Closing Argument of Onias Skinner, 29 May 1845, Copy [State of Illinois v. Williams et al.]
Source Note
, Closing Argument, [, Hancock Co., IL], 29 May [1845], State of IL v. Williams et al. (Hancock Co., IL, Circuit Court 1845). Copied [29 May–20 June 1845]; handwriting of and printed text; thirty-one pages; Wilford Wood Museum, Bountiful, UT; images in Joseph Smith Murder Trial Papers, 1844–1845, CHL.
what they had said <or written> on a particular subject, & they could not, even in defence, go beyond the language charged & show the intention & meaning by the context. To illustrate this ridiculous doctrine I will refer to an example laid down in the books. A man in was indicted for publishing a upon God & religion,— he was charged in the with having published “there is no God”— the words were proved by producing a Bible he had printed & sold, in in which were found these very words. The context, the whole sentence would have shown that he had published “the fool has said in his heart there is no God” Yet, he had done enough to fall a victim to the corruption & tyranny of the age; and would sacrifice these defendants to the corruption & tyranny of thisage & thismeridian [page torn]ious equally base & shameful. But, thank<s> God to the march of intelligence & the spirit of liberty that doctrine has long been exploded, & is now looked upon by every lawyer with wonder and as a striking evidence of the power of the despotism of those times, in corrupting the judges & converting t[he] sacred halls of justice in<to> slaughter-houses of the victims of revengful tyrants.
tells you, in arguing the Guilt of , that he was in [p. 11]