[], 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.
office required no more at their hand; we have no more to say, but will let the sovereign people give their decision, and the God of Eternity dispose of them, and the matter; as seemeth wisdom and justice in his eyes.
After tampering with them as we before stated, and after having the fullest evidence that could be given; even that of their own testimony; that they were a gang of thieves and plunderers, they took , the reputed leader of the gang, and united him and his company with their troops and called the Militia, just as had done with the mob, in : and after this maneuver, disbanded them, and sent them home, as if they had been Militia regualarly called out.
It would take a volume larger than our present purpose will admit to tell all the outrages, committed by this banditti of plunderers; for it was precisely with them, as it had been with the mobs of and counties. Corn fields were laid open by them to the destruction of beasts, and carried off in wagon loads to feed their horses: cattle were killed in multitudes. There were one hundred head of cattle, belonging to the saints, which were missing, and have never been obtained until this day, nor heard of. Horses, also were taken, that belonged to them a great number of them, and have not been obtained since. Some of them have since been heard of but the lives of the owners have been threatened if they offered to take them, or even to go where they were. People passing civilly along the road, were stopped, insulted and abused, out of all bearing; and not only insulted and abused, but plundered. Families that were moving were prevented from going to their places. Bodies of armed men were passing and repassing; not only through , but the adjoining Counties in open violation of the laws; committing depredations, and abusing civil citizens, and that in the face of the authorities of the ; the having full knowledge of it, yet, the transgressors went unpunished. And when the Militia, under the before mentioned generals, went to quell them, all that was done, was to make Milita out of them, and disband them, and send them home to enjoy the plunder which they had taken; and to gratify themselves with rehearsing to their [p. 31]