that place in the presence of several thousand persons.

J. B. BACKENSTOS,

STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS.

Sworn to and subscribed in open court, this 4th day of January, 1843.

JAMES F. OWINGS, Clerk.

Circuit Court of the United States, District of Illinois.

In the matter of Joseph Smith upon habeas corpus.

District of Illinois:--Wilson Law, Henry G. Sherwood, Theodore Turley, Shadrach Roundy, Willard Richards, William Clayton, and Hyrum Smith, being duly sworn, say that they know that Joseph Smith was in Nauvoo, in the county or Hancock, in the state of Illinois, during the whole of the sixth and seventh days of May last; that on the sixth day of May, aforesaid, the said Smith attended an officer-drill at Nauvoo, from ten o'clock in the forenoon to about four o'clock in the afternoon, at which drill the said Joseph Smith was present. And {243} these deponents, Hyrum Smith, Willard Richards, Henry G. Sherwood, John Taylor, and William Clayton, were with the said Smith at Nauvoo aforesaid, during the evening of the sixth day of May last, and sat with the said Joseph Smith in Nauvoo Lodge from six until nine o'clock of said evening. And these deponents, Hyrum Smith, Willard Richards, and William Marks, were with the said Smith at his dwelling house, in Nauvoo, on and during the evening of the fifth day of May last, and conversed with him; and all of the deponents aforesaid do say that, on the seventh day of May aforesaid, the said Smith reviewed the Nauvoo Legion, and was present with the said Legion all that day, in the presence of many thousand people, and it would have been impossible for the said Joseph Smith to have been at any place in the state of Missouri at any time on or between the sixth or seventh days of May aforesaid. And these deponents, Willard Richards, William Clayton, Hyrum Smith, and Lorin Walker, say that they have seen and conversed with the said Smith at Nauvoo, aforesaid, daily, from the tenth of February last, until the first day of July last, and know that he has not been absent from said city of Nauvoo, at any time during that time, long enough to have been in the state of Missouri; that Jackson county in the state of Missouri is about three hundred miles from Nauvoo.

WILSON LAW,

HENRY G. SHERWOOD,

THEODORE TURLEY,

SHADRACH ROUNDY,

WILLARD RICHARDS,

WILLIAM CLAYTON,

JOHN TAYLOR,

WILLIAM MARKS,

LORIN WALKER.

Sworn to and subscribed in open court, this 4th January, 1843.

OWINGS, Clerk.