at every name signed to the decision was signed in blood, and
he would withdraw his troops and have nothing to do in the matter
if the men were to be shot. Gen. Atchison sustained Col.
Doniphan, and said the wiser policy would be, inasmuch as they
had surrendered themselves as prisoners, to place them in the
Richmond jail and let them take the due course of the law; let
them be tried by the civil authorities of the land. In this way
justice could be reached and parties punished according to law,
and thus save the honor of the troops and the nation. This timely
interposition on the part of Col. Doniphan and Gen. Atchison
changed the course and prevented the hasty action of an
infuriated mob calling itself a court, and composed of men who
were the bitter enemies of Joseph and his followers.

The next day a writing desk was prepared, with two secretaries or
clerks; it was placed in the middle of the hollow square formed
by the troops. The Mormons were marched in double file across the
center of the square, where the officers and men who had remained
in Far West surrendered themselves and their arms to Gen. Clark,
Commander-in-Chief of the Missouri militia, then in arms against
the Saints at Far West. I was among the number that then
surrendered. I laid down a good Kentucky rifle, two good horse
pistols, and a sword.

After stacking our arms we were marched in single file between a
double file of the militia, who stood in a line from the
secretary's desk extending nearly across the square, ready to
receive us, with fixed bayonets. As each man came up he stepped
to the desk and signed his name to an instrument recapitulating
the conditions of the treaty, which were substantially as
follows: We were to give a deed to all our real estate, and to
give a bill of sale of our personal property, to pay the expenses
of the war that had been inaugurated against us; also a committee
of twelve should be appointed, one for Far West and one for Adam-
on-Diamond, who were to be the sole judges of what would be
necessary to remove each family out of the State. All of the
Mormons were to leave Missouri by the 1st of April, A. D. 1839.
The rest of the property of the Mormons was to be taken by the
Missouri troops to pay the expenses of the war. When the
committee had examined into affairs and made the assignment of
property that the Mormons were to retain, a pass would be given
by the committee to each person as an evidence that he had g