ner as
part of the estate of said Emerson and by one said Samuel Russell.

Your petitioner therefore prays your Honorable Court to grant him
leave to sue as a free person in order to establish his right to
freedom and that the necessary orders may be made in the premises.

(Signed) DRED SCOTT.

his DRED X SCOTT mark

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 1st day July, 1847,
PETER W. JOHNSTONE, J.P.

Upon reading the above petition this day, it being the opinion of
the Judge of the Circuit Court that the said petition contains
sufficient matter to authorize the commencement of a suit for his
freedom, it is hereby ordered that the said petitioner, Dred Scott,
be allowed to sue, on giving security satisfactory to the Clerk of
the Circuit Court for all costs that may be adjudged against him,
and that he have reasonable liberty to attend his counsel and the
Court as occasion may require, and that he be not subjected to any
severity on account of this application for his freedom and that he
be not removed out of the jurisdiction of the Court.

A. HAMILTON,
_Judge of the St. Louis Circuit Court, 8th Judicial Circuit, Mo._
July 2d, 1847.

Having obtained the desired leave to sue from Judge Alexander Hamilton,
Roswell Field procured Joseph Charless, one of the leading citizens of
St. Louis, to execute the necessary bond for costs. Then he lost no
time in filing the following complaint, which I have no doubt Eugene
Field would have mortgaged many weeks' salary to number among his most
precious possessions. He would have cherished it above the Gladstone
axe, for, while that felled mighty oaks, this brief document laid the
axe at the root of a deadly upas-tree which threatened the destruction
of a free republic. I offer no apology for its insertion here:

STATE OF MISSOURI, ) COUNTY OF ST. LOUIS) ss.

CIRCUIT COURT OF ST. LOUIS, ST. LOUIS COUNTY. November Term, 1847.

Dred Scott, a man of color, by his attorneys, plaintiff in this
suit, complains of Alexander Sandford as administrator of the estate
of John Emerson deceased, Irene Emerson and Samuel Russell,
defendants of a plea of trespass. For that the said defendants
heretofore, to wit on the 1st day of July in the year 1846 at to wit
the County of St. Louis aforesaid with force and arms assaulted the
said plaintiff and then and there, beat, bruised, and ill-treated
him and then and there imprisoned and k