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Letter from John C. Bennett, 15 August 1840

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Letter from John C. Bennett, 15 August 1840

Source Note

, Letter, , Wayne Co., IL, to JS, and , [, Hancock Co., IL], 15 Aug. 1840. Featured version copied [probably ca. late Aug. 1840] in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 171–172; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 2.

Historical Introduction

wrote to JS and on 15 August 1840, his fourth letter to them in three weeks. JS had responded to Bennett’s three previous letters on 8 August 1840, but Bennett had not received the response before writing this letter. Bennett reiterated that he intended to move to , Illinois, and to become a himself. He predicted that he would arrive in , Illinois, in about two weeks, a timetable that considerably accelerated his original plan to join with the Saints early the following year. No response from JS has been located, perhaps because Bennett reached Nauvoo before JS had the opportunity to respond; Bennett arrived within a couple weeks of when JS would have received this letter.
copied the letter into JS Letterbook 2, probably soon after JS received it. The original letter has not been located.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Letters from John C. Bennett, 25, 27, and 30 July 1840.

  2. [2]

    Letter to John C. Bennett, 8 Aug. 1840. Fairfield, Illinois, from where Bennett was writing, is a city in the southeastern part of the state. Given the distance and usual travel routes between Nauvoo and Fairfield, Bennett likely received JS’s response shortly after sending this 15 August letter.

  3. [3]

    Letter from John C. Bennett, 25 July 1840.

  4. [4]

    Bennett wrote in 1842 that he moved to Nauvoo in September 1840. (Bennett, History of the Saints, 18.)

    Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.

  5. [5]

    Coray, Autobiographical Sketch, 17, 19.

    Coray, Howard. Autobiographical Sketch, after 1883. Howard Coray, Papers, ca. 1840–1941. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2043, fd. 1.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Letter from John C. Bennett, 15 August 1840 Letterbook 2 History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842] “History of Joseph Smith”
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Page 172

community now in this place informs me that they are one and the same. I have received no reply to my letters and attribute the delay to a press of business or professional absence. I have come to the conclusion to join your people immediately and take up my abode with you.
Let us adopt as our motto— Sicut patribus sit Deus nobis—(As God was with our fathers, so may he be with us)—and adopt the means to the end and the victory is ours— The winged warrior of the air will not cease to be our proud emblem of liberty, and the dogs of war will be forever chained. I shall be with you in about two weeks and shall devote my time and energies to the advancement of the cause of truth and virtue and the advocacy of the Holy religion which you have so nobly defended, & so honorably sustained. My love to all the bretheren. With sentiments of paternal regard
Yours, Respectfully
[p. 172]
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Page 172

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from John C. Bennett, 15 August 1840
ID #
566
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D7:374–376
Handwriting on This Page
  • Howard Coray

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    The Commerce, Illinois, area became more officially known as Nauvoo in April 1840, when the name of the post office changed from Commerce to Nauvoo. (Robert Johnstone to Richard M. Young, 21 Apr. 1840, in JS History, vol. C-1, 1053; News Item, Times and Seasons, May 1840, 1:106.)

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  2. [2]

    Bennett used the same eagle imagery in his inaugural address as mayor of Nauvoo on 3 February 1841: “The winged warrior of the air perches upon the pole of American liberty, and the beast that has the temerity to ruffle her feathers should be made to feel the power of her talons; and until she ceases to be our proud national emblem we should not cease to show our attachment to Illinois.” (John C. Bennett, “Inaugural Address,” Times and Seasons, 15 Feb. 1841, 2:318.)

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  3. [3]

    The phrase “dogs of war” derives from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, act 3, sc. 1, l. 273, in Riverside Shakespeare, 1166.)

    The Riverside Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Edited by G. Blakemore Evans, J. J. M. Tobin, Herschel Baker, Anne Barton, Frank Kermode, Harry Levin, Hallett Smith, and Marie Edel. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

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