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Warrant for Arrest of Robert D. Foster, 9 May 1844 [City of Nauvoo v. R. D. Foster–C]

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Introduction to City of Nauvoo v. R. D. Foster–B, City of Nauvoo v. R. D. Foster–C, and State of Illinois v. R. D. Foster Warrant for Arrest of Robert D. Foster, 9 May 1844 [City of Nauvoo v. R. D. Foster–C]

Warrant for Arrest of Robert D. Foster, 9 May 1844 [City of Nauvoo v. R. D. Foster–C]

Source Note

JS as mayor, Warrant, to Nauvoo city marshal [], for , , Hancock Co., IL, 9 May 1844, City of Nauvoo v. R. D. Foster–C (Nauvoo, IL, Mayor’s Court 1844). Featured version copied [ca. 9 May 1844]; handwriting of ; one page; JS Office Papers, CHL. Includes docket and notation.
Single leaf measuring 9¾ × 7¼–7¾ inches (25 × 18–20 cm). The warrant was inscribed on the recto. The verso was probably initially blank but now includes a partial draft of JS’s 13 May 1844 letter to . Damage to the left side of the page has resulted in the loss of some text. The leaf was folded for filing and docketed.
The document was docketed by James Ure, who served as a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office from 1852 to 1855. A notation, “A.J.”, was 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 document was listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office circa 1904. In 2012 the document was cataloged as part of the JS Office Papers. The document’s early docket and notation, its listing in a circa 1904 inventory, and its later inclusion in the JS Office Papers indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Historian’s Office, Journal, 10 May 1852 and 1 Dec. 1855; Woodruff, Journal, 22 Apr. 1856.

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

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

  2. [2]

    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.

  3. [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. [4]

    This collection comprises correspondence addressed to JS’s clerks, correspondence to other recipients that was forwarded to JS for his perusal, copies of miscellaneous documents created by JS’s clerks, and miscellaneous financial documents. (See “Introduction to Joseph Smith Office Papers.”)

Historical Introduction

Acting as mayor of , Illinois, JS issued an arrest warrant for on 9 May 1844. About five days earlier, Nauvoo resident Jonas Killmer had made a complaint before JS that he had been assaulted and threatened by Foster. The conflict between Killmer, a member, and Foster, who had been excommunicated recently, arose during a period of increasing tension between JS and Foster. The day after issuing a warrant for Foster’s arrest, JS presided over a court-martial that voted unanimously to cashier Foster from his office of surgeon general.
JS directed the warrant to city marshal , ordering him to bring to court to answer Killmer’s charge. JS apparently signed the warrant and added a seal. The warrant was presumably transmitted to Greene and served on Foster. Available court records are silent about the outcome of this warrant.
The only extant version of the warrant appears to be a draft or copy that was retained in the mayor’s office. It includes neither seal nor signature of JS, and the verso of the leaf was used in drafting JS’s 13 May 1844 letter to . The official version of the warrant has not been located. The copied version is therefore featured here.
See also Introduction to City of Nauvoo v. R. D. Foster–B, City of Nauvoo v. R. D. Foster–C, and State of Illinois v. R. D. Foster.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Platt, Nauvoo, 109, 220; Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, 28 Nov. 1843, Record Group 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives, Washington DC.

    Platt, Lyman De. Nauvoo: Early Mormon Records Series, 1839–1846. Vol. 1. Highland, UT, 1980.

  2. [2]

    Foster had been excommunicated from the church for “unchristianlike conduct” three weeks earlier. (JS, Journal, 18 Apr. 1844; see also “Joseph Smith Documents from 1 January through 15 May 1844.”)

  3. [3]

    Court-Martial Proceedings, 10 May 1844, Nauvoo Legion Records, CHL. Foster was dismissed on the grounds that he claimed that JS had tried a few years earlier to recruit Foster to assassinate former Missouri governor Lilburn W. Boggs.

  4. [4]

    See Letter to Henry Clay, 13 May 1844.

Page [1]

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State of Illinois)
City of )
The People of the State of To the of said Greeting—
Whereas Complaint has been made before me Joseph Smith Mayor in and for the said City of upon the oath of Jonas Killmer that [on?] or about the 4th Day of May AD. 1844 in the said city of one Did violently and maliciously assault the Said Jonas Killmer With a Brick Bat and did threaten to knock him Down if he Stirred and also did threaten to blow him through if he came onto Street that Street again and Did use other threatening abusive & impertinant [l]anguage Towards him, contra[r]y to the ordinances of [sa]id in such cases made & provided—
These are therefore to Command you [i]n the name of the People of the State of to take the Body of the said and have him forthwith before me to answer said Charge and be further dealt with according to Law— Given under my hand and seal this 9th Day of May AD. 1844 [p. [1]]
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Source Note

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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Warrant for Arrest of Robert D. Foster, 9 May 1844 [City of Nauvoo v. R. D. Foster–C]
ID #
7706
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • George Stiles

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    TEXT: “[page torn]anguage”. Here and below, text missing due to page damage is supplied from context.

  2. [2]

    TEXT: “[page torn]id”.

  3. [3]

    The city ordinance to which JS referred was probably the January 1843 “Laws and Ordinances of the City of Nauvoo.” Section 3 of those laws prohibited “any abusive, indecent, or threatening words to another individual.” (Ordinances, 30 Jan. 1843.)

  4. [4]

    TEXT: “[page torn]n”.

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