Sidney Rigdon, JS, et al., Petition Draft (“To the Publick”), circa 1838–1839
Source Note
, JS, et al., Petition Draft (“To the Publick”), ca. Sept. 1838–ca. Oct. 1839; handwriting of , , , , and two unidentified scribes; 112 inscribed pages with eight inserted slips of paper; JS Collection, CHL.
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 state.” 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 beginning in 1838. The fifth and seventh installments reprinted passages from ’s History of the Late Persecution Inflicted by the State of Missouri upon the Mormons (Detroit: Dawson and Bates, 1839). In May 1840, the sixth installment drew upon ’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 the Barbarities Inflicted on Them by the Inhabitants of the State of Missouri (Cincinnati: Glezan and Shepard, 1840), a draft of which is presented here. Though no author is named on the title page of the pamphlet, Rigdon was acknowledged as responsible for that publication when it was advertised in the Times and Seasons in 1840 and 1841. Also, much of this draft is in Rigdon’s hand. 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.
The manuscript version of ’s Appeal to the American People presented here is referred to as the “petition draft” titled “To the Publick”. On 1 November 1839, Rigdon’s recently completed petition draft, endorsed by JS, Rigdon, and , was read to a conference of Saints in , Illinois, who then 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.
Although many of the events reported in ’s draft and pamphlet can be corroborated from other sources, his chronology is often inaccurate. (Consult the annotation in Histories,Volume 2 for corrections 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 his 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.
These things tra[n]spired, between the first of July and the middle of November 1833.
The mob made their attack, by tearing down houses and distroying property. A was torn down, the press broken, the type scattered through the streets; all the book work, papers, and other materials that were in the office were distroyed; in all amounting to several thousand dollars. A store was broken open, the goods thrown into the street and trampled under foot, * A prosecution was entered the against one of the men, who was taken in the very act of taking the goods and trampling them underfoot. The writ was obtained at the office of a man by the name of , who was a justice of the peace, or called so. When the man was brought for trial, though it was proven that he was taken in the very act of distroying the goods, he was acquitted, and no cause of action was found; but shortly afterwards, there was a writ issued from the same office, against those who prosecuted the said , for distroying the goods, and they were for fals imprisonment, and they were holden to bail for their appearance at the county court, and for want of bail, they were thrown into jail. This is a correct sample of the way the laws were administered in .
Before this banditta commenced the distruction of property, they appointed committees to go and wait on the saints, and order them out of the under pain of death. The object of those warnings were <was,> to make them go and leave all their property as prey to the mob. At which all the authorities of , from the down, winked, as will appear hereafter. While those committies were threatning the saints with death, if they did not leave the forthwith, and leave all their property as a prey to them, they kept the publick papers teaming with lies, and they found <many in the country> a large majority of all the religeous papers in the country, and a great number of the political ones, ready to aid them in their abomination, by giving f ready circulations to their lies and slanders. This I I must say, to the shame [p. 2[a]]