622 "This case came before the court upon a return to a writ of habeas corpus, which was issued by this court on the 31st of December, 1842, upon a petition for a habeas corpus on the relation of Joseph Smith, setting forth that he was arrested and in custody of William F. Elkin, Sheriff of Sangamon County, upon a warrant issued by the Governor of the State of Illinois, upon the requisition of the Governor of the State of Missouri, demanding him to be delivered up to the Governor of Missouri, as a fugitive from justice; that his arrest as aforesaid was under color of a law of the United States, and was without the authority of law in this, that he was not a fugitive from justice, nor had he fled from the State of Missouri.
"Afterwards on the same day the Sheriff of Sangamon County returned upon the said habeas corpus, that he detained the said Joseph Smith in custody by virtue of a warrant issued by the Governor of the State of Illinois upon the requisition of the Governor of the State of Missouri, made on the affidavit of L. W. Boggs. Copies of the said affidavit, requisition, and warrant were annexed to the said return in the words and figures following:-
"'STATE OF MISSOURI, }ss.
County of Jackson. }
"'This day personally appeared before me, Samuel Weston, a justice of the peace within and for the county of Jackson, the subscriber, Lilburn W. Boggs, who being duly sworn, doth depose and say, that on the night of the 6th day of May, 1842, while sitting in his dwelling in the town of Independence, in the county of Jackson, he was shot with intent to kill, and that his life was despaired of for several days; and that he believes and has good reason to believe from evidence and information now in his possession, that Joseph Smith, commonly called the Mormon prophet, was accessory before the fact of the intended murder; and that the said Joseph Smith is a citizen or resident of the State of Illinois; and the said deponent hereby applies to the Governor of the State of Missouri to make a demand on the Governor of the State of Illinois to deliver the said Joseph Smith, commonly called the Mormon prophet, to some person
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