The Papers
Browse the PapersDocumentsJournalsAdministrative RecordsRevelations and TranslationsHistoriesLegal RecordsFinancial RecordsOther Contemporary Papers
Reference
PeoplePlacesEventsGlossaryLegal GlossaryFinancial GlossaryCalendar of DocumentsWorks CitedFeatured TopicsLesson PlansRelated Publications
Media
VideosPhotographsIllustrationsChartsMapsPodcasts
News
Current NewsArchiveNewsletterSubscribeJSP Conferences
About
About the ProjectJoseph Smith and His PapersFAQAwardsEndorsementsReviewsEditorial MethodNote on TranscriptionsNote on Images of People and PlacesReferencing the ProjectCiting This WebsiteProject TeamContact Us
Published Volumes
Image courtesy of The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
  1. Home > 
  2. The Papers > 

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 [5]

As you closed your appeal in lofty strains of poetry most Sublime,
We will put your fish ordinance into rhyme
Ordainance— Fish not no more— Along Shore
For instead the trout, You may haul more of my little ones an[d]
again I say as I said before Fish not near shore
For I am tired of hearing so many complaints
About catching the (sp◊◊◊) fruit of my cyprian Saints
No Joe you may go on in the depths of disgrace
Like all of the low money diggers
But you shortly will be put in a place
Never envied by the meanest of Niggers—
 
To the of the Warsaw Signal
Illinois [p. [5]]
View entire transcript

|

Cite this page

Source Note

Document Transcript

Page [5]

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. [29]

    TEXT: Possibly “spawn”.

  2. [30]

    This line may be an allusion to rumors that those practicing plural marriage were aborting pregnancies and disposing of the fetuses. In Nauvoo several individuals stated in affidavits and testimonies that John C. Bennett, in soliciting sex from women in the city, assured them that he could perform a procedure to terminate pregnancies and offered to do so if any women with whom he had extramarital sex became pregnant. (“Affidavit of Hyrum Smith,” Wasp, Extra, 27 July 1842, [2]; “Testimony of Mrs. Goddard,” in Affidavits and Certificates [Nauvoo, IL: 1842], copy at CHL.)

    The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.

    Affidavits and Certificates, Disproving the Statements and Affidavits Contained in John C. Bennett’s Letters. Nauvoo Aug. 31, 1842. [Nauvoo, IL: 1842]. Copy at CHL.

  3. [31]

    This racial slur was commonly employed by white Americans by the nineteenth century to refer derogatorily to people of African descent. Black Americans strongly objected to the use of the term. The Church Historian’s Press also condemns the use of this word but retains it in document transcripts to accurately present the historical record and to illuminate the oppressive racial landscape faced by Black Americans. ( Easton, Treatise on the Intellectual Character, and Civil and Political Condition of the Colored People of the U. States, 40–41 .)

    Easton, Hosea. A Treatise on the Intellectual Character, and Civil and Political Condition of the Colored People of the U. States; and the Prejudice Exercised towards Them: With a Sermon on the Duty of the Church to Them. Boston: Isaac Knapp, 1837.

© 2024 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.Terms of UseUpdated 2021-04-13Privacy NoticeUpdated 2021-04-06