[], 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.
until you do it; and I will stand between you and all difficulty.
Having the orders of their General, a man by the name of , took one hundred men, and went to give them battle, though they reported themselves four hundred strong, and had a cannon. As gave the chase, the mob fled before him. The pursuit lasted for two or three days, during which time, a general destruction of property took place, burning houses &c. The saints fled into : with what they could carry with them, and the rest of their property was all destroyed. They drove in, such of their cattle, horses, hogs, and sheep as they could get in, as also their geese, chickens &c. Their houses were soon wrapped in flames, and what they had left behind them, made a prey of.
, at last got so near the mob, they left their cannon and fled. He took the cannon, and returned to , and thus ended the scene of destruction. It is necessary for a proper understanding of this matter, about the destruction of property, for the reader to know that the saints had bought a heavy portion of ; for which, there are documents now to show, and were to have possession in a short time. Let it be noticed that the mob, in these burnings, had little to lose; they had got their pay, for both their houses, and their lands, and their whole object was, to drive the saints from them, and keep both their lands and their pay; which by the assistance of , they have been enabled to do. The mob declared, while they were selling their lands, that they would do so, and if they could not accomplish their object any other way, they would burn their houses, and report the saints had done it. This can be proven by Mr. .
After the mob was dispersed, and their cannon taken, the people from , returned home, in hopes of having peace; but this hope proved to be vain, for , who had been very active in the mob, and a commander of one of their companies, that was painted, commenced collecting his painted and scattered forces on a stream, that was called the Grindstone. After he had got as he supposed, a sufficient number of them collected [p. 44]