Col. Geddes: "It certainly did look from all I have heard, from the general spirit of violence and mobocracy that here prevails, that it was not safe for you to come unprotected."
Governor: "I think that sufficient time was not allowed by the posse for you to consult and get ready. They were too hasty, but I suppose they found themselves bound by their orders. I think, too, there is a great deal of truth in what you say, and your reasoning is plausible: yet I must beg leave to differ from you in relation to the acts of the city council. That council in my opinion, had no right to act in a legislative capacity, and in that of the judiciary.
"They should have passed a law in relation to the matter, and then the municipal court, upon complaint, could have removed it; but for the city council to take upon themselves the law-making, and the execution of the law is, in my opinion, wrong; besides, these men ought to have had a hearing before their property was destroyed, to destroy it without was an infringement of their rights, besides, it is so contrary to the feelings of American people to interfere with the press.
"And furthermore, I cannot but think that it would have been more judicious for you to have gone with Mr. Bettisworth to Carthage, notwithstanding the law did not require it. Concerning your being in jail, I am sorry for that, I wish it had been otherwise. I hope you will soon be released, but I cannot interfere."
Gen. Smith: "Governor Ford, allow me, sir, to bring one thing to your mind, that you seem to have overlooked. You state that you think it would have been better for us to have submitted to the requisition of Constable Bettisworth, and to have gone to Carthage.
"Do you not know, sir, that that writ was served at the instance of an anti-Mormon mob, who had passed resolutions and published them to the effect that they would exterminate the Mormon leaders; and are you not informed that Captain Anderson was not only threatened when coming to Nauvoo, but had a gun fired at his boat by this said mob in Warsaw, when coming up to Nauvoo, and that this very thing was made use of as a means to get us into their hands, and we could not, without taking an armed force with us, go there without, according to their published declarations, going into the jaws of death?
"To have taken a force would only have fanned the excitement, as they would have stated that we wanted to use intimidation, therefore we thought it the most judicious to avail ourselves of the protection of the law."
Governor: "I see, I see."
Gen. Smith: "Furthermore, in relation to the press, you say that you differ from me in opinion; be it so, the thing, after all, is only a legal difficulty, and the courts, I should judge competent to decide on that matter.
"If our act was illegal, we are willing to meet it, and although I cannot see the distinction that you draw about the acts of the city council, and what difference it could have made in point of fact, law or justice, between the city council's acting together or separate, or how much more legal it would have been for the municipal court, who were a part of the city council, to act separate, instead of with the councillors.