, Letter, , Philadelphia Co., PA, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 5 Apr. 1841. Featured version published in Times and Seasons, 1 May 1841, vol. 2, no. 13, 399–400. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
Historical Introduction
spent the early months of 1841 in the eastern handling financial matters and other business for the . While in , Galland wrote to JS in , Illinois, on 5 April 1841; the letter was occasioned by Galland’s learning of the death of United States president William Henry Harrison. The letter briefly mentions Galland’s trip to the East with and their prospects for business in Philadelphia, but his message focuses primarily on Harrison’s death.
’s letter illustrates the political turmoil that followed the 1840 presidential election. That election pitted Harrison, a Whig, against Democratic incumbent . In a time rife with party factionalism and economic depression, the two political parties took sharply divergent positions on economic policy, slavery, and the role of national government, among other issues. Because Van Buren had refused to ask Congress to act on the church’s petitions for redress and reparations after the Saints’ expulsion from , JS and most Latter-day Saints had supported Harrison, a well-educated former military commander and governor of , in the 1840 election. According to a report of an 1840 JS discourse, Van Buren’s actions turned “the Mormons, almost to a man, against Mr. Van Buren” and motivated them to be “equally as unanimous for Gen. Harrison.”
Though the popular vote was close, Harrison won the electoral college handily. On 4 March 1841, Harrison delivered the longest inaugural address ever given by a president. He spoke at length about securing personal liberties for the American people, an issue that mattered a great deal to Latter-day Saints in the wake of their experience. In his address, Harrison spoke about the dangers of stripping people of their liberties, and perhaps church members believed that, unlike his predecessor, he would be willing to lend his influence in helping them obtain redress. The Times and Seasons judged Harrison’s inaugural address “to be one of the best that has ever issued from the presidential chair.”
Unfortunately, JS and the Latter-day Saints were never able to ask Harrison for his assistance. The president had barely begun to appoint new federal officers when he became ill. In late March 1841, according to his doctor’s report, Harrison “was seized with a chill and other symptoms of fever. The next day pneumonia, with congestion of the liver and derangement of the stomach and bowels, was ascertained to exist.” The last words uttered by the president, as heard by his doctor, were, “Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the Government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more.” Harrison died on 4 April 1841, having served just one month as the nation’s executive.
grieved the loss of Harrison and all the potential he brought to the presidency. His 5 April 1841 letter may provide insight into the feelings of JS and other Latter-day Saints on this occasion. Saints such as mourned Harrison’s death as “a great calamity.” The sympathy of the Latter-day Saints for Harrison made news a few months later when reports circulated from to to that a “Mormon Elder” had an “old soldier” in behalf of the deceased president in accordance with the Latter-day Saint of baptism for the dead.
JS received ’s letter some time before the printing of the 1 May 1841 issue of the Times and Seasons, in which the letter was published. Though Galland may not have intended his letter to receive a public audience, JS must have requested that the Times and Seasons editors include the letter in the paper so that it would have a larger readership. Galland’s original letter is apparently not extant; the Times and Seasons preserves the earliest known version.
Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848. The Oxford History of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Letter from Elias Higbee, 24 Mar. 1840; “The Mormons for Harrison,” Peoria [IL] Register and North-Western Gazetteer, 17 Apr. 1840, [2]; Pease, Illinois Election Returns, 117.
Peoria Register and North-Western Gazetteer. Peoria, IL. 1837–1843.
“The Inaugural Address of Gen. William Henry Harrison,” Daily National Intelligencer (Washington DC), 5 Mar. 1841, [2]. Harrison’s vice president, John Tyler, noted that the president had sought to promote popular rights and liberties. (“The Vice President,” American and Commercial Daily Advertiser [Baltimore], 2 Dec. 1840, [2].)
Daily National Intelligencer. Washington DC. 1800–1869.
American and Commercial Daily Advertiser. Baltimore. 1802–1853.
“Report of the Physicians,” North American and Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia), 7 Apr. 1841, [2]. Though this diagnosis has been widely accepted, a recent article has suggested that Harrison was more likely taken with enteric or typhoid fever. (McHugh and Mackowiak, “Death in the White House,” 990–995.)
North American and Daily Advertiser. Philadelphia. 1839–1845.
McHugh, Jane, and Philip A. Mackowiak. “Death in the White House: President William Henry Harrison’s Atypical Pneumonia.” Clinical Infectious Diseases 59, no. 7 (1 Oct. 2014): 990–995.
“Baptism for the Dead,” Warsaw (IL) Signal, 14 July 1841, [2]; “Mormon Purgatory,” Ohio Observer (Hudson), 2 Sept. 1841, [3]; “Baptism for the Dead,” New-York Tribune, 4 Aug. 1841, [1].
Warsaw Signal. Warsaw, IL. 1841–1853.
Ohio Observer. Hudson. 1827–1855.
New-York Tribune. New York City. 1841–1842.
Page 400
priety, and his goodness excelling our most sanguine expectations, will not admit of a single doubt; we are however still left to trust to that inscrutible wisdom, and Almighty power, to turn this most melancholly and disastrous event to our good—whether we have not sinned as a nation by idolizing that worthy and long to be lamented patriot and father of the West. by looking to him as a source of relief in our present calamities, instead of relying upon that God in whose hands is the fate of all the kingdoms and empires of the earth, is worthy of our serious consideration. It would seem that the wickedness of the present generation is so superlatively great, that the Father of mercies has condescended in his infinite wisdom and benevolence to afford to the present nations of the earth, one of the most striking examples of the mutability of all earthly glory, honor and excellence. For it is asserted, and that too with great propriety, that the office of Chief Magistrate of the , filled as it is by the voice of the people (which is the voice of God) is surrounded with a halo of human glory, and earthly grandeur, unparallelled in excellence by all the hereditary Monarchies, Royalties, Aristocracies, or mixed Republics of the earth. Hence the individual whose sudden and unexpected death this nation is now called to mourn, has been called from the very pinicle of human aggrandizement, after filling, for the brief period of thirty days, the highest and most exalted station upon this earth, to the peaceful slumbers of the tomb, and joyful repose in the paradise of God. Though he is hereby taken from the “evil to come,” yet we are admonished thereby that “in the midst of life we are in death.’ O, what a lesson is this to a sinful world!— But I tremble for my country when I reflect that God has taken from us the individual who was so pre-eminently qualified to restore again the tranquility and prosperity of our nation. While we are surrounded with menaces from abroad, and threatened with ruptures and disunion from within, it has pleased the Almighty Father, for some wise purpose, known only to himself, to deprive us of the aid and influence of that amiable person to whom all eyes were turned. We are again loosed from our anchorage and cast forth upon a boisterous political sea, to toil and strive with adverse winds of political speculation, with the blustering gales of human passion and the mis-leading ignis fatuus of political demagogues. Vain, therefore it would seem, is the help of man; we can only rely with assurance of success upon the Lord for help. For the credit of human nature, I wish I could say that this national bereavement was duly appreciated by all our citizens, but alas! how mortifying the reflection to know that there are some who would even wish to be regarded as respectable citizens, who are so destitute of every redeeming virtue, and so puffed with the malignity of party rancor, that they cannot suppress their infernal and fiend-like howlings of exultations until the solemnities of the occasion are ended. O! what a comment on human depravity—it would seem as though this generation was labouring under a depravity which could only be the result of the fall of a second Adam.
But I cannot dwell on a subject which is a reproach to my species, and makes me blush that I am a man. May God protect our nation, and grant that this signal judgment of his providence may cause our people to learn wisdom and practice virtue.
I am most sincerely yours in the bonds of the everlasting gospel,
.
P. S. President Harrison breathed his last at 35 minutes past 12 o’clock on the morning of the 4th inst, (yesterday morning.)
Harrison served as a military leader and commander of Fort Washington (near present-day Cincinnati, Ohio) in the Northwest Territory. After Indiana Territory was created in 1800, Harrison became that territory’s first governor; he served in that role for the next twelve years. Harrison later battled Native peoples on the Indiana western frontier during the War of 1812. He was particularly known for leading the American forces at the Battle of Tippecanoe. (See Owens, Mr. Jefferson’s Hammer, chap. 3; and Jortner, Gods of Prophetstown, 62–65, 79, 191–195.)
Owens, Robert M. Mr. Jefferson’s Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007.
Jortner, Adam. The Gods of Prophetstown: The Battle of Tippecanoe and the Holy War for the American Frontier. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
A 19 January 1841 revelation encouraged JS to send a proclamation to the “President Elect.” It is likely that the calamities referred to by Galland involved the financial situation of the church resulting from the Missouri experience. The Latter-day Saints had been rebuffed in their earlier attempt to gain assistance from President Martin Van Buren and likely would have approached Harrison for aid in obtaining redress for losses sustained in Missouri. JS and others estimated that property losses alone amounted to $2 million. (See Revelation, 19 Jan. 1841 [D&C 124:3]; and Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840.)
This phrase is found in the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer in the section on burial services. (Book of Common Prayer, 182.)
The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, according to the Use of the United Church of England and Ireland: Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, Pointed as They Are to Be Sung or Said in Churches. Oxford: Clarendon, 1825.
Galland’s language here is similar to language in other, later newspaper reports of Harrison’s death. The PhiladelphiaNorth American and Daily Advertiser printed an article stating, “The mysteries of that high and inscrutable Providence which has so suddenly cut off this distinguished, good and patriotic individual, leaving to his constitutional successor the chair of the Chief Magistracy of this nation, in just one month after his accession, are yet to be unfolded in the events of the future.” John Tyler similarly stated, “While standing at the threshold of this great work, he has, by the dispensation of an all-wise Providence, been removed from amongst us, and by the provisions of the Constitution the efforts to be directed to the accomplishing of this vitally important task have devolved upon myself.” (“President Harrison’s Death,” North American and Daily Advertiser [Philadelphia], 6 Apr. 1841, [2]; John Tyler, Washington DC, to “the People of the United States,” 9 Apr. 1841, in Daily National Intelligencer [Washington DC], 10 Apr. 1841, [3]; see also Howe, What Hath God Wrought, 589.)
North American and Daily Advertiser. Philadelphia. 1839–1845.
Daily National Intelligencer. Washington DC. 1800–1869.
Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848. The Oxford History of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
The party strife and political turmoil accompanying the 1840 election resurfaced with Harrison’s death. (See “To the Whigs of Virginia,” Richmond [VA] Whig and Public Advertiser, 6 Apr. 1841, [2]; “Death of the President,” New York Herald, 6 Apr. 1841, [2]; and “The Change of Administration,” Emancipator [New York City], 8 Apr. 1841, 198.)
Richmond Whig and Public Advertiser. Richmond, VA. 1833–1867.
According to a 4 April 1841 letter from Daniel Webster and other presidential cabinet members to vice president John Tyler, “This distressing event took place this day, at the President’s Mansion in this city, at thirty minutes before one in the morning.” (Daniel Webster et al., Washington DC, to John Tyler, 4 Apr. 1841, in Daily National Intelligencer [Washington DC], 5 Apr. 1841, [3].)
Daily National Intelligencer. Washington DC. 1800–1869.