[], An Appeal to the American People: Being an Account of the Persecutions of the Church of Latter Day Saints; and of the Barbarities Inflicted on Them by the Inhabitants of the State of Missouri, second edition; i-vi, 7–60 pp.; Cincinnati, OH: Shepard and Stearns, 1840. The copy used herein is held at CHL.
A manuscript draft of this pamphlet, simply titled “To the Publick” was presented to a conference of church members at , Illinois, on 1 November 1839. The conference voted to approve the manuscript and authorized its publication on behalf of the church. The pamphlet, when published, carried the endorsement of JS, , and as “Presidents of said Church.”
and collaborated on the publication of the text, which was available in print by May 1840. Though no author is named on the title page, was acknowledged as author in an 1840 Times and Seasons newspaper article, and when the pamphlet was advertised in that church periodical in 1841. JS and held some expectation that funds from the sale of An Appeal would eventually help defray costs of their late-1839 trip to .
By July 1840, and had been authorized to produce a second, revised edition to be published by Shepard & Stearns in . Page related some of the circumstances surrounding its publication and circulation in a letter sent to JS, “. . . at [Ohio] we parted for a few days . . . Elder Hyde went to Cincinnati where in my absince he published a second Edition of the ‘Apeal to the American people’ (2000 copies)[.] when I arrived the work was about completed[.] after disposing of as many of them as posible and suplying the market about cincinnati and the adjacient country he left me with some fourteen or fifteen hundred on hand, to dispose of” (John E. Page, Philadelphia, PA, to JS et al., Nauvoo, IL, 1 Sept. 1841, JS Collection, CHL). Funds from this printing were to be for the express purpose of subsidizing Hyde and Page’s imminent mission to in Palestine.
The second edition was essentially a lightly edited reprint of the first, with a four-page “Publisher’s Preface” added. In the preface, and noted the purpose of the publication, explained the severe hardships imposed by the persecutions upon Page’s own family, provided a detailed account of a vision experienced by Hyde, and expressed enthusiasm about the prospects of the mission. The preface also contained a copy of an official letter of appointment and commendation for Hyde and Page from an April 1840 church conference at , Illinois, signed by JS, and a letter of reference from , governor of .
Although many of the events reported in both editions of ’s pamphlet can be corroborated from other sources, his chronology of events is often inaccurate. However, Rigdon’s account does contain the texts of several significant documents. Among these are JS’s September 1838 affidavit concerning the 7 August 1838 visit to and those of and regarding the massacre. Consequently, though in many respects Rigdon’s document from a historical perspective is more advocacy than history, it offers access to some important material not readily found elsewhere.
Messrs. and , ministers of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, duly appointed and set apart as missionaries to the Jews, to visit the cities of , Amsterdam, Constantinople and , have obtained permission from the authority of the church to publish a second edition of this work, for the purpose of acquainting the public more extensively with the sufferings and extreme persecutions of the saints in the State of ; and also to raise funds to defray the expenses of this mission to that long dispersed and much abused and afflicted people, the Jews. It has been the misfortune of to lose a wife and two children in , whom he considers martyrs to the cause of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was through extreme fatigue, occasioned by the soldiers of the mob, that they were taken ill, and being allowed nothing for nourishment more delicate than corn beaten in a mortar, from which a kind of bread was made. Thus, being prohibited by the guards from obtaining anything else for their comfort, they literally perished. At this time, was separated from his wife and under a strong guard of soldiers also, and when the news came to him that his wife and children were dying, he plead with the officers for the privilege of going to take the last farewell of his dying family; but they utterly refused to grant him this favor. After they were dead, he did, through much intercession, obtain liberty to go and pay his last respect to them, by interring them all in one grave. He, also, had the painful task to perform of burying brother Cary, whose skull was broken by a blow from the breach of a gun, after he had been taken a prisoner by the mob. They justifed themselves in this barbarous act by saying, “He is a d—d Mormon.”
The circumstances which gave rise to this mission, are quite peculiar. Something near eight years ago, Joseph Smith junr., a prophet and servant of the most High God, did predict upon the head of one of the publishers of this work, viz: , that he should yet go to the city of and be a watchman unto the house of Israel, and perform a work there which would greatly facilitate the gathering together of that people; the particulars of which, it is not necessary to mention here. Year after year has passed away since that period, and my labors, in the ministry, have been confined to the gentiles on both sides of the Atlantic. In the early part of March last, I retired to my bed one evening, as usual, and while contemplating and inquiring out, in my own mind, the field of my ministereal labors for the then coming season; the vision of the Lord, like clouds of light, burst in my view: The cities of , Amsterdam, Constantinople and , all appeared in succession before me; and the spirit said unto me, “Here are many of the children of Abraham [p. [iii]]