Letter from John P. Greene, 30 June 1839
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Source Note
, Letter, , Hamilton Co., OH, to JS, , and , , Hancock Co., IL, 30 June 1839. Featured version copied [between ca. Dec. 1839 and ca. Apr. 1840] in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 75–76; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 2.
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Historical Introduction
On 30 June 1839, wrote the following letter from , Ohio, to the , describing his recent public presentations on the ’s difficulties in . He conducted the presentations as part of an assignment he received the previous month to preside over the church in and surrounding regions and to collect donations for the Saints migrating from Missouri to and . In preparation for his assignment, Greene acquired a letter of introduction on 8 May 1839 from Illinois governor , senator from Illinois, and other prominent Illinois citizens; in the letter, these individuals attested to Greene’s upright character. On 5 June, Greene left , Illinois, for Cincinnati, where he used the letter of introduction to set up a series of public meetings to request assistance for impoverished Saints. In his presentations, Greene described his and other church members’ sufferings in Missouri. Prominent Cincinnati residents spoke in support of Greene’s claims, and committees passed resolutions condemning Missouri state officials, expressing support for the Saints, and encouraging Greene to publish his documentation, which he did later that month. At the end of June, Greene wrote this letter to the First Presidency to report on the positive results of the June meetings. Greene’s original letter is apparently not extant, but JS’s clerk copied it into JS Letterbook 2 sometime between December 1839 and April 1840.
Footnotes
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1
Minutes, 6 May 1839; Authorization for John P. Greene, ca. 6 May 1839.
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2
Samuel Holmes et al., Letter of Introduction for John P. Greene, 8 May 1839, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 41–42; Greene, Facts relative to the Expulsion, iii.
Greene, John P. Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons or Latter Day Saints, from the State of Missouri, under the “Exterminating Order.” By John P. Greene, an Authorized Representative of the Mormons. Cincinnati: R. P. Brooks, 1839.
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3
Greene, “Biographical Sketch of the Life and Travels of John Portenus Greene,” 4.
Greene, Evan Melbourne. “A Biographical Sketch of the Life and Travels of John Portenus Greene,” 1857. CHL. MS 15390.
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4
See Greene, Facts relative to the Expulsion.
Greene, John P. Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons or Latter Day Saints, from the State of Missouri, under the “Exterminating Order.” By John P. Greene, an Authorized Representative of the Mormons. Cincinnati: R. P. Brooks, 1839.
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5
Thompson was hired to be JS’s clerk after previous clerk James Mulholland died on 3 November 1839. Emma Smith complained that as of 6 December, Thompson had “not done any thing at all in the business,” which suggests he did not copy Greene’s letter until later in December, at the earliest. Thompson probably copied Greene’s 30 June 1839 letter into the book by April 1840, when scribe Howard Coray began “copying a huge pile of letters into a book,” presumably where Thompson left off in JS Letterbook 2. (Obituary for James Mulholland, Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:32; Emma Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to JS, Washington DC, 6 Dec. 1839, Charles Aldrich Autograph Collection, State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines; Coray, Autobiographical Sketch, 17.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Coray, Howard. Autobiographical Sketch, after 1883. Howard Coray, Papers, ca. 1840–1941. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2043, fd. 1.
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