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Letter to Thomas Ford, 22 June 1844

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Letter to Thomas Ford, 22 June 1844

Source Note

[JS], Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to , [, Hancock Co., IL], 22 June 1844; included enclosures (not extant). Featured version copied [22 June 1844]; handwriting of ; three pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes dockets and redactions.
Bifolium measuring 9⅝ × 7¾ inches (24 × 20 cm). The first three pages were each ruled vertically with a single line on the left side of the page. The letter was trifolded for filing.
The document was docketed by , who served as a clerk for JS in 1844. It was copied into JS’s manuscript history in 1856 by Jonathan Grimshaw, who served as a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) from 1853 to 1856. In preparing the letter for inclusion within JS’s history, Grimshaw made revisions to the letter in graphite. The document was listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office circa 1904. The letter was docketed a second time by Andrew Jenson, who began working in the Church Historian’s Office in 1891 and served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s dockets, its revisions by Grimshaw, its listing in the circa 1904 inventory, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. See JS History, vol. F-1, 133; Nauvoo Registry of Deeds, Record of Deeds, bk. B, pp. 213–214; Source Note for Ordinance, 10 June 1844; and Source Note for Military Order to Jonathan Dunham, 10 June 1844.

  2. JS History, vol. F-1, 136–137; Source Note for and Historical Introduction to History, 1838–1856, vol. F-1; see also Historian’s Office, Journal, 7 June 1853; and 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. “Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [4], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  4. 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.

  5. See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 22 June 1844, JS wrote a letter from , Illinois, to Governor in , Illinois, introducing affidavits that defended the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor’s press, asking Ford to come to Nauvoo, and assuring him that dissidents were not being unduly arrested and that their property was being protected. On 21 June, JS had received a letter from Ford requesting that he send representatives to Carthage to present his version of the events surrounding the 10 June destruction of the Expositor’s press and the resulting troubles. That afternoon, the Nauvoo City Council met and gathered a number of affidavits detailing threats against JS and other members in , Illinois. and carried these affidavits and other documents to Carthage later that night. At Ford’s request, on the morning of 22 June, church member and attorney carried news to JS about the governor’s investigation of the Expositor’s destruction. Babbitt notified JS of various accusations made to Ford that the Saints had destroyed or stolen property belonging to or and some of the other proprietors of the Expositor. Babbitt likely also informed JS that Ford had heard rumors about individuals being arrested and imprisoned as a result of JS’s declaration of martial law in Nauvoo on 18 June.
JS’s 22 June letter, written later that morning, was a further reply to ’s letter from the previous day and was based in part on the new intelligence JS had just received from . In the letter, JS addressed a variety of subjects, including the reasons for the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor, JS’s hesitancy to be tried on the matter at , and his desire to meet with Ford in person at to discuss the events surrounding the Expositor’s . JS closed the letter by refuting allegations that the people of Nauvoo had destroyed or interfered with the private property of the Expositor’s owners. He also denied that city officials had incarcerated anyone who had not broken the law in Nauvoo. Accompanying this letter to Ford were several more affidavits, likely including one JS had sworn out the previous evening, describing the threats of violence against the Latter-day Saints over the previous few weeks.
Sometime during the late morning, JS gave the letter and affidavits to church member , one of his aides-de-camp in the , who started for around noon along with , a lawyer from , Iowa Territory. It would have taken these men several hours to traverse the approximately twenty miles between and Carthage. Later that afternoon, at about five o’clock, sent a lengthy letter to JS. Some of the information in Ford’s letter indicates that he had not received JS’s letter before writing his own. Ford likely received JS’s morning letter later that evening.
At least three contemporaneous copies of this letter were written: a draft in the handwriting of , the copy sent to , and a retained copy made by , a member of JS’s office staff. The sent copy is not extant, and it is unclear whether the draft or the retained copy more accurately reflects the contents of the letter sent to Ford. The retained copy is featured here, with significant differences between the draft and the retained copy noted. added JS’s signature to the featured copy at a later date because JS did not sign this copy himself.

Footnotes

  1. Letter from Thomas Ford, 21 June 1844; see also “Joseph Smith Documents from 16 May through 28 June 1844.”

  2. Minutes, 21 June 1844.

  3. Historical Introduction to Letter to Thomas Ford, 21 June 1844.

  4. JS, Journal, 22 June 1844; Proclamation, 18 June 1844. In the letter featured here, JS indicated specifically that Babbitt notified JS of the accusations of stolen property, but JS asserted that no one had been illegally detained without giving any context for making the statement. Ford discussed the rumors in a 22 June 1844 letter to JS, but that letter did not arrive in Nauvoo until ten o’clock at night, after JS had already sent his 22 June letter, so it is likely that Babbitt’s report instigated the remark. (Letter from Thomas Ford, 22 June 1844.)

  5. Affidavit, 21 June 1844; see also, for example, John P. Greene, Affidavit, Nauvoo, IL, 21 June 1844, copy, JS Collection, CHL; and Joseph H. Jackson, Affidavit, Nauvoo, IL, 21 June 1844–B; Gideon Gibbs, Affidavit, Nauvoo, IL, 22 June 1844, JS Office Papers, CHL.

  6. JS, Journal, 22 June 1844; Militia Returns, Nauvoo Legion, 15 June 1841, [1], Illinois Governor, Military Correspondence, microfilm, CHL; Letter to Thomas Ford, 22–23 June 1844. Woodworth was a trusted envoy, having recently completed a mission for JS and the Council of Fifty to meet with President Sam Houston in the Republic of Texas. (“The Council of Fifty in Nauvoo, Illinois”; Council of Fifty, “Record,” 3 May 1844.)

    Illinois Governor. Military Correspondence, 1839–1844. Microfilm. CHL. MS 8716.

  7. Ford’s letter makes no mention of having received JS’s letter and explores subjects such as the unlawful detainment of Nauvoo citizens in a general way instead of responding to specific points in JS’s letter. Furthermore, the timeline of events suggests that it would have been very improbable for Ford to have seen JS’s letter before sending his own to Nauvoo. (JS, Journal, 22 June 1844; Letter from Thomas Ford, 22 June 1844; John Taylor, Statement, 23 Aug. 1856, 24–25, Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, CHL.)

  8. Although Woods did not mention that Woodworth delivered the letter, he recalled that he arrived in Carthage “on the evening of the 22d” at which time he had an “interview with Gov. Ford.” Ford presumably received JS’s letter at this time. Woods stated that it was during his interview with Ford that he learned “that the constable with a posse had that evening gone to Nauvoo with a writ for Smith and others.” (James W. Woods, Statement, Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 30 June 1844, [1]; James W. Woods, Statement, Times and Seasons, 1 July 1844, 5:563.)

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  9. Sometime between 1853 and 1856, most likely between April and June 1856, Jonathan Grimshaw, a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office, inserted several phrases from the draft copy into the retained copy, with a few minor changes, as he was preparing the letter for inclusion in JS’s history. Grimshaw’s changes, being later redactions, are not noted here, even when they differ from the text in the draft copy. (JS, Nauvoo, IL, to Thomas Ford, [Carthage, IL], 22 June 1844, draft, JS Collection, CHL; JS History, vol. F-1, 136–137; Historical Introduction to History, 1838–1856, vol. F-1.)

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. Letter to Thomas Ford, 22 June 1844, William Clayton Draft *Letter to Thomas Ford, 22 June 1844 History, 1838–1856, volume F-1 [1 May 1844–8 August 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”
I am informed this morning that some Gentleman has made affidavit that he had a private conversation with me in which I stated that I had Secret correspondence with you &c. If any person has been wicked enough to do this he is a perjured villian, for in the first place I do not suffer myself to hold private conversation with any stranger, and in the second place I have never even intimated any thing of the kind as having secret correspondence with your .
Our troubles are invariably brought upon us by falsehood & misrepresentations by designing men, we have ever held ourselves amenable to the law, and for myself Sir, I am ever ready to conform to and support the laws and constitution even at the expense of my life, I have never in the least offered any resistance to law, or lawful process which is a fact well known to the public, all of which circumstances make us the more anxious to have you come to and investigate the whole matter.
Now Sir is it not an easy matter to distinguish between those who have pledged themselves to exterminate innocent men, women and children, and those who have only stood in the<​ir​> own defence and in defence of their innocent families and that to in accordance with the constitution & laws of the as required by their oaths and as good and law abiding citizens.
In regard to the destruction of the press the truth only needs to be presented before your to satisfy you of the Justice of the proceedings. The press was established by a set of men who had already set themselves at defiance of the [p. [2]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter to Thomas Ford, 22 June 1844
ID #
1431
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • John McEwan

Footnotes

  1. Ford was familiar with previous efforts JS made to use legal means to evade arrest and extradition to Missouri on various charges that JS believed were illegal. (See, for example, Ordinance, 5 July 1842; Petition to Nauvoo Municipal Court, 8 Aug. 1842; Letter to John M. Bernhisel, 7 Sept. 1842; Letter from Thomas Ford, 17 Dec. 1842; Petition to Chauncey Robison, 26 Dec. 1842; and Petition to the United States Circuit Court for the District of Illinois, 31 Dec. 1842.)

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