[], 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, second edition; i-vi, 7–60 pp.; Cincinnati, OH: Shepard and Stearns, 1840. The copy used herein is held at CHL.
A manuscript draft of this pamphlet, simply titled “To the Publick” was presented to a conference of church members at , Illinois, on 1 November 1839. The conference voted to approve the manuscript and authorized its publication on behalf of the church. The pamphlet, when published, carried the endorsement of JS, , and as “Presidents of said Church.”
and collaborated on the publication of the text, which was available in print by May 1840. Though no author is named on the title page, was acknowledged as author in an 1840 Times and Seasons newspaper article, and when the pamphlet was advertised in that church periodical in 1841. JS and held some expectation that funds from the sale of An Appeal would eventually help defray costs of their late-1839 trip to .
By July 1840, and had been authorized to produce a second, revised edition to be published by Shepard & Stearns in . Page related some of the circumstances surrounding its publication and circulation in a letter sent to JS, “. . . at [Ohio] we parted for a few days . . . Elder Hyde went to Cincinnati where in my absince he published a second Edition of the ‘Apeal to the American people’ (2000 copies)[.] when I arrived the work was about completed[.] after disposing of as many of them as posible and suplying the market about cincinnati and the adjacient country he left me with some fourteen or fifteen hundred on hand, to dispose of” (John E. Page, Philadelphia, PA, to JS et al., Nauvoo, IL, 1 Sept. 1841, JS Collection, CHL). Funds from this printing were to be for the express purpose of subsidizing Hyde and Page’s imminent mission to in Palestine.
The second edition was essentially a lightly edited reprint of the first, with a four-page “Publisher’s Preface” added. In the preface, and noted the purpose of the publication, explained the severe hardships imposed by the persecutions upon Page’s own family, provided a detailed account of a vision experienced by Hyde, and expressed enthusiasm about the prospects of the mission. The preface also contained a copy of an official letter of appointment and commendation for Hyde and Page from an April 1840 church conference at , Illinois, signed by JS, and a letter of reference from , governor of .
Although many of the events reported in both editions of ’s pamphlet can be corroborated from other sources, his chronology of events is often inaccurate. However, Rigdon’s account does contain the texts of several significant documents. Among these are JS’s September 1838 affidavit concerning the 7 August 1838 visit to and those of and regarding the massacre. Consequently, though in many respects Rigdon’s document from a historical perspective is more advocacy than history, it offers access to some important material not readily found elsewhere.
They did not attempt to charge the Saints with crime, it was their religion and their religion only to which they took exception.
This banditti went and joined the mob, when they commenced their operations after the election; and when they were turned into militia by , , and ; and disbanded as troops regularly called out. The whole posse went directly from to attack the settlement of , as well as the scattering families through Carroll county. It was sometime about the last of September, 1838, that they left for Carroll, threatening vengeance to the Saints, without regard to sex or age.
, for a little season, by this means was free from them. It was during this time that the people of made sale of their lands and other property to the Saints, all the time saying to their particular friends, that they intended, as soon as they got pay for their lands and other property, to drive the Saints off, and take it by force from them. They declared that they were fools if they did not do so, seeing that the law could not be enforced against them for so doing.
After they had left and got collected at Carroll they set guards: The roads were so infested with them that travellers were interrupted on the way as they were peaceably passing along the roads. The more effectually to accomplish their purpose they sent to and got a cannon; it was said to be a six pounder. They also got balls and ammunition with the cannon in abundance. Bodies of armed men gathered in to aid them from all the adjoining counties, particularly from , Saline, Howard, , Clinton, , Platt, and other parts of the . Among the number that came was a man by the name of Jackson, from Howard, who was appointed their leader. He was called Captain Jackson, and was among the number of the volunteers that went to Florida, and cut such a figure there, as reported by Col. Taylor.
The whole band being collected they closely infested the place. A large portion of the people there had just arrived, and they were forbidden to go out of the place under pain of death. They were deprived of getting food or providing houses for themselves. As fast as their cattle, horses, or any other property got where they could get hold of it, it was carried off as spoil. If any of the people left the town, on any occasion, they were shot at by layers-in-wait, who were laying concealed for the purpose. By these outrages the families were compelled to live in their wagons or in tents, 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 named Caldwell—he went and saw the , and received for answer, that the Mormons had got into a [p. 29]