Appendix: Letter to Nancy Rigdon, circa Mid-April 1842
-
Source Note
[JS], Letter, [, Hancock Co., IL], to [, , Hancock Co., IL, ca. mid-Apr. 1842]. Featured version published in “Letters from Gen. Bennett,” Sangamo Journal (Springfield, Sangamon Co., IL), 19 Aug. 1842, vol. 10, no. 52, [2]; edited by Simeon Francis. Transcription from a digital color image obtained from the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in 2017.The letter was published in the Sangamo Journal, a weekly newspaper printed in , Illinois, from November 1831 to September 1847. Each issue of the Sangamo Journal consisted of four pages with each page containing seven columns. The volume used for transcription is held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign newspaper library and was digitized in 2013 by the university’s project, the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections.
-
Historical Introduction
On 3 August 1842 , formerly a close associate of JS, forwarded to the editor of the , Illinois, Sangamo Journal the text of a letter he claimed JS wrote to , daughter of and Phebe Brooks Rigdon. Because JS’s authorship of this letter is uncertain, the letter is presented as an appendix to this volume rather than a featured document. The Sangamo Journal published the letter, embedded in a letter from Bennett himself, in its 19 August 1842 issue. Bennett’s letter, written on the Erie Canal aboard the steamboat Nassau, was the sixth epistle he sent to that newspaper attacking JS and the . In May 1842 Bennett was excommunicated, and he resigned his position as mayor of , Illinois, amid charges of sexual promiscuity and other scandalous offenses. After his expulsion from the church was publicized the following month, Bennett launched a vitriolic campaign to disparage JS, which included sending the series of letters to the Journal. In the second of these communications, dated 2 July, Bennett claimed to have intimate knowledge of JS’s attempts to court Nancy Rigdon as a plural wife—a marital system Bennett referred to as “spiritual wifery”—and described a letter that JS purportedly wrote to Rigdon to explain the doctrine and justify the proposal. Bennett further reported that the letter was in the hands of Rigdon’s friends and that both he and Rigdon’s father, Sidney, had read it.Because contemporaneous evidence discredits other allegations in ’s Sangamo Journal letters—and in his subsequent book, History of the Saints; or, An Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism, which appeared in early November 1842—some debate exists among historians about the authenticity of this purported JS letter. As in the cases of most of his verifiable plural marriages, JS was silent about this issue—neither confirming nor denying either his authorship of the letter or the allegation that he approached to be a plural wife. JS’s brother , editor of the newspaper Wasp, denied that JS was the letter’s author. In September the Wasp also printed a statement above ’s signature claiming that “Mr. Smith denied to me the authorship of that letter.” However, Rigdon’s statement implied that such a letter did exist. Rigdon cryptically reported that his daughter Nancy declared that “she never said to Gen. Bennett or any other person, that said letter was written by said Mr. Smith, nor in his hand writing, but by another person, and in another person’s hand writing.” Although this particular letter’s authenticity is contested, JS both wrote and offered to write similar letters of explanation about the principle of plural marriage to other prospective spouses.If the text was derived from an authentic letter or a copy thereof in ’s possession, neither the original letter nor an early manuscript copy has been located. The earliest extant version is the one printed in the Sangamo Journal, reproduced here. Bennett published the letter again in his History of the Saints, and it was also reprinted in other newspapers that were circulating his Sangamo Journal letters at the time, including the New York Herald. Aside from the version in the New York Herald, which included JS as the signer and as the recipient, none of the 1842 printed versions or later handwritten copies based on them include a signature, address, or date. However, in introducing the text in both the Sangamo Journal and his book, Bennett identified JS as the author and Nancy Rigdon as the recipient. In addition to being unaddressed, the letter contains no language explicitly tying its content to plural marriage, though it can certainly be read as a discreet introduction or invitation to the practice. If JS proposed that Rigdon become his plural wife, she refused his invitation.If JS composed the letter and sent it to , he would likely have done so in spring 1842. If ’s general chronology of JS’s proposal to Rigdon is reliable, then the letter had to have been written after 16 March 1842, as Bennett claimed he tried to dissuade JS from approaching her on the grounds that both JS and Rigdon’s father were Master Masons (both JS and were raised Master Masons on 16 March). Similarly, if Bennett is to be believed, the letter had to have been written at the latest by 2 July, on which date Bennett wrote to the Sangamo Journal that he saw the letter. The timing can likely be further narrowed to sometime in mid-April if Bennett was indeed present in and involved in JS’s proposal plans. According to Bennett, approached Nancy Rigdon at JS’s behest on 9 April at the funeral of and told her that JS wanted to see her. When Rigdon arrived at the appointed meeting place, met her and rescheduled the meeting with JS for Thursday (14 April). Bennett continued his narrative by saying that JS proposed to Rigdon on that day and promised to write her, which he said JS did “in a few days thro’ Dr. Richards.” This timing—and the possibility of JS’s authorship in general—may be partially corroborated by cryptic entries scribe Willard Richards made in JS’s journal for 12 and 13 May 1842, which refer to “certain difficulties or surmises which existed” between JS and Sidney Rigdon and private discussions between the two men.Though his letter to the Sangamo Journal did not include any provenance information or explicit physical description, when included the letter in History of the Saints he stated that the original was in ’s handwriting and that he obtained it from church member .
Footnotes
-
1
Bennett was mayor of Nauvoo at the time JS was vice mayor, was major general of the Nauvoo Legion at the time JS was lieutenant general, and was a member of the First Presidency.
-
2
“New Election of Mayor, and Vice Mayor, of the City of Nauvoo,” Wasp, 21 May 1842, [3].
The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.
- 3
-
4
“Further Mormon Developments!! 2d Letter from Gen. Bennett,” Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 15 July 1842, [2]; see also “To the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and to All the Honorable Part of Community,” Wasp, 25 June 1842, [2]–[3].
Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.
The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.
-
5
See, for example, Dirkmaat, “Searching for ‘Happiness,’” 94–119.
Dirkmaat, Gerrit. "Searching for 'Happiness': Joseph Smith's Alleged Authorship of the 1842 Letter to Nancy Rigdon." Journal of Mormon History 42, no. 3 (July 2016): 94–119.
-
6
Some sources corroborate the story that JS proposed marriage to Nancy Rigdon while others refute it. For instance, John W. Rigdon—Nancy’s younger brother—signed an affidavit decades later confirming that JS approached his sister, while apostle Orson Hyde asserted in 1845 that Nancy Rigdon fabricated the story of a proposal after JS reproved her for immoral behavior. (John W. Rigdon, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., UT, 28 July 1905, pp. 6–8, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, CHL; Speech of Orson Hyde, 27–28.)
Smith, Joseph F. Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1869–1915. CHL. MS 3423.
Speech of Elder Orson Hyde, Delivered before the High Priest’s Quorum in Nauvoo, April 27th, 1845, upon the Course and Conduct of Mr. Sidney Rigdon, and upon the Merits of His Claims to the Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Nauvoo, IL: John Taylor, 1845. Copy at CHL.
-
7
“Bennett’s Letters,” Wasp, 27 Aug. 1842, [2].
The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.
-
8
Sidney Rigdon, Nauvoo, IL, 27 Aug. 1842, Letter to the Editor, Wasp, 3 Sept. 1842, [3].
The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.
-
9
See JS, Nauvoo, IL, to Newel K. Whitney and Elizabeth Ann Smith Whitney, 18 Aug. 1842, CHL; and Emily Partridge Young, Deposition, 19 Mar. 1892, part 2, p. 350, question 22, Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints v. Church of Christ of Independence, Missouri, et al. (C.C.W.D. Mo. 1894), typescript, United States Testimony, CHL.
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints v. Church of Christ of Independence, Missouri, et al. (C.C.W.D. Mo. 1894). Typescript. Testimonies and Depositions, 1892. Typescript. CHL.
-
10
Bennett, History of the Saints, 243–245; “Discussion by General Bennett about Joe Smith and the Mormons,” New York Herald (New York City), 31 Aug. 1842, [2].
Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.
New York Herald. New York City. 1835–1924.
-
11
Bennett, History of the Saints, 243–245.
Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.
-
12
No documentary evidence exists for a marriage between JS and Nancy Rigdon, and both Bennett and John W. Rigdon asserted that Nancy refused JS’s proposal. (Bennett, History of the Saints, 243; John W. Rigdon, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., UT, 28 July 1905, pp. 3–4, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, CHL.)
Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.
Smith, Joseph F. Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1869–1915. CHL. MS 3423.
-
13
“Further Mormon Developments!! 2d Letter from Gen. Bennett,” Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 15 July 1842, [2]; Minutes, 15–16 Mar. 1842.
Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.
-
14
“Further Mormon Developments!! 2d Letter from Gen. Bennett,” Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 15 July 1842, [2].
Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.
-
15
See JS, Journal, 12 and 13 May 1842.
-
16
Bennett, History of the Saints, 245.
Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.
-
1
Cite this page
