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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”
of law and notice to the accused. You have also violated <​the constitution and​> your own charter in this your council which has no judicial power and can only pass ordinances of a general nature, have undertaken to pass judgment as a court, and convict without jury a press of being a libellous and a nusuance to the The council at most could only define a nuisance by general ordinance and leave it to the courts to determine whether individuals or particulars accused come within Such definition. The constitution abhors and will not tolerate the union of Legislative and Judicial power in the same body of Magistracy Because, as in this case, they will first make a tyrannical law, and then execute it in a tyrannical manner.
You have also assumed to yourselves more power than you are entitled to in relation to writs of , under your charter I know that you have been told by lawyers for the purpose of gaining your favor, that you have this power to any extent, In this they have deceived you for their own base purposes Your charter supposes, that you may pass ordinances, a breach of which will result in the imprisonment of the offender, For the purpose of ensuring more speedy relief to such persons authority was given to the Municipal Court to issue writs of habeas Corpus in all in a Cases arising under the ordinances of the . It was never Supposed by the Legislature nor can the language <​of your charter​> be tortured to mean, that a jurisdiction was intended to be conferrd, which would apply at to all cases an of imprisonment under the general laws of the or of the , as well as the city ordinances
It has also been reserved to you to make the discovery that a Newspaper charged to be scurrilous and libellous may be legally or removed [p. [4]]
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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. According to the 1818 Illinois state constitution, “no freeman shall be imprisoned or disseized of his freehold, liberties or privileges, or outlawed or exiled, or in any manner deprived of his life, liberty or property, but by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land.” (Illinois Constitution of 1818, art. 8, sec. 8.)

    Illinois Office of Secretary of State. First Constitution of Illinois, 1818. Illinois State Archives, Springfield.

  2. The 1818 Illinois state constitution stipulated that “the powers of the government of the state of Illinois shall be divided into three distinct departments, and each of them be confided to a separate body of Magistracy, to wit; Those which are Legislative to one; those which are Executive to another; and those which are Judiciary to another.” It further stated, “No person or collection of persons being one of those departments shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others, except as hereinafter expressly directed or permitted.” The act incorporating Nauvoo, or Nauvoo charter, also outlined different duties for the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, but it delegated power to the city council “to declare what shall be a nuisance, and to prevent and remove the same.” Ford either was unaware of or disagreed with the city council’s interpretation of that clause. (Illinois Constitution of 1818, art. 1, secs. 1–2; Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840.)

    Illinois Office of Secretary of State. First Constitution of Illinois, 1818. Illinois State Archives, Springfield.

  3. In June 1843 Missouri officials sought JS’s extradition from Illinois to try him on charges stemming from the 1838–1839 conflict between the Latter-day Saints and their antagonists in Missouri. Following his arrest, JS obtained a writ of habeas corpus from the Nauvoo Municipal Court, which discharged him in July 1843. JS was represented by attorneys Cyrus Walker, Edward Southwick, and Shepherd Patrick, each of whom defended the municipal court’s use of habeas corpus. Because Walker was a Whig candidate for Congress, critics alleged that his advocacy for JS was motivated by hopes of obtaining the Saints’ votes. (“Part 4: June–July 1843”; Historical Introduction to Discourse, 6 Aug. 1843.)

  4. Section 11 of the Nauvoo charter authorized the city council to pass any ordinance “necessary for the peace, benefit, good order, regulation, convenience, and cleanliness” of the city. Section 17 gave the mayor and city aldermen jurisdiction over alleged violations of ordinances. The same section also authorized the municipal court to “grant writs of habeas corpus in all cases arising under the ordinances of the City Council.” (Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840.)

  5. In response to an effort by Missouri officials to extradite JS to try him on charges in connection with the May 1842 attempted assassination of former Missouri governor Lilburn W. Boggs, the Nauvoo City Council passed a series of ordinances expanding the Nauvoo Municipal Court’s authority to issue writs of habeas corpus to review any detention, whether stemming from federal, state, or municipal authorities, citing the habeas corpus provision in the Nauvoo charter. The questionable legality of these ordinances caused considerable controversy in Illinois. (Historical Introduction to Ordinance, 5 July 1842; Historical Introduction to Ordinance, 14 Nov. 1842; Historical Introduction to Discourse, 30 June 1843; see also Historical Introduction to Docket Entry, 18–31 May 1844.)

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