Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1869-12-23

l
term of court against Levi Will
liams, Mark Aldrich, Jacob G. Da.
Wis, William N. Grover, Thomas G.
Sharp, John Willis, William Voor-
bees, William Gallagher, and one AL
len. They were based on the testi-
mony of two idle youths, named
Brackenbury and Daniels, who had
accompanied the expedition from
Warsaw to Carthage on the 9th Of
June, and had seen the whole affair.
Having a disinclinatiOn to work,
they lived as long as they could by
exploiting this rare experience
Their evidence being worse than
useless in Warsaw, they went to
Nauvoo. professed Mormonism and
had their board paid by the faithful,
to secure their attendance at the
trial. Brackenbury formed an al
lance with sign-painter, who exc
cuted in the highest style of Nsu-
VOC art e panorama OF the prophet s
Death and Ascension, which they
exhibited to the great edi6cation Of
the Mormons and TO such profit that
the artist soon died Of the trembling
madness, and Brackenbury fell heir
to the canvass and the fees. Dan
iels collabOrated with a scribbIer
named LittleGeld, a most remarkable
pamphlet on the same subject, stuffed
full of miracles and Inventions more
stupid than the truth.
The next May all the defend
ants appeared, according to agree
ment, to stand their trial. They
began by filing their affidavit that
the county commissioners who
selected the array of jurors for
the week were .prejudiced against
them; that the sheriff and his
deputies were unftted by prejudice
to select the talesman that might
be required. They therefore en-
tered a motion to quash the array
of jurors, to set aside the sheriff
and his deputies, and to appoint
elisors to select jury for the
case. After argument, this was
done. The elisors presented nine
ty-six men, before twelve were
foundignorant enough and indiffer-
ent enough to act as jurors;
A large number of witnesses
were examined, but nothing was
elected against the accused from
any except Brackenbury, Daniels,
and girl named Eliza Jane Gra-
ham. The two first had been ly.
ing SO constantly for some months
professionally, the one in his pam
phlet the other in his raree-show,
that they had utterly forgotten |
where they started from. and SO
embroidered their original facts
with more recent 6ctions, that their
evidence went for nothing.
The evidence of Miss Graham,
delivered with the impetuosity of
her sex, was all that could be de-
sired-and more too. She had
assisted in feeding the hungry mob
at the Warsaw House as they
came struggling in from Carthage,
and she could remember where
every man sat, and what he said,
and how he said it. Unfortunate.
ly she remembered too much. No
one accused her of willful perjury. |
But her nervous and sensitive
character had been powerfully i'm
pressed by the influence of Smith,
and, brooding constantly upon his
death, she came at last to regard
her own fancies and suspicious as
positive occurrences. 2.
The case was closed: There
was not man on the jury, in the !
court, in the county, that did not
know the defendants had done the
murder. But i: was not proven,
and the verdict OF Not Guilty was
right in law.
And you cannot find in this gen.
Grafton an original inhabitant of
Hancock county who will not
stoutly sustain the verdict.
There was very little excite
ment about the matter. The Nor
mons were not vigorous in the
prosecution. Their leaders were