[], 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; 1–84 pp.; Cincinnati, OH: Glezen and Shepard, stereotypers and printers, 1840. The copy used herein is held at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Historical Introduction
While incarcerated at , Missouri, in March 1839, JS addressed a letter to the church “at Illinois and scattered abroad and to in particular,” instructing the Saints to gather up “a knoledge of all the facts and sufferings and abuses put upon them by the people of this .” Edward Partridge responded with an account that became the three opening installments of “A History, of the Persecution, of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints in Missouri,” an eleven-part series published in the church’s newspaper, Times and Seasons, between December 1839 and October 1840. “A History, of the Persecution” receives comprehensive treatment in volume 2 of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers and is available on this website.
may have intended to tell the entire story himself, but he fell ill shortly after publication of “A History, of the Persecution” began and died on 27 May 1840. Prompted by Partridge’s illness and subsequent death, the editors of the Times and Seasons, and , sought elsewhere for source materials to continue the series. It is probable that they composed the fourth installment to provide a brief transition from Partridge’s account, which ends in 1836, and the conflicts in and adjoining counties in 1838. The fifth and seventh installments reprinted passages from ’s History of the Late Persecutions Inflicted by the State of Missouri upon the Mormons (Detroit: Dawson and Bates, 1839). In May 1840, the sixth installment reprinted passages from ’s eighty-four page pamphlet, 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 (Cincinnati: Glezan and Shepard, 1840). More of Rigdon’s work was reprinted in the eighth through tenth installments, published from July to September 1840. The series concluded with an eleventh installment in the October 1840 issue, featuring General ’s callous speech to the Saints after their surrender at , Missouri, in November 1838.
A manuscript version of ’s Appeal to the American People, referred to as the “petition draft” titled “To the Publick” and endorsed by JS, Rigdon, and , was read to a conference of Saints in , Illinois, on 1 November 1839. The conference voted to approve its publication in the name of the church. and then collaborated to arrange for publication of the text in late 1839 and early 1840. Though no author is named on the title page, Rigdon was acknowledged as author when the pamphlet was advertised in the Times and Seasons in 1840 and 1841. JS and Elias Higbee had some expectation that funds from the sale of the publication would help defray costs of their trip to in late 1839. In July 1840, a second edition was printed by Shepard & Stearns in to raise funds for Orson Hyde and ’s mission to .
Although many of the events reported in ’s pamphlet can be corroborated from other sources, his chronology is often inaccurate. (Consult the annotation in Histories, Volume 2 for correction to portions published as part of “A History, of the Persecutions.”) However, his account contains the text of several significant documents. Among these are JS’s 5 September 1838 affidavit concerning the 7 August 1838 visit to and those of and and regarding the massacre. Consequently, though in many respects Rigdon’s document is more advocacy than history, it offers access to some material not readily found elsewhere.
larly called out; the whole posse went directly from to attack the settlement of ; as well as the scattering families through Corrill County. It was sometime about the last of Sept. 1838, that they left for Corrill, threatening vengeance to the saints, without regard to sex or age.
for a little season, by this means was free from them. It was during this time, that the people of , made sale of their lands and other property to the saints, all the time saying to their particular friends, that they intended, as soon as they got pay for their lands and other property, to drive the saints off, and take it by force from them. They declared that they were fools, if they did not do so, seeing that the law could not be enforced against them for so doing.
After they had left and got collected at Corrill they set guards; The roads were so infested with them, that travellers were interrupted on the way, as they were peaceably passing along the roads. The more effectually to accomplish their purpose, they sent to and got a cannon. It was said to be a six pounder; they also got balls and ammunition with the cannon, in abundance. Bodies of armed men, gathered in to aid them, from all the adjoining counties, particularly from , Saline, Howard, , Clinton, , Platt, and other parts of the . Among the numbers that came, was a man by the name of Jackson, from Howard, who was appointed their leader. He was called Capt. Jackson, and was among the number of the volunteers, that went to Florida, and cut such a figure there, as reported by Col. Taylor.
The whole band being collected, they closely invested the place; A large portion of the people there, had just arrived, and they were forbidden to go out of the place under pain of death. They were deprived of getting food, or providing houses for themselves. As fast as their cattle, horses, or any other property, got where they could get hold of it, it was carried off, as spoil. If any of the people left the town, on any occasion, they were shot at, by layers-in-wait, who were laying concealed for the purpose. By these outrages the families were compelled to [p. 38]