By Brett D. Dowdle, Volume Editor
Following the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor on 10 June 1844 opponents of Joseph Smith throughout Hancock County expressed their outrage. Warsaw Signal editor Thomas Sharp published a threatening editorial, declaring, “We have only to state, that this is sufficient! War and extermination is inevitable! Citizens ARISE, ONE and ALL!!!— Can you stand by, and suffer such INFERNAL DEVILS! to rob men of their property and rights, without avenging them. We have no time for comment, every man will make his own. Let it be made with POWDER and BALL!!!”[1]
In response to Sharp’s call, citizens of the county assembled in Warsaw and Carthage over the next few days to denounce the Expositor’s destruction. During these meetings, non-Latter-day Saint county residents declared that the time had “arrived, when the adherents of Smith, as a Body, should be driven from the surrounding settlements, into Nauvoo” and that “a war of extermination should be waged” if the Saints refused to deliver Joseph Smith up to the mob. In order to root out the Latter-day Saints from among the other communities of Hancock County, they proposed “that a Committee of five be appointed forthwith to notify all persons in our Township suspected of being the tools of the Prophet, to leave immediately on pain of instant vengeance,” with a recommendation that other townships do the same.[2] In short, the entirety of Hancock County had become a powder keg of contention with a lit fuse.
The violent resolutions of the Warsaw meeting were more than mere rhetorical denunciations. On Saturday, 15 June, a group of Hancock County residents gave ultimatums to Latter-day Saints in Isaac Morley’s settlement near Lima, Illinois, concerning their allegiance to Joseph Smith. The Saints were presented with three different options: take up arms and help with Smith’s arrest, immediately give up their property and move to Nauvoo, or surrender their weapons and remain neutral during the coming conflict. Defending their position, the emissaries declared that Smith and “Seventeen others had broken the Law” and had undermined “good order of Society” by destroying the Expositor press. The members of Morley’s settlement were given until Monday, 17 June, to consider the three proposals. The following day, Morley wrote to Smith, informing him of the ultimatums and assuring him of the Saints’ loyalty: “We have made up our minds that we Shall not comply with any of thease proposals but stand in our own defence.”[3]
Joseph Smith received Morley’s letter around five o’clock in the afternoon on 16 June.[4]Immediately after receiving the letter, he had Willard Richards write a reply. Smith instructed Morley to “take specil notic[e] of the movements of the mob party, that is stirring up strife” and to hold the Saints in that region “in readiness to act at a moments warning” so that they could defend the Saints from any attack. Smith then advised the Saints at Morley’s settlement to “keep cool, and let all things be done dece[n]tly and in order.”[5]
The letters to and from Isaac Morley demonstrate just how volatile Hancock County had become in the aftermath of the Expositor’s destruction. The threats were not confined to Joseph Smith alone, nor were they merely directed toward the Latter-day Saints living in Nauvoo. There were credible threats of violence against Latter-day Saints throughout Hancock County. Such threats provide important context for Smith’s decision to declare martial law in Nauvoo on 18 June 1844.[6] While historians can debate the legitimacy of that decision, Morley’s letter, and other letters published in Documents, Volume 15 provide ample evidence of the dangers and pressures that motivated Smith in the decision. Accordingly, such documents help to further explain the circumstances that ultimately culminated in the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith on 27 June 1844.
[1] JS, Journal, 10 June 1844, in JSP, J3:276–277; “Unparralleled Outrage at Nauvoo,” Warsaw [IL] Signal, 12 June 1844, [2], emphasis in original.
[2]Editorial and “Preamble and Resolutions,” Warsaw [IL] Signal, Extra, 14 June 1844.
[3] Letter from Isaac Morley, 16 June 1844, in JSP, D15:278–279.
[4] Willard Richards, Journal, 16 June 1844, CHL.
[5] Letter to Isaac Morley, 16 June 1844, in JSP, D15:284–285.
[6] Proclamation, 18 June 1844, in JSP, D15:324–325.