Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Pam's Disclaimer
i am not responsible for the contents of the platt posts even though it says they were posted by me. McKay is author.
Amasa In Liberty Jail with the Prophet
August 31st, 2010-Jackson County, Missouri--I am in Missouri visiting Eliza and Chuck and the twins. We were talking about Richond jail and Amasa Lyman. She was correct that Amasa was not in prison with the Prophet in that temple prison, but was in Richmond jail. Below I have cut and pasted an excerpt from Leo Lymans' recent history of Amasa. Two parts have been highlighted, the first from Richmond jail and the Second from Liberty.
Next day, Friday, November 1, Lyman, along with the rest of the Mormon militia, obeyed Hinkle's orders to surrender their arms, even though they were personal property, not state-issued weapons, and even though he feared, not without reason, "that we might have been attacked by our enemies.” Thereafter, the Mormon militia unit was "marched into the city and kept under guard for a time, when our guard was extended to the limits of the city, and we were released from our closer confinement.” At that juncture Lyman briefly conferred with Edward Partridge, one of the few church leaders remaining in the city, then started out of town on the road south toward the Morse home. As he passed Hinkle's store, “I was pointed out to a party of the mob, who followed me a short distance and arrested me, stating they had orders from General Lucas to bring me to [his] camp.” Thus, Amasa joined Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, George Robinson, and Parley P. Pratt under guard. Hyrum Smith and Alexander McCrae had also just been arrested, Hyrum because he was Joseph's brother and a Church leader and McCrae because he had surrendered his weapons threateningly, accompanied by a defiant speech. All were held at gunpoint under a stream of verbal abuse. Amasa described their physical suffering: “The night was rather an unpleasant one, from the inclemency of the weather, from which we had no protection.”
During the night of November 1-2, Lucas made “the rash and hasty decision” to court martial the prisoners, probably motivated by the realization that he would be replaced as the military commander within hours. He, some of the anti Mormon militia officers, and Hinkle staged the tribunal. Hinkle later told Hyrum Smith that he had argued for acquittal, but to no avail, and the court ruled that the prisoners should be shot the next morning in the public square at Far West. But during the night, Alexander Doniphan, also a general in the Missouri militia, denounced the decision, defied Lucas's order to carry out the execution, and promised to hold Lucas legally responsible for the killings. His boldness apparently shocked Lucas into changing his mind and he ordered the prisoners, including Lyman, transferred under heavy guard to Independence, Missouri, some thirty-five miles away.
Before leaving Far West, the prisoners were each given five minutes to tell their families goodbye and collect a change of clothes. Amasa recalled “I left my weeping wife and prattling babe, to encounter my fate, in the land of my enemies.” The wives of both Parley P. Pratt and Hyrum Smith were pregnant and ill, heightening the trauma of their separation.
The prisoners and their guards did not reach Independence until November 4 in a driving rainstorm. As an added indignity, for the next four days (including Nov. 4), Amasa recalled, “We were taken through all the principal streets of the town, and exhibited as the trophies of the victories of mob violence over innocence and truth.” However, from that point, “the rigors of our confinement were considerably relaxed.” Their guard was reduced, and they were housed in a hotel. According to Parley P. Pratt, “We went out and came in when we pleased--a certain keeper being appointed merely to watch over us and look after our wants.” They also received visitors.
The leniency did not last long. On November 7, another Missouri militia commander, John B. Clark ordered the prisoners taken to Richmond for examination in a military court. The first day they traveled fifteen miles, crossed the Missouri River, and lodged for the night in an old abandoned house. The next day Sterling G. Price, an overzealous militia colonel, took charge of the prisoners and conducted them the remaining ten miles to Richmond where he placed most of the original prisoners, including Amasa, in an old log house under heavy guard in leg-irons linked by a common chain. Both Amasa and the Prophet Joseph later recalled this episode of being chained together, and Albert R. Lyman was not incorrect in asserting: “Bound now to Joseph with the same chain, Amasa found in this hard bond more comfort and assurance still, for the prophet’s dignity mounted with the increase of torture and abuse.”
(This is the time where Joseph wrote in a letter to Emma that he was chained to the other prisoners in bonds of love)
By then (actually November 6), other militia units had rounded up forty-six additional Mormons who were also brought to Richmond for trial. At that point, the state circuit court judge, Austin King ruled that he, not the military, had jurisdiction and dismissed most of the Missouri militiamen. Chief counsel for the Mormon defendants was Alexander Doniphan, an attorney by profession as well as a militia general. Ebenezer Robinson, one of the fifty-three Mormon prisoners, later described their quarters in an unfinished courthouse. He stated the building was brick “with no inside work done except a floor laid across one end, some sixteen or twenty feet wide. There were two large fireplaces built in the wall where the floor was laid.” Hastily constructed railings around the floor constituted their prison. They were allowed to cook their own meat and cornmeal in iron kettles and Dutch ovens. At night they sang hymns and prayed before spreading their blankets on the wooden floor.
Although their food and shelter had improved, other aspects of their condition were worse. According to Parley P. Pratt, the guards sometimes appeared "drunken with their depravity . . . . It had become a beastly obsession. They seemed never to tire of relating hellish accounts of what they had done to the defenseless saints, and what they yet intended to do." One tedious night the prisoners listened for hours to “obscene jests, the horrid oaths, the dreadful blasphemies and filthy language of [their] guards. . . as they recounted to each other their deeds . . . committed among the Mormons.” As this cruel treatment continued after midnight, Joseph Smith suddenly arose and, in Pratt's words, commanded: "Silence, ye fiends of the infernal pit. In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke you and command you to be still; I will not live another minute and hear such language. Cease such talk or you or I die this instant." Pratt saw the guards drop to their knees, beg Joseph’s pardon cowering, and remained silent for the remainder of the night. Amasa Lyman doubtless witnessed these events, but no record of his impressions has been located.
The prisoners were all charged with murder, arson, burglary, robbery, larceny, and perjury. The judicial proceedings became a farce, when Mormon witnesses summoned to testify for the defense, were quickly arrested and charged themselves with crimes. Eventually, another eleven Mormon suspects were rounded up. The exasperated Doniphan told his frustrated clients: "If a cohort of angels were to come down and declare you innocent, it would be all the same, since [Judge] King has determined from the beginning to cast you into prison." But despite King’s best efforts to prolong the travesty, through ex parte examination--meaning that the cases were heard without notice to or argument from the prosecution--on November 29, 1838, after seventeen days of court proceedings, Amasa Lyman and twenty-seven other defendants were released from custody for lack of evidence. Thirty-six other men were ordered to stand trial, but after further review twelve of these were also released. Many of the remaining were accused of crimes which were bailable offenses and thus after posting bail another dozen went free. Five other men, Parley P. Pratt, Darwin Chase, Morris Phelps, Luman Gibbs, and Norman Shearer, remained incarcerated at Richmond for their alleged participation at the Battle of Crooked River (unbailable). Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, Caleb Baldwin and Alexander McCrae remained in custody on the charge of treason (unbailable) and were soon sent to Liberty Jail in Clay County, where they would remain for almost five additional months.
Next day, Friday, November 1, Lyman, along with the rest of the Mormon militia, obeyed Hinkle's orders to surrender their arms, even though they were personal property, not state-issued weapons, and even though he feared, not without reason, "that we might have been attacked by our enemies.” Thereafter, the Mormon militia unit was "marched into the city and kept under guard for a time, when our guard was extended to the limits of the city, and we were released from our closer confinement.” At that juncture Lyman briefly conferred with Edward Partridge, one of the few church leaders remaining in the city, then started out of town on the road south toward the Morse home. As he passed Hinkle's store, “I was pointed out to a party of the mob, who followed me a short distance and arrested me, stating they had orders from General Lucas to bring me to [his] camp.” Thus, Amasa joined Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, George Robinson, and Parley P. Pratt under guard. Hyrum Smith and Alexander McCrae had also just been arrested, Hyrum because he was Joseph's brother and a Church leader and McCrae because he had surrendered his weapons threateningly, accompanied by a defiant speech. All were held at gunpoint under a stream of verbal abuse. Amasa described their physical suffering: “The night was rather an unpleasant one, from the inclemency of the weather, from which we had no protection.”
During the night of November 1-2, Lucas made “the rash and hasty decision” to court martial the prisoners, probably motivated by the realization that he would be replaced as the military commander within hours. He, some of the anti Mormon militia officers, and Hinkle staged the tribunal. Hinkle later told Hyrum Smith that he had argued for acquittal, but to no avail, and the court ruled that the prisoners should be shot the next morning in the public square at Far West. But during the night, Alexander Doniphan, also a general in the Missouri militia, denounced the decision, defied Lucas's order to carry out the execution, and promised to hold Lucas legally responsible for the killings. His boldness apparently shocked Lucas into changing his mind and he ordered the prisoners, including Lyman, transferred under heavy guard to Independence, Missouri, some thirty-five miles away.
Before leaving Far West, the prisoners were each given five minutes to tell their families goodbye and collect a change of clothes. Amasa recalled “I left my weeping wife and prattling babe, to encounter my fate, in the land of my enemies.” The wives of both Parley P. Pratt and Hyrum Smith were pregnant and ill, heightening the trauma of their separation.
The prisoners and their guards did not reach Independence until November 4 in a driving rainstorm. As an added indignity, for the next four days (including Nov. 4), Amasa recalled, “We were taken through all the principal streets of the town, and exhibited as the trophies of the victories of mob violence over innocence and truth.” However, from that point, “the rigors of our confinement were considerably relaxed.” Their guard was reduced, and they were housed in a hotel. According to Parley P. Pratt, “We went out and came in when we pleased--a certain keeper being appointed merely to watch over us and look after our wants.” They also received visitors.
The leniency did not last long. On November 7, another Missouri militia commander, John B. Clark ordered the prisoners taken to Richmond for examination in a military court. The first day they traveled fifteen miles, crossed the Missouri River, and lodged for the night in an old abandoned house. The next day Sterling G. Price, an overzealous militia colonel, took charge of the prisoners and conducted them the remaining ten miles to Richmond where he placed most of the original prisoners, including Amasa, in an old log house under heavy guard in leg-irons linked by a common chain. Both Amasa and the Prophet Joseph later recalled this episode of being chained together, and Albert R. Lyman was not incorrect in asserting: “Bound now to Joseph with the same chain, Amasa found in this hard bond more comfort and assurance still, for the prophet’s dignity mounted with the increase of torture and abuse.”
(This is the time where Joseph wrote in a letter to Emma that he was chained to the other prisoners in bonds of love)
By then (actually November 6), other militia units had rounded up forty-six additional Mormons who were also brought to Richmond for trial. At that point, the state circuit court judge, Austin King ruled that he, not the military, had jurisdiction and dismissed most of the Missouri militiamen. Chief counsel for the Mormon defendants was Alexander Doniphan, an attorney by profession as well as a militia general. Ebenezer Robinson, one of the fifty-three Mormon prisoners, later described their quarters in an unfinished courthouse. He stated the building was brick “with no inside work done except a floor laid across one end, some sixteen or twenty feet wide. There were two large fireplaces built in the wall where the floor was laid.” Hastily constructed railings around the floor constituted their prison. They were allowed to cook their own meat and cornmeal in iron kettles and Dutch ovens. At night they sang hymns and prayed before spreading their blankets on the wooden floor.
Although their food and shelter had improved, other aspects of their condition were worse. According to Parley P. Pratt, the guards sometimes appeared "drunken with their depravity . . . . It had become a beastly obsession. They seemed never to tire of relating hellish accounts of what they had done to the defenseless saints, and what they yet intended to do." One tedious night the prisoners listened for hours to “obscene jests, the horrid oaths, the dreadful blasphemies and filthy language of [their] guards. . . as they recounted to each other their deeds . . . committed among the Mormons.” As this cruel treatment continued after midnight, Joseph Smith suddenly arose and, in Pratt's words, commanded: "Silence, ye fiends of the infernal pit. In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke you and command you to be still; I will not live another minute and hear such language. Cease such talk or you or I die this instant." Pratt saw the guards drop to their knees, beg Joseph’s pardon cowering, and remained silent for the remainder of the night. Amasa Lyman doubtless witnessed these events, but no record of his impressions has been located.
The prisoners were all charged with murder, arson, burglary, robbery, larceny, and perjury. The judicial proceedings became a farce, when Mormon witnesses summoned to testify for the defense, were quickly arrested and charged themselves with crimes. Eventually, another eleven Mormon suspects were rounded up. The exasperated Doniphan told his frustrated clients: "If a cohort of angels were to come down and declare you innocent, it would be all the same, since [Judge] King has determined from the beginning to cast you into prison." But despite King’s best efforts to prolong the travesty, through ex parte examination--meaning that the cases were heard without notice to or argument from the prosecution--on November 29, 1838, after seventeen days of court proceedings, Amasa Lyman and twenty-seven other defendants were released from custody for lack of evidence. Thirty-six other men were ordered to stand trial, but after further review twelve of these were also released. Many of the remaining were accused of crimes which were bailable offenses and thus after posting bail another dozen went free. Five other men, Parley P. Pratt, Darwin Chase, Morris Phelps, Luman Gibbs, and Norman Shearer, remained incarcerated at Richmond for their alleged participation at the Battle of Crooked River (unbailable). Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, Caleb Baldwin and Alexander McCrae remained in custody on the charge of treason (unbailable) and were soon sent to Liberty Jail in Clay County, where they would remain for almost five additional months.
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