| 689 whisky, sweetened with honey; they also went to bed, and were soon asleep, and the other guard went along with us and helped to saddle the horses. Two of us mounted the horses, and the other three started on foot, and we took our change of venue for the State of Illinois, and in the course of nine or ten days arrived safely at Quincy, Adams County, where we found our families in a state of poverty, although in good health; they having been driven out of the State previously, by the murderous militia, under the exterminating order of the Executive of Missouri; and now, the people of that State, a portion of them, would be glad to make the people of this State believe that my brother Joseph has committed treason, for the purpose of keeping up their murderous and hellish persecution; and they seem to be unrelenting, and thirsting for the blood of innocence, for I do know most positively that my brother Joseph has not committed treason, nor violated one solitary item of law or rule in the State of Missouri.
"But I do know that the Mormon people en masse were driven out of that State, after being robbed of all they had, and they barely escaped with their lives, as well as my brother Joseph, who barely escaped with his life; his family also was robbed of all they had, and barely escaped with the skin of their teeth; and all of this in consequence of the exterminating order of Governor Boggs, the same being confirmed by the legislature of that State. And I do know-so does this court, and every rational man who is acquainted with the circumstances. and every man who shall hereafter become acquainted with the particulars thereof will know-that Governor Boggs and Generals Clark, Lucas, Wilson, and Gillium, also Austin A. King, have committed treason upon the citizens of Missouri, and did violate the Constitution of the United States, and also the constitution and laws of the State of Missouri; and did exile and expel, at the point of the bayonet, some twelve or fourteen thousand inhabitants from the State, and did murder some three or four hundreds of men, women, and children, in cold blood, and in the most horrid and cruel manner possible. . . .
"But notwithstanding the Mormon people had purchased
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