The Papers
Browse the PapersDocumentsJournalsAdministrative RecordsRevelations and TranslationsHistoriesLegal RecordsFinancial RecordsOther Contemporary Papers
Reference
PeoplePlacesEventsGlossaryLegal GlossaryFinancial GlossaryCalendar of DocumentsWorks CitedFeatured TopicsLesson PlansRelated Publications
Media
VideosPhotographsIllustrationsChartsMapsPodcasts
News
Current NewsArchiveNewsletterSubscribeJSP Conferences
About
About the ProjectJoseph Smith and His PapersFAQAwardsEndorsementsReviewsEditorial MethodNote on TranscriptionsNote on Images of People and PlacesReferencing the ProjectCiting This WebsiteProject TeamContact Us
Published Volumes
Images of this item © Community of Christ and licensed to the Joseph Smith Papers Project. Inquiries about high-resolution images of this item for scholarly use should be directed to the Community of Christ Library-Archives, Independence, Missouri.
  1. Home > 
  2. The Papers > 

Letter from James Arlington Bennet, 10 April 1843

Source Note

, Letter, , [New Utrecht, Kings Co.], NY, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 10 Apr. 1843; handwriting and signature of ; three pages; JS Materials, CCLA. Includes address, postal notation, postal stamp, endorsement, and dockets.
Bifolium measuring 10 × 8 inches (25 × 20 cm). The paper is ruled with twenty-seven horizontal blue lines. The upper left corner of the recto of the first leaf is embossed with a circular paper manufacturer’s seal. The letter was trifolded twice in letter style and addressed. One of the panels was folded into a triangle, creating a seal flap, which was sealed with red wax and postmarked. The document was later refolded for filing. At some point, a staple was attached to the upper left corner of the bifolium; the staple was later removed.
, who was serving as JS’s scribe at the time the letter was received, docketed and endorsed it soon after receipt. The letter may have remained in the possession of JS’s family after his death and was likely given to the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now Community of Christ). At some point, an archivist added a docket. The letter remains housed at the CCLA.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 13 Dec. 1841.

Historical Introduction

On 10 April 1843, attorney and educator wrote from , New York, to JS in , Illinois, offering legal counsel on the arrest of in . Rockwell had been detained in early March 1843 on a charge of having assaulted former governor in May 1842 with intent to kill. The charge stemmed from an allegation made by former Latter-day Saint that JS had sent Rockwell to to shoot Boggs. In summer 1842, following Bennett’s May 1842 excommunication and his subsequent efforts to attack the church, JS began corresponding with James Arlington Bennet, who became a staunch ally of and political adviser to JS. On 17 and 18 March 1843, JS wrote to Bennet to recount his recent discharge from arrest after Missouri officials attempted to extradite him in connection with the Boggs shooting and to relate ongoing difficulties caused by John C. Bennett. The next day, 19 March, , JS’s scribe, wrote to James Arlington Bennet with several questions regarding Rockwell’s legal situation.
’s 10 April letter was a response to the aforementioned letters from JS and . Addressing JS as general of the , Bennet stated that because of illness he could neither attend the parade of the Nauvoo Legion nor perform his responsibilities as the militia’s inspector general on 7 May 1843. Bennet also responded to Richards’s questions and discussed ’s activities in . Bennet mailed his letter on 12 April 1843. Letters usually traveled between and in two or three weeks. Bennet’s letter was received in Nauvoo by 4 May 1843, when JS “called at the & read a letter from [James] Arlington Bennet Shewing that he was sick & cou[l]d not be at inspe[c]tion of the Legion as had been exp[e]cted.” Richards noted on the verso of the second leaf of the featured letter that JS responded to Bennet on 11 May; the response is apparently not extant. In addition, during the evening of 18 May 1843 JS examined in his office “[James] Arlington Bennets letter,” presumably a reference to the 10 April 1843 missive.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See Historical Introduction to Letter to James Arlington Bennet, 17–18 Mar. 1843.

  2. [2]

    Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to James Arlington Bennet, 19 Mar. 1843, Willard Richards, Journals and Papers, CHL.

  3. [3]

    See Letter to John M. Bernhisel, 3 Aug. 1841; Historical Introduction to Letter from James Arlington Bennet, 1 Sept. 1842; and Letter to James Arlington Bennet, 8 Sept. 1842.

  4. [4]

    JS, Journal, 4 May 1843.

  5. [5]

    JS, Journal, 18 May 1843.

Page 1

April 10th 43.
Gen. Smith,
Dear Sir,
Your letter of the 17th & of the 19th ultimo are before me. With regard to your own, I fully concur in the patriotic & noble sentiments expressed in it & I now assure you that should I ever join your religious standard it shall never be under the influence of any sinister or temporal motive. I have been your friend Ab initio and shall remain so through evil & through good report through your prosperity & or adversity until by abandoning the Cause of God & religion you prove yourself unworthy of the respect of Mankind— On your own principles & practices this is a contingency which is very remote. I extremely regret to know that is under arrest in . What in the name of common prudence, could have taken him among the Philistines? Well being there you must now make the best of it in your power. wishes to know if he can be tried in the Courts. I answer No— they have no Jurisdiction in the case whatever. With respect to you[r] own case it was different because here the issue was between the Authorities of one state & a citizen of another state which under the Constitution of the gave the Courts jurisd[i]ction, whereas in the case of the alleged crime is aganst the laws of the state of & being arrested within the he must be tried by its courts— It would be well to change the Venue to some county where influnce is least felt & where religious prejudice is least predominant, if such a county can be found—
With regard to the evidence of in the premises he has already published all he is able to swear to. As regards yourself he admitted to me that there was no evidence against [p. 1]
View entire transcript

|

Cite this page

Source Note

Document Transcript

Page 1

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from James Arlington Bennet, 10 April 1843
ID #
2800
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:193–199
Handwriting on This Page
  • James Arlington Bennet

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Letter to James Arlington Bennet, 17–18 Mar. 1843, p. 66 herein; Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to James Arlington Bennet, 19 Mar. 1843, Willard Richards, Journals and Papers, CHL.

  2. [2]

    Beginning with Bennet’s first letter to JS on 16 August 1842, the two men often traded comments regarding the possibility of Bennet’s conversion to the church.

  3. [3]

    Philistines were neighbors and enemies of the Israelites in the Old Testament. In the nineteenth century, the term was also used to describe uneducated or uncultured people. After Illinois officials attempted to arrest and extradite JS and Rockwell to Missouri on 8 August 1842, Rockwell went into hiding near Philadelphia. For unknown reasons, Rockwell decided to return to Nauvoo in early 1843 and was passing through St. Louis under an assumed name when he was recognized and arrested. (“Philistine,” in Oxford English Dictionary, 7:776; “Part 1: March 1843”; see also, for example, Judges chap. 15; and 1 Samuel chap. 7.)

    Oxford English Dictionary. Compact ed. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.

  4. [4]

    See U.S. Constitution, art. 4, sec. 2.

  5. [5]

    In a July 1842 letter first published in the Native American Bulletin, Bennett claimed that sometime in 1841, JS prophesied before “many thousand people” that former Missouri governor Lilburn W. Boggs “should die by violent hands within a year.” Bennett then asserted that in spring 1842, JS promised $500 to the individual who fulfilled the prophecy. According to Bennett, Rockwell left Nauvoo soon after, and when Bennett asked JS where Rockwell had gone, JS reportedly replied that Rockwell had gone to fulfill the prophecy regarding Boggs’s violent death. Bennett claimed that Rockwell later admitted to him that he was in Boggs’s neighborhood at the time of the shooting but that his accusers would have to prove he was the attempted assassin. Bennett further asserted that whereas Rockwell was poor prior to going to Missouri, after his return he had “an elegant carriage and horses at his disposal, and his pockets filled with gold.” By his own admission, Bennett’s allegations against Rockwell were not based on direct proof. (John C. Bennett, St. Louis, MO, 13 July 1842, Letter to the Editor, Native American Bulletin [St. Louis], 14 July 1842, [2], italics in original; see also Bennett, History of the Saints, 281–287; and McLaws, “Attempted Assassination,” 50–62.)

    Native American Bulletin. St. Louis. 1842–1843.

    Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.

    McLaws, Monte B. “The Attempted Assassination of Missouri’s Ex-Governor, Lilburn W. Boggs.” Missouri Historical Review 60, no. 1 (Oct. 1965): 50–62.

© 2024 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.Terms of UseUpdated 2021-04-13Privacy NoticeUpdated 2021-04-06