Letter from Sidney Rigdon, 1 July 1842
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Source Note
, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 1 July 1842; handwriting of ; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address and dockets.Single leaf measuring 12 × 8 inches (30 × 20 cm). The page is ruled with thirty-eight blue lines. The letter was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, and sealed with a red adhesive wafer, remnants of which are present on both sides of the leaf. Some discoloration of the paper has occurred on the address block on the verso of the page, indicating it was folded and retained that way for some time.The letter was docketed by , who served as scribe to JS from 1842 to 1844. It was later refolded and docketed by , who served as a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office from 1853 to 1859. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early dockets and inclusion in the JS Collection by 1973 indicate continuous institutional custody.
Footnotes
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1
JS, Journal, 29 June 1842; “Clayton, William,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:718.
Jenson, Andrew. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901–1936.
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2
“Obituary of Leo Hawkins,” Millennial Star, 30 July 1859, 21:496–497.
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
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3
See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.
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Historical Introduction
On 1 July 1842, wrote a letter from , Illinois, to JS, also in Nauvoo, requesting that the two men meet to reconcile their differences. Rigdon had met JS in 1830, the year the was organized, and had served as a counselor to him in the church’s for a decade. However, tensions had arisen between the two men, and in 1841 Rigdon suffered a lengthy illness that decreased his involvement in the First Presidency and contact with JS. Then, in spring 1842, allegations emerged that JS had asked , Sidney’s nineteen-year-old daughter, to be sealed to him as a plural wife. These accusations may have led to the disaffection of several members of the Rigdon family in summer 1842, including Nancy herself.Entries in JS’s journal for 12 and 13 May 1842 mention correspondence between JS and about unspecified difficulties between the two. On 13 May, JS and met with Rigdon in the post office and discussed “certain evil reports.” At this time, —a one-time suitor of ’s who was apparently gathering inflammatory information about JS for —was circulating rumors about JS’s proposal to Nancy.The principal documentation for JS’s proposal to comes from , who after his excommunication in May 1842 began to attack JS in print. In letters to the editor of the Sangamo Journal, Bennett claimed to relate information that JS had shared with him privately. In a 27 June 1842 letter published in the 8 July issue of the Sangamo Journal, Bennett contended he had firsthand knowledge of both JS’s proposal and a letter that JS sent to Nancy Rigdon, assertions Bennett detailed in subsequent letters to the editor. In his next letter to the Sangamo Journal, dated 2 July, Bennett claimed that JS had sought his assistance in courting Nancy Rigdon, which he had refused to provide. Bennett then narrated a sequence of events leading to JS’s alleged proposal in mid-April 1842. According to Bennett, when Nancy expressed her objection to plural marriage, JS offered to write her a letter explaining the practice. Bennett asserted that Francis Higbee gave him JS’s letter, which Bennett then had printed in the 19 August 1842 issue of the Sangamo Journal.On 28 June 1842, three days before wrote the letter featured here, JS and met with the Rigdon family. According to JS’s journal entry for that date, the group discussed . “Much unplesat [unpleasant] feeling was manifested by Rigdon’s family,” the entry stated, but they were then “confounded & put to silence by the truth. from Prst— Joseph.”, in his 1 July 1842 letter to JS, requested a private meeting. He further asked JS to keep the meeting confidential and tell no one except , who Rigdon agreed could accompany them during their talk. The letter, which bears no postal markings, was presumably then hand delivered to JS. The outside of the letter, which was folded into an envelope, bears a note, presumably to the courier, instructing him to “Present [the letter] in haste”—suggesting it was delivered the same day. No response from JS is known, and there is no indication in JS’s journal as to whether the private meeting requested by Rigdon occurred.Tensions continued to exist for some time between JS and the Rigdon family. A letter , Rigdon’s son-in-law, wrote to on 3 July seemed to indicate that a meeting had taken place and that the Rigdon family expected an apology from JS. Robinson claimed that in place of the apology, JS instead spoke against them on Sunday, 3 July, equating their actions with those of Bennett and justifying his distrust of Robinson and . JS’s alleged remarks, as well as Robinson’s decision to leave the church, likely increased existing tension between JS and Rigdon. However, Rigdon was apparently reconciled briefly with JS in mid-August 1842, when Rigdon gave a lengthy sermon aligning himself with JS and denying claims that he had spoken against JS. This resolution was short-lived, and in a 29 August discourse, JS included Rigdon and Robinson among his enemies, citing their support for Bennett.
Footnotes
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1
The two most prominent disaffected members of the Rigdon family were Nancy Rigdon and her brother-in-law, George W. Robinson. John C. Bennett and Robinson both claimed that Nancy’s disaffection from the church resulted from JS’s marriage proposal. A later account from 1845, by Orson Hyde, implies that Nancy’s disaffection instead developed after JS reproved her for immoral behavior. (See George W. Robinson, “Letter from Nauvoo,” Quincy [IL] Whig, 23 July 1842, [2]; JS, Journal, 21 Aug. 1842; John C. Bennett, Carthage, IL, 2 July 1842, Letter to the Editor, Sangamo Journal [Springfield, IL], 15 July 1842, [2]; and Bennett, History of the Saints, 243–248; see also Letter to Nancy Rigdon, ca. Mid-Apr. 1842; and Speech of Orson Hyde, 27–28.)
Quincy Whig. Quincy, IL. 1838–1856.
Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.
Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.
Speech of Elder Orson Hyde, Delivered before the High Priest’s Quorum in Nauvoo, April 27th, 1845, upon the Course and Conduct of Mr. Sidney Rigdon, and upon the Merits of His Claims to the Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Nauvoo, IL: John Taylor, 1845. Copy at CHL.
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2
See JS, Journal, 12–13 May 1842. This correspondence is no longer extant.
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3
See JS, Journal, 13 May 1842; John C. Bennett, Carthage, IL, 2 July 1842, Letter to the Editor, Sangamo Journal [Springfield, IL], 15 July 1842, [2]; and Bennett, History of the Saints, 44–45, 248–249.
Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.
Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.
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4
Bennett’s excommunication from the church apparently occurred in May 1842, but it was not made public until June 1842. (See Notice, 11 May 1842; and Letter to James Sloan, 17 May 1842.)
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5
See John C. Bennett, Nauvoo, IL, 27 June 1842, Letter to the Editor, Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 8 July 1842, [2]. Oliver Olney and John W. Rigdon, Nancy’s younger brother, related stories similar to those told by Bennett. Both, however, wrote their accounts after Bennett and may have simply followed his account of the proposal. (See Olney, Absurdities of Mormonism Portrayed, 16; and John W. Rigdon, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., UT, 28 July 1905, pp. 6–8, Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, CHL.)
Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.
Olney, Oliver H. The Absurdities of Mormonism Portrayed. Hancock Co., IL: By the author, 1843.
Smith, Joseph F. Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1869–1915. CHL. MS 3423.
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6
See John C. Bennett, Carthage, IL, 2 July 1842, Letter to the Editor, Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 15 July 1842, [2].
Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.
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9
There is no journal entry for 1 July, and the 2 July entry states that JS looked at land in the city with William Clayton, then visited Hezekiah Peck’s home with Emma Smith and other unidentified individuals. (JS, Journal, 2 July 1842.)
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10
See George W. Robinson, Nauvoo, IL, to John C. Bennett, 3 July 1842, in Bennett, History of the Saints, 44–45. Although potentially useful context, Robinson’s account of JS’s remarks is suspect not only because of his own bias but because he was not there himself, and the only extant source for Robinson’s letter is Bennett’s History of the Saints. William Clayton noted in JS’s journal that JS preached “on the ancient order of things &c” on 3 July. Wilford Woodruff wrote in his journal that JS read from the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel and “explained about the Kingdom of God set up in the last days.” Neither account includes the remarks Robinson alluded to in his letter. (JS, Journal, 3 July 1842; Woodruff, Journal, 3 July 1842.)
Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
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