Your Petitioner John Higdon of the County of Alexandria in the District of Columbia most respectfully begs leave to represent, that during the Revolutionary War, your Petitioner was at his post of duty, in the field, where his Country received his best services for four years—

That altho’ your Petitioner with the rest of his Countrymen acquired liberty by the struggle—yet Fortune was not her concomitant Attendant—

That adventitious circumstances have nearly bereaved him of the small share of property acquired by industry and frugality since that time—And that his Family still dependent on his exertions for support, are reduced to the horrid expectation of want and misery in consequence of the rendition of a Judgment against your Petitioner, on an Indictment for a Riot, the amount of which with costs is Sixty two dollars and eighty One Cents—Your Petitioner begs leave to assure your Excellency, that his present misfortune is not the result of a disregard for public tranquillity but is owing entirely to his being present while the riot was committed by others and his ignorance of the effects of the Laws on that account—Your Petitioner’s Calamities are in a great measure alleviated by a knowledge that the Laws conceived in Justice and planned in Wisdom have placed the power of remission in the hands of a Chief Magistrate ever willing to extend mercy to the Unfortunate; therefore confidently hopes that the legal tho’ not actual guilt of which he has been convicted may be obliterated and his fine & Costs remitted; And your Petitioner as in duty bound will ever pray.—