Footnotes
An account of an April 1840 JS discourse states that JS met with Van Buren at the President’s House over two successive days, whereas according to this letter to Hyrum Smith—the earliest extant account of the meeting—and a March 1840 discourse, the parties met at the President’s House only once. All three of these accounts, however, reported the same sentiment in Van Buren’s response. (Discourse, 7 Apr. 1840; Discourse, 1 Mar. 1840.)
See Allgor, Parlor Politics, 76–79, 232.
Allgor, Catherine. Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000.
Reynolds, My Own Times, 575. According to Lucy Mack Smith’s account of this meeting between JS, Higbee, and Van Buren, the parlor in which these men met was filled with several other visitors. (Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, bk. 17, [12].)
Reynolds, John. My Own Times: Embracing Also, the History of My Life. Belleville, IL: B. H. Perryman and H. L. Davison, 1855.
Presidents rarely issued executive orders during this period. Van Buren’s seven predecessors in office had issued a combined total of thirty executive orders over forty-three years. Van Buren issued ten executive orders during his term as president. (Peters and Woolley, “Executive Orders,” in American Presidency Project.)
Peters, Gerhard, and John T. Woolley. “Executive Orders.” In The American Presidency Project, 1999–. Hosted by the University of California, Santa Barbara. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017. www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/orders.php.
Silbey, Martin Van Buren and the Emergence of American Popular Politics, chaps. 3–4.
Silbey, Joel H. Martin Van Buren and the Emergence of American Popular Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002.
A report of JS’s discourse at an April 1840 general conference of the church states that JS and Higbee were seeking Van Buren’s assistance with their plan to petition Congress and makes no mention of a possible executive order. (Discourse, 7 Apr. 1840.)
Letter to Seymour Brunson and Nauvoo High Council, 7 Dec. 1839; Letter from Robert D. Foster, 24 Dec. 1839. At this time, the president’s annual message to Congress (later known as the State of the Union address) was not delivered as a speech but instead was sent to Congress as a letter. (Congressional Globe, 26th Cong., 1st Sess., Appendix, 1–7.)
The Congressional Globe, Containing Sketches of the Debates and Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Congress. Vol. 8. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1840.
According to this letter and others that JS, Rigdon, and Higbee wrote to Commerce during the ensuing months, the delegation was constantly concerned about insufficient funds during their travels. (Letter from Jacob W. Jenks, 31 Dec. 1839; Letter from Elias Higbee, 20 Feb. 1840–B; Letter from Sidney Rigdon, 3 Apr. 1840.)
This campaign to have influential men write to Congress was apparently an extension of the petitioning plan Rigdon set forth in April 1839. (Letter from Sidney Rigdon, 10 Apr. 1839.)
Coray, Autobiographical Sketch, 17, 19.
Coray, Howard. Autobiographical Sketch, after 1883. Howard Coray, Papers, ca. 1840–1941. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2043, fd. 1.
This sentence appears to be a humorous reference to the Westminster Confession of Faith, which states, “There is but one only, living, and true God . . . a most pure Spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions.” (Humble Advice of the Assembly of Divines, Now by Authority of Parliament Sitting at Westminster, concerning a Confession of Faith, 5.)
The Humble Advice of the Assembly of Divines, Now by Authority of Parliament Sitting at Westminster, concerning a Confession of Faith: With the Quotations and Texts of Scripture Annexed. Presented by Them Lately to Both Houses of Parliament. Edinburgh: Evan Tyler, 1647.
The church’s critics in Missouri frequently claimed that church members represented a sizeable voting bloc that could sway elections in the direction church leaders desired. While in Indiana on his return trip to Commerce, JS reportedly announced his support of the leading Whig presidential candidate, William Henry Harrison. (“A Glance at the Mormons,” Alexandria [VA] Gazette, 11 July 1840, [2]; Corrill, Brief History, 33; Letter from Elias Higbee, 24 Mar. 1840.)
Alexandria Gazette. Alexandria, VA. 1834–1877.
In December 1839, the Illinois delegation to the United States Congress consisted of representatives Zadok Casey (Democrat), John Reynolds (Democrat), and John Todd Stuart (Whig); and senators John M. Robinson (Democrat) and Richard M. Young (Democrat). (Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 119, 797, 1800, 1823, 1995, 2214.)
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–2005, the Continental Congress, September 5, 1774, to October 21, 1788, and the Congress of the United States, from the First through the One Hundred Eighth Congresses, March 4, 1789, to January 3, 2005, inclusive. Edited by Andrew R. Dodge and Betty K. Koed. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2005.
JS and Higbee parted company with Rigdon and Robert D. Foster while en route to Washington DC because Rigdon’s illness was slowing down the group. (Historical Introduction to Letter of Introduction from Sidney Rigdon, 9 Nov. 1839.)
Washington, Pennsylvania, is a town in the southwestern part of the state. In 1840 the town had a population of over four thousand and was a prominent stop on the National Road. (Compendium of the Enumeration of the Inhabitants and Statistics of the United States, 24–26; Raitz, National Road, 17, 113.)
Compendium of the Enumeration of the Inhabitants and Statistics of the United States, as Obtained at the Department of State, from the Returns of the Fifth Census. . . . Washington: Thomas Allen, 1831.
Raitz, Karl. The National Road. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
Rigdon stayed with his brother Carvel, a member of the church who resided in Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania, which bordered Washington County and was near Rigdon’s childhood home. (“Records of Early Church Families,” Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine 27 [Oct. 1936]: 156–158; “History of Luke Johnson,” [2], Historian’s Office, Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861, CHL; 1840 U.S. Census, Upper St. Clair Township, Allegheny Co., PA, 128.)
“Records of Early Church Families.” Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine 27 (Oct. 1936): 156–162.
Historian’s Office. Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861. CHL. CR 100 93.
Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.
Rigdon’s peers celebrated him as a particularly gifted orator. In 1838 Edmund Flagg described Rigdon as having “a full face of fire, a fine tenour voice, and a mild and persuasive eloquence of speech.” Amos S. Hayden recalled decades later that Rigdon’s language was “copious, fluent in utterance, with articulation clear and musical.” ([Flagg], Far West, 2:113; Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, 192.)
[Flagg, Edmund]. The Far West; or, A Tour beyond the Mountains. Embracing Outlines of Western Life and Scenery; Sketches of the Prairies, Rivers, Ancient Mounds, Early Settlements of the French, Etc., Etc. 2 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1838.
Hayden, Amos Sutton. Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio; with Biographical Sketches of the Principal Agents in Their Religious Movement. Cincinnati: Chase and Hall, 1875.