On 8 September 1843, member wrote a letter in , Illinois, to JS to defend his innocence against charges that he had conspired with to aid officials in their attempt to extradite JS. Both Higbee and Rigdon were entangled in the aftermath of ’s 1842 excommunication. Bennett had implicated Higbee as an accomplice in exposing JS’s proposal of plural marriage to Rigdon’s daughter , though Higbee denied any involvement. Sidney Rigdon had similarly been accused of colluding with Bennett in early 1843. In a March 1843 letter to Rigdon, JS expressed “deep regret and poignant grief” because he believed Rigdon was collaborating with Bennett and, in his capacity as postmaster, tampering with JS’s mail. Though Rigdon was tried for his leadership position in April 1843, a church voted that he should retain his position as a counselor in the . Nevertheless, JS continued to be suspicious of Rigdon and many with whom he had associated, including Higbee. On 2 September 1843, according to the featured letter, Higbee was publicly “accused of having written to Missouri; in connexion with Mr Rigdon & others.”

In his 8 September letter to JS, denied these allegations of disloyalty and conspiracy. Higbee cited the past year he spent in , his sickness after his return to , and his ’s death three months earlier as evidence that he could not have collaborated with . Higbee requested that JS read his letter in a public setting or at least make a public announcement that he had denied the charge of collusion.

lived on a bluff near the site; his letter lacks postal markings, indicating that it was hand delivered to JS, whose and were located about a mile away on the “flats” of Nauvoo alongside the . JS likely received the letter the same day or shortly thereafter. There is no known reply. However, at a special church conference held in early October 1843, JS read Higbee’s letter and confirmed that Higbee was now free “even of reproach or suspicion, in that matter.”