Letter, 30 October 1833
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Source Note
Unidentified author, Letter, , Jackson Co., MO, to “Dear brethren” (including JS), [, Geauga Co., OH], 30 Oct. 1833. Extract published in “The Outrage in Jackson County, Missouri,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 119.The Evening and the Morning Star (, Jackson Co., MO, and , Geauga Co., OH), vol. 2, nos. 13–24, June 1833–Sept. 1834; nos. 13–14 edited by (in Independence) and nos. 15–24 edited by (in Kirtland). The copy used for transcription is currently part of a bound volume held at CHL; includes marginalia, archival marking, stamps, and bookplates.Each issue comprises four leaves (eight pages) that measure 12½ × 9⅞ inches (32 × 25 cm). Each page is set in two columns. The copy used for this volume was donated to the Salt Lake Temple by Lycurgus A. Wilson on 8 September 1894, according to a bookplate on the inside front cover of the volume. The volume was transferred to the library of the Church Historian’s Office sometime before 1923.
Footnotes
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1
“Library Record,” book no. 1239.
“Library Record for the Listing or Cataloguing of Books.” Historian’s Office, Library Accession Records, ca. 1890–ca. 1930. CHL. CR 100 429.
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1
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Historical Introduction
In late July 1833, church members, under duress and likely hoping to placate angry citizens, agreed to begin leaving , Missouri, by the following January. In return their neighbors promised to leave them in peace. Whether church members actually intended to vacate their lands is unclear. “The saints were not pleased with the idea of leaving the county,” remembered , “and few of them, at first, believed that they would have to leave it, thinking that the government would protect them, in their constitutional rights.” Other residents, however, fully expected the Mormons to evacuate. wrote that sometime after the violence of 20 July 1833, a neighbor threatened to force him off his land as he worked in his fields: “Mr Pettegrew, you are at work, as though you intended to remain here.” Pettegrew responded, “I thought I had ‘right to stay upon my own land.’” The neighbor yelled back, “We are determined to drive you away from this Country, and we will stop you from emigrating here.” Certainly, some church members intended to remain on their property in Jackson County; as indicated in the letter extract featured here, threats meant to prevent Mormon immigration did not stop some families from moving to in the fall of 1833.In an 18 August 1833 letter, JS encouraged church members to retain their deeds and remain on their lands in despite the agreement made by church leaders the month before. In the letter, delivered by and sometime in the latter half of September, JS advised faithful church members not to sell their lands in Jackson County: “Not one foot of land perchased should be given to the enimies of God or sold to them.” He also suggested they “send Embasadors to the authorities of the government and sue for protection and redress.” Late in September 1833, church leaders prepared a petition and sent it to Missouri governor , asking him to raise troops to protect the Mormons so the Mormons could defend their rights and initiate lawsuits for “the loss of property—for abuse—for defamation.” The Missouri church leaders also suggested that the perpetrators of the violence against them be tried for treason. Almost immediately after arriving in Missouri, Hyde traveled with to , Missouri, and on 7 October 1833 delivered to Governor Dunklin the petition requesting redress for wrongs committed against church members in July. Dunklin received the petition before other Jackson County residents learned of the Mormons’ request for redress. On 19 October 1833, Dunklin responded to their plea saying, “No citizen nor number of citizens have a right to take the redress of their grievances, whether real or imaginary, into their own hands. . . . I would advise you to make a trial of the efficacy of the laws.” He also admonished them to seek redress through the court system in Jackson County.According to the letter extract featured here, one day after sent his response to church leaders, and likely before they received his missive, church leaders publicly announced their intentions to defend themselves and to remain on their lands. An newspaper reported later that members of the church “declined taking up their line of march as they had stipulated, and instead thereof, had erected a temporary bulwark, and supplied themselves with fire locks for the purpose of nullifying, in accordance with the legal advisement of their prophet, the treaty they had entered into.” After announcing that they would remain on their lands, church leaders took the advice of both JS and Governor Dunklin and hired legal counsel. On 30 October, accepted, on behalf of several church leaders in , a proposal from prominent attorneys , , , and to represent them in litigation. While church leaders attempted to gain executive protection and to seek legal redress through the courts, their public defiance of the previous agreement angered many of the non-Mormon citizens of and sparked renewed violence. Opponents had begun to organize on 21 October, and according to , on 31 October “a mob of forty or fifty, collected and proceeded armed to a of the church, who lived eight or ten miles south west of , there they unroofed ten houses, and partly threw down the bodies of some of them; they caught three or four of the men, . . . they whip[p]ed, and beat them in a barbarous manner.”The same day that agreed to hire legal counsel, a church member in wrote the letter featured here to JS and other church leaders in , Ohio. The original is no longer extant. Although he did not identify the author, included an extract of the letter in the December 1833 issue of The Evening and the Morning Star in an article meant to inform readers of the violence in . In addition to that extract, that same article included extracts of three other unattributed letters and a letter attributed to . Cowdery may have purposely omitted the names of the authors of four of the letters because of ongoing legal issues in Missouri. Yet internal and external evidence identifies the authors of three of the four unattributed letters. William W. Phelps wrote the letters dated 6–7 November and 14 November 1833, and penned the missive dated 17 November 1833. The authorship of the letter featured here, however, remains uncertain.and likely delivered this and other letters to after leaving early in November 1833. On 25 November 1833, wrote in JS’s journal that Hyde and Gould “returned from and brough[t] the melencholly intelegen [intelligence] of the riot in Zion with the inhabitants in pers[e]cuting the breth[r]en.” That “intelligence” may have included the information found in this letter.
Footnotes
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1
See Memorandum of Agreement, 23 July 1833, CHL; see also Letter from John Whitmer, 29 July 1833.
Memorandum of Agreement, 23 July 1833. CHL.
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2
[Edward Partridge], “A History, of the Persecution,” Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:19.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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3
Pettegrew, “History,” 17.
Pettegrew, David. “An History of David Pettegrew,” not after 1858. Pettigrew Collection, 1837–1858, 1881–1892, 1908–1930. CHL.
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5
Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson Co., MO, 10 Aug. 1833; Letter to Vienna Jaques, 4 Sept. 1833; Oliver Cowdery, Kirtland, OH, to John Whitmer, Missouri, 1 Jan. 1834, in Cowdery, Letterbook, 14–17; Knight, History, 439.
Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Knight, Newel. History. Private possession. Copy in CHL. MS 19156.
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7
JS History, vol. A-1, 346; Corrill, Brief History, 19; see also “To His Excellency, Daniel Dunklin,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 114–115.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
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8
See Letter from John Whitmer, 29 July 1833; Knight, History, 440; Daniel Dunklin to Orson Hyde, 8 Oct. 1833, William W. Phelps, Collection of Missouri Documents, CHL; and “To His Excellency, Daniel Dunklin,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 114–115.
Knight, Newel. History. Private possession. Copy in CHL. MS 19156.
Phelps, William W. Collection of Missouri Documents, 1833–1837. CHL. MS 657.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
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9
Daniel Dunklin, Jefferson City, MO, to Edward Partridge et al., Independence, MO, 19 Oct. 1833, William W. Phelps, Collection of Missouri Documents, CHL.
Phelps, William W. Collection of Missouri Documents, 1833–1837. CHL. MS 657.
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10
“More Nullification,” Ashtabula (OH) Republican, 7 Dec. 1833, [2], italics in original. The Painesville Telegraph printed a similar report: “It is said that, since the previous affair, the Prophet had sent orders to the brethren there, to ‘stand by their arms,’ instead of leaving the place as they had agreed. They had accordingly erected some kind of baricade and supplied themselves with arms.” (“More Trouble in the Mormon Camp,” Painesville [OH] Telegraph, 29 Nov. 1833, [3].)
Ashtabula Republican. Ashtabula, OH. June–Dec. 1833.
Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1822–1986.
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11
On 28 October 1833, the law firm of Doniphan, Atchison, Rees, and Wood offered to do legal work for the church but required $1,000 to do so. Two days later, Phelps accepted their terms and agreed to pay them the amount within six months. (William T. Wood et al., Independence, MO, to William W. Phelps et al., 28 Oct. 1833; William W. Phelps et al. to William T. Wood et al., 30 Oct. 1833, William W. Phelps, Collection of Missouri Documents, CHL.)
Phelps, William W. Collection of Missouri Documents, 1833–1837. CHL. MS 657.
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12
See “From Missouri,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Jan. 1834, 124–126.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
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13
[Edward Partridge], “A History, of the Persecution,” Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:19. Orson Hyde wrote that the mob demolished twelve dwelling houses and beat some men “with stones and clubs, leaving barely a breath of life in them.” (“The Outrage in Jackson County, Missouri,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 118.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
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14
“The Outrage in Jackson County, Missouri,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 118–119.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
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15
“The Outrage in Jackson County, Missouri,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 118; Letter from William W. Phelps, 6–7 Nov., 1833; Letter from William W. Phelps, 14 Nov. 1833; Letter from John Corrill, 17 Nov. 1833.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
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16
“The Outrage in Jackson County, Missouri,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 118.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
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17
JS, Journal, 25 Nov. 1833.
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