“ October 20th. 1842 Esqre. Dear Sir. In answer to your favors of the 17th. inst: was correct in the information he gave you of my opinion of the illegality of the requisition made by the of , upon the of this , for the surrender of Joseph Smith, and that the of this should cause him to be arrested, for the purpose of being surrendered; I had no doubt but the Supreme Court of this would discharge him upon — subsequent examination has confirmed me in that opinion. I understand from your letter, and from the statement of facts made to me by , that the requisition of the of , is accompanied by an Affidavit of , stating in substance, that on the 6th. day of May last he was shot while sitting in his house, with intent to kill, and as he verily believes, the act was committed by ,—— and that Joseph Smith was accessory to the crime before its commission, and that he has fled from justice; that it can be proved that Joseph Smith was not in the State of at the time the crime was committed, but was in this ; that it is untrue that he was in the State of at the time of the commission of the said crime, or has been there at any time since: he could not, therefore, have fled from that since the commission of said crime. The right on the part of the of to demand Smith, and the duty on the part of the of this to deliver him up: if they exist; are given and imposed by that clause of the Constitution of the , which declares, that [“]a person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other crime who shall flee from justice and be found in another State; shall on demand of the Executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime.” It is unnecessary to refer to the act of Congress in relation to the delivery up of fugitives from justice, as Congress has just so much power and no more than is expressly given by the said clause in the Constitution— the Constitution is the best exponent of itself— what persons then can be surrendered up by the Governor of one State to the Governor of another? First, Ye must be a person [p. 1408]