had we have been before the Circuit, the Supreme, or any other court of law in the or nation, we should have been acquitted, for we have broken no law, Mr. comes here with a writ requiring us to go before , “or some other justice of the peace <​of the ”​> to answer to the charge of riot; we acknowledged ourselves <​his prisoners and were​> ready to go before any Magistrate in the <​any​> precinct <​in this part of the County, or any where else where our lives could be protected from the Mob, Violence who have published <​the​> resolutions for my <​our​> extermination, which you have just heard read—​> which <​This is a privilege​> the law guarantees to us, & which the writ itself allows; & he breaks the law, & refuses us this privilege <​declaring that we shall go before , and <​in​> , and no one else, when he knew that a <​numerous​> Mob was collecting there. sworn <​who are publicly— pledged​>, to destroy our lives +​> <​+ it was under these circumstances that we availed ourselves of the legal right of the Ancient high and constitutional privilege, the Writ of , & were brought before the Municipal Court of this , & discharged from the illegal detention, under which we were held by —​> all the Mob men, Pr[i]ests, Thieves, & Bogus Makers, Apostates, & adulterers who combine to destroy this people, <​now​> raise the line and cry throughout the , that we resist the law, in order to gain a pretext for murmurring <​calling​> <​to​>gether, thousands <​more​> of infuriated Mob men, to murder, destroy, plunder, & ravish the innocent, we r [are] American Citizens; we live upon a soil for the liberties of which our fathers perilled their lives & spilt their blood upon the bloody battle field; those rights so dearly purchased, shall not be tamely <​meanely​> <​disgracefully​> trodden under foot by lawless marauders, without at least a noble effort on our part to sustain them. will you all stand by me to the death, & sustain at the peril of your lives the laws of our , & the liberties & privileges which our Fathers have transmitted unto us, sealed by <​with​> their sacred blood? (aye shouted thousands) I call upon all men from to the , & from to , whose hearts thrill to behold the rights of freemen trampled under foot, to come to the deliverance of this people from the cruel hand of oppression, cruelty, anarchy & misrule, to which they have been <​long​> made subject: Come all ye lovers of Liberty, break the oppressors rod, loose the iron grasp of Mobocracy, & bring to consign punishment all those who trample under foot the principles of our glorious Constitution, & the Peoples rights. I drawing his sword & presenting it to Heaven he said “I call God and Angels to witness, that I have unsheathed my sword with a firm and unalterable determination, that this people shall have their legal rights, & be protected from Mob Violence, or my blood shall be spilt upon the ground like water, and my body consigned to the silent tomb, while I live I will never tamely submit to the dominion of <​cursed​> Mobocracy. <​I would welcome death rather than submit to this oppression & it would be sweet, oh sweet to rest in the grave rather than submit to this oppression, agitation, annoyance, confusion & alarm upon alarm any longer— I call upon all friends of Truth & liberty to come to our assistance.​> & May the thunders of the Almighty, and the Forked lightenings of Heaven, & Pestilence, & war, & Bloodshed, come down on those ungodly men who seek to destroy my life, & the lives of this innocent people. I do not regard my own life, I am ready to be offered, <​a sacrifice for this people,​> for what can they do?, only kill the body <​& their power is then at an end​>. Stand firm my friends, never flinch, an <​do​> not seek to save your lives, for he that is afraid to die for the truth, will lose eternal life, hold out to the end, and we shall be resurrected, and become like Gods, & reign in s, Principalities & Eternal dominions, while this cursed Mob will sink to hell the portion of all those who shed innocent blood God has tried you, you are a good people, therefore I love you all <​with all my heart​>, greater love hath no man than that he shall lay down his life for his friends, you have stood by me in the hour of trouble, & I am willing to sacrifice my life for your preservation— May the Lord God of Israel bless you for ever and ever, I say it in the name of Jesus of Nazareth & in the authority of the Holy which he hath conferred upon me— And the people said Amen—

stated that the publication of in the Warsaw Signal that I <​he​> had threatened to take his life was false as hell, for there is not a syllable of truth in it— [p. 65a]