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Rh Other speakers on the occasion favoured the proposition; but some opposed it, maintaining as fiercely their opposition to "killing men in jail." Finally, a call was made for volunteers, whereupon William N. Grover was the first to advance, and was followed by the company that committed the murder.

The assassination of Joseph Smith was deplored by every right-thinking person. Aside from the horror and detestation naturally entertained against the crime of murder, it was readily seen that the dignity of martyrdom was the Prophet's crown of glory. It carved for him a place in history to which a natural death would never have conducted him.

It has been difficult for public writers to agree when summing up his character. To one class he has appeared as the knave and the impostor; to others, the fanatic and self-deceived; to his own people he was the greatest of prophets; while others still have suggested that he was the victim of the extravagances of spirit-communications with an imagination crude, uncultivated, and superstitious. Knowing little and believing much, every impression was to him a revelation, and every calamity to the world an evidence that "the end" was nigh at hand. An English writer, closing a notice of the Prophet's career, says of him: