Docket Entry, 1–circa 6 July 1843 [Extradition of JS for Treason]
Source Note
Docket Entry, [, Hancock Co., IL, 1–ca. 6 July 1843], Extradition of JS for Treason (Nauvoo, IL, Municipal Court 1843); Nauvoo Municipal Court Docket Book, 55–87, 116–150; handwriting of and ; CHL.
ten days of drunkness, we were informed that we indicted for treason, , murder, , theft & stealing. We asked for a change of venue from that to Marion County, but they would not grant it; but they gave us a change of venue from to ; and a was made out, by the pretended without date, name or place. The<y> fitted us out with a two horse wagon & horses & four men besides the Sheriff, to be our guard; there were five of us. We started from , the sun about two hours high P. M. and went as far as , that evening & staid till morning. There we bought two horses of the guard & paid for one of them in our clothing, which we had with us & for the other we gave our note. We went down that day as far as ’s, a distance of some four or five miles. Their we staid until the <next> morning, where we started on our journey to , & travelled on the road about twenty miles distance. There we bought a jug of whiskey, with which we treated the company & while there the sheriff shewed us the mittimus, before referred to, without date or signature, and said that never to carry us to & never to shew the ; and said he, I shall take a good drink of grog, & go to bed & you may do as you have a mind to. Three others of the guard pretty freely of whiskey, sweetned with honey, they also went to bed & were soon asleep, & the other guard went along with us & helped to saddle the horses. Two of us mounted the horses & the other three started on foot & we took our change of venue for the State of & in the course of nine of <or> ten days, arrived safely a<t> , Adams county, where we found our families in a State of poverty, although in good health; they having been driven out of the previously by the murderous militia, under the exterminating order of the of ; and now, the people of that , a portion of them, would be glad to make the people of this believe that my brother Joseph has committed treason, for the purpose of keeping up their murderous & hellish persecution, and they seem to be unrelenting & thirsting for the blood of innocence, for I do know most possitively that my brother has not committed treason, nor violated one Solitary item of law or rule in the State of .
But I do know that the Mormon people en masse were driven out of that , after being robbed of all they had, & they bearely escaped with their lives, as well as my brother Joseph who barely escaped with his life, his family also was robbed of all the<y> had & barely escaped with the Skin of their teeth & all of this in consequence of the exterminating order of , the same being confirmed by the Legislature of that . And I do know— so does this court, & every rational man who is acquainted with the circumstances, & every man who shall hereafter [p. 78]