[], 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.
A short time after this affair at , Capt. , the same who commanded a Massacre, with forty or fi[f]ty others, took possession of the for two or three weeks, and thus cut off all the resources of the widows and orphans who had survived. During this time they lived on the best the neighborhood could afford, plundering and stealing all the pallatable food which had by the industry and prudence of murdered husbands, been laid in store for themselves and families.
They burned all the books that they could find, they shot the hogs and cattle, it seemed for the pleasure of shooting game, as they did not consume near all they killed.
One day , with a number of men went to , who was at the time laying confined with wounds received in the massacre. They came to question Mr. Fauts, to ascertain where certain of his neighbors were who had escaped the murdering party. Mr. Fauts told them he did not know. I then got up, left the room, but was followed by some of the company, who commanded me not to leave until the could see me. The was accordingly called upon and came out to see me; he very gravely and sternly charged me to be gone or on the act of starting, on Tuesday evening, this being on Sunday evening. He said I must obey at my peril, or renounce Mormonism. I asked him what I must deny; he said deny that Jo. Smith is a prophet. As for moving I told him I thought it quite a short notice to get ready to leave the , and the weather being so cold, and having neither wagon nor team, and being plundered and robbed of all our clothing, &c. I also told him that my wife was quite sick and not able to move so soon, and furthermore the roads are guarded or said to be, so that no Mormon could pass either way without being mobbed. I asked him if I must be driven off by one company, and another lay in wait to murder me as I go. I told him I thought the condition of the treaty was that we could stay until spring: he replied that was the first conclusion, but he had just received new orders from the , and that was, that all Mormons should be driven out of the forthwith. I [p. 61]