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Letter to James Arlington Bennet, 8 September 1842

Source Note

JS, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to , , [New Utrecht, Kings Co., NY], 8 Sept. 1842. Featured version drafted 8 Sept. 1842; handwriting of ; eight pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes docket.
Two bifolia, each measuring 9⅝ × 7¾ inches (24 × 20 cm) when folded. The document was folded for filing. At a later time, each page was numbered in the outside top corners in graphite.
This draft was likely kept as a retained copy of the letter. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL).

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On the morning of 8 September 1842, JS dictated to his scribe a letter from , Illinois, to in , New York, updating him on the state of affairs in the wake of ’s public criticisms of JS and the Latter-day Saints. JS wrote the letter in response to James Arlington Bennet’s 16 August 1842 letter, which JS received by 7 September. Although Bennet had started corresponding with John C. Bennett earlier that year, Bennet’s 16 August letter was the first that JS received from him, and the two men had never met in person.
In his 16 August letter, praised the character of several church members whom he had recently met, including , , and . He also gave JS his assessment of and noted that Bennett had approached him about publishing an exposé of JS and the church, a proposition he refused. In his reply, JS added his praise for Richards, Foster, and Bernhisel and asserted that the church was filled with thousands of men of similarly high character. JS also expressed his opinion of John C. Bennett and recounted the persecution he and several other church members experienced because of Bennett’s charges. JS described his and the Saints’ circumstances as inconsistent with the liberties and values celebrated throughout the country. He also conveyed his belief that the persecution would spread to other groups and eventually engulf the world in violence if other Americans did not rise up to protect the Saints’ citizenship rights. Finally, JS explained the difficulty he and others were having with the post office.
JS was hiding at ’s home in when he dictated this letter. Because it lacks addressing and postal markings, the version featured here appears to be a draft of the letter. Around the same time the letter was sent, and copied the text of the letter into JS’s journal. The Sangamo Journal published an excerpt of the letter in its 4 November 1842 issue, stating that the letter had been printed in the 22 October 1842 issue of the New York Herald. According to church member , the letter was read publicly to a congregation in Nauvoo on 11 September 1842. likely received the letter by late September or early October. On 24 October, he wrote a letter to in which he continued his discussion of JS’s challenges in the wake of ’s accusations.
Differences between the draft of the letter that JS dictated to and the version in JS’s journal are noted.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 8 Sept. 1842.

  2. [2]

    Letter from James Arlington Bennet, 16 Aug. 1842; JS, Journal, 7 Sept. 1842. Bennet wrote JS another letter on 1 September 1842, but JS had not yet received it. (Letter from James Arlington Bennet, 1 Sept. 1842; JS, Journal, 14 Sept. 1842.)

  3. [3]

    Church leaders had contacted Bennet by mid-April 1842, at which time he was commissioned as an officer in the Nauvoo Legion. (Moses K. Anderson to James Arlington Bennet, Certificate, Springfield, IL, 30 Apr. 1842, Thomas Carlin, Correspondence, Illinois State Archives, Springfield.)

    Carlin, Thomas. Correspondence, 1838–1842. In Office of the Governor, Records, 1818–1989. Illinois State Archives, Springfield.

  4. [4]

    Letter from James Arlington Bennet, 16 Aug. 1842.

  5. [5]

    JS, Journal, 3–10 Sept. 1842.

  6. [6]

    JS, Journal, 8 Sept. 1842.

  7. [7]

    “Joe Smith and the Governor,” Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 4 Nov. 1842, [2]; “From Nauvoo and the Mormons,” New York Herald (New York City), 9 Oct. 1842, [2].

    Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.

    New York Herald. New York City. 1835–1924.

  8. [8]

    George W. Robinson, Nauvoo, IL, to John C. Bennett, 16 Sept. 1842, in Bennett, History of the Saints, 248–249.

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

  9. [9]

    As noted above, JS received Bennet’s 16 August letter in Nauvoo on 7 September. This and other correspondence between the two indicate that mail took about three weeks to travel between Nauvoo and New Utrecht.

  10. [10]

    James Arlington Bennet, Arlington House, Long Island, NY, 24 Oct. 1842, to Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, Willard Richards, Journals and Papers, CHL.

    Richards, Willard. Journals and Papers, 1821–1854. CHL.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Letter to James Arlington Bennet, 8 September 1842 Journal, December 1841–December 1842 History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page 5

and intimidating an innocent and children; and insulting them in a most diabolical manner, threatening their lives &c, if I am not to be found; with a gang of Missourians with them, saying, they will have me dead or alive, and if alive, they will carry me to in chains; and when there, they will kill me at all hazards. And all this is backt up, and urged on, by the of this , with all the rage of a demon, putting at defiance the constitution of this — our chartered rights, and the constitution of the ; for not as yet, have they done one thing that was in accordance to them; while all the citizens of this , en masse, have petitioned the with remonstrances, and overtures, that would have melted the heart of an adamantine, to no effect. And at the same time, if any of us open our mouths, to plead our own cause, in the defence of law and justice, with <​we​> are instantly threatened with Militia & extermination Great God! When shall the oppressor cease to prey and glut itself upon innocent blood. Where is patriotism? Where is liberty? Where is the boast of this proud, and haughty nation? O humanity! where hast thou fled? hast thou fled <​forever.​>
I now appeal to you, sir, inasmuch as you have subscribed yourself our friend; will you lift your voice, and your arm, with indignation, against such unhallowed oppression? I must say sir, that my bosom swells, with unutterable anguish, when I contemplate the scenes of horror [p. 5]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter to James Arlington Bennet, 8 September 1842
ID #
929
Total Pages
8
Print Volume Location
JSP, D11:74–83
Handwriting on This Page
  • William Clayton

Footnotes

  1. [25]

    On 4 September 1842, George Miller wrote to JS from St. Louis reporting that men from Missouri had been there several days earlier boasting “that they were on their way to our place to make the second effort to get Br Jos. S.” According to JS’s journal, on 3 September it was rumored “that there are fifteen men in the city along with the Sheriffs and that they dined together to day at Amos Davis’s.” (Letter from George Miller, 4 Sept. 1842; JS, Journal, 3 Sept. 1842.)

  2. [26]

    According to JS’s journal, the men who came to arrest JS “appeared to be well armed, and no doubt intended to take him either dead or alive; which we afterwards heard they had said they would do.” Governor Thomas Carlin had offered a reward of $200 “for the apprehension and delivery” of JS. (JS, Journal, 3 Sept. 1842; Thomas Carlin, Proclamation, 20 Sept. 1842.)

  3. [27]

    Three petitions were directed to Governor Thomas Carlin on JS’s behalf. One petition was drawn up by a committee of the Nauvoo City Council and “signed by about eight hundred, or upwards” citizens. The petition requested that Carlin not issue a writ for JS’s arrest. A second petition, circulated by the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo and signed by “about one thousand Ladies,” was delivered to Carlin by Emma Smith, Eliza R. Snow, and Amanda Barnes Smith at the end of July 1842. The third petition, requesting JS’s safety and the peace of their families, was drawn up by “many citizens in, and near Nauvoo, who were not Mormons.” (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 22 July 1842, 95–97; JS, Journal, 22 July 1842; Eliza R. Snow, Journal, 29 July 1842; Thomas Carlin, Quincy, IL, to Emma Smith, 24 Aug. 1842; Minutes, 22 July 1842; Letter from Thomas Carlin, 27 July 1842.)

    Snow, Eliza R. Journal, 1842–1844. CHL. MS 1439.

  4. [28]

    The copy of the letter transcribed in JS’s journal has “defiance” instead of “defence.” (JS, Journal, 8 Sept. 1842.)

  5. [29]

    While it did not call for the extermination of church members in Illinois, an editorial in the Warsaw Signal stated that the citizens of Warsaw, Illinois, hoped that JS would resist arrest when officials arrived in Nauvoo to apprehend him so that they “should have had the sport of driving him and his worthy clan out of the State en masse.” In a subsequent issue, the paper’s printer, Thomas Gregg, disavowed the statement. (“Recent Attempt to Arrest the Prophet,” Warsaw [IL] Signal, 13 Aug. 1842, [3], italics in original; “To the Readers of the Signal,” Warsaw Signal, 20 Aug. 1842, [2].)

    Warsaw Signal. Warsaw, IL. 1841–1853.

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