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Letter from Unidentified Author, 15 February 1844

Source Note

Unidentified author, Letter, Strafford, Orange Co., VT, to the editor of Warsaw Message or Warsaw Signal [] and JS, [], Hancock Co., IL, 15 Feb. 1844; unidentified handwriting; five pages; Thomas C. Sharp and Allied Anti-Mormon Papers, 1844–1846, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT. Includes address and docket.
Four leaves measuring 12 × 7½ inches (30 × 19 cm). The letter was inscribed on the rectos of the first three leaves and the recto and verso of the fourth leaf, with a docket on the verso of the second leaf. The document was trifolded twice in letter style and addressed. The leaves were later taped into a larger book measuring 13¾ × 8¼ inches (35 × 21 cm).
The document was apparently kept by among his papers—presumably until his death in 1894. The custodial history of his papers during the early twentieth century is unknown. By 1970 they had been acquired by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Obituary for Thomas Sharp, Morning Herald-Despatch (Decatur, IL), 12 Apr. 1894, [8].

    Morning Herald-Despatch. Decatur, IL. 1890–1899.

  2. [2]

    Holland, “Note on Mormon Americana at Yale,” 387n2.

    Holland, Jeffrey R. “A Note on Mormon Americana at Yale.” BYU Studies 10, no. 3 (Spring 1970): 386–388.

Historical Introduction

On 15 February 1844, an unidentified author wrote a letter to JS that he or she hoped , editor of the Warsaw Signal, would publish in his , Illinois, newspaper. The letter responded to General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys, a pamphlet that wrote at the direction of JS and that appealed to the residents of JS’s native state of to help the obtain redress and reparations for their lost property in . In the pamphlet, JS invoked his family’s revolutionary heritage and the famed dedication to individual liberty of the “Green Mountain Boys,” Vermonters who fought in the American War for Independence.
According to the letter, the respondent wrote from Strafford, Vermont—a township bordering Tunbridge, Vermont, and one of the places where the Smith family lived before relocating to western in 1816 and 1817—and claimed to have known of the Smiths when they lived in . The unidentified author was critical of JS and the Latter-day Saints and dismissive of JS’s appeal for help. The respondent argued that the Saints were not persecuted but had brought their troubles upon themselves by their behavior and political speeches. He or she questioned the veracity of church members’ claims of lost lives and property in and stated that if Vermonters ever mobilized for a conflict involving the Saints, it would be to fight against them and not in their defense. The letter concluded with a poem that included a veiled threat against JS’s life. The author also suggested that the letter be published in an issue of the Signal.
Excerpts from JS’s pamphlet had been printed in some newspapers, but it appears that the pamphlet’s content had not elicited many public comments in that state. Much of the response to the pamphlet in Vermont newspapers came in the days and weeks following the drafting of this letter. However, the Warsaw Message (the name of the Warsaw Signal between January 1843 and February 1844) had reprinted the entire pamphlet and mocked it in January 1844. It is possible that this letter was not penned by a Vermonter but instead by an opponent of JS in the , Illinois, area as an editorial device to criticize JS and the church. This possibility is suggested by the letter writer’s apparent knowledge of local developments, such as the details of meetings of the Anti-Mormon Convention in , Illinois, and the pending name change of the Warsaw Message to the Warsaw Signal. The author was also apparently familiar with details of the Smith family’s life in Vermont, although many of those details had been printed in publications critical of JS.
There are no postal markings on the letter, and, according to the unidentified respondent, the letter was to be sent by courier to . The letter may have been hand delivered to Sharp or, because Sharp frequently criticized JS, may have originated with him. Regardless, Sharp never published the letter in the Warsaw Signal. Instead, he retained possession of it. Despite uncertainty about the author’s identity and the fact that the letter was never published, it is featured here because it was written as an open letter to JS.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys, 21 Nov.–ca. 3 Dec. 1843.

  2. [2]

    General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys, 21 Nov.–ca. 3 Dec. 1843. Prior to the American Revolution, the “Green Mountain Boys” were a grassroots militia led by Ethan Allen in the 1770s to protect the property rights of settlers on land that was claimed by both New York and New Hampshire. (See Randall, Ethan Allen, chaps. 9–11.)

    Randall, Willard Sterne. Ethan Allen: His Life and Times. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011.

  3. [3]

    The Smith family lived in New Hampshire and Vermont from 1796 to 1816. (Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, 17–29.)

    Bushman, Richard Lyman. Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. With the assistance of Jed Woodworth. New York: Knopf, 2005.

  4. [4]

    See, for example, “Joe Smith, the Mormon, in a Rage!—Warlike Movements in Illinois!!,” Bellows Falls (VT) Gazette, 17 Feb. 1844, [2]–[3]; and News Item, State Banner (Bennington, VT), 12 Mar. 1844, [2].

    Bellows Falls Gazette. Bellows Falls, VT. 1838–1851.

    State Banner. Bennington, VT. 1841–1849.

  5. [5]

    The newspaper was founded in May 1840 as the Western World. Sharp and James Gamble changed the title to the Warsaw Signal when they purchased the newspaper in May 1841. Later that year, Sharp became the sole proprietor of the paper. In January 1843, the newspaper’s name changed again to the Warsaw Message after Sharp sold the newspaper. In 1844 Sharp repurchased it and reverted the name to the Warsaw Signal beginning with the 14 February 1844 issue. (Gregg, History of Hancock County, Illinois, 748–750; “To the Public,” Warsaw [IL] Message, 7 Jan. 1843, [2].)

    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.

    Warsaw Message. Warsaw, IL. 1843–1844.

  6. [6]

    “The Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys,” and “General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys,” Warsaw (IL) Message, Extra, 17 Jan. 1844, [1]–[2].

    Warsaw Message. Warsaw, IL. 1843–1844.

Page [2]

After you came to you published a long rigmarole of abuse against the Missourians and how you went to their camp carrying a white flag as is the custom btween two civilized nations & expected the same deference paid to it as was usual between civilised nations, and you say that you was disappointed— Now what reason you had to expect any more regard paid to your white flag than a gang of pirates would if they were hard presd. and should raise a white flag we are unable to guess— We consider all your manouvering in was treasonable, and it is evident that you and your clan did consider yourselves a seperate nation as much so; as any foreign nation or tribe of Indians would— Now if you had actually met with some losses in the difficu[l]ties, we believe that the General government would have no right to grant you any redress, any more than it would any foreign savage tribe of Indians, should they go and fight the Missourians, and were drawn off with the loss of their ponies— You call upon the states to go and help crush , to humble and abase her with a vengeance for you say if there is a whisper from the spirit of an Ethan Allen, or a gleam from the shade of a general [John] Stark, let it mingle with our sense of honor and fire our bosoms for the cause, and may all the earth bear me witness if escapes vengeance,— You call upon us to build steam frigates, to spread ourselves far and wide, and to open the iron eyes of our bulwarks by sea and land; take the dreadful sp[l]endor of an army with bayonets, and if escapes vengeance, then is a hypocrite,— a coward— and this a hot bed of political demagogues <​(for Jesus Christ told you so, or in other words your counselor)​>!!!— Now Joe why dont you call for the Spanish Armada at once? and lend a helping <​hand​> to get it on, so that you can glut your diabolical rage at once in a trice?
Oh! what a consumate peace maker you must be!!— What a messenger of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ!!— You call for vengeance, blood, and Murder, and call upon death to send heated darts to sting with, the grave to open the trap door that they may stumble in— Oh; what philanthropy you <​such​> a being must possess!!— You call upon the masonic fraternity to assist you,— We consider our obligations to our God, and our paramount to the calls of a banditi of pirates or mormons, and furthermore we consider the masonic institution disgraced by establisting a lodge in at all, and we will never own as a brother of the fraternity one who we believe to be guilty of violating every law of civil society—
A Sollomon, a Hiram, a St. John, or a [George] Washington would never raise their hands before a wondering world and say my life for his, in refferance to Joe Smith or any of your clan, no; not by a long way Joe— but would say to you in true Roman style, procul, o procall este profani! (be off, be off ye profane!) go to and have your trial when you ought to go— [p. [2]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Unidentified Author, 15 February 1844
ID #
3075
Total Pages
8
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • Unidentified

Footnotes

  1. [9]

    Church members published several accounts of the Missouri conflicts in the years after they fled the state. JS’s sense of betrayal derived not simply from being captured when he met the state militia to parley under a white flag of truce but also from his misunderstanding of the nature of the prearranged encounter. (See, for example, [Sidney Rigdon], An Appeal to the American People: Being an Account of the Persecutions of the Church of Latter Day Saints; and of the Barbarities Inflicted on Them by the Inhabitants of the State of Missouri [Cincinnati: Glezen and Shepard, 1840]; and Parley P. Pratt, History of the Late Persecution Inflicted by the State of Missouri upon the Mormons . . . [Detroit: Dawson and Bates, 1839].)

  2. [10]

    General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys was part of a larger campaign in which other church members wrote appeals to the people or legislatures of their native states for help in defending the rights of the Latter-day Saints. (Historical Introduction to General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys, 21 Nov.–ca. 3 Dec. 1843; Rogers, “Mormon Appeals for Redress and Social Justice, 1843–44,” 45–50.)

    Robers, Brent M. “To the ‘Honest and Patriotic Sons of Liberty’: Mormon Appeals for Redress and Social Justice, 1843–44.” Journal of Mormon History 39, no. 1 (Winter 2013): 36–67.

  3. [11]

    Stark, of New Hampshire, served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution and successfully defended American supplies from British raids at Bennington, Vermont. (Stark, Memoir and Official Correspondence of Gen. John Stark, 48–64.)

    Stark, Caleb. Memoir and Official Correspondence of Gen. John Stark, with Notices of Several Other Officers of the Revolution. Also, a Biography of Capt. Phinehas Stevens, and of Col. Robert Rogers, with an Account of His Services in America during the “Seven Years’ War." Concord, NH: G. Parker Lyon, 1860.

  4. [12]

    JS joined the Freemasons in 1842 after a Masonic lodge was established in Nauvoo. In General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys, JS implied that Freemasons in Vermont should come to the assistance of their fellow Freemason in Nauvoo. (Authorization from Abraham Jonas, 15 Mar. 1842; General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys, 21 Nov.–ca. 3 Dec. 1843.)

  5. [13]

    This refers to a passage in General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys on Freemasons coming to the assistance of those in distress. In this passage, JS invoked the memory of historical figures associated with the lore of Freemasonry. These included Solomon, the famed sage and king of ancient Israel; Hiram Abiff, the architect of Solomon’s temple; John the Baptist or John the Evangelist, who were considered the patron saints of Freemasonry; and George Washington, who was himself a Freemason. JS wrote, “If a Solomon, a Hiram, a St. John, or a Washington raised his hands before a wondering world, and exclaimed:—‘My life for his!’” (General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys, 21 Nov.–ca. 3 Dec. 1843, italics in original; “Hiram Abif,” “Saint John the Baptist,” “Saint John the Evangelist,” “Solomon,” and “Washington, George,” in Mackey, Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and Its Kindred Sciences, 342–345, 684, 722–724, 869–872.)

    Mackey, Albert G., William J. Hughan, and Edward M. Hawkins. An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and Its Kindred Sciences Comprising the Whole Range of Arts, Sciences and Literature as Connected with the Institution. Vol. 2. New York: Masonic History, 1919.

  6. [14]

    In General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys, William W. Phelps, who helped compose the pamphlet, inserted several foreign language phrases as a literary device to describe the unreasonable treatment of Latter-day Saints. One of these phrases was “Procul, o procul este profani!” (JS, Journal, 21 Nov. 1843; General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys, 21 Nov.–ca. 3 Dec. 1843.)

  7. [15]

    Between 1840 and 1843, officials in Missouri made three unsuccessful attempts to extradite JS to the state on criminal charges. (See Historical Introduction to Extradition of JS et al. for Treason and Other Crimes; Historical Introduction to Extradition of JS for Accessory to Assault; and Historical Introduction to Extradition of JS for Treason.)

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