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Letter from Lyman Wight and Heber C. Kimball, 19, 21, and 24 June 1844

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Letter from Lyman Wight and Heber C. Kimball, 19, 21, and 24 June 1844

Source Note

and , Letter, , Philadelphia Co., PA, to JS, Harriet Benton Wight and Wight children, and , Wisconsin Territory, Saints, [, Hancock Co., IL], 19, 21, and 24 June 1844; handwriting of ; signatures of and in the handwriting of ; sixteen pages; JS Collection, CHL. Included enclosure (not extant); includes dockets, redactions, use marks, and notations.
Five bifolia, each measuring 10 × 7⅝ inches (25 × 19 cm). The letter was written on sixteen of the twenty pages. The bifolia were filled out one at a time rather than stacked when open to make a single gathering. The letter was written on the first three pages only of each bifolium except the last, which contains writing on all four pages. All of the pages with inscription are paginated except the final page. The letter was trifolded and presumably placed in a wrapper or envelope for delivery. The letter included an enclosure of funds, which were presumably used for the purposes stated in the letter. An unidentified individual later added a notation. The letter was later folded along the original creases for filing. There are holes from staples in the upper left corners of each of the bifolia; these staples were later removed.
This document was docketed twice by , who served as JS’s scribe from 1843 to 1844 and as clerk to the church historian and recorder from 1845 to 1865. There are graphite editorial marks, cancellations, insertions, and notations throughout the letter, presumably made while it was prepared for inclusion in JS’s history. It was listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) circa 1904. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early dockets, its redactions and notations, its listing in the circa 1904 inventory, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 456, 458; Woodruff, Journal, 22 Jan. 1865.

    Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  2. The draft notes for JS’s history indicate that the letter was “to be revised” for inclusion in the history. An abridged version was included in the history. (Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 2 July 1844, 6; JS History, vol. F-1, 232–234.)

  3. “Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [3], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  4. See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

From 19 to 24 June 1844, and wrote a letter from to JS in , Illinois, to inform him about the progress of their mission to the eastern and about support from various quarters in his presidential bid. Like most of the rest of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Wight and Kimball were barnstorming for JS’s presidential campaign. After Wight returned to Nauvoo from overseeing the ’s logging and milling operations in the on 1 May 1844, JS inducted him as a member of the and stated that he “wanted Wight and every other man who could leave, to go into all the States and preach and electioneer for him to be president.” In response to JS’s request, formally moved during a 6 May meeting of the Council of Fifty that Wight “go through the United States electioneering for the Presidency.” Wight then made plans to travel with Heber C. Kimball to to deliver instructions from the Council of Fifty to and , who were there on assignment from the council. On 20 May the Saints held a public meeting in Nauvoo “to obtain means” to support Wight on his mission with Kimball.
The following day, and left for via by steamboat with and approximately one hundred elders called to preach and to canvass the eastern states for JS’s election. The group held several political meetings with Latter-day Saints during its journey from Nauvoo to Pittsburgh. These meetings reportedly resulted in at least a few positive interactions and garnered a modicum of political support for JS among those outside the church.
After arriving in , and left in the city and traveled with apostle toward . Wight and Kimball arrived in the city on 2 June, where they spent several days meeting with political leaders and a few local church members. Smith evidently left for sometime before Wight and Kimball did. On 7 June they submitted a memorial to Congress that they had written detailing the Saints’ persecutions of 1838–1839 and petitioning for redress. Evidently having come to terms with the unlikelihood of members of the church receiving any financial redress, Wight and Kimball petitioned for “a liberal grant of lands in one of the Territories of the , to be located in such manner as not to deprive any previous actual settler of any just right or claim.” Suspecting Congress might not grant even that petition, they requested that alternatively the Saints be granted preemption rights (first right of purchase) to unspecified western lands, on which the Saints would eventually settle, provided they could make payments “at periods of ten, fifteen and twenty years.” The following day, Wight and Kimball met with and delivered a 13 May 1844 letter from the . They then left and spent several days in Philadelphia and nearby Wilmington, Delaware.
On 19 June, in , they began the featured letter to JS, with dictating on their behalf to church member , who served as the scribe. The letter was produced serially, with portions of it dictated on 19, 21, and 24 June. On 20 June, Wight and met with the Philadelphia of the church, and on 21 June, Wight and Kimball traveled to Wilmington, where they held a on 22 and 23 June. On 24 June the two returned to Philadelphia, where Wight finished dictating their letter to JS and added a short note to his wife, Harriet Benton Wight, and their children, as well as to the Latter-day Saints in with whom he had lived while in .
After completing the letter, and sent it and $1,300 in donations they had presumably collected along the way to JS by way of and a Brother Price. Forgeus and Price arrived in on 12 July, two weeks after JS was assassinated. Upon his arrival, Forgeus explained that he had orders not to give the funds to anyone but JS. However, given that JS was dead, he agreed to deliver the funds and letter to , formerly JS’s private clerk. He delivered “$300 from L Wight & $1000. from bro. Kimball” to Clayton the following day.

Footnotes

  1. JS, Journal, 1 May 1844; Council of Fifty, “Record,” 3 May 1844.

  2. Council of Fifty, “Record,” 6 May 1844.

  3. JS, Journal, 13 May 1844; Council of Fifty, “Record,” 13 May 1844; Richards, Journal, 14 May 1844.

    Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.

  4. JS, Journal, 20 May 1844. It is unclear why Wight received financial support for his mission while Kimball and others did not.

  5. JS, Journal, 21 May 1844.

  6. Kimball, Journal, 2–8 June 1844. It is unclear whether William Smith went to Washington DC along with Wight and Kimball. Neither Wight nor Kimball mentioned Smith’s participation in any of their efforts in Washington DC, and Hyde referred to meeting with only “Elders Kimball and Wight” on 8 June, which suggests that if Smith did travel to Washington, he was no longer in the city by that date. (Letter from Orson Hyde, 9 June 1844.)

    Kimball, Heber C. Journal, June 1837–Feb. 1838; Feb.–Mar. 1840; May 1846–Feb. 1847. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 3, fd. 2.

  7. Lyman Wight and Heber C. Kimball, Petition to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 7 June 1844, [2], Record Group 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives, Washington DC. The day before he and Wight submitted the petition, Kimball recorded that he had received a divine communication “that Congress would not do anny thing fore us.” Reconciling himself to this impression, Kimball wrote, “I do not care wheather they do or not. it is none of thares to give. my Father in heaven owns it all and he will give it to [us] so let them go to thare own place.” The following day, when Wight and Kimball met with Orson Hyde, they informed him that the sentiments of the Council of Fifty were that “it was not expected that Congress would do any thing for us” and that the memorials would serve “only to tease them.” (Kimball, Journal, 6 June 1844; Letter from Orson Hyde, 9 June 1844.)

    Wight, Lyman, and Heber C. Kimball. Petition to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 1844. Petitions, Memorials, Resolutions of State Legislatures, and Related Documents Which Were Referred to the Committee on Public Lands during the 28th Congress. Petitions and Memorials, 1816–1948. Record Group 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, 1789–2015. National Archives, Washington DC.

    Kimball, Heber C. Journal, June 1837–Feb. 1838; Feb.–Mar. 1840; May 1846–Feb. 1847. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 3, fd. 2.

  8. Lyman Wight and Heber C. Kimball, Petition to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 7 June 1844, [2], Record Group 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives, Washington DC.

    Wight, Lyman, and Heber C. Kimball. Petition to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 1844. Petitions, Memorials, Resolutions of State Legislatures, and Related Documents Which Were Referred to the Committee on Public Lands during the 28th Congress. Petitions and Memorials, 1816–1948. Record Group 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, 1789–2015. National Archives, Washington DC.

  9. Letter from Orson Hyde, 9 June 1844; Letter to Orson Hyde and Orson Pratt, 13 May 1844. JS and the council wrote to Hyde and Pratt, rebuking Hyde for some changes he made to a memorial asking Congress to make JS a member of the United States Army.

  10. Kimball, Journal, 20–23 June 1844.

    Kimball, Heber C. Journal, June 1837–Feb. 1838; Feb.–Mar. 1840; May 1846–Feb. 1847. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 3, fd. 2.

  11. A notation written in pencil, possibly by clerk Robert L. Campbell, on the final page of this letter records that it was “received 2d July.” Accordingly, extracts from this letter were later placed in JS’s history under the date 2 July. William Clayton’s diary, however, makes clear that the letter did not arrive in Nauvoo until 12 July. (Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 2 July 1844, 6; JS History, vol. F-1, 247; Clayton, Journal, 12 July 1844.)

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

  12. Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 31.

    Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, ca. 1845. CHL. MS 3365.

  13. Clayton, Journal, 12–13 July 1844. It is possible that Kimball delivered some of this money to Emma Smith on 8 August 1844. (Kimball, Journal, 8 Aug. 1844.)

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

    Kimball, Heber C. Journal, June 1837–Feb. 1838; Feb.–Mar. 1840; May 1846–Feb. 1847. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 3, fd. 2.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Letter from Lyman Wight and Heber C. Kimball, 19, 21, and 24 June 1844 History, 1838–1856, volume F-1 [1 May 1844–8 August 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”
busness whatever, hence we prepared, & watched our opportunity and done all the business we could betwixt those hours for 10 days, pleadi[n]g the cause of the poor and oppressed. We have got a petition signed with with our names in the behalf of the for a remuneration of our sufferings, and not of right of redress for they would not receive such a petition from us it would was thought by and and Major Hughs [James M. Hughes] that our petition would carry if it was not too late in the Session. handed it to the Chairman on the Committe of “public Lands” he said he would do would the best he could for us. is of the opinion if we would Sue the State of for redress of grievances, that there was virtue enough in the to answer our demands for I will <​tell​> you , there they are God d God damned ashamed of their conduct and are of the <​same​> opinion.
& myself spared no pains during our stay at . we found six members of the Church mostly strong in the faith and many attentive hearers, we purpose sending a steady faithful there who we think can build up a large church, we found our time too limited to meet the and [p. 5]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Lyman Wight and Heber C. Kimball, 19, 21, and 24 June 1844
ID #
1423
Total Pages
20
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • John A. Forgeus

Footnotes

  1. Kimball similarly explained in his diary that the congressmen were “up most of the night,” requiring him and Lyman Wight to “do our buisness. in the night.” (Kimball, Journal, 4 June 1844.)

    Kimball, Heber C. Journal, June 1837–Feb. 1838; Feb.–Mar. 1840; May 1846–Feb. 1847. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 3, fd. 2.

  2. Lyman Wight and Heber C. Kimball, Petition to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 7 June 1844, Record Group 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives, Washington DC.

    Wight, Lyman, and Heber C. Kimball. Petition to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 1844. Petitions, Memorials, Resolutions of State Legislatures, and Related Documents Which Were Referred to the Committee on Public Lands during the 28th Congress. Petitions and Memorials, 1816–1948. Record Group 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, 1789–2015. National Archives, Washington DC.

  3. The Saints had unsuccessfully petitioned the federal government for redress for the Missouri persecutions of the 1830s on multiple occasions. Most recently, on 28 November 1843, Quincy, Illinois, resident John Frierson wrote a memorial to Congress on behalf of the Saints. JS and more than three thousand other Saints signed the memorial during December of that year. In March 1844 Orson Pratt carried the document to Washington DC, and United States senator James Semple of Alton, Illinois, presented it to the Senate on 5 April 1844. The Senate referred it to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which took no action on it. (JS, Journal, 25 and 28 Nov. 1843; JS et al., Memorial to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 28 Nov. 1843, Record Group 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives, Washington DC; Authorization for Orson Pratt, 12 Mar. 1844; Congressional Globe, 28th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 482 [1844]; Letter from Orson Hyde, 25 Apr. 1844; see also, for example, Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840.)

    The Congressional Globe, Containing Sketches of the Debates and Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Congress. Vol. 8. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1840.

  4. Semple was a senator from Alton, Illinois. Kimball and Lyman Wight visited Semple in the morning on 4 June. In a letter to Vilate Murray Kimball, his wife, Heber Kimball wrote that Semple “[ap]pears fri[e]ndly” and believed that those sent “to preach his [JS’s] doctrin and to Electionier fore him” were “smart men.” Kimball recorded in his diary that he and Wight secured the November 1843 petition written by John Frierson from Semple to make a copy on 6 June 1844. (Heber C. Kimball, Washington DC, to Vilate Murray Kimball, Nauvoo, IL, 4 June 1844, [2], Heber C. Kimball, Collection, CHL; Kimball, Journal, 6 June 1844.)

    Kimball, Heber C. Collection, 1837–1898. CHL. MS 12476.

    Kimball, Heber C. Journal, June 1837–Feb. 1838; Feb.–Mar. 1840; May 1846–Feb. 1847. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 3, fd. 2.

  5. JS and the Saints considered Douglas to be a friend since at least 1840, when Douglas helped them secure passage of the act incorporating the city of Nauvoo. In May 1841 JS praised Douglas, stating that he had “ever proved himself friendly to this people.” The following month, Douglas presided over JS’s habeas corpus hearing at Monmouth, Illinois, ultimately discharging JS from arrest because of a deficiency in the warrant. When JS was threatened with extradition again in December 1842, a party of Saints consulted with Douglas. In 1843 Douglas became a member of the United States House of Representatives. Because of Douglas’s past support for JS and the Saints, as well as Douglas’s interest in westward expansion, Lyman Wight and other members of the Council of Fifty viewed him as a key contact in Washington DC. (Gregg, History of Hancock County, Illinois, 273; Letter to Editors, 6 May 1841; “Joseph Smith Documents from February through November 1841”; Clayton, Journal, 14 and 16 Dec. 1842; Johannsen, Stephen A. Douglas, 104–111; Letter from Orson Hyde, 26 Apr. 1844; Council of Fifty, “Record,” 13 May 1844; see also Letter to Friends in Illinois, 20 Dec. 1841.)

    Gregg, Thomas. History of Hancock County, Illinois, Together with an Outline History of the State, and a Digest of State Laws. Chicago: Charles C. Chapman, 1880.

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

    Johannsen, Robert W., ed. The Letters of Stephen A. Douglas. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1961.

  6. Atchison had a longstanding relationship with JS and the Latter-day Saints. Church leaders in Missouri retained him as a lawyer to assist in preparing redress petitions following their expulsion from Jackson County in 1833. Three years later he assisted Alexander Doniphan in working with the state legislature to create Caldwell County, Missouri, as a haven for the Saints. During the 1838–1839 conflict between the Saints and their antagonists in Missouri, Atchison again served as a lawyer for JS and other Saints. In 1843 he became one of Missouri’s two senators in the United States Senate. (Launius, Alexander William Doniphan, 15, 38–39; JS, Journal, 4 and 8 Sept. 1838; Minutes and Testimonies, 12–29 Nov. 1838 [State of Missouri v. Gates et al. for Treason], p. [26]; Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 584.)

    Launius, Roger D. Alexander William Doniphan: Portrait of a Missouri Moderate. Chicago: University of Missouri Press, 1997.

    Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–1989: The Continental Congress September 5, 1774, to October 21, 1788, and the Congress of the United States from the First through the One Hundredth Congresses March 4, 1789, to January 3, 1989, Inclusive. Edited by Kathryn Allamong Jacob and Bruce A. Ragsdale. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989.

  7. Hughes was a Democratic congressman from Missouri from 1843 to 1845. During the 1830s he was a lawyer in Liberty, Clay County, Missouri. He was likely acquainted with at least some of the Latter-day Saint leaders living in south-central Clay County. (Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1296.)

    Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–1989: The Continental Congress September 5, 1774, to October 21, 1788, and the Congress of the United States from the First through the One Hundredth Congresses March 4, 1789, to January 3, 1989, Inclusive. Edited by Kathryn Allamong Jacob and Bruce A. Ragsdale. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989.

  8. Writing privately to Vilate Murray Kimball, Heber C. Kimball stated, “I must say I felt indignent some times when I was in Washangton, to see thare indiffrence to[w]ards us. thare is some three or fore that seam to be fr[i]endly. I think merely to get our support. I will give thare names Jenral Semple. of Alton. Judge Dugliss and [Mr Wintworth John Wentworth] from Chicaugo. these three belong to Illinois we sent them. Jenrall Atchison and Hues from Mosuri. they seam to be kind.” (Heber C. Kimball, Wilmington, DE, to Vilate Murray Kimball, [Nauvoo, IL], 12 June 1844, [1], photocopy, Heber C. Kimball and Vilate Murray Kimball, Letters, CHL.)

    Kimball, Heber C., and Vilate Murray Kimball. Letters, 1837–1847. Heber C. Kimball, Correspondence and Memorandum Book, 1837–1864. Photocopy. CHL.

  9. John Wesley Davis, a Democrat from Indiana, was the chairman of the Committee on Public Lands during the Twenty-Eighth Congress, which ran from 1843 to 1845. The petition submitted by Lyman Wight and Kimball proposed that the federal government grant redress to the Saints for their troubles in Missouri through liberal land grants in the territories or by granting the Saints preemption rights upon those lands. (Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1296; Lyman Wight and Heber C. Kimball, Petition to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 7 June 1844, [2], Record Group 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives, Washington DC.)

    Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–1989: The Continental Congress September 5, 1774, to October 21, 1788, and the Congress of the United States from the First through the One Hundredth Congresses March 4, 1789, to January 3, 1989, Inclusive. Edited by Kathryn Allamong Jacob and Bruce A. Ragsdale. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989.

    Wight, Lyman, and Heber C. Kimball. Petition to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 1844. Petitions, Memorials, Resolutions of State Legislatures, and Related Documents Which Were Referred to the Committee on Public Lands during the 28th Congress. Petitions and Memorials, 1816–1948. Record Group 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, 1789–2015. National Archives, Washington DC.

  10. Among the Latter-day Saints whom Wight and Kimball found in Washington DC were Maria Amos Lindsay, wife of Washington DC businessman Adam Lindsay; an unnamed Lindsay family servant; and a Brother Litle. (Kimball, Journal, 3 and 6 June 1844; Index to the Miscellaneous Documents of the Senate, 36th Cong., 2nd Sess., mis. doc. no. 17, part 2, p. 51; “Adam Lindsay,” Daily National Intelligencer [Washington DC], 14 Oct. 1844, [2]; Notice, Daily National Intelligencer, 23 Oct. 1844, [3].)

    Kimball, Heber C. Journal, June 1837–Feb. 1838; Feb.–Mar. 1840; May 1846–Feb. 1847. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 3, fd. 2.

    Index to the Miscellaneous Documents of the Senate of the United States for the Second Session of the Thirty-Sixth Congress; Also of the Special Session. Washington DC: George W. Bowman, 1861.

    Daily National Intelligencer. Washington DC. 1800–1869.

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