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Show GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY? 513 of the case; but on reaching the jury room, they proceeded to contro-vert the testimony for the prosecution by facts within their own knowledge. The vote stood from first to last, nine for acquittal and three for conviction. The majority first installed the Jack- Mormon, J. C. Heister, in the chair, and then one by one delivered elaborate Mormon sermons : against the prosecuting attorneys, against the court and all Federal officials, against the emigrants, against the United States, against all who were not of the Mormon Church or its most subservient tools. It was perhaps the most curious and irregular jury proceeding ever had in any civilized country. The three Gentiles on the panel held their ground for two days, smiling grimly on their foes, and willing to see the latter commit themselves; SALT LAKE CITY 1857. then consented to a disagreement. Promptly, as if pulled by one string, all the Mormon papers appeared with articles having a won-derful family resemblance, and claiming that the verdict was a com-plete vindication of the Church, and a " pointed rebuke to the prose^ cution ! " And to cap the climax of absurdity, Captain John Cod-* man, their Eastern apologist, rushed into the New York prints with an effusive statement that " Gentile slanderers were at last silenced, and President Brigham Young fully exonerated ! " One can scarcely say whether the Americans in Utah were pleased or chagrined at the result of this trial. They knew that justice would some day be done, and meanwhile the action of the Church would rouse the indignation of the whole country. But even they had underrated this effect. There was a storm of rage in the Rockv 33 |
