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Introduction to the Legal Records Series

Introduction to the Legal Records Series

Joseph Smith was working in his on 18 March 1843 when he arranged a stack of law books on his writing table as a pillow and lay down. He instructed his scribe to “write & tell the world I accknowlidge myself a very great lawyer. I am going to study law & this is the way I study.” Richards recorded that Smith “fell asleep. & went to snoring.” Although Smith humorously acknowledged his lack of formal legal training, his lifelong involvement with the American legal system compelled him to learn the law to an unusual degree for a nonattorney. During his lifetime, he participated as a plaintiff (or complainant), defendant, or witness in dozens of civil and criminal cases in , , , , , and . In addition, when he became mayor of , Illinois, in May 1842, he served as judge of two city courts, presiding over numerous cases.

The Legal Records Series of the Joseph Smith Papers is an online-only series featuring extant case files from one hundred and fifty legal cases heard during Smith’s lifetime. An additional forty-three cases for which no papers have survived are reconstructed from other sources in three finding aids—Joseph Smith and Civil Litigation, Joseph Smith and the Criminal Justice System, and Joseph Smith as a Judge. The series also features documents from the 1845 trial of Smith’s accused assassins, as well as the records of his estate and twelve cases brought against the estate. The Legal Records Series represents decades of dedicated research by attorneys, archivists, and historians who have scoured courthouses, repositories, and private manuscript collections to tell the stories of Smith’s legal cases.

The Legal Records Series organizes Smith’s cases by state or territory, then by judgment date of the case’s final jurisdiction.

Cases with extant records are published in their entirety—from initiation through judgment and any subsequent appeals—even if Smith was involved in only a portion of the proceedings. Within each case, documents are listed chronologically by jurisdiction. Brief historical introductions place cases in historical and legal context.

A calendar of documents for each legal case lists all known documents, whether extant or not, and footnotes may identify versions created for purposes outside of formal court proceedings.

Joseph Smith and the Law in Early America

Like other Americans born during the years following the American Revolution, Joseph Smith came of age during an era of patriotism and optimism. On 9 July 1843, he recounted that his grandfathers “diffused into [his] soul” a love of “civil and religious liberty” while they “dandld [him] on their knees.” Smith’s early revelations affirmed a commonly held belief among early Americans that the Constitution was of divine origin, and he included “obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law” among the church’s core beliefs.

The was still young when Joseph Smith organized the in 1830, and its legal system was still maturing. Although long-established counties had stately courthouses that symbolized the rule of law, in some frontier counties—including those in northwestern where Smith lived in 1838—court was held in schools, taverns, homes, or outdoor areas. convened court in their homes, offices, and other ad hoc locations.

Aspiring lawyers did not go to law schools, which would not become common until the 1870s. Instead, novices apprenticed with established attorneys, reading “lawyer’s law”—treatises such as William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, American court decisions, and statutes—until they were ready to seek admittance to the bar.

It was not a given that judges, even on state supreme courts and county courts, would be trained lawyers, and most justices of the peace had little knowledge of the law prior to obtaining their commissions.

Many Americans preferred “common sense jurisprudence” over “lawyer’s law,” seeing the role of attorneys and judges as seeking fairness between neighbors rather than strict conformity to established law. Suspicious of legal complexities, they often employed anti-attorney and anti-litigation rhetoric.

Smith was no different. He condemned lawyers for being among the first to persecute the Saints. He referred disparagingly to “vexatious lawsuits” and the lawyers who instigated them. He presumably agreed with , who argued in March 1844 that attorneys should “tell what the Law is. and then let the people go and act upon—it.” Justices of the peace, Young said, should “inquir[e] into the cause [of disputes] and till them how to settle.—and thus put down Law suits” and “cure lawing.” Of necessity, however, Smith employed lawyers to represent his interests in court and sought their counsel in lawsuits that would become a constant in his life by the mid-1830s.

Civil Litigation

The Legal Records Series features case files for seventy-six civil suits, which constitute more than one-third of Joseph Smith’s total case count. The majority of his civil suits stemmed from unpaid financial obligations. Revelations dictated by Joseph Smith called for ambitious projects requiring substantial capital, including the building of . While church leaders sought to finance these projects through and , they realized they would need to seek additional sources of capital. This meant they needed to assume substantial debt, as few individuals or groups in nineteenth-century America were capable of raising funds on such a scale. In the 1830s, Smith and other church leaders incurred large debts from merchants in the eastern in hopes of developing the economy around , Ohio, and thereby funding construction of the . However, the nationwide economic downturn of 1837 “created an untold volume of litigation” as creditors turned to the courts to collect on unpaid promissory notes, and Smith was named as a defendant in thirty-four lawsuits stemming from unfulfilled financial obligations incurred during the 1830s. Between February 1837 and January 1838, he was arrested at least nine times in debt-collection suits.

Another ambitious financial project that led to subsequent litigation occurred in September 1840, when Smith and other church leaders purchased a steamboat from the federal government for $4,866.38 using a . They intended to use the boat to ferry church members as well as transport goods for a fee on the . Soon after the purchase, the steamboat crashed on a sandbar. The loss of the boat resulted in multiple lawsuits in the 1840s, as Smith and the other signatories attempted to recoup their losses and in turn were sued for unfulfilled obligations. In 1842, the cumulative weight of the church debts incurred in his name, or subsequently assumed by him, led Smith to avail himself of a recently passed federal bankruptcy bill. In response, federal officials in 1842 sued him and the other signatories on the 1840 note to collect payment for the steamboat, resulting in a judgment against the defendants.

Additional civil suits resulted from confrontations between Joseph Smith and his critics in late 1843 and early 1844. Although these antagonists had grown critical of Smith’s religious leadership, the suits targeted him in his capacity as mayor and as a judge in . At the May 1844 term of the , Illinois, circuit court, Smith’s opponents sought to overwhelm him with litigation, bringing six civil suits against him. Most of these cases were still pending at his death.

Criminal Cases

The Legal Records Series features case files for thirty-eight criminal cases—about one-fifth of Joseph Smith’s total case count. The majority of these criminal cases resulted from conflicts with antagonists who viewed him and the church he founded with distrust.

Smith’s first criminal case occurred in in 1826 when he was charged with violating the disorderly persons statute for using seer stones to locate lost and hidden items while in the employ of . The outcome of this case is uncertain due to the lack of contemporaneous legal records. In , Smith’s antagonist accused him in 1835 of assault and battery and in 1837 of threatening Newell’s life. In both cases, Ohio judges acquitted Smith.

Many of Smith’s criminal cases resulted from the 1838 conflict between the Latter-day Saints and their adversaries in . When vigilantes expelled Latter-day Saints from their homes and state officials declined to intervene, armed Latter-day Saints strategically targeted mob havens by burning buildings and confiscating goods. Approximately forty Latter-day Saints and three individuals who were not members of the church were killed. Missouri governor ordered that the Saints needed to be “exterminated or driven from the state if necessary.” The purported “ring leaders of this rebellion,” including Joseph Smith, were arrested and charged with treason and other crimes. Missouri officials made no effort to prosecute non–Latter-day Saint vigilantes who had committed crimes. After Smith spent winter 1838–1839 incarcerated in the in , Missouri, his guards allowed him to escape and relocate to with the other Saints. In the 1840s, Missouri state officials attempted to have Smith from Illinois three times, twice to answer charges stemming from the 1838 conflict and once for his alleged complicity in the 1842 attempted assassination of former governor Boggs. Each time, Smith was discharged after appearing before courts in Illinois on writs of .

Smith was also charged with crimes allegedly committed in . In September 1843, he insisted that a local justice of the peace fine him for striking an antagonist, , the only time Smith was unambiguously convicted of a criminal offense. In June 1844, Smith was charged with for his role in the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor, a newspaper that was critical of him and the church. He was also charged with , evidently for calling out the and declaring martial law to protect the city from vigilantes. While he was confined on the latter charge in the , Illinois, jail on 27 June 1844, an armed mob assassinated him.

Joseph Smith as a Judge

As a judge in the mayor’s court and municipal court, Joseph Smith presided over seventy-seven known cases, representing more than one-third of his total case count. The Legal Records Series features case files from twenty-five cases in the mayor’s court, with the remaining case files apparently not extant but mentioned in other sources. In the mayor’s court—which was usually held in the room above his —Smith served as a justice of the peace, with limited jurisdiction over state statutes and civil matters. He also had full jurisdiction over city ordinances. Most of the cases Smith heard in the mayor’s court were criminal in nature, ranging from such as to various minor offenses tried under the city’s disorderly persons ordinance. In addition, he heard seventeen civil suits, including Dana v. Brink, a complicated medical malpractice case.

The Municipal Court was composed of Smith as chief justice and Nauvoo city sitting as associate justices. The court had jurisdiction over appeals from the mayor’s and aldermen’s courts, as well as authority to issue writs of habeas corpus in some cases. Smith presided over three appeals and nine habeas corpus proceedings to review the legality of detentions of individuals in Nauvoo.

The Trial of the Accused Assassins and the Estate of Joseph Smith

The Legal Records Series also features documents for cases heard after Joseph Smith’s death. In May 1845, the Circuit Court held the trial of five men accused of participating in his murder—, , , , and William Grover. As many in the Latter-day Saint community did not believe that justice would be served, church leaders decided not to cooperate with the prosecution. The jury determined the men were not guilty.

In addition, the Legal Records Series reproduces documents pertaining to the administration of Joseph Smith’s estate. Like most nineteenth-century Americans, Smith died intestate, meaning he left no will. Administering his estate was a complex process that extended nearly two decades following his death; involved probate courts in , , and , as well as the District Court in , Illinois; and required five to settle.

The administrators in and were creditors who were not particularly interested in overseeing Smith’s estate in those jurisdictions, but instead in gaining control of specific properties. , the administrator of Smith’s estate in Iowa Territory in the mid-1840s, desired the steamboat Maid of Iowa, although he was unsuccessful in his pursuit. served as administrator in Ohio. At the direction of —grandfather of Holcomb’s wife and longtime opponent of Smith—Holcomb obtained and then sold the on 12 April 1862.

Administration of Smith’s estate in was complicated by the disposition of his property at the time of his death, some of which was held in his name and the remainder of which was held in his capacity as trustee-in-trust of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. served as administratrix from 17 July through 18 September 1844. Acting in accordance with legal counsel, Emma Smith engaged in a struggle over control of the property held by her husband as church trustee. However, her tenure as administratrix was cut short when the Probate Court removed her on the grounds that her initial $2,000 bond was insufficient to cover the estate’s debts. Latter-day Saint replaced Emma Smith as administrator on 19 September 1844. Coolidge worked with the probate court to sell Joseph Smith’s personal and real property and address claims from creditors.

In April 1848, the probate court replaced with John M. Ferris, who was not a Latter-day Saint. Ferris worked with the court to review claims against the estate, which totaled more than $19,000 by 1850. district attorney hindered the settlement of the estate when he sued Ferris, and Lewis Bidamon, the Smith heirs, and dozens of individuals who had received land from Smith during his lifetime. The suit, heard in the United States District Court, sought to collect on the 1842 default judgment relating to the 1840 steamboat purchase. The judge held that Smith’s estate owed the United States $6,545.55, which the court recovered by seizing land conveyed by Smith and by Coolidge. After the court awarded Emma Smith Bidamon $1,809.41 as her dower rights, the judgment was satisfied. The suit effectively exhausted Joseph Smith’s estate, leaving many of the debts filed against it unpaid.

Conclusion

Despite Joseph Smith’s ambivalence toward lawyers and the American legal system, the case files featured in the Legal Records Series demonstrate that he was constrained to become proficient to some degree in the law to protect himself and his people.

, who served as a justice of the peace and as an associate justice with Smith on the Municipal Court, recalled that Smith “shewed great wisdom not only in religious matters, but in matters of law, and other subjects and branches of knowledge.” Less than a month prior to his death, Joseph Smith summed up his approach to the law: “I understand some law and more justice, and know as much about the rights of American citizens as any men.”

1
JS, Journal, 18 Mar. 1843.
2
See Introduction to Joseph Smith’s New York Legal Cases; Introduction to George H. Noble & Co. v. JS; Introduction to Joseph Smith’s Ohio Legal Cases; Introduction to Joseph Smith’s Missouri Legal Cases; and Introduction to Joseph Smith’s Illinois Legal Cases.
3
JS, Journal, 19 May 1842; Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 19 May 1842, 80–81; Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840.
4
Contrary to current legal practice that organizes cases by the initial filing, the Legal Records Series uses the judgment date because in some of Smith’s cases it is unclear when the initial filing occurred. The series follows the practice in Ohio, where court clerks arranged docket entries by the judgment date. See, for example, Docket Entry, Judgment, 5 June 1837 [Martindale v. JS et al.]; Docket Entry, Judgment, 27 October 1837 [Eaton v. JS and O. Cowdery]; and Docket Entry, Settlement, 3 April 1838 [Commercial Bank of Lake Erie v. Cahoon et al.].
5
Unlike Joseph Smith Papers print series, individual documents in the legal series receive minimal annotation. However, select standalone case documents have been featured with full annotations in the Documents series. (See, for example, Docket Entry, ca 5 July 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. McGraw]; Petition to Nauvoo Municipal Court, 30 June 1843 [Extradition of JS for Treason]; and Answer, between 29 Sept. and 4 Oct. 1843 [Clayton v. E. W. Rhodes et al.].) For Smith’s financial papers, see the online Financial Series.
6
Appleby, Inheriting the Revolution.
Appleby, Joyce. Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.
7
Discourse, 9 July 1843, as Reported by Willard Richards.
8
Revelation, 6 Aug. 1833 [D&C 98:4–6]; Revelation, 16–17 Dec. 1833 [D&C 101:77–80]; “Church History,” 1 Mar. 1842; see also Madsen et al., Sustaining the Law.
Madsen, Gordon A., Jeffrey N. Walker, and John W. Welch, eds. Sustaining the Law: Joseph Smith’s Legal Encounters. Provo, UT: BYU Studies, 2014.
9
Friedman, History of American Law, 128–137; History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, 121; Leopard et al., History of Daviess and Gentry Counties, 75; Berrett, Sacred Places, 4:243–249, 485.
Friedman, Lawrence M. A History of American Law. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, Missouri, Written and Compiled from the Most Authentic Official and Private Sources. . . . St. Louis: National Historical Co., 1886.
Leopard, John C., Buel Leopard, R. M. McCammon, and Mary McCammon Hillman. History of Daviess and Gentry Counties, Missouri. Topeka, KS: Historical Publishing Co., 1922.
Berrett, LaMar C., ed. Sacred Places: A Comprehensive Guide to Early LDS Historical Sites. 6 vols. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1999–2007.
10
Friedman, History of American Law, 294, 301–307; Mann, Neighbors and Strangers, 29–30; Hoffer, Law and People in Colonial America, 98; Lepler, Many Panics of 1837, 225.
Friedman, Lawrence M. A History of American Law. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Mann, Bruce H. Neighbors and Strangers: Law and Community in Early Connecticut. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987.
Hoffer, Peter Charles. Law and People in Colonial America. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019.
Lepler, Jessica M. The Many Panics of 1837: People, Politics and the Creation of a Transatlantic Financial Crisis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
11
Reid, Controlling the Law, chap. 2; Reid, Legitimating the Law, chap. 2; Friedman, History of American Law, 97; Edwards, People and Their Peace, 67–68, 80–81.
Reid, John Phillip. Controlling the Law: Legal Politics in Early National New Hampshire. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2004.
Reid, John Phillip. Legitimating the Law: The Struggle for Judicial Competency in Early National New Hampshire. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2012.
Friedman, Lawrence M. A History of American Law. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Edwards, Laura F. The People and Their Peace: Legal Culture and the Transformation of Inequality in the Post-revolutionary South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.
12
Reid, Controlling the Law, chap. 2.
Reid, John Phillip. Controlling the Law: Legal Politics in Early National New Hampshire. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2004.
13
Gawalt, “Sources of Anti-Lawyer Sentiment,” 283–307; Bloomfield, “Antilawyer Sentiment in the Early Republic”; Friedman, History of American Law, 83–84, 116, 289.
Gawalt, Gerard W. “Sources of Anti-Lawyer Sentiment in Massachusetts, 1740–1840,” American Journal of Legal History 14, no. 4 (Oct. 1870): 283–307.
Bloomfield, Maxwell H. “Antilawyer Sentiment in the Early Republic.” Chap. 2 in American Lawyers in a Changing Society, 1776–1876. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976.
Friedman, Lawrence M. A History of American Law. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
14
Smith and his successors utilized an ecclesiastical dispute resolution system that was intended to be an alternative to the secular courts. (See Oman, “Preaching to the Court House and Judging in the Temple.”)
Oman, Nathan B. “Preaching to the Court House and Judging in the Temple.” Brigham Young University Law Review 36, no. 1 (2009): 157–224.
15
Letter to the Church in Caldwell Co., MO, 16 Dec. 1838; JS, Journal, 1 Jan. 1843.
16
JS History, vol. B-1, 767, addenda, 6nS; Motto, ca. 16 or 17 Mar. 1838. In April 1838 church leader Oliver Cowdery, Smith’s longtime friend, was excommunicated in part for “urging on vexatious Lawsuits” and for “turning to the practice of the Law.” (Minutes, 12 Apr. 1838; see also Letter to Oliver Cowdery and Others, ca. 17 June 1838.)
17
JS, Journal, 7 Mar. 1844.
18
For examples, see Letter from William Perkins, 29 Oct. 1838; JS, Journal, 4 Sept. 1838; Letter to Friends in Illinois, 20 Dec. 1841; Letter to Justin Butterfield, 18 Mar. 1843; and Discourse, 30 June 1843, as Reported by Wilford Woodruff.
19
Revelation, 9 Feb. 1831 [D&C 42:30–39]; Revelation, 20 May 1831 [D&C 51:1–20]; Revelation, 26 Apr. 1832 [D&C 82:1–24]; Revelation, 8 July 1838–C [D&C 119]; Introduction to the United Firm; Introduction to Kirtland Mercantile Firms.
20
Lepler, Many Panics of 1837, 225.
Lepler, Jessica M. The Many Panics of 1837: People, Politics and the Creation of a Transatlantic Financial Crisis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
21
Capias ad Respondendum, 16 Feb. 1837 [Martindale v. JS et al.]; Capias ad Respondendum, 22 Mar. 1837 [Bank of Geauga v. JS et al.]; Capias ad Respondendum, 22 Mar. 1837 [Kelley v. Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery]; Capias ad Respondendum, 20 Apr. 1837 [Newbould v. Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery]; Capias ad Respondendum, 6 June 1837 [Eaton v. JS and O. Cowdery]; Capias ad Respondendum, 26 July 1837 [Barker for the use of Bump v. JS and O. Cowdery]; Capias ad Respondendum, 27 July 1837 [Seymour & Griffith v. Rigdon and JS]; Docket Entry, ca. 1 Jan. 1838 [Bump v. JS]; Docket Entry, ca. 2 Jan. 1838 [Bump v. S. Smith and JS]; see also JS History, vol. B-1, 767, addenda, 6nS.
22
Introduction to Miller et al. v. B. Holladay and W. Holladay; Introduction to Sweeney v. Miller et al.; Introduction to JS et al. v. C. B. Street and M. B. Street.
23
See Introduction to Joseph Smith’s Bankruptcy.
24
Introduction to United States v. Haws et al.
25
Introduction to City of Nauvoo v. Bostwick, Bostwick v. JS and Greene, and Bostwick v. JS; Introduction to City of Nauvoo v. F. M. Higbee, F. M. Higbee v. JS–A, F. M. Higbee v. JS–A on Habeas Corpus, and F. M. Higbee v. JS–B; Introduction to C. A. Foster v. JS and Coolidge; Introduction to State of Illinois v. Sympson, Sympson v. JS, and State of Illinois v. JS for Perjury; Introduction to State of Illinois v. Finch, State of Illinois v. Finch on Habeas Corpus, and Davis v. JS et al.
26
See Fluhman, “A Peculiar People,” 21–48; Oman, “‘Established Agreeable to the Laws of Our Country,’” 202–229; and Farrelly, Anti-Catholicism in America, chaps. 4–6.
Fluhman, J. Spencer. “A Peculiar People”: Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Religion in Nineteenth-Century America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012.
Oman, Nathan B. “‘Established Agreeable to the Laws of Our Country’: Mormonism, Church Corporations, and the Long Legacy of America’s First Disestablishment.” Journal of Law and Religion 36, no. 2 (August 2021): 202–229.
Farrelly, Maura Jane. Anti-Catholicism in America, 1620–1860. Cambridge Essential Histories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
27
TEXT: Introduction to State of New York v. JS–A; see also Introduction to State of New York v. JS–B and State of New York v. JS–C.
28
Introduction to State of Ohio v. JS for Assault and Battery; Introduction to State of Ohio v. JS for Threatening to Take Life.
29
Introduction to State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Riot; Introduction to State of Missouri v. Gates et al. for Treason; Introduction to State of Missouri v. Baldwin et al. for Arson; Introduction to State of Missouri v. Gates et al. for Arson; Introduction to State of Missouri v. Worthington et al. for Larceny and State of Missouri v. JS for Receiving Stolen Goods; Introduction to State of Missouri v. Pratt et al. for Murder; Lilburn W. Boggs, Jefferson City, MO, to John B. Clark, Fayette, MO, 27 Oct. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA.
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
30
Introduction to Extradition of JS et al. for Treason and Other Crimes; Introduction to Extradition of JS for Accessory to Assault; Introduction to Extradition of JS for Treason.
31
Introduction to State of Illinois v. JS for Assault and Battery.
32
Introduction to State of Illinois v. JS et al. for Riot–A, State of Illinois v. JS for Riot on Habeas Corpus, State of Illinois v. H. Smith et al. on Habeas Corpus, and State of Illinois v. JS et al. for Riot–B; Introduction to State of Illinois v. JS and H. Smith for Treason.
33
Mayor’s Clerk, Nauvoo, IL, Letter to the Editor, Nauvoo Neighbor, 10 May 1843, [3].
Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.
34
See “Nauvoo Municipal Court and the Writ of Habeas Corpus.”
35
Introduction to State of Illinois v. Williams et al. and State of Illinois v. Elliott–C; see also Oaks and Hill, Carthage Conspiracy.
Oaks, Dallin H., and Marvin S. Hill. Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975.
36
Friedman, History of American Law, 232.
Friedman, Lawrence M. A History of American Law. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
37
Introduction to Moffet Administrator of the Estate of JS.
38
Introduction to Holcomb Administrator of the Estate of JS.
39
Introduction to E. Smith Administratrix of the Estate of JS.
40
Introduction to Coolidge Administrator of the Estate of JS .
41
Introduction to Ferris Administrator of the Estate of JS.
42
Reid, Controlling the Law, chap. 2; Reid, Legitimating the Law, chap. 2; Friedman, History of American Law, 97; Edwards, People and Their Peace, 67–68, 80–81.
Reid, John Phillip. Controlling the Law: Legal Politics in Early National New Hampshire. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2004.
Reid, John Phillip. Legitimating the Law: The Struggle for Judicial Competency in Early National New Hampshire. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2012.
Friedman, Lawrence M. A History of American Law. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Edwards, Laura F. The People and Their Peace: Legal Culture and the Transformation of Inequality in the Post-revolutionary South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.
43
Brigham Young, Office Journal. Vol. D, 22 Dec. 1859, CHL.
Young, Brigham. Journals, 1832–1877. Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1, boxes 71–73.
44
Docket Entry, 18–31 May 1844 [United States v. Jeremiah Smith on Habeas Corpus–A].

Introduction to the Legal Records Series

Request for Documents