On May 6, 1842, Governor Boggs of Missouri, while sitting near a window in his house in Independence, was fired at, and wounded so severely that his recovery was for some days in doubt. The crime was naturally charged to his Mormon enemies,* and was finally narrowed down to O. P. Rockwell,** a Mormon living in Nauvoo, as the agent, and Joseph Smith, Jr., as the instigator. Indictments were found against both of them in Missouri, and a requisition for Smith's surrender was made by the governor of that state on the governor of Illinois. Smith was arrested under the governor's warrant. Now came an illustration of the value to him of the form of government provided by the Nauvoo charter. Taken before his own municipal court, he was released at once on a writ of habeas corpus. This assumption of power by a local court aroused the indignation of non-Mormons throughout the state. Governor Carlin characterized it somewhat later, in a letter to Smith's wife, as "most absurd and ridiculous; to attempt to exercise it is a gross usurpation of power that cannot be tolerated."*** * The hatred felt toward Governor Boggs by the Mormon leaders was not concealed. Thus, an editorial in the Times and Seasons of January 1, 1841, headed "Lilburn W. Boggs," began, "The THING whose name stands at the head of this article," etc. Referring to the ending of his term of office, the article said, "Lilburn has gone down to the dark and dreary abode of his brother and prototype, Nero, there to associate with kindred spirits and partake of the dainties of his father's, the devil's, table." Bennett afterward stated that he heard Joseph Smith say, on July 10, 1842, that Governor Boggs, "the exterminator, should be exterminated," and that the Destroying Angels (Danites) should do it; also that in the spring of that year he heard Smith, at a meeting of Danites, offer to pay any man $500 who would secretly assassinate the governor. Bennett's statement is only cited for what it may be worth; that some Mormon fired the shot is within the limit of strict probability. ** Rockwell, who, in his latter days, was employed by General Connor to guard stock in California, told the general that he fired the shot at Governor Boggs, and was sorry it did not kill him.--"Mormon Portraits," p. 255. *** Millennial Star, Vol. XX, p. 23.