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Letter from Orson Hyde, 9 June 1844

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Letter from Orson Hyde, 9 June 1844

Source Note

, Letter, , to “Dear Brethren” [the (including JS)], , Hancock Co., IL, 9 June 1844; handwriting and signatures of ; eight pages; JS Collection, CHL. Included enclosure (not extant); includes address, postal stamps, docket, and notations.
Two bifolia measuring 10 × 7¾ inches (25 × 20 cm). A rectangular and mostly illegible embossment is present in the top left corner of the recto of the first leaf, and faint impressions of the embossment appear on other leaves. Pages 1–3 are ruled with twenty-seven horizontal lines printed in blue ink, pages 4–6 are similarly ruled with approximately twenty-eight lines per page, and page 7 is partially ruled on its right margin. The document was inscribed by first filling one bifolium, paginated 1–3 (with the verso of the second leaf left blank for addressing) and then continuing on to the second bifolium, paginated 4–7. The bifolia were gathered, with the second inside of the first, and then trifolded twice in letter style. The letter also contained a newspaper clipping, which is not extant, from the National Intelligencer. The verso of the second leaf of the outer bifolium, when folded, was addressed, sealed with a red adhesive wafer (which remains on that page), and postmarked. When the letter was opened, a hole was torn in the second leaf of the outer bifolium, resulting in the loss of text on page 3. At one point in time, the document was trifolded for storage; at another, the leaves were fastened together with staples or possibly pins and separated multiple times. The letter also underwent some conservation.
The letter was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from 1843 to 1844 and as clerk to the church historian and recorder from 1845 to 1865. This may be one of two 1844 documents from listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) circa 1904. By 1973 it had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early docket, its possible listing in the circa 1904 inventory, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection suggest 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. “Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [4], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

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

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

Historical Introduction

On 9 June 1844, wrote from to the , including JS, in , Illinois, responding to their criticism of his decision to alter JS’s 26 March 1844 memorial to Congress. Under the direction of the Council of Fifty, Hyde had traveled to Washington DC to present copies of JS’s memorial to both houses of Congress and to president , leaving on 4 April and arriving in Washington on 23 April. In part, the memorial requested that JS be granted membership in the United States Army and authorized to raise one hundred thousand volunteers to protect American citizens emigrating to and . In a 25 April letter, Hyde informed the council that he planned to strike out the memorial’s request to make JS a member of the army. On 13 May the council responded to Hyde’s decision with “dis-approbation and indignation,” informing him that “to throw away that one item, is to throw away the whole Memorial.”
answered the council’s reprimand with this letter, indicating that he altered the document after a meeting with Senator , which likely occurred on 24 April. Semple told Hyde that “Mr. Smith could not constitutionally be constituted a member of the Army.” Although article 1, section 8, of the Constitution empowered Congress “to raise and support Armies,” the Constitution did not authorize the House of Representatives or the Senate to appoint military officers. Article 2, section 2, on the other hand, named the president the “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States” and gave him authority, “with the Advice and Consent of the Senate,” to appoint “all other Officers of the United States.” Semple, moreover, viewed himself as a representative of all those living in and expressed concern that the memorial focused too much on JS’s interests: it failed to consider the needs of other religious groups and citizens of Illinois and benefited the alone. Hyde explained to the council that he had acted to protect JS’s reputation, which he believed would have suffered if the unedited memorial had been submitted. He also indicated that he intended to submit the memorial to unaltered.
addressed the letter to , who was a member of the and ’s postmaster, with franking privilege, or the privilege of free mail delivery. It was postmarked 10 June in . Given that Hyde’s previous letters from Washington took approximately two to three weeks to reach Nauvoo, the letter probably arrived, at the earliest, sometime in late June or early July. It is unlikely that JS saw this letter before leaving Nauvoo for , Illinois, on 24 June or before his death there on 27 June 1844.

Footnotes

  1. JS, Journal, 31 Mar. and 4 Apr. 1844; Council of Fifty, “Record,” 21 Mar. 1844; Letter from Orson Hyde, 25 Apr. 1844; Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 24–26 Mar. 1844; JS, Memorial to the President of the United States of America, 30 Mar. 1844, draft, JS Collection, CHL. Hyde also carried a letter of introduction signed by JS. (Authorization for Orson Hyde, 30 Mar. 1844, draft, JS Collection, CHL.)

  2. Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 24–26 Mar. 1844; JS, Memorial to the President of the United States of America, 30 Mar. 1844, draft, JS Collection, CHL.

  3. Letter from Orson Hyde, 25 Apr. 1844; see also Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 24–26 Mar. 1844.

  4. Letter to Orson Hyde and Orson Pratt, 13 May 1844, underlining in original.

  5. Letter from Orson Hyde, 25 Apr. 1844.

  6. Each of the memorial’s five sections focused on JS; two sections discussed the implications of JS’s petition for Congress to appoint him a member of the army. (Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 24–26 Mar. 1844.)

  7. Hyde presented the memorial to President Tyler two days later. (Letter from Orson Hyde, 11 June 1844.)

  8. An Act to Reduce into One the Several Acts for Establishing and Regulating the Post Office Department [3 Mar. 1825], Laws and Regulations for the Government of the Post Office Department, p. 16, sec. 27.

    Laws and Regulations for the Government of the Post Office Department. Washington DC: Alexander and Barnard, 1843.

  9. See Historical Introduction to Letter from Orson Hyde, 26 Apr. 1844; Historical Introduction to Letter from Orson Hyde, 30 Apr. 1844.

and all others whether religious or not religious who are disposed to avail themselvs of its benefits: Why then were not all these parties consulted? We are not the representatives of the Mormons alone, but of all other classes, and we go in for ‘equal rights.’
The foregoing is a fair description of the reasoning and views of our representatives in Congress; not their precise words, but their exact views.
I was told by decidedly, that Congress could not constitutionally appoint Mr. Smith a member of the Army of the . I am not a lawyer or a politician, and heretofore have cherished a strong distaste for both these pursuits which is the cause of my presen[t] limited knowledge in these matters; and I am so constituted that I cannot make brass supply the place of knowledge, and even if I could, it would not go as par [far] among the members of Congress. They will be their own jud[g]es of what is constitutional or unconstitutional. Have not Smith and been to this place in earlier days, and poured upon the heads of this nation their richest streams of eloquence upon subjects entitled to deeper and warmer sympathies than that with which I am entrusted? Have they not exhausted their skill and wisdom to show the constitutionality of their cause, and the jurisdiction Congress had in the cause <​premises​>? But did they succeed? Did they not find that and all others would be their own judges of the Constitution after all was said and done? If, then, Bros Smith and with their superior [p. 3]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Orson Hyde, 9 June 1844
ID #
1386
Total Pages
8
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • Orson Hyde

Footnotes

  1. Hyde also relayed Semple’s views to the council in his 25 April letter. (Letter from Orson Hyde, 25 Apr. 1844.)

  2. TEXT: “presen[page torn]”.

  3. On 28 November 1839, JS and Elias Higbee arrived in Washington DC, where they met with United States president Martin Van Buren and members of Congress to seek redress for property lost during church members’ conflict with Missourians in 1838. Sidney Rigdon traveled with JS and Higbee but was detained in Ohio due to illness. He rejoined JS by mid-January 1840. Efforts to secure redress proved unsuccessful. Van Buren told JS and Higbee that he was unable to assist the Saints. The Senate, who had received a memorial for redress that JS, Higbee, and Rigdon had signed and submitted, ended its consideration of the petition in March 1840. (“Part 2: 8 November 1839–25 January 1840”; Letter to Hyrum Smith and Nauvoo High Council, 5 Dec. 1839; Historical Introduction to Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840.)

  4. Van Buren’s political nicknames included “Little Magician,” “Matty,” and “Sly Fox.” JS had derided Van Buren for his unwillingness to assist the Saints, calling him a “fop,” a “fool,” and a “huckstering politician.” (Cole, Martin Van Buren, 88, 218, 265, 316, 416, 432; Howe, What Hath God Wrought, 483; Letter to Hyrum Smith and Nauvoo High Council, 5 Dec. 1839; Discourse, 7 Apr. 1840.)

    Cole, Donald B. Martin Van Buren and the American Political System. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.

    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.

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