To the Hon Henry Dusenbury
Judge Law Com. of the St Louis County
Exparte John Jones otherwise called John Cook }
State of Missouri, Saint Louis County, and City of Saint Louis, Law Commissioners Court. now in session. The petitioner states that he is a free collored man, that he was born in the state of Pennsylvania, and the has always resided in said state, until on or about the seventh day of June 1857, when he came to said City of Saint Louis and was, on said day arrested and committed to the County Jail of said County, and from there hitherto[?] has been, and still is, imprisoned and detained in said Jail by Robert T Spogan, the keeper of said Jail, on a charge of being a run away slave, by virtue of a warrant of commitment issued by Berf Herkenrath Esqre a Justice of the Peace for said City and County of Saint Louis, a copy of which was [?] of Commitment is not herewith filed, because a copy of the same has been demanded of the said Logan the person by whom said petitioner is imp- risoned as aforesaid and a copy of said warrant refused.
And the petitioner further states that
he is unlawfully and wrongfully
imprisoned as aforesaid, because he
says that he is and always has been,
by law a free man, and is not,
and never has been by law a slave;
which he is ready to verify. Wherefore
the said John Jones otherwise called
John Cook, prays said said Court
to issue a writ of Habeas Corpus,
and cause the him to be brought
before said Court and discharged from
his said imprisonment by
due course of law
And by way of Amendment to the foregoing petition, the petitioner states the Hon. Henry A Cloves the Judge of the Saint Louis County Circuit Court is absent from said County.
Dated at Louis the 24th day of Dec 1857
John Jones other- wise called John Cook per J.R. Meraiams his attorney
Subscribed &
sworn to before
me this 24h 185
Dec 1857
W. Montfoat
