[], 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.
live in their wagons or in tents, or at least, the greater part of them. Application was made to the Judge of the Circuit Court for deliverance; and two companies of Militia were ordered out: One of the companies was commanded by , a methodist preacher. The whole was put under the command of ; but they never made the first attempt to disperse the mob. When the people of , enquired of , the reason of his conduct, he always replied, that and his company were so mutinous and mobocratic, that he dare not venture to attempt a dispersion of the mob; saying that if he did, and his company, instead of dispersing the mob, would unite with them. A messenger was sent with a petition to the , requesting aid from him. The man who took the petition, was by the name of Caldwell. He went and saw the , and received for answer, that the Mormons had got into a scrape, and they might fight it out; for he would have nothing to do with it. This was the return made to the citizens of .
The people finding themselves pressed on every hand wtih difficulties, and a mob threatening their lives, and not only threatening, but using all their efforts to take them; for scouting parties were round in every dirction, stealing cattle, horses, and all kinds of property that they could get. They set fire to a house owned by a man by the name of , and burnt it to ashes; and the man and his family barely escaped with their lives. Numbers of them died for want of proper attendance in sickness; for they had been deprived from making any provision whatever, for their families, many of whom were sick, laying in wagons and in tents without any other shelter. Many females, that were in delicate situations, gave birth to children under these forbidding circumstances: and to crown all, their provisions were getting very low, and they could see nothing but actual starvation before them, by continuing where they were. This, added to the sickness in their midst, made their case deplorable indeed. Parents had to stand still, and witness the death of their children without the means, even to make them comforable in their dying moments: and children had to do the same [p. 39]