Sidney Rigdon, JS, et al., Petition Draft (“To the Publick”), circa 1838–1839
Source Note
, JS, et al., Petition Draft (“To the Publick”), ca. Sept. 1838–ca. Oct. 1839; handwriting of , , , , and two unidentified scribes; 112 inscribed pages with eight inserted slips of paper; JS Collection, CHL.
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 state.” 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 beginning in 1838. The fifth and seventh installments reprinted passages from ’s History of the Late Persecution Inflicted by the State of Missouri upon the Mormons (Detroit: Dawson and Bates, 1839). In May 1840, the sixth installment drew upon ’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 the Barbarities Inflicted on Them by the Inhabitants of the State of Missouri (Cincinnati: Glezan and Shepard, 1840), a draft of which is presented here. Though no author is named on the title page of the pamphlet, Rigdon was acknowledged as responsible for that publication when it was advertised in the Times and Seasons in 1840 and 1841. Also, much of this draft is in Rigdon’s hand. 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.
The manuscript version of ’s Appeal to the American People presented here is referred to as the “petition draft” titled “To the Publick”. On 1 November 1839, Rigdon’s recently completed petition draft, endorsed by JS, Rigdon, and , was read to a conference of Saints in , Illinois, who then 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.
Although many of the events reported in ’s draft and pamphlet can be corroborated from other sources, his chronology is often inaccurate. (Consult the annotation in Histories,Volume 2 for corrections 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 his 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.
, 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 entended as soon as they got the pay for their lands and other property they would <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, as they said, that the law could <not> be enforced against them, for so doing.
After they all had left , and got collected at Carrill, they set guards, The roads were so infested by <by them,> them that travelers were intercepte[d] on the way as they were peaceably passing along the roads. <were stopped by them> 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 amunition with the cannon in abundance. Bodies of armed men gathered in to aid them from all the adjoining counties, particularly, from , Saline, , Howard, , and Clinton, , Platt, as well as other places <and> parts of the . Among the numbers 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 <collected> they closely invested the place, -[]-. A large portion of the people there, had only just arived, and they were ford forbidden by these villians to go out of the place, under pain of death. They were deprived of getting food or providing houses for themself [p. [25[b]]]