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Letter from Thomas Ford, 22 June 1844

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Letter from Thomas Ford, 22 June 1844

Source Note

, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to city mayor [JS] and Nauvoo City Council, [, Hancock Co., IL], 22 June 1844; handwriting and signature of ; eight pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes docket and redactions.
Two bifolia measuring 12⅜ × 7⅝ inches (31 × 19 cm). Each page is horizontally lined with thirty-seven thin lines. An embossment reading “AMES” with a decorative octagonal border is on the first page of both bifolia. The document was folded in half twice horizontally. There are three sets of pin holes in the upper left corner of the bifolia, indicating various efforts to keep the entirety of the document together.
The letter was docketed on the fourth page by , who served as JS’s scribe from December 1841 until JS’s death in June 1844 and served as church historian from December 1842 until his own death in March 1854. At some later point, an unknown scribe made insertions in graphite. The letter was copied into JS’s history sometime in 1856. The document was 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 inclusion in JS’s history, its inclusion in the circa 1904 inventory, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. JS, Journal, 13 Dec. 1841 and 21 Dec. 1842; Orson Spencer, “Death of Our Beloved Brother Willard Richards,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 16 Mar. 1854, [2].

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  2. JS History, vol. F-1, 140–143; Source Note for History, 1838–1856, vol. F-1.

  3. “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.

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

Historical Introduction

During the early afternoon of 22 June 1844, governor wrote a letter to JS and the city council of , Hancock County, Illinois, urging JS and seventeen others to submit to arrest and come to , the Hancock County seat, to answer a charge of . Ford had traveled from , Illinois, to Carthage to investigate the circumstances surrounding the city council’s ordering the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor’s press. Soon after arriving on 21 June, Ford sent a letter to JS informing him of the investigation and inviting JS to send representatives to Carthage to relate the perspectives of JS and the city council regarding the circumstances in question. In response, JS sent and to Carthage carrying a short letter, fifteen affidavits detailing threats made against the Latter-day Saints, and some other documents. The next day, 22 June, Taylor and Bernhisel delivered the documents to Ford at about ten o’clock in the morning. After perusing the documents, Ford told Taylor and Bernhisel that he wanted JS and the others named in the arrest warrant to come to Carthage and answer the charge of riot. By doing so, they could “prove to the people, what . . . [they] professed, that . . . [they] wished to be governed by law.” Ford stated that he believed such actions “would have a tendency to allay public excitement.” When Taylor and Bernhisel countered that it would be unsafe for JS to travel to Carthage “with out an armed force,” Ford “strenuously advised” the “not to bring any arms and pledged his faith as Governor and the faith of the State that [they] should be protected, and that he would guarrantee [their] perfect safety.”
Upon the conclusion of his meeting with and , wrote his 22 June 1844 letter to JS and the City Council, explaining that he believed the uproar in stemmed directly from the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor and the apparent unwillingness of JS and the others named in the warrant to be tried by any court other than the Nauvoo Municipal Court. Ford ignored the arguments that JS had presented and instead proceeded with his own analysis of why the city council had acted inappropriately in ordering the press’s destruction. Ford, who had been an attorney and a judge for several years—and had even served on the Supreme Court—also lectured JS on the Illinois state constitution and how JS had violated its principles. Ford wrote that unless those charged with answered the charges in , he would be forced to call out the state militia to arrest them. He expressed that he was not confident he could control the militia or guarantee the safety of Nauvoo against an attack and warned JS that if he and the others accused did not surrender themselves and come to Carthage, dire consequences would likely result. Ford evidently finished writing the letter sometime around five o’clock in the afternoon.
Upon finishing the letter, gave it to Christopher Yates, captain of the militia, and a posse of between ten and thirty men, who accompanied and back to . After arriving in Nauvoo that night at around ten o’clock, Yates gave the letter to JS. Around midnight, JS wrote a response to Ford.

Footnotes

  1. John Taylor, Statement, 23 Aug. 1856, 24, Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, CHL; Letter from Thomas Ford, 21 June 1844.

  2. Letter to Thomas Ford, 21 June 1844; Minutes, 21 June 1844; JS, Journal, 21 June 1844. The other documents included, among other items, copies of JS’s 14 and 16 June letters to Ford, the sent copies of which had arrived in Springfield after Ford's departure for Carthage. (Letter to Thomas Ford, 14 June 1844; Letter to Thomas Ford, 16 June 1844.)

  3. John Taylor, Statement, 23 Aug. 1856, 20–24, Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, CHL.

  4. JS offered defenses of the destruction of the Expositor in his 14 June letter to Ford, a copy of which Taylor and Bernhisel provided Ford after they arrived in Carthage. (Letter to Thomas Ford, 14 June 1844; John Taylor, Statement, 23 Aug. 1856, 22, Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, CHL.)

  5. John Taylor, Statement, 23 Aug. 1856, 24, Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, CHL.

  6. 1850 U.S. Census, Hancock Co., IL, 294[A]; John Taylor, Statement, 23 Aug. 1856, 24–25, Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, CHL. In a December 1844 message to the Illinois state legislature, Ford reported that he had dispatched “a force of ten men” to deliver the letter and make the arrests. William Clayton recorded that the posse numbered thirty men. (Message of the Governor, 9; Clayton, Journal, 22–23 June 1844; see also Ford, History of Illinois, 332.)

    Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

    Message of the Governor of the State of Illinois, in Relation to the Disturbances in Hancock County, December, 21, 1844. Springfield, IL: Walters and Weber, 1844.

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

    Ford, Thomas. A History of Illinois, from Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847. Containing a Full Account of the Black Hawk War, the Rise, Progress, and Fall of Mormonism, the Alton and Lovejoy Riots, and Other Important and Interesting Events. Chicago: S. C. Griggs; New York: Ivison and Phinney, 1854.

  7. Richards, Journal, 22 June 1844. Taylor later recalled returning to Nauvoo around eight or nine o’clock in the evening, but his recollection was written approximately twelve years later. (John Taylor, Statement, 23 Aug. 1856, 25, Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, CHL.)

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

  8. Letter to Thomas Ford, 22–23 June 1844.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Letter from Thomas Ford, 22 June 1844 Letter from Thomas Ford, 22 June 1844, John McEwan First Copy Letter from Thomas Ford, 22 June 1844, John McEwan Second Copy Letter from Thomas Ford, 22 June 1844, as Published in Warsaw Signal History, 1838–1856, volume F-1 [1 May 1844–8 August 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”
oath, and evidence which was under oath in relation to the character of that paper; and in relation to the character conduct and designs of the owners & Editors of the press; that upon hearing such statements and evidence the Common Council passed an ordinance or resolution, declaring Said press and paper to be a public nuisance; and ordered the same to be as such; that a writ was issued by the Mayor to the of the for that purpose; that a military order was issued at the same time, by the Mayor, who is also Leutenant General of the , to the in command of that Legion, for a force sufficient to ensure the execution of the writ aforesaid
It appears, also the press was distroyed in obedience to the foregoing ordinance and writ according to a return on the same by the in the following words; “The within press and type is distroyed and pied according to order on this 10th day of June 1844 at about 6 oclock P. M. C. M.[”]
It appears also that the owners of the press obtained from a at a warrant against the authors of this distruction, for a ; that the charged with the execution of this process, arrested some of the persons accused, who immediately obtained writs of <​from​> to the Muni[ci]pal Court of your , by virtue of which they were tried in and discharged from arrest; and that they have ever since refused to be arrested or to Submit to a trial at any other place or before any other court except in the and before the Municipal Court aforesaid
It has also been reported to me that marshall law has been declared in that persons and property, have been and are [p. [2]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Thomas Ford, 22 June 1844
ID #
1959
Total Pages
8
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • Thomas Ford

Footnotes

  1. The judgments against the Nauvoo Expositor were rendered by the Nauvoo City Council rather than in a court of law where all statements in relation to the newspaper and its proprietors would have been made under oath. On at least one occasion, however, the Nauvoo City Council had placed individuals under oath as they testified before the body. (Minutes, 8 June 1844; Minutes, 10 June 1844; Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 3 Jan. 1844, 32–33.)

  2. In an earlier letter to Ford, JS characterized the proprietors of the Expositor as “a set of unprincipled, lawless, debouchees, counterfeiters, Bogus Makers, Gamblers, [and] peace disturbers.” He stated that their “grand object . . . was to destroy our constitutional rights and chartered privileges; to overthrow all good and wholesome regulations in society; to strengthen themselves against the Municipality; to fortify themselves against . . . the church of which I am a member and destroy all our religious rights and privileges, by libels, slanders, falsehoods, [and] perjury.” (Letter to Thomas Ford, 14 June 1844.)

  3. Ordinance, 10 June 1844; Resolution, 10 June 1844; see also Minutes, 10 June 1844.

  4. Mayor’s Order to Nauvoo City Marshal, 10 June 1844.

  5. Military Order to Jonathan Dunham, 10 June 1844.

  6. See Mayor’s Order to Nauvoo City Marshal, 10 June 1844.

  7. Based on a complaint filed by Francis M. Higbee, Hancock County justice of the peace Thomas Morrison, who was located in Carthage, issued a warrant on 11 June for the arrest of JS and seventeen others. (Petition to Nauvoo Municipal Court, 12 June 1844.)

  8. Ford was apparently unaware that on 17 June 1844, JS and other defendants appeared before Nauvoo alderman and justice of the peace Daniel H. Wells, who heard testimony and then discharged the prisoners from custody. As Wells was not a member of the church, JS and the other defendants evidently believed that critics would see Wells as a neutral arbiter of the allegations. (Historical Introduction to Statement, 17 June 1844.)

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