This, however, is not an editorial expression of the _Wasp_; but is found in a communication, on the editorial page, it is true, signed by a now unknown writer under the nom de plume, "Vortex," who is indignantly taking to task a correspondent in the _Hawk Eye,_ a paper published in Keokuk, Iowa, for charging the supposed assassination of Boggs upon some Mormon. It is "Vortex" in the _Wasp_ that refers to the then supposed assassination of Boggs as a "noble deed," not the editor. The editorial comment of the _Wasp_ on this communication from "Vortex" is as follows: "We admit the foregoing communication to please our correspondent, not that we have any faith that any one has killed Governor Boggs. The last account we have received is that he is still living and likely to live." On the same page of the _Wasp_ is published Joseph Smith's denial of complicity in the then supposed assassination of Boggs and also the prediction of his violent death. _The First Attempt of Missouri to Extradite the Prophet_. That Joseph Smith should be accused of the crime of being accessory before the fact to the attempted assassination of ex-Governor Boggs, was perhaps to be expected as soon as a Mormon was charged with the assault. But that his extradition should be demanded by Missouri on the ground that he was "a fugitive from justice from that State" is something at which to be astonished, even when the {XXIII} action is by the officials of Missouri of the period of which I am writing. For surely it must be a true principle of law--since it is a plain deduction from common sense principles--that the alleged fugitive from justice must be such in connection with and in consequence of the crime with which he is charged. It was matter of common knowledge both in Missouri and in Illinois, that Joseph Smith had not been in Missouri for more than three years preceding the assault upon Boggs, nor since the time of the assault; and that on the day the assault was made he was in attendance upon an officer's drill. Finally, then, he was not a fugitive from the State of Missouri in respect of this particular crime, therefore not extraditable under such charge. If, then, Joseph Smith had committed the crime of being accessory before the fact, to the assault upon Boggs at all, it must have been a crime committed in the state of Illinois and not in the state of Missouri. Therefore he was not extraditable for the offense at all, but he must be tried, if tried at all, in the state where the crime was committed, _viz_., in Illinois. But if astonishment is due that even Missouri should make such palpable blunders in legal procedure in moving for the extradition of the Prophet, astonishment changes to amazement when Governor Carlin of Illinois becomes a party to the attempted illegal extradition. The whole procedure up to the close of Carlin's administration (which went out of existence on the 8th of December 1842), warrants the