Seventy-three residents of Smith and Rusk counties state that, on 22 July 1853, a "Negro Boy the property of Dr. D. P Fowler worth fifteen hundred Dollars did near the Town of Canton ... perpetrate a crime that would have forfeited his life under the Laws of the Land." They further report that "the citizens ... influenced solely by what they deemed Right and propper to carry out the Ends of Justice assembled to the number of five or Six hundred persons and Executed him forthwith." Asserting that Dr. D. P. Fowler "is a poor man," the petitioners therefore pray that Dr. Fowler "be placed in the Same Condition under the Law that he would have been If his property had been legally executed, It was no fault of his that the proceedings were not entirely Legal."
Result: Committee on state affairs recommends rejection.
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Repository: Texas State Library-Archives Division, Austin, Texas
