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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 [4]

you must well remember his frequent declarations that the whole bible was the work of priestcraft, and that no nation was so enlightned, but it could be made to believe in any religion however absurd it might be, if it was advocated perseveringly for fifty years, it would become the popular religion of the , and as good as any other, That Voltairs [Voltaire’s] writings was the best bible then extants, and Thomas Paines age of reason, the best commentary— It appears that he undertook to make his word good in trying a new religion and obtaining a few knaves to help start it— and you and your coadjutors keep it a going with a full determination to undermine the general government of our great — How much wisdom, prudence and virtue, our presidents Governors, and rulers will obtain by your appeal to <​us​> we leave for them to say, but one thing, they will readily discover, your eagerness for discord and civil commotions, your diabolical and treasonable object— You have given a wonderful display of your great precosity and of your great knowledge of the languages; what learning!! Perhaps you can tel how long— it would take a crew of pirates; to cry persecution, mobs, hell-hounds and such names to their pursuers, before they could make one honest community actually believe the pirates were honest and were persecuted, and the civil citizens a mob
As for ourselves we believe you stand in the same position as the pirate does, and it has been your cry from first to last,— but we have no sympathy for you but say to you remember Haman— If you studied piracy while digging for the money your pretended old Bob Kidd <​had​> buried, you should also have stud[i]ed the fate of pirates— We think the , and Citizens of have shown a little imbecility, in suffering you and your banditti to take up your residence and enjoy all the priviliges and immunities as citizens, after being expeld. from another for high treason and murder, burning and robbing,— It appears that some are waking up, we have just seen some resolutions which appears to have been passed in the Town or Burrough of Green plains, somewhere near , and manifesting a determination not to be mobd.— robd., bullragd. [bullyragged] or trod upon by your unhollowen clan— We think there must be some Green mountain boys in Green plains, and we would say to them be firm and not flinch one iota until your baynets are wore to the hilt and the but ends broke off before you yield to such an infamous wreck as Joe or any of his merauders— We do not believe that Joe or any that was expeld. from could ever have obtained a place of residence here in much less admited to vote in any case whatever in the , and it has been a wonder to <​thousands of​> us that the of ever permited Joe to take a lodging in that —
We had designed noticing each particular subject in your call to us in detail but for the present will write but little more— We will just add that should you cause another outbreak you will be met by more than ten thousand bayonet of the Green mountain Boys [p. [4]]
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Document Information

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. [25]

    Paine, “Age of Reason,” 372–417; Paine, “Age of Reason. Part the Second,” 418–502.

    Paine, Thomas. “The Age of Reason, Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology." In Selected Writings of Thomas Paine, edited by Ian Shapiro and Jane E. Calvert, 372–417. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014.

    Paine, Thomas. “The Age of Reason. Part the Second. Being an Investigation of True and of Fabulous Theology.” In Selected Writings of Thomas Paine, edited by Ian Shapiro and Jane E. Calvert, 418–502. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014.

  2. [26]

    It is unclear whether this assertion of Joseph Smith Sr.’s fondness for enlightenment philosophy and free thought over religion and the Bible was based in fact. While living in Vermont, Joseph Smith Sr. attended at least a few Methodist meetings with his wife, Lucy Mack Smith. She recounted that when his father, Asael Smith, learned of his church attendance he reportedly confronted Joseph Smith Sr., gave him a copy of Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason, and “angrily bade him read that untill he believed it.” Lucy also recounted that sometime later, but while still living in Vermont, her husband had visionary dreams that were religious in nature and included biblical symbolism. After moving from Vermont to New York but before converting to his son’s church, Joseph Smith Sr. led his family in evening devotions of prayer, hymn singing, and Bible reading. (Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, miscellaneous notes, [7]–[10]; Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, 25; Ashurst-McGee, “Pathway to Prophethood,” 145.)

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

    Ashurst-McGee, Mark. “A Pathway to Prophethood: Joseph Smith Junior as Rodsman, Village Seer, and Judeo-Christian Prophet.” Master’s thesis, Utah State University, 2000.

  3. [27]

    Captain William “Robert” Kidd was a pirate who raided ships in the east Indian Ocean during the late seventeenth century. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, rumors circulated in the northeastern United States that Kidd had buried treasure in that region. In 1870 Daniel Woodward of Royalton, Vermont, reported a local rumor that “Joseph Smith Sr., was, at times, engaged in hunting for Captain Kidd’s buried treasure.” Both Joseph Smith Sr. and JS searched for buried treasure in New York and Pennsylvania. Several people from near the various sites of treasure-searching remembered them hunting for Kidd’s treasure. Antagonistic publications often used the Smiths’ participation in these treasure-seeking expeditions to discredit them as either gullible and superstitious or duplicitous and conniving. The unidentified author of this letter may have used one such publication as a reference. (“Birthplace and Early Residence of Joseph Smith, Jr.,” 316; see also Huggins, “From Captain Kidd’s Treasure Ghost to the Angel Moroni,” 17–42; Taylor, “Treasure Seeking in the American Northeast, 1780–1830,” 8–10; Carmack, “Joseph Smith, Captain Kidd Lore, and Treasure-Seeking in New York and New England during the Early Republic,” 78–153; Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, 48–52; and Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 11.)

    “Birthplace and Early Residence of Joseph Smith, Jr.” Historical Magazine 8, no. 5 (Nov. 1870): 315–316.

    Huggins, Ronald V. “From Captain Kidd’s Treasure Ghost to the Angel Moroni: Changing Dramatis Personae in Early Mormonism.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 36, no. 4 (Winter 2003): 17–42.

    Taylor, Alan. “The Early Republic’s Supernatural Economy: Treasure Seeking in the American Northeast, 1780–1830.” American Quarterly 38, no. 1 (Spring 1986): 6–34.

    Carmack, Noel A. “Joseph Smith, Captain Kidd Lore, and Treasure-Seeking in New York and New England during the Early Republic.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 46, no. 3 (Fall 2013): 78–153

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

    Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion, from Its Rise to the Present Time. With Sketches of the Characters of Its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in Which the Famous Golden Bible Was Brought before the World. To Which Are Added, Inquiries into the Probability That the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written by One Solomon Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.

  4. [28]

    Green Plains, Illinois, was the home of Levi Williams, the community’s postmaster and a member of the Illinois militia who helped kidnap church member Daniel Avery and his son Philander in late 1843. It is unclear how a resident of Vermont would have been aware of this detail. (JS, Journal, 5 Dec. 1843.)

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