Helena weekly herald

              The Mountain Meadows Massacre. 
Beaver City, (Utah,) July 29.—Yesterday's testimony was occupied in the examination of ten or twelve witnesses, but nothing new was elicited, their testimony confirming that of previous witnesses. The prosecution then closed. 
The defense opened this morning, Spicer occupying the whole forenoon in addressing the jury for the defense, and has not yet con-cluded. He stated the theory of the defense to be, that the emigrants by their own mis-conduct at Corn creek, so enraged the Indians that they sent runners ahead, gathering help from other tribes, until at the Meadows they numbered 400 or 500; that the whites did sell supplies to the emigrants, and treated them well; that Lee held no military or church office, but was simply a farmer to the Indi-ans; that on the ground he tried to protect the emigrants, and wept when the massacre was proposed; that not Lee but Wm. Bate-man went with a flag-of-truce, and after-wards Lee went to the corral and stayed two hours, believing the treaty was bona fide; that while in the emigrant corral, Haight, Hig-bee, and Klingen Smith were plotting to kill them; that what the whites did was done through the fear of death at the hands of the Indians, who threatened that if they did not help to kill the emigrants that they would kill them. 
Beaver City, (Utah,) July 30.—The de-fense is following up its theory as outlined by Judge Spicer yesterday, and appears to have many witnesses to establish the correctness of the counsel's assertions. 
This morning the Hon. Jesse N. Smith, a prominent man of Southern Utah, was placed upon the stand and testified that when the Arkansas emigrants were at Parowan he sold them a quantity of flour and would have sold them more had they wanted to buy. Some-where about the 8th of August, previous to the massacre, Geo. A. Smith was at Parowan and in a public meetings told the people to preserve their grain, and neither feed it to the stock or sell it for that purpose; he went to all the settlements in the south giving the same instructions. Witness did not hear J.A. Smith, or any other man, preach a sermon in regard to the emigrants who were coming. About the 10th of September witness was en-gaged in harvesting wheat, when Dame ask-ed him to go and learn if the rumor that the emigrants had been attacked by the Indians at Mountain Meadow was correct; went to Pinto creek, where he learned that the rumor was true; when he returned he reported to Dame. 
On cross-examination the witness stated that after he reported to Dame that the Indi-ans had attacked the emigrants, Dame, so far as the witness knew, did not try to rescue the emigrauts or check the attack made by the Indians. 
The next witness called was Silas S. Smith, another leading citizen of this region and brother of the above. He testified that he accompanied Geo. A. Smith on his Southern trip spoken of by the former witness; he cor-roborated his brother's evidence in regard to selling wheat to emigrants, and also as to the terms of G. A. Smith's instructions to the people about disposing of their grain. At Corn creek, on that southern tour, they camped one night near the emigrants; next morning some of the latter came to the wit-ness's camp and asked if the latter party thought the Indians would eat the carcass of one of their oxen which had died the night previous; they told the emigrants they thought the Indians would eat the carcass. 
The cross-examination of this witness brought out no new facts. 
Elisha Hooper testified that he was one of Geo. A. Smith's party when they camped on Corn creek on the night spoken of above. He corroborated the witness' (Silas Smith) statement concerning the dead ox. Just as they were leaving camp he saw one of the emigrants, a German doctor, stick a knife three times into the dead ox; the doctor then poured some liqnid from a phial into the knife holes. 
Philo T, Farnsworth, testified that he was Bishop in Beaver at the time referred to by the witness Kershaw, for the prosecution, when he said that John Morgan was cut off from the Mormon Church for selling some cheese to the Arkansas emigrants. The wit-ness testified that Morgan resided in Beaver, for years after the massacre and was in full fellowship with the church, the witness giv-ing him a certificate and recommendation to that effect when he left town. This witness was also one of the party with Geo. A. Smith when they camped on Corn creek and heard the emigrants inquire about the probability of the Indians eating the carcass of the ox; the next morning saw the man standing by the carcass making gesticulations to a few Indians who were with him. 
Judge Sutherland asked—Would it have been safe for a Bishop at Cedar, in the year 1858, to have committed a murder if he had been commanded to do so by your church? 
The prosecution objected to the question, and asked for the conclusion of the witness' testimony. Pending ruling on the objection the court adjourned.