[], 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.
fully for their sustenance, were bewailing their condition in the open prairie without a morsel to comfort, or a blanket to cover them.
However incredible it may appear to a civilized people, it is a fact, that there were at one time, one hundred and ninety women and children, who crossed a prairie of nine miles, aided by three men only; the rest having been driven away by the violence of the mob. The saints being unarmed and the mob armed, they fell an easy prey to them.
The women and children, after crossing the prairie, travelled a number of miles, in all probability from twelve to fifteen, and then stopped and waited until their husbands and fathers found where they were, and got to them. They there built houses to winter in; but before they had continued long, the mob found where they were, and went and drove them away, and burned their houses.
A company consisting of about two hundred, nearly all of them women and children, got to the , late in the afternoon, and could not get across that night. It commenced raining and freezing most violently; in this deplorable condition, some of them took shelter under some rocks, and the remainder of them, both small and great, had to lie out in the open prairie, with nothing but the heavens to cover them, while the storm beat upon them with great fury. Among the number, was a Mrs. Higbee, wife of John S. Higbee, from , who was very sick with a fever, and also had an infant at the breast. She was under the necessity of spending this night of storm, exposed to all its violence, having nothing but the earth to sleep on. After spending the night in this distressed situation, early in the morning, another Mrs. Higbee, the wife of , was delivered of a babe, without any bed but the earth, or covering but the heavens.
There were many sick, who were thus inhumanly driven from their houses and had to endure all this abuse and suffering and seek homes where they could be found. The result was, that a number being deprived of the comforts of life, and the necessary attendance, died; many children were left orphans; wives, widows; and husbands widowers.
The mob, after thus abusing the people, the hundreth part of which is not told here, took possession of the farms of those whom they had thus driven from their homes, and all their cattle, horses, sheep and hogs, which amounted to many thousands; together with all their household stuff of every kind, amounting to many thousand dollars worth; and have forbid, under pain of death, any of them returning to get any of their property; and if any of them did attempt it and were discovered, they were whipped and otherwise abused: one or two who did attempt it, were nearly killed—they escaped with their lives, and no more!
There were in addition to the flocks and the herds which the mob took from the saints, large fields of corn, to the amount of many hundred acres; I might say thousands, all ready to harvest; which they took as their own. There were also many hundred acres of wheat, which had been sown, that they also took possession of; for which they have made no compensation to this day. After they had plun [p. 11]