Sample Documents from the Series

Return to Document Library

PETITION FOR HABEAS CORPUS, 12 JUN 1844

JS to the Municipal Court, Nauvoo, Illinois, 12 June 1844, 3 pp., MS, JS Collection, Church History Library.

12 June 1844

State of Illinois

City of Nauvoo

To the Honorable Municipal Court in and for the said City of Nauvoo—

your Petitioner Joseph Smith respectfully represents that he is now under arrest in the said city of Nauvoo—

That he is in the custody of one David Bettisworth a constable in and <for> the said County of Hancock who holds your Petitione[r] as he says by virtue of a warrant issued by one Thos Morrison an acting Justice of the Peace in and for the said County of Hancock & State of Illinois, which warrant was issued upon the affidavit of one Francis M. Higbee chargeing your Petitioner with being guilty of a riot or of Having committed a riot within the county aforesaid—

Your Petitioner further represents that the warrant of arrest by virtue of which the said David Bettisworth has made this arrest [illegible] does not disclose sufficiently clear and explicit the charge they have prefered—

Your Petitioner further avers that this proceeding against him ha◊he been instituted through malice Private pique & corruption your Petitioner further avers that the design and intention of the said F.M. Higbee in commencing this prosecution is to commit and carry <out> more easily a conspiracy against the Life of your Petitioner that the said Higbee has publicly declared that it was his determination to do everything in his power to [p. 1]

throw your Petitioner into the hands of his Enemies and that here is a determination upon the part of the said Higbee and his unhallowed coadjutors to commit an unlawful act and to set the right and privieleges of your Petition[er] at defiance and being down upon his head this corrupt and unhallowed prosecution

Your Petitione[r] further av[er]s that he is not guilty of the charge prefered against him—that he seeks an investigation upon an impartial tribunal and fears not the result

~~And furthe that the~~

Your Petitione[r] would therefore ask your honorable Body to grant him the benefit of the writ of Habeas Corpus that this matter may be investigated upon Legal principles and <that> the Legal and constitutional rights of your Petition may be determined by your Honorabl Body And your Petition as in duty b◊◊◊◊d will [illegible] pray—

Joseph Smith

Subscribed and Sworn to this 12^th day of June 1844. before me Willard Richar[d]s / Clerk M.C.CN [p. 2]