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.
until, in the October following, it consisted of some seventy families. By this time a regular mob had collected, strongly armed; & had obtained possession of a cannon & stationed a mile or two from the . The citizens being nearly all new comers, had to live in their tents & wagons & were exerting themselves to the uttermost to gettin houses for the approaching winter. The mob commenced committing their depredations on the citizens by not suffering them to procure the materials for building, keeping them shut up in the , not allowing them to go out to get provisions, driving off their cattle & preventing the owners from going in search of them In this way the driven to the greatest extremities, actually suffering for food & every comfort of life, in consequence of which there was much sickness & many died; females gave birth to children without a house to shelter them, & in consequence of the exposure, many suffered great afflictions & many died.
Hearing of their great sufferings, a number of the men of determined on going to see what was doing there. Accordingly we started, eluded the vigilance of the mob & not withstanding they had sentinels placed on all the principal roads, to prevent relief from being sent to the citizens, safely arrived in & found the people as above stated.
During the time we were there, every effort that could be was made to get the authorities of the country, to interfere & scatter the mob. The judge of the circuit court was petitioned, but without success & after that the of the , who returned for answer that the citizens of , had got into a difficulty with the surrounding country, & they might get out of it; for he would have nothing to do with it, or this was the answer the messenger brought when he returned.
The messenger was a Mr Caldwell, who owned a ferry on , about three miles from & was an old settler in the place.
The citizens were completity [completely] besieged by the mob, no man was at liberty to go out nor any to go in. The extremities to which the people were driven were very great, suffering with much sickness, without shelter & deprived of all aid either medical or any other kind & being without food or the privilege of getting it, & betrayed by every man who made the least pretension to friendship; a notable instance of which I will here give as a sample of many others of a similar kind. There was neither bread nor flour to be had in the place a steamboat landed there & application was made to get flour but the captain said there was none on board. A man then offered to get flour for the place; knowing, he said, where there was a quantity. Money [p. 134]