Account of Hearing, 8 May 1844 [F. M. Higbee v. JS–A on Habeas Corpus]
Source Note
Account of Hearing, [, Hancock Co., IL], 8 May 1844, F. M. Higbee v. JS–A on Habeas Corpus (Nauvoo, IL, Municipal Court 1844); handwriting of ; docket by , [, Hancock Co., IL], 8 May 1844; notation by , 10 May 1844; docket by unidentified scribe, [ca. 10 May 1844]; fourteen pages; Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL. Includes notation.
your way is marked out & you can run it blind— the criminl. Code is to punish marauders— if I take a mans body into custody— the most sacred way is life liberty & the purs[ui]t. of happ[iness] man has a right to pursue his happ. in all the ways of the world—— brot. up to the usages of our forefathers— where there is no narrator to carry us back, & back <to> the deepest ends of futurity we have lost it in the depths of Et[ernit]y. we find no beging.— there is no end of it— the old Biblerian School will not be forgotten— Old Sir Wm. Blackstone when they looked as far back as the shades of death— & when they found out that they were tyrants— Old has suffd. under tyrants, & been hurled into prison with impunity— they put a power into the hands of a Judiciary & make it an imperious duty that if any man within the limits of his jurisdiction— was to see by what power he was there— altho the King on his throne— or the lord in his dignity— when they were taken out of the dungeon— & sd. to the mandates of the King Judge set them free in the face of the King or the tyrant— who is the man that dares take away the life of any man— we will take him by the hand & set him free— there is not one word sd. about the duty of the M C— in the State of the laws are so rigid that if the judge does not ex[plain] why he was there the laws of have made it punishable with a fine of 1000 the judges dare not avoid it— the poor beggar can cry out Sir says he fetch me out of this prison— & if the judge does not do it— the laws are upon him with a fine of 1000— was the power given to to slumber in their hands— no— when the says that the M C. have power to exercise that right— they are to see that they are to exercise it it is sd. to be a nasty drone in if they were to catch a man in — & require a man to bring him up— a Master in — is so much bigger than you people in — I wod. exercise my right if they all went to their fellow Scoundrels in hell— [p. 11]