Letter to Friends in Illinois, 20 December 1841
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Source Note
JS, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to “my friends in ,” 20 Dec. 1841. Featured version published in “State Gubernatorial Convention,” Times and Seasons, 1 Jan. 1842, vol. 3, no. 5, 651. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
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Historical Introduction
On 20 December 1841 JS wrote a letter to “friends in ,” expressing support for the Illinois Democratic Party’s nominees for governor and lieutenant governor, and . JS also articulated his position that the should back political candidates who supported the Saints. The letter was first published in the 1 January 1842 issue of the Times and Seasons and was reprinted in several other Illinois newspapers shortly thereafter.JS’s endorsement of the two Democratic candidates, both of whom were members of the Senate, was likely based on the pair’s support of a bill the state legislature passed in December 1840 titled “An Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo”—often referred to as the . was first elected to the Illinois Senate in 1830 and then to the House of Representatives in 1837. After returning to the state senate in 1840, he was selected as chairman of the judiciary committee, which reviewed and recommended passage of the Nauvoo charter during his tenure. was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1836 and to the Illinois Senate in August 1840. As with Snyder, it appears that Moore played a significant role in shepherding the Nauvoo charter through the senate. In a letter printed in the January 1841 issue of the church newspaper Times and Seasons, identified Moore, Snyder, and a few other politicians—both Democrats and Whigs—who had “rendered us very essential services” in getting the bill passed “without a dissenting vote.” In the 20 December 1841 letter featured here, JS highlighted another prominent Democrat, , who also helped secure the bill’s passage.Although church members had supported candidates from various political parties during the preceding decade, since their arrival in , Latter-day Saints had regularly voted for Whig candidates, and some citizens in Illinois perceived JS’s public endorsement of and as a departure from that practice. JS’s public declaration that the Latter-day Saints maintained no party loyalty—and his implication that the Saints would vote as a bloc for candidates who supported their causes—exacerbated fears about the Saints’ growing political power in and in the state overall. Shortly after JS’s letter was published in the Times and Seasons, several Whig newspapers reprinted it along with scathing critiques of what editors perceived as the church’s new, troubling political position. The editor of the , Illinois, Sangamo Journal, for example, asserted that “though we have no objection that they should act individually and independently, as their conscience dictates . . . when they attempt to join the civil power with the religious they attempt to destroy our hard-earned birth-right of liberty of conscience, and compel us to retaliate for the injury done.” The Quincy Whig warned its readers that “this clannish principle of voting in a mass, at the dictation of one man . . . is so repugnant to the principles of our Republican form of government, that its consequences and future effects will be disagreeable to think of.” While noting that they were not “apologists of the Mormons,” editors of the Peoria Democratic Press nevertheless defended the right of a church member to vote “on account of his religious belief.” Despite the largely negative press, the Latter-day Saints and other residents of Hancock County voted overwhelmingly for the Democratic candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, as well as for state representative, in the August 1842 election.
Footnotes
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2
Journal of the Senate . . . of the State of Illinois, 5 Dec. 1840, 45; Ford, History of Illinois, 263. Referring to the passage of the Nauvoo charter, Snyder’s biographer noted that “Mr. Snyder when chairman of the State Judiciary Committee, to which the infamous measures concocted by Senator [Sidney] Little were referred, had reported them favorably, and they were passed without roll call, or a dissenting vote from any member of either party.” (Snyder, Adam W. Snyder, 388.)
Journal of the Senate of the Thirteenth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their Regular Session, Begun and Held at Springfield, December 5, 1842. Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1842.
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.
Snyder, John Francis. Adam W. Snyder, and His Period in Illinois History, 1817–1842. Virginia, IL: E. Needham, 1906.
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3
John C. Bennett [Joab, pseud.], Springfield, IL, 16 Dec. 1840, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, 1 Jan. 1841, 2:266–267, italics in original.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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4
Gregg, History of Hancock County, Illinois, 273; Ford, History of Illinois, 263.
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.
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.
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5
Pease, Illinois Election Returns, 1818–1848, 117, 122.
Pease, Theodore Calvin, ed. Illinois Election Returns, 1818–1848. Springfield, Illinois: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923.
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6
Connecting JS’s religious and political clout to his authority to command the Nauvoo Legion, the Sangamo Journal also declared, “When he enters upon the duties of a civil office of the State, and as a Lieutenant General, speaks to his friends, whom he knows as a Prophet he can command, and uses the religious influence he possesses under the Military garb he has acquired, he becomes a dangerous man, and must look to the consequences.” (“Citizens of Illinois—Read and Consider!,” Sangamo Journal [Springfield, IL], 21 Jan. 1842, [3], emphasis in original.)
Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.
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7
“Joseph Smith,” Quincy (IL) Whig, 22 Jan. 1842, [2], italics in original. Echoing the fear that JS was now dictating how Latter-day Saints should vote, the Peoria Register remarked, “This is probably the first time that a public manifesto of this sort has been issued by a religious leader in this country. . . . We trust that all parties will see its dangerous tendency, and at once rebuke it.” (“The Mormons—Religion and Politics,” Peoria [IL] Register and North-Western Gazetteer, 21 Jan. 1842, [2].)
Quincy Whig. Quincy, IL. 1838–1856.
Peoria Register and North-Western Gazetteer. Peoria, IL. 1837–1843.
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8
Editorial, Peoria (IL) Democratic Press, 26 Jan. 1842, [2].
Peoria Register and North-Western Gazetteer. Peoria, IL. 1837–1843.
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9
Pease, Illinois Election Returns, 1818–1848, 127, 130, 351, 363. Snyder, who had suffered from health problems for years, passed away two and a half months before the election, at the age of forty-two; he was replaced on the ballot by Thomas Ford. (Snyder, Adam W. Snyder, 376, 394; Davidson and Stuvé, Complete History of Illinois, 462.)
Pease, Theodore Calvin, ed. Illinois Election Returns, 1818–1848. Springfield, Illinois: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923.
Snyder, John Francis. Adam W. Snyder, and His Period in Illinois History, 1817–1842. Virginia, IL: E. Needham, 1906.
Davidson, Alexander, and Bernard Stuvé. A Complete History of Illinois from 1673 to 1873; Embracing the Physical Features of the Country; Its Early Explorations; Aboriginal Inhabitants; French and British Occupation; Conquest by Virginia; Territorial Condition and the Subsequent Civil, Military and Political Events of the State. Springfield, IL: Illinois Journal Co., 1874.
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