, Letter, , to JS, [, Hancock Co., IL?], 20 Feb. 1840. Featured version copied [between Apr. and June 1840] in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 96–97; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 2.
Historical Introduction
On 20 February 1840, wrote two letters to JS from . In the first letter, Higbee discussed testimony he had presented before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which was considering the ’s memorial to Congress. The letter featured here refers to that account of Higbee’s remarks, indicating that this was the second letter he wrote that day. In this letter, Higbee addressed matters associated with the travel expenses of the church’s delegation to the federal government. He also requested that certain documents—including affidavits and newspaper articles that supported statements he had made before the judiciary committee—be sent to him so that he could present them to the committee.
presumably sent this letter by post to , Illinois, where JS would have received it after he returned from on or before 29 February 1840. The original letter is not extant. copied the version featured here into JS Letterbook 2 sometime between April and June 1840.
In my remarks I refered you to a resolution passed at a large meeting of the citizens of (which was), all mormons who would deny their religion should be protected in or any other County in the . The resolution was published in the Newspapers at , & I think copied by the Mo. Republican. I wish you would send me a Paper that contains that statement if you can find such a one; also the affidavits concerning false swearing by & Co or to prove their rascality or bad character and direct the same to —
The 24 October 1838 meeting held in Richmond, Missouri, at which this resolution was passed, opened with a report on the burning of homes in Daviess County, Missouri. (“The Mormon War Again,” Jeffersonian Republican [Jefferson City, MO], 3 Nov. 1838, [2].)
Jeffersonian Republican. Jefferson City, MO. 1831–1844.
LeSueur, Stephen C. The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1987.
Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).