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Letter to Orson Hyde, 25 May 1844

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Letter to Orson Hyde, 25 May 1844

Source Note

on behalf of the (including JS), Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to , [], 25 May 1844. Featured version drafted [25 May 1844]; handwriting and signature of ; three pages; Willard Richards, Papers, CHL. Includes dockets, redactions, use mark, and notation.
Bifolium measuring 9⅝ × 7¾ inches (24 × 20 cm). The upper left corner of the first page bears an illegible embossment. The recto and verso of the first leaf are ruled with twenty-six and twenty-nine printed lines (now faded), respectively. The recto of the second leaf is similarly ruled with twenty-nine lines (now faded). The letter was inscribed on both sides of the first leaf; a postscript was written on the recto of the second leaf. The document appears to have been trifolded and later refolded along the same folds for storage.
The letter was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from December 1841 until JS’s death in June 1844 and served as church historian from December 1842 until his own death in March 1854. It was also docketed by Jonathan Grimshaw, who served as a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office (now CHL) from 1853 to 1856. The graphite notation “A.J” was apparently added by Andrew Jenson, who began working in the Church Historian’s Office in 1891 and served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. The letter was cataloged as part of the Willard Richards papers in 1980. The document’s early dockets and notation and its later inclusion in the Willard Richards papers suggest continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. JS, Journal, 13 Dec. 1841 and 21 Dec. 1842; Orson Spencer, “Death of Our Beloved Brother Willard Richards,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 16 Mar. 1854, [2].

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  2. Historian’s Office, Journal, 7 June 1853; Wilford Woodruff, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to George A. Smith, 30 Aug. 1856, in Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 1, p. 364.

    Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.

    Historian’s Office. Letterpress Copybooks, 1854–1879, 1885–1886. CHL. CR 100 38.

  3. Jenson, Autobiography, 192, 389; Cannon, Journal, 9 Feb. 1891; Jenson, Journal, 9 Feb. 1891 and 19 Oct. 1897; Bitton and Arrington, Mormons and Their Historians, 47–52.

    Jenson, Andrew. Autobiography of Andrew Jenson: Assistant Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. . . . Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1938.

    Cannon, George Q. Journals, 1855–1864, 1872–1901. CHL. CR 850 1.

    Jenson, Andrew. Journals, 1864–1941. Andrew Jenson, Autobiography and Journals, 1864–1941. CHL.

    Bitton, David, and Leonard J. Arrington. Mormons and Their Historians. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988.

  4. See the full bibliographic entry for Willard Richards, Journals and Papers, 1821–1854, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 25 May 1844, JS chaired a meeting of the in , Illinois, wherein the council instructed to write a response to a letter from in ; the response provided Hyde with directives and further information on topics he had written about. At the direction of the council, Hyde had left Nauvoo on 4 April 1844 to deliver memorials from JS to both houses of Congress and the president, . The documents, in part, petitioned the federal government to make JS a member of the United States Army and authorize him to raise one hundred thousand volunteers to protect American citizens emigrating to and . Hyde arrived in Washington on 23 April and began pursuing the council’s agenda, apprising JS and the Council of Fifty of his activities through a series of letters. His latest letter to the council, dated 30 April, reported political news about Texas and Oregon, informed leaders about the status of the memorials, proposed that the Latter-day Saints emigrate to Texas, and suggested economic undertakings for Nauvoo. On 25 May council members read and discussed this letter and “orderd an answr” written by Richards.
likely drafted the response around eight o’clock in the evening, after returning home from the , where he spent the entire day working. His letter highlighted the importance of JS’s presidential campaign, emphasized the need to gather the poor, instructed Hyde about his responsibility with the memorials, and requested him to assist with JS’s continued efforts to become ’s postmaster.
Although a later docket identifies the letter featured here as a copy, this version is likely the original draft. The disjointed structure of the letter and ’s declaration that his response “must be brief” suggest that he spent little time planning, writing, and editing the draft. Richards sent a fair copy of the letter on 26 May 1844. Since mail took around two to three weeks to travel between and , Richards’s letter probably arrived sometime in early or mid-June. ’s 9 and 11 June letters to the council, however, make no mention of its receipt, which suggests that he had not yet received the letter. By 11 June, Hyde concluded that he had done all he could in Washington to assist the Latter-day Saints, and he left the city sometime between 12 June and the end of the month. It is unclear when or even if Hyde received the letter.
The sent copy of the letter is apparently not extant. The original draft, which was apparently retained in , is featured here.

Footnotes

  1. Council of Fifty, “Record,” 21 Mar. 1844; JS, Journal, 31 Mar. and 4 Apr. 1844; Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 24–26 Mar. 1844; JS, Memorial to the President of the United States of America, 30 Mar. 1844, draft, JS Collection, CHL. In the 11 March entry of the Council of Fifty minutes, William Clayton reported that members “all seemed agreed to look to some place where we can go and establish a Theocracy either in Texas or Oregon or somewhere in California &c.” (Council of Fifty, “Record,” 10–11 Mar. 1844.)

  2. Letter from Orson Hyde, 25 Apr. 1844; Letter from Orson Hyde, 26 Apr. 1844; Letter from Orson Hyde, 30 Apr. 1844.

  3. Council of Fifty, “Record,” 25 May 1844; JS, Journal, 25 May 1844; Richards, Journal, 25 May 1844.

    Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.

  4. Richards’s 25 May journal entry suggests that he returned home before he began writing to Hyde. (Richards, Journal, 25 May 1844.)

    Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.

  5. Richards, Journal, 26 May 1844.

    Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.

  6. For example, Hyde’s 25 and 26 April 1844 letters to JS and the Council of Fifty reached Nauvoo by 13 May 1844. (Historical Introduction to Letter from Orson Hyde, 26 Apr. 1844; see also Letter from Edward Partridge, 3 Jan. 1840.)

  7. Letter from Orson Hyde, 9 June 1844; Letter from Orson Hyde, 11 June 1844. Hyde attended a conference in Boston on 29 June 1844. (Woodruff, Journal, 29 June 1844.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Letter to Orson Hyde, 25 May 1844 History, 1838–1856, volume F-1 [1 May 1844–8 August 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”
N. B your famili[e]s and frie[n]ds were are well, last informati[o]n.— [3/4 page blank] [p. [3]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter to Orson Hyde, 25 May 1844
ID #
10312
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • Willard Richards

Footnotes

  1. In May 1844 Orson Hyde was married to three women: his first wife, Marinda Nancy Johnson, and plural wives Martha Browett and Mary Ann Price. At the time, his only living children were those he had with Johnson: Laura Marinda and Emily Matilda. (Bergera, “Identifying the Earliest Mormon Polygamists, 1841–44,” 8–10, 57–58; Hyde, Orson Hyde, 496–499.)

    Bergera, Gary James. “Identifying the Earliest Mormon Polygamists, 1841–44.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 38, no. 3 (Fall 2005): 1–74.

    Hyde, Myrtle Stevens. Orson Hyde: The Olive Branch of Israel. Salt Lake City: Agreka Books, 2000.

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