[], An Appeal to the American People: Being an Account of the Persecutions of the Church of Latter Day Saints; and of the Barbarities Inflicted on Them by the Inhabitants of the State of Missouri; 1–84 pp.; Cincinnati, OH: Glezen and Shepard, stereotypers and printers, 1840. The copy used herein is held at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Historical Introduction
While incarcerated at , Missouri, in March 1839, JS addressed a letter to the church “at Illinois and scattered abroad and to in particular,” instructing the Saints to gather up “a knoledge of all the facts and sufferings and abuses put upon them by the people of this .” Edward Partridge responded with an account that became the three opening installments of “A History, of the Persecution, of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints in Missouri,” an eleven-part series published in the church’s newspaper, Times and Seasons, between December 1839 and October 1840. “A History, of the Persecution” receives comprehensive treatment in volume 2 of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers and is available on this website.
may have intended to tell the entire story himself, but he fell ill shortly after publication of “A History, of the Persecution” began and died on 27 May 1840. Prompted by Partridge’s illness and subsequent death, the editors of the Times and Seasons, and , sought elsewhere for source materials to continue the series. It is probable that they composed the fourth installment to provide a brief transition from Partridge’s account, which ends in 1836, and the conflicts in and adjoining counties in 1838. The fifth and seventh installments reprinted passages from ’s History of the Late Persecutions Inflicted by the State of Missouri upon the Mormons (Detroit: Dawson and Bates, 1839). In May 1840, the sixth installment reprinted passages from ’s eighty-four page pamphlet, An Appeal to the American People: Being an Account of the Persecutions of the Church of Latter Day Saints; and of the Barbarities Inflicted on Them by the Inhabitants of the State of Missouri (Cincinnati: Glezan and Shepard, 1840). More of Rigdon’s work was reprinted in the eighth through tenth installments, published from July to September 1840. The series concluded with an eleventh installment in the October 1840 issue, featuring General ’s callous speech to the Saints after their surrender at , Missouri, in November 1838.
A manuscript version of ’s Appeal to the American People, referred to as the “petition draft” titled “To the Publick” and endorsed by JS, Rigdon, and , was read to a conference of Saints in , Illinois, on 1 November 1839. The conference voted to approve its publication in the name of the church. and then collaborated to arrange for publication of the text in late 1839 and early 1840. Though no author is named on the title page, Rigdon was acknowledged as author when the pamphlet was advertised in the Times and Seasons in 1840 and 1841. JS and Elias Higbee had some expectation that funds from the sale of the publication would help defray costs of their trip to in late 1839. In July 1840, a second edition was printed by Shepard & Stearns in to raise funds for Orson Hyde and ’s mission to .
Although many of the events reported in ’s pamphlet can be corroborated from other sources, his chronology is often inaccurate. (Consult the annotation in Histories, Volume 2 for correction to portions published as part of “A History, of the Persecutions.”) However, his account contains the text of several significant documents. Among these are JS’s 5 September 1838 affidavit concerning the 7 August 1838 visit to and those of and and regarding the massacre. Consequently, though in many respects Rigdon’s document is more advocacy than history, it offers access to some material not readily found elsewhere.
By this removal, the saints lost nearly all they had obtained during the previous three years, which they had resided in ; besides much abuse at the hand of the wretches who had risen up in arms against them. At the succeeding session of the legislature, there was a new county laid off, embracing the before mentioned tract of land, called . A town was soon laid off and incorporated, called “;” and in one year, there was one hundred and fifty houses built,—besides, nearly the whole was entered, or at least, that part of it, which could be cultivated; as there was a great scarcity of timber in the .
In all these operations, there was no pretence to law, they openly declared that they put the law at defiance, saying, “we are the law, and what we say is the constitution.”
The saints being once more settled; they commenced improving the country, which was so great a contrast to the general idleness and lazy habits of the Missourians, which any person with the least discernment could readily discover. This, soon began to excite the jealousies of the surrounding Counties; for nothing can so much excite the jealousy of that people, nor awaken their indignation so much, as to have an intelligent, industrious, and enterprising people, settle any where in the , where they live. Threatenings were again heard from , , Clinton, Platt and Counties, that they were going to raise another mob and come and drive the citizens out of . The immigration was so rapid, and so great, that in the space of eighteen months after the first settlement in , there was not room enough for the people in that , and they were under the necessity of seeking habitations some where else; and a number went into , which was north of , Soon after the settlements commenced in , a mob made its appearance, forbidding them to settle there under pain of death. However, this was not regarded, and the settlements which were made in different parts of the , were increasing daily, until one or two whole townships were entered, besides large bodies of land, [p. 16]