"These, sir, are outrages which would put monarchy to the blush, and from which the most despotic tyrants of the dark ages would turn away with shame and disgust. In these proceedings, sir, Missouri has enrolled her name on the list of immortal fame. Her transactions will be handed down the stream of time to the latest posterity, who will read with wonder and astonishment the history of proceedings which without a parallel in the annals of time. "Why should the authorities of the State strain at a gnat and swallow a camel? "Why be so strictly legal as to compel me to pass through all the forms of a slow and pretended legal prosecution (previous to my enlargement), out of a pretense of respect to the laws of the State, which have been openly trampled upon and disregarded towards us from first to last? "Why not include me in the general wholesale banishment of our society, that I may support my family, which are now reduced to beggary in a land of strangers? "But, sir, when the authorities of the State shall redress all these wrongs, shall punish the guilty according to law, and shall restore my family and friends to all our rights, and shall pay all the damages which we, as a people, have sustained, then I shall believe them sincere in their professed zeal for law and justice; _then_ shall I be convinced that I can have a fair trial in the State. "But until _then_ I hereby solemnly protest against being tried in this State, with the full and conscientious conviction that I have no just grounds to expect a fair and impartial trial. "I therefore, most sincerely pray your honor, and all the authorities in the State, to either banish me without further persecution, or I freely consent to a trial before the Judiciary of the United States. "With sentiments of consideration and due respect, I have the honor to subscribe myself, "Your prisoner, "P. P. PRATT." CHAPTER XXXI. ------------------------ The Prison:--Fare:--Conduct of the Guards:--A Strange Couple:--My Wife Visits the Prison:--Fasting and Prayer:--An Important Question:--Vision:--A Ministering Spirit:--The Question Answered:--Visit from Judge King:--Change of Venue:-- Handcuffs:--Departure from the Prison:--Journey:--Arrival in Columbia, Boone County:--Enter Another Prison:--Treatment:--Arrival of Friends:--News from my Family:--Impressions of the Spirit:--Plan and Preparations for Escape:--Fourth of July Celebration:--Flag:--Public Dinner:--Now's the Day:--Our Friends take Leave:--Rendezvous. The four following chapters are extracted from the _Millennial Star_, published in Liverpool, England, Numbers 9, 10 and 11, Vol. VIII. I give them in full, with some little revision, although they contain a repetition of some of the things recorded in the foregoing chapters: