Letter to Editor, 22 January 1840

Home >
The Papers >

Letter to Editor, 22 January 1840
Source Note

JS, Letter,
Brandywine
Township located approximately thirty miles northwest of Philadelphia. Population in 1830 about 1,500. Branch of church established in township, 1830s. JS visited township and attended elders’ conference there during trip to eastern U.S., Jan. 1840.
More Info
, Chester Co., PA, to the editor of [Register and Examiner, West Chester, Chester Co., PA], 22 Jan. 1840; handwriting of
Lorenzo Barnes
22 Mar. 1812–20 Dec. 1842. Teacher. Born in Tolland, Hampden Co., Massachusetts. Son of Phineas Barnes and Abigail Smith. Moved to eastern Ohio, 1815. Moved to Norton, Medina Co., Ohio, 1816. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, June...
View Full Bio
; signature of JS; four pages; private possession; photocopy in James C. Hayward, Collection, CHL.

The photocopy indicates that the original document has tears and breaks that have been mended by what appears to be clear cellophane tape. By 1977 the original document was held by James C. Hayward of Logan, Utah, but it is not clear how he obtained it. The photocopy was acquired by the Church Historical Department in 1983 from a document dealer and collector.
1
See the full bibliographic entry for James C. Hayward, Collection, ca. 1836–1889, in the CHL catalog; JS, Brandywine, PA, Letter to Editor, 22 Jan. 1840, photocopy, not after 1982, copy in editors’ possession; Jessee, Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, 493; and JS, Brandywine, PA, Letter to Editor, 22 Jan. 1840, photocopy, ca. 1983, copy in editors’ possession.
Comprehensive Works Cited
Smith, Joseph. Letter to the Editor of Register and Examiner, Brandywine, PA, 22 Jan. 1840. Photocopy, not after 1982. Copy in editors’ possession.
Jessee, Dean C., ed. and comp. The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith. Rev. ed. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2002.
Smith, Joseph. Letter to the Editor of Register and Examiner, Brandywine, PA, 22 Jan. 1840. Photocopy, ca. 1983. Copy in editors’ possession.
Footnotes
[1]
See the full bibliographic entry for James C. Hayward, Collection, ca. 1836–1889, in the CHL catalog; JS, Brandywine, PA, Letter to Editor, 22 Jan. 1840, photocopy, not after 1982, copy in editors’ possession; Jessee, Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, 493; and JS, Brandywine, PA, Letter to Editor, 22 Jan. 1840, photocopy, ca. 1983, copy in editors’ possession.
Smith, Joseph. Letter to the Editor of Register and Examiner, Brandywine, PA, 22 Jan. 1840. Photocopy, not after 1982. Copy in editors’ possession.
Jessee, Dean C., ed. and comp. The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith. Rev. ed. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2002.
Smith, Joseph. Letter to the Editor of Register and Examiner, Brandywine, PA, 22 Jan. 1840. Photocopy, ca. 1983. Copy in editors’ possession.
Historical Introduction
On 22 January 1840, JS composed a letter to the editor of an unnamed newspaper. Although it did not specify to which newspaper or editor it was directed, the letter appeared in the Register and Examiner, a newspaper published in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and edited by Joseph Painter, who was described as “an able writer and first-class business man.”
1
Futhey and Cope, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, 331, 671–672. As editor of the Register and Examiner, Painter “took advanced ground in favor of the cause of temperance, and was strongly anti-slavery.” He served as an agent for the Underground Railroad.
Futhey, J. Smith, and Gilbert Cope. History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches. Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881.
The letter copied almost verbatim a statement of the
Saints
The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...
View Glossary
’ beliefs regarding government and laws that was first published in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants.
2
Declaration on Government and Law, ca. Aug. 1835 [D&C 134].
In this letter, JS changed the statement’s point of view from “we” to “I” and at the end added some information not present in the original statement. At the time he composed the letter, JS was in
Brandywine
More Info
, Pennsylvania; three days after the date of the letter, he attended an
elders
A male leader in the church generally; an ecclesiastical and priesthood office or one holding that office; a proselytizing missionary. The Book of Mormon explained that elders ordained priests and teachers and administered “the flesh and blood of Christ unto...
View Glossary
’
conference
A meeting where ecclesiastical officers and other church members could conduct church business. The “Articles and Covenants” of the church directed the elders to hold conferences to perform “Church business.” The first of these conferences was held on 9 June...
View Glossary
for the Brandywine
branch
An ecclesiastical organization of church members in a particular locale. A branch was generally smaller than a stake or a conference. Branches were also referred to as churches, as in “the Church of Shalersville.” In general, a branch was led by a presiding...
View Glossary
.
3
Lorenzo Barnes, Philadelphia, PA, 29 Jan. 1840, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, Mar. 1840, 1:79. JS may have been at the home of Edward Hunter, a prosperous resident of Chester County who joined the church later in 1840 and who remembered JS coming to his house when JS visited the area. (Hunter, Edward Hunter, 316–317.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Hunter, William E. Edward Hunter: Faithful Steward. [Salt Lake City]: Mrs. William E. Hunter, 1970.

JS stated he was sending the letter to counteract “many false rumors” about him and the church. By the time JS visited the area, church missionaries had been preaching in
Chester County
Located in southeast Pennsylvania. Bordered on south by Maryland and Delaware and on north by Berks and Montgomery counties, Pennsylvania. Established as one of Pennsylvania’s three original counties, 1682. West Chester named county seat, 1784. Population...
More Info
, Pennsylvania, for approximately a year. Although they
baptized
An ordinance in which an individual is immersed in water for the remission of sins. The Book of Mormon explained that those with necessary authority were to baptize individuals who had repented of their sins. Baptized individuals also received the gift of...
View Glossary
over fifty people in a relatively short period of time, they also encountered opposition.
4
Benjamin Winchester, Payson, IL, 18 June 1839, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, Nov. 1839, 1:11; Lorenzo Barnes, Philadelphia, PA, 29 Jan. 1840, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, Mar. 1840, 1:79; Lorenzo Barnes, Wilmington, DE, 8 Sept. 1839, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:27–28; see also Orson Pratt to Sarah Marinda Bates Pratt, 6 Jan. 1840, in Times and Seasons, Feb. 1840, 1:61.
Local resident
Edward Hunter
22 June 1793–16 Oct. 1883. Farmer, currier, surveyor, merchant. Born at Newtown Township, Delaware Co., Pennsylvania. Son of Edward Hunter and Hannah Maris. Volunteer cavalryman in Delaware Co. militia, 1822–1829. Served as Delaware Co. commissioner. Moved...
View Full Bio
later stated that church members were called “a terable” and “dangerous people” by Chester County citizens in 1839.
5
Hunter, Edward Hunter, 316.
In spring 1840, a “Philanthropist of Chester County” published a pamphlet that attempted to refute the Book of Mormon and the church’s interpretation of the Bible. According to one source, the pamphlet contained “falsehoods, misrepresentations, foul insinuations, wholesale abuse and slander of the doctrines and characters of the Latter Day Saints.”
6
Snow, E. Snow’s Reply to the Self-Styled Philanthropist of Chester County, 1. This anonymously authored pamphlet was published as Mormonism Unmasked, Showed to Be an Impious Imposture, and Mr. Bennett’s Reply Answered and Refuted. By a Philanthropist of Chester County (Philadelphia: T. K. and P. G. Collins, 1840).
Snow, Erastus. E. Snow’s Reply to the Self-Styled Philanthropist, of Chester County. No publisher, 1840.

Because he expressed in this 22 January letter his belief that governments were obliged to protect citizens in their exercise of religion, JS may have wanted the letter published to try to influence the public to take up the Saints’ cause of obtaining redress for their expulsion from
Missouri
Area acquired by U.S. in Louisiana Purchase, 1803, and established as territory, 1812. Missouri Compromise, 1820, admitted Missouri as slave state, 1821. Population in 1830 about 140,000; in 1836 about 240,000; and in 1840 about 380,000. Latter-day Saint ...
More Info
in 1838 and 1839. JS may have directed others to send similar statements to additional newspapers. In April 1840, the Peoria Register and North-Western Gazetteer published a letter “received several weeks since” from a “B. D.” of Tazewell County, Illinois. This letter also reproduced the statement on government from the Doctrine and Covenants.
7
“The Mormons,” Peoria (IL) Register and North-Western Gazetteer, 24 Apr. 1840, [1]. “B. D.” was likely Benjamin Dobson, listed in the 1840 census as a resident of Tazewell County. Dobson was baptized in 1836. (“The Mormons for Harrison,” Peoria Register and North-Western Gazetteer, 17 Apr. 1840, [2]; 1840 U.S. Census, Tazewell Co., IL, 16; “Mormonism,” Peoria Register and North-Western Gazetteer, 29 June 1839, [1]; “Obituary,” Saints’ Herald, 1 Jan. 1877, 15.)
Peoria Register and North-Western Gazetteer. Peoria, IL. 1837–1843.
Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.
Saints’ Herald. Independence, MO. 1860–.

JS’s letter was published in the 11 February 1840 issue of the Register and Examiner.
8
“The Latter Day Saints,” Register and Examiner (Chester Co., PA), 11 Feb. 1840, [1].
Register and Examiner. West Chester, PA. 1836–1851.
The text featured here is the manuscript version of the letter; because JS signed it, this letter may have been the same version that was sent to the Register and Examiner. However, the published letter contains some minor differences from the manuscript version, including a different date, suggesting that the featured version might be a draft of what was eventually sent. Editorial changes in the text were apparently incorporated into the printed letter, although there are some instances (noted herein) where the published letter follows the text of the statement on government in the Doctrine and Covenants rather than the text of the manuscript letter. The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper in Boston, reprinted the letter in its 21 February 1840 issue without any commentary.
9
“The Latter Day Saints,” Liberator (Boston), 21 Feb. 1840, 32.
Liberator. Boston. 1831–1865.
Footnotes
[1]
Futhey and Cope, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, 331, 671–672. As editor of the Register and Examiner, Painter “took advanced ground in favor of the cause of temperance, and was strongly anti-slavery.” He served as an agent for the Underground Railroad.
Futhey, J. Smith, and Gilbert Cope. History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches. Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881.
[2]
Declaration on Government and Law, ca. Aug. 1835 [D&C 134].
[3]
Lorenzo Barnes, Philadelphia, PA, 29 Jan. 1840, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, Mar. 1840, 1:79. JS may have been at the home of Edward Hunter, a prosperous resident of Chester County who joined the church later in 1840 and who remembered JS coming to his house when JS visited the area. (Hunter, Edward Hunter, 316–317.)
[4]
Benjamin Winchester, Payson, IL, 18 June 1839, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, Nov. 1839, 1:11; Lorenzo Barnes, Philadelphia, PA, 29 Jan. 1840, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, Mar. 1840, 1:79; Lorenzo Barnes, Wilmington, DE, 8 Sept. 1839, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:27–28; see also Orson Pratt to Sarah Marinda Bates Pratt, 6 Jan. 1840, in Times and Seasons, Feb. 1840, 1:61.
[5]
Hunter, Edward Hunter, 316.
[6]
Snow, E. Snow’s Reply to the Self-Styled Philanthropist of Chester County, 1. This anonymously authored pamphlet was published as Mormonism Unmasked, Showed to Be an Impious Imposture, and Mr. Bennett’s Reply Answered and Refuted. By a Philanthropist of Chester County (Philadelphia: T. K. and P. G. Collins, 1840).
Snow, Erastus. E. Snow’s Reply to the Self-Styled Philanthropist, of Chester County. No publisher, 1840.
[7]
“The Mormons,” Peoria (IL) Register and North-Western Gazetteer, 24 Apr. 1840, [1]. “B. D.” was likely Benjamin Dobson, listed in the 1840 census as a resident of Tazewell County. Dobson was baptized in 1836. (“The Mormons for Harrison,” Peoria Register and North-Western Gazetteer, 17 Apr. 1840, [2]; 1840 U.S. Census, Tazewell Co., IL, 16; “Mormonism,” Peoria Register and North-Western Gazetteer, 29 June 1839, [1]; “Obituary,” Saints’ Herald, 1 Jan. 1877, 15.)
Peoria Register and North-Western Gazetteer. Peoria, IL. 1837–1843.
Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.
Saints’ Herald. Independence, MO. 1860–.
[8]
“The Latter Day Saints,” Register and Examiner (Chester Co., PA), 11 Feb. 1840, [1].
[9]
“The Latter Day Saints,” Liberator (Boston), 21 Feb. 1840, 32.
Liberator. Boston. 1831–1865.
Page [1]
Hide editing marks

Brandywine
More Info
Chester Co Pa Jan. 22d 1840
1
The letter is dated 25 January 1840 in the Register and Examiner. (“The Latter Day Saints,” Register and Examiner [Chester Co., PA], 11 Feb. 1840, [1].)

Faith of the
Latter Day Saints
The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...
View Glossary
on Governments and Laws in general

Mr Editor Sir

For as much as many false rumors are a broad in the world concerning my self and the faith which I profess and that my belief with regard to Earthly governments and laws in general may not be miss interpreted nor miss understood I have thought proper to present for your consideration and for the consideration of the public (if you will do me the favour.) through your valuable and interesting paper
2
The published version of the letter replaces “for your consideration and for the consideration of the public (if you will do me the favour.) through your valuable and interesting paper” with “at the close of this volume,” matching the language in the introductory paragraph to “Of Governments and Laws in General” in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. (“The Latter Day Saints,” Register and Examiner [Chester Co., PA], 11 Feb. 1840, [1]; Declaration on Government and Law, ca. Aug. 1835 [D&C 134].)
my opinions concerning the same

First I believe that goverments were instituted of God for the benefit of man and that he holds men accountable for their their acts in relation to them Either in making laws or administering them for the good and Safety of Society

<Secondly> I believe that no goverment can exist in peace except such laws are framed and held inviolate as will secure to each individual the free exercise of conscince the right and controll of property and the protection of life

<Third> <I> We believe that all governments necessarily require civel officers and magistrates to inforce the Laws of the Same and that such as will administer the Law <of the Same> in equity and justice should be sought for and upheld by the voice of the people (if a republick) or the will of the Sovreign

<Fourth> I believe that a religion is instiuted instituted of God and that men are ameniable to him <and to him onley> onley for the exercise of it unless their religious opinion prompts them to infringe upon the rights and <libertey> privalegs <privaleges> of others But I do not believe that human Law has a right to interfear in prescribing rules of worship to bind the conciences of men nor dictate forms for public or private devotion That the civel magistrate should restrane crime but never controll conscience should punish guilt but never supress the freedom of the <soul> [p. [1]]
View entire transcript
|
Cite this page
Source Note
Document Transcript
Page [1]
Document Information
Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter to Editor, 22 January 1840
ID #
510
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D7:128–133
Handwriting on This Page
Lorenzo Barnes
Footnotes
[1]
The letter is dated 25 January 1840 in the Register and Examiner. (“The Latter Day Saints,” Register and Examiner [Chester Co., PA], 11 Feb. 1840, [1].)
[2]
The published version of the letter replaces “for your consideration and for the consideration of the public (if you will do me the favour.) through your valuable and interesting paper” with “at the close of this volume,” matching the language in the introductory paragraph to “Of Governments and Laws in General” in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. (“The Latter Day Saints,” Register and Examiner [Chester Co., PA], 11 Feb. 1840, [1]; Declaration on Government and Law, ca. Aug. 1835 [D&C 134].)