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Letter to Emma Smith, 26–27 June 1844

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Letter to Emma Smith, 26–27 June 1844

Source Note

JS, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to , , Hancock Co., IL, [26]–27 June 1844; handwriting of and JS; signatures of JS; two pages; CHL. Includes address, docket, and redactions.
Two leaves measuring 9⅝ × 7⅝ inches (24 × 19 cm). The leaves were most likely conjugal leaves of a bifolium that are now separate. The leaves are ruled with twenty-seven printed lines, now faded. The letter was trifolded twice in letter style and addressed. The letter was refolded multiple times and there is separation along and tearing at the folds. The document has undergone conservation.
The letter was retained by , who died in 1879, and passed down among Smith family descendants. It bears a docket in the handwriting of an unidentified scribe. Redactions on the manuscript correlate with changes to capitalization and punctuation made to the letter when it was published in The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1896, which indicates the letter had been transferred into the possession of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now Community of Christ) by that time. In 2024, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints acquired the letter from the Community of Christ, and it is now held at the Church History Library in Salt Lake City.

Footnotes

  1. See History of the Reorganized Church, 2:771.

    The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 8 vols. Independence, MO: Herald Publishing House, 1896–1976.

Historical Introduction

On 26–27 June 1844, JS dictated a letter from , Illinois, to his wife in , Illinois, providing instructions for the residents of Nauvoo and expressing his love and concern for Emma and their family. JS and his brother had been confined in the jail, in Carthage, since the evening of 25 June on charges of . On 26 June at 8:00 p.m., JS’s attorneys informed him that governor had held a council with the militia officers gathered in Carthage. This council had determined that Ford and most of the militia at Carthage would go to Nauvoo the following day, in part, Ford later reported, “to strike a salutary terror” into the Saints and to dissuade them from committing any acts of vengeance against “those who had taken a part against them.” Ford, however, abandoned this course of action after learning of a conspiracy to initiate a war with the once Ford’s troops were in Nauvoo. Instead, on the morning of 27 June, Ford decided to disband most of the men under his command and travel with a single company of militia to Nauvoo. Once there he would “deliver an address” to the Latter-day Saints warning them that if they took revenge against their opponents, then “it would be the sure and certain means of the destruction of their city and the extermination of their people.” At 9:40 on the morning of 27 June, one of JS’s attorneys visited him in the jail at Carthage and informed him of Ford’s new plan.
JS appears to have started his letter to on the evening of 26 June 1844. served as JS’s scribe, writing the letter as JS dictated it. The next morning, Richards wrote most of the letter and consequently revised its date and time.
In his letter, JS informed that he had heard that and his troops would not go to as had been reported on 26 June. Following this remark, the majority of JS’s letter included instructions for , the acting major general of the , to relay to the residents of Nauvoo, asking them to stay in their homes, avoid gathering, and await Ford’s orders. JS reassured Emma that should there be a mutiny in the governor’s force, some troops would remain loyal. But he also cautioned that it was the duty of men to protect their lives and their families, writing that “no power has a right to forbid it. should the last extreme arrive.” JS then wrote a personal postscript to the letter, telling Emma, “I am very much resigned to my lot knowing I am justified and have done the best that could be done.” He also asked her to give his love to their children and friends. Later that morning, at 9:40, added a second postscript, in which JS informed Emma that Ford intended to disband his troops and come to Nauvoo to give a speech. Richards wrote in his journal that after the final postscript was added, the letter was sent with and , who left for Nauvoo before 10:30 that morning. It would have taken them several hours to travel the approximately twenty miles from to Nauvoo, where the letter was delivered to Emma. At some point, Richards made a copy, which was presumably the version later used in the manuscript history. The version sent to and received by Emma is featured here.

Footnotes

  1. Warrant, 24 June 1844; Letter to Emma Smith, 25 June 1844; Willard Richards, Journal Excerpt, 23–27 June 1844.

  2. Willard Richards, Journal Excerpt, 23–27 June 1844; Ford, History of Illinois, 339. Ford had considered bringing JS and Hyrum Smith with him to Nauvoo but ultimately decided against it. He later reported: “I had determined to prevail on the justice to bring out his prisoners, and take them along. A council of officers, however, determined that this would be highly inexpedient and dangerous, and offered such substantial reasons for their opinions as induced me to change my resolution.” (Letter to Emma Smith, 25 June 1844; Willard Richards, Journal Excerpt, 23–27 June 1844; Letter to Jesse B. Thomas, 26 June 1844–B; Clayton, Journal, 26–27 June 1844; Ford, History of Illinois, 340.)

    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.

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

  3. Ford, History of Illinois, 340–342, 345.

    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.

  4. Willard Richards, Journal Excerpt, 23–27 June 1844.

  5. Willard Richards, Journal Excerpt, 23–27 June 1844.

  6. JS, Carthage, IL, to Emma Smith, [Nauvoo, IL], 27 June 1844, copy, JS Collection, CHL; Willard Richards, Journal Excerpt, 23–27 June 1844; JS History, vol. F-1, 175.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Letter to Emma Smith, 26–27 June 1844
Letter to Emma Smith, 26–27 June 1844, Copy History, 1838–1856, volume F-1 [1 May 1844–8 August 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”

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Jail Jun. 26 <​27th​>— 1844—
20. Past 6 <​8​>. P. M. <​A. M.​>
Dear
The continues his courtesies, and permits us to see our friends. We hear this morning that the will not go down with his troops to day <​(to )​> as was anticipated last Evening, but, if he does come down with his troops you will be protected, & I want you to tell to instruct the people to stay at home and attend to their own business and let there be no groups or gathering together unless by permission of the — they are called together to receive communications from the — which would please our people, but let the direct,— of course, will obey the orders of the Government officers, and render them the assistance they require. There is no dander [danger] of any “exterminating order” “Should there be a mutiny among the troops, (which we do not anticipate, excitment is abating,) a part will remain Loyal, and stand for the defence of the & our rights; There is one principle which is Eternal, it is the duty of all men to protect their lives from every and the lives of their household whenever occasion <​necessity​> requires. and no power has a right to forbid it. when arrivest should the last extreme arrive,— but I anticipate no such extreme,— but caution is the parent of safety.—
Joseph Smith
P S Dear
I am very much resigned to my lot knowing I am justified and have done the best that could be done give my love to the children [p. [1]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter to Emma Smith, 26–27 June 1844
ID #
1453
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • Willard Richards
  • Joseph Smith Jr.

Footnotes

  1. Willard Richards handwriting begins.

  2. These friends likely included the men staying with JS and Hyrum Smith in the jail at Carthage as well as visitors. (Willard Richards, Journal Excerpt, 23–27 June 1844.)

  3. James Singleton’s militia had arrived in Nauvoo the day before and worked with the Nauvoo police to ensure peace in the city. (Clayton, Journal, 26 June 1844.)

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

  4. During the conflict between the Latter-day Saints and other residents of Missouri in 1838, Missouri governor Lilburn W. Boggs issued an executive order to the Missouri state militia explaining that the Saints should be considered enemies who “must be exterminated or driven from the State” and instructing troops to “operate against the Mormons.” JS apparently discussed what had happened in Missouri with Illinois governor Thomas Ford on 26 June. Additionally, opponents of JS and the church in Illinois had begun threatening “extermination,” and an assembly in Warsaw, in southwestern Hancock County, Illinois, had passed a resolution to wage a “war of extermination” if JS and Hyrum Smith were not arrested for the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor’s press. (Lilburn W. Boggs, Jefferson City, MO, to John B. Clark, Fayette, MO, 27 Oct. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City; Willard Richards, Journal Excerpt, 23–27 June 1844; Warsaw [IL] Signal, Extra, 14 June 1844, [1].)

    Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.

    Warsaw Signal. Warsaw, IL. 1841–1853.

  5. Illinois governor Thomas Ford recognized the threat of mutiny among the militia. He noted that he would not have objected to marching a large force into Nauvoo if he “could have been assured of [his] command against mutiny and insubordination.” (Ford, History of Illinois, 340.)

    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.

  6. This was a common belief, rooted in natural law theory and Thomas Hobbes’s philosophical work Leviathan, which presented the right to self-defense as one not granted by governments but instead inherent in nature. Hobbes explained that the “right of nature” is “the liberty each man hath, to use his own power . . . for the preservation of his own nature; that is to say, of his own life.” Revelations JS dictated also included scriptural injunctions for self-defense. (Whiting, Early American Proverbs, 383; Blackstone, Commentaries, vol. 2, bk. 3, pp. 2–3; Molesworth, English Works of Thomas Hobbes, 116; see also Letter from Dan Jones, 8 Jan. 1844; Discourse, 18 June 1844; and Revelation, 6 Aug. 1833 [D&C 98].)

    Whiting, Bartlett Jere. Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Sayings. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1977.

    Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England: In Four Books; with an Analysis of the Work. By Sir William Blackstone, Knt. One of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas. In Two Volumes, from the Eighteenth London Edition. . . . 2 vols. New York: W. E. Dean, 1840.

    Molesworth, William, ed. The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury; Now First Collected and Edited. Vol. 3. London: John Bohn, 1839.

  7. This was a common proverb used in the nineteenth century. (See, for example, “A Caution,” Christian Palladium, 15 Dec. 1836, 5:254; and Curtis, Tale of the Revolution, 85.)

    Christian Palladium. Union Mills, NY. 1832–1839.

    Curtis, Newton M. The Foundling of the Mohawk: A Tale of the Revolution. New York: Williams Brothers, 1848.

  8. Willard Richards handwriting ends; JS begins.

  9. At this time, JS and Emma Smith had four living children: Julia M. Smith, Joseph Smith III, Frederick Granger Williams Smith, and Alexander Hale Smith. Emma was pregnant with another son, David Hyrum Smith, who was born in November 1844.

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