, Letter, , to JS, [, Hancock Co., IL?], 9 Mar. 1840. Featured version copied [between Apr. and June 1840] in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 104–105; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 2.
Historical Introduction
On 9 March 1840, wrote JS a letter from , the sixth in a series of letters apprising JS of the actions of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which was considering the ’s memorial for redress to Congress. In this letter, Higbee reported that the Senate had not yet reviewed the committee’s report and its recommendation that the Senate no longer consider the memorial. He also updated JS on the whereabouts of various church members then traveling in the eastern , including several members of the who were preparing to serve their mission in .
presumably sent this letter by post to , Illinois. The original letter is not extant. copied the version featured here into JS Letterbook 2 sometime between April and June 1840.
I expected by this time, that we would be through with our business, but the chairman of the committee gave notice last week, he should call it up to day, in the Senate: though ’s having gone to , it will not be called up untill his return, which will be on next thursday, according to the information that I have obtained relative to this matter.
If the resolution is passed, as annexed to the Report; I shall get my papers, and leave the — I have written some letters to , which, it seems he did not get, (at least all of them). writes; that lefit [left] for the Jerseys, on the 5th. inst. He stated, that he expects me to come there, to go with him home; and that he would write m[o]re soon on the subject— I shall [wait] for him to make the necessary arrangements
He says. Dr. Ells’ family left about a week ago, for ; also that the there numbers about one hundred, and , , & , were to sail from to on the 7th inst. As I have lately written several letters to you,”— I shall bid adieu not to write again unttill after the Senate acts upon our business Mr. [John M.] Robinson says, he has sent you a Report, notwithstanding I shall enclose another, for you— I have changed my place of boarding in consequence of Mrs Richeys. breaking up house keeping, and gone to Baltimore,— I am busy here at chimney corner preaching— Yours as ever, in the Bonds of everlasting love
P.S.
Lest my previous Letters, should not come to hand, I m[e]rely say that I will have been before the committee, three days, and done all in my power to effect the object of our mission—have spoken my mind freely on the subject; an[d] feel to have a conscience void of [p. 104]
Senator Garret D. Wall. (Journal of the Senate of the United States, 26th Cong., 1st Sess., 16 Dec. 1839, 11.)
Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, Being the First Session of the Twenty-Sixth Congress, Begun and Held at the City of Washington, December 2, 1839, and in the Sixty-Fourth Year of the Independence of the Said United States. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1839.
12 March 1840. The Senate did not hear the report and resolution of the Committee on the Judiciary until Monday, 23 March 1840. (Journal of the Senate of the United States, 26th Cong., 1st Sess., 23 Mar. 1840, 259–260; Letter from Elias Higbee, 24 Mar. 1840.)
Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, Being the First Session of the Twenty-Sixth Congress, Begun and Held at the City of Washington, December 2, 1839, and in the Sixty-Fourth Year of the Independence of the Said United States. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1839.
Likely Josiah Ells, a former Methodist preacher who was baptized by Benjamin Winchester in Upper Freehold Township, New Jersey, on 1 October 1838. (Benjamin Winchester, Payson, IL, 18 June 1839, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, Nov. 1839, 1:11; History of the Reorganized Church, 3:764.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 8 vols. Independence, MO: Herald Publishing House, 1896–1976.
This group of missionaries sailed to England on the Patrick Henry on 9 March 1840. (Heber C. Kimball to Vilate Murray Kimball, Commerce, IL, 3 Apr. 1840, Heber C. Kimball, Collection, CHL.)
Kimball, Heber C. Collection, 1837–1898. CHL. MS 12476.
Robinson and Higbee apparently had copies of the judiciary committee’s report; these copies were likely made from the manuscript draft of the report because the Senate did not order it printed until 23 March 1840. (Journal of the Senate of the United States, 26th Cong., 1st Sess., 23 Mar. 1840, 259–260.)
Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, Being the First Session of the Twenty-Sixth Congress, Begun and Held at the City of Washington, December 2, 1839, and in the Sixty-Fourth Year of the Independence of the Said United States. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1839.