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Letter from John C. Bennett, 8 March 1842

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Letter from John C. Bennett, 8 March 1842

Source Note

, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to JS, [, Hancock Co., IL], 8 Mar. 1842. Featured version published in Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1842, vol. 3, no. 10, 724–725. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.

Historical Introduction

On 8 March 1842 replied to JS’s letter of the previous day by answering questions JS had posed regarding various injustices citizens of perpetrated, including the recent incarceration of three abolitionists in that state. In January 1842 Bennett and abolitionist Charles V. Dyer exchanged letters concerning the “outrages committed upon the latter day saints” in Missouri in 1838 as well as the evils of American slavery. The correspondence was published in the antislavery newspaper Genius of Liberty and, at some point, came to the attention of JS. In his 7 March 1842 letter to Bennett, JS expressed his own indignation at the “injustice, cruelty, and oppression, of the rulers of the people” and inquired of Bennett, “What think you should be done?”
In his 8 March 1842 reply, answered JS using metaphorical language replete with allusions to Roman mythology and the Bible. He asserted that the citizens of would one day be punished for their crimes against the innocent—whether they be abolitionists or Latter-day Saints—either by military force or by God. It is likely that the two men’s correspondence was a rhetorical dialogue intended for publication in the newspaper Times and Seasons. It is also possible that, as a guest living in JS’s home, Bennett hand delivered the letter to JS. Either way, Bennett’s response was published in the 15 March 1842 issue of the Times and Seasons. Following its publication there, the letter gained notoriety among some citizens of Illinois. Former governor of Illinois , who was then campaigning for election to his former office, was quoted in mid-May 1842 as saying that the letter manifested Bennett’s “willingness at any moment to march against the Penitentiary in Missouri with his armed force, established under the auspices, (as Joe Smith says,) of Mr. Snyder and Judge Douglass, and release the three Abolitionists now in confinement there.”

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Letter to John C. Bennett, 7 Mar. 1842. In July 1841 three men were arrested near Palmyra, Missouri, for attempting to help local slaves escape to Canada; they were later sentenced to twelve years in prison.

  2. [2]

    “Correspondence,” Genius of Liberty (Lowell, IL), 19 Feb. 1842, 1.

    Genius of Liberty. Lowell, IL. 1840–1842.

  3. [3]

    “Gov. Duncan,” Alton (IL) Telegraph and Democratic Review, 14 May 1842, [2].

    Alton Telegraph and Democratic Review. Alton, IL. 1841–1850.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Letter from John C. Bennett, 8 March 1842
Times and Seasons, 15 March 1842 Letter from John C. Bennett, 8 March 1842, as Published in Wasp

Page 724

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Mayor’s Office, City of ,
Illinois, March 8th, A. D. 1842.
Esteemed Friend:—
Yours of the 7th Inst. has been received, and I proceed to reply, without undue emotion, or perturbation. You ask “When will these things cease to be, and the Constitution and the Laws again bear rule?” I reply—once that noble bird of Jove, our grand national emblem, soared aloft, bearing in her proud beak the words “Liberty and Law,” and that man that had the temerity to ruffle her feathers was made to feel the power of her talons; but a wily archer came, and with his venomed arrow dipped in Upas’ richest sap, shot the flowing label from the Eagle’s bill—it fell inverted, and the bird was sick, and is,—the label soon was trampled in the dust—the eagle bound and caged. The picture is now before you in bold relief. “What think you should be done?” The master spirits of the age must rise and break the cage, re [p. 724]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from John C. Bennett, 8 March 1842
ID #
782
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D9:226–228
Handwriting on This Page
  • Printed text

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Jove, also known as Jupiter, was the supreme deity of the ancient Romans. “Bird of Jove” commonly referred to the eagle, which is a prominent figure in the Great Seal of the United States. (“Bird,” in Oxford English Dictionary, 1:872–873; see also, for example, “Col. Johnson and the Repealers,” Liberator [Boston], 25 Feb. 1842, [4]; Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 22, pp. 338–339, 20 June 1782.)

    Oxford English Dictionary. Compact ed. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.

    Liberator. Boston. 1831–1865.

    Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789. 34 vols. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1904–1937.

  2. [2]

    The mythical Upas tree was said to be so poisonous that no flora grew within ten to twelve miles of it. The allusion was commonly used in nineteenth-century America, including by abolitionists to describe the scourge of slavery. (“Upas,” in Oxford English Dictionary, 11:419–420; Foersch, “Description of the Poison-Tree,” 513; see also, for example, Sarah Grimké, “Women Subject Only to God,” Liberator [Boston], 5 Jan. 1838, [4].)

    Oxford English Dictionary. Compact ed. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.

    Foersch, J. N. “Description of the Poison-Tree, in the Island of Java.” London Magazine; or, Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer 52 (Dec. 1783): 512–517.

    Liberator. Boston. 1831–1865.

  3. [3]

    JS had also asked Bennett this question in his 7 March 1842 letter. (Letter to John C. Bennett, 7 Mar. 1842.)

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