Footnotes
JS, Journal, 8 Aug. 1842; “The Arrest,” Wasp, 13 Aug. 1842, [2].
The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.
Thomas R. King, Fillmore, Utah Territory, to George A. Smith, 21 Feb. 1868, Obituary Notices and Biographies, CHL.
Obituary Notices and Biographies, 1854–1877. CHL.
Writ of habeas corpus for JS, 10 Aug. 1842, copy, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL. Illinois state law granted circuit courts the power to issue writs of habeas corpus. In 1841, when JS was brought before Stephen A. Douglas in a similar extradition attempt, Douglas dismissed the arresting writ as obsolete. An editorial published in the 15 August 1842 issue of the Times and Seasons opined that if JS and Rockwell had “appealed to the district court it might have availed them nothing,” as the judge could not decide on the “guilt, or innocence of the persons charged,” but could only “test the validity of the writ; which if proved to be issued in due form of law, however innocent the parties might be, would subject them to be transported to Missouri—to be murdered.” (An Act Regulating the Proceeding on Writs of Habeas Corpus [22 Jan. 1827], Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois [1834–1837], pp. 327–328, sec. 20; “The Late Proceedings,” Times and Seasons, 15 June 1841, 2:447–449; Statement of Expenses to Thomas King, 30 Sept. 1841; “Persucution,” Times and Seasons, 15 Aug. 1842, 3:889.)
The Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois: Containing All the Laws . . . Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at Their First Session, Commencing December 1, 1834, and Ending February 13, 1835; and at Their Second Session, Commencing December 7, 1835, and Ending January 18, 1836; and Those Passed by the Tenth General Assembly, at Their Session Commencing December 5, 1836, and Ending March 6, 1837; and at Their Special Session, Commencing July 10, and Ending July 22, 1837. . . . Compiled by Jonathan Young Scammon. Chicago: Stephen F. Gale, 1839.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
JS, Journal, 10 Aug. 1842. In 1868, Latter-day Saint Thomas R. King remembered that one night, probably on 10 August, he took JS and Rockwell in a skiff across the river to Nauvoo and that JS then traveled to his “home by some back way.” At two o’clock the next morning, King took JS back to Zarahemla, but “Rockwell did not come with us.” By 1 December 1842, Rockwell was hiding in Philadelphia. JS remained in the area of Zarahemla until the night of 11 August, when he met others on an island in the Mississippi. (Thomas R. King, Fillmore, Utah Territory, to George A. Smith, 21 Feb. 1868, Obituary Notices and Biographies, CHL; Sybella Armstrong and Orrin Porter Rockwell, Philadelphia, PA, to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 1 Dec. 1842, JS Collection, CHL.)
Obituary Notices and Biographies, 1854–1877. CHL.
Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. I, pp. 309–310, 19 May 1841, microfilm 954,598, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
On 12 August, William Walker took JS’s horse across the river “to draw the attention of the Sheriffs and public.” On 13 August, JS received a report that “several small companies of men” had seen his horse and were looking for him on the Iowa side of the Mississippi. (JS, Journal, 12 and 13 Aug. 1842.)
David Hollister, Quincy, IL, to Hyrum Smith, Nauvoo, IL, 12 Aug. 1842, JS Office Papers, CHL; JS, Journal, 13 Aug. 1842.
Law replaced John C. Bennett as major general on 13 August. Bennett appears to have been cashiered from the legion on 30 June 1842. (General Orders for Nauvoo Legion, 2 Aug. 1842; Nauvoo Legion, Proceedings, 13 Aug. 1842, Nauvoo Legion Records, CHL; Nauvoo Legion Minute Book, [13] Aug. 1842, 29; JS, Journal, 30 June 1842; see also Letter from Thomas Carlin, 27 July 1842.)
Nauvoo Legion Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 3430.
Nauvoo Legion Minute Book, 1843–1844. Nauvoo Legion, Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 3430, fd. 1.
JS’s 8 August petition reproduced Carlin’s warrant. (Petition to Nauvoo Municipal Court, 8 Aug. 1842.)
JS, Journal, 14 Aug. 1842. On 20 August, Missouri governor Thomas Reynolds issued a requisition for JS’s arrest, and Chambers later issued a writ based on this requisition. (State of Missouri, Office of the Secretary of State, Commissions Division, Register of Civil Proceedings, vol. A, p. 175; John Chambers, Burlington, Iowa Territory, to John Cowan, 10 Mar. 1843, JS Office Papers, CHL.)
JS Office Papers / Joseph Smith Office Papers, ca. 1835–1845. CHL. MS 21600.
Clayton may have copied the letter on 14 August, as suggested by the page break on page 133 of the Book of the Law of the Lord, or on a later date. Clayton was with JS between 15 and 16 August and probably did not have the Book of the Law of the Lord with him. He likely returned to Nauvoo on 16 or 17 August and seems to have copied the letter into the Book of the Law of the Lord soon after returning and no later than 20 August, as suggested by the content of these and surrounding entries and by the changes in the ink Clayton used. (See Book of the Law of the Lord, 133–135, 164–167.)
Section 13 of the Nauvoo charter granted the city council “exclusive power within the city . . . to pass such ordinances as may be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers specified in this act.” Section 16 designated the mayor and aldermen as “conservators of the peace within the limits of said city,” and section 17 authorized the municipal court “power to grant writs of habeas corpus in all cases arising under the ordinances of the City Council.” In July 1842, Nauvoo’s city council passed an ordinance authorizing the municipal court to investigate all writs presented for the arrest of Nauvoo citizens. Based on this ordinance, JS petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus when King arrested him on 8 August. On that same day, the city council passed a new habeas corpus ordinance that gave the municipal court even more power to investigate arrest warrants. Thomas Carlin later challenged these ordinances and their uses. (Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840; Ordinance, 5 July 1842; Petition to Nauvoo Municipal Court, 8 Aug. 1842; Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 8 Aug. 1842, 99; Thomas Carlin, Quincy, IL, to Emma Smith, [Nauvoo, IL], 7 Sept. 1842.)
In July, two men who signed their names as “Aldrich & Chittenden”—possibly Mark Aldrich and William Chittenden—had written JS from Quincy, apparently in response to a nonextant letter in which JS asked for advice regarding a possible mob attack. The authors stated that the “first law of nature” authorized the Saints to defend themselves from violence. (Letter from Aldrich & Chittenden, 28 July 1842.)
Like other Americans, Latter-day Saints made frequent appeals to America’s Declaration of Independence, written in 1776, and to the American Revolutionary War, waged under the command of General George Washington, most often in relation to the persecution they experienced in Missouri. Usually, such appeals focused on their rights as Americans and less frequently as justification for violent or potentially violent confrontations.a Appeals to the American Revolutionary War were common among nineteenth-century vigilante groups.b As the issue of slavery was politicized and constitutionalized in this period, abolitionists increasingly looked to the American Revolution. In doing this, they focused on applying its egalitarian ideals to the enslaved and, later, reignited its martial legacy.c
(aSee, for example, Motto, ca. 16 or 17 Mar. 1838; Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840; and Constitution of the Society of the Daughter of Zion, ca. Late June 1838, in State of Missouri, “Evidence,” [10]–[12]. bBrown, Strain of Violence, 41–66, 142. cSee, for example, William Lloyd Garrison, “To the Public,” Liberator [Boston], 1 Jan. 1831, 1; Proceedings of the Anti-Slavery Convention, 5, 12–13, 15; and Nell, Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, 4–10.)Brown, Richard Maxwell. Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975.
Liberator. Boston. 1831–1865.
Proceedings of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Convention: Held at Putnam, on the Twenty-Second, Twenty-Third, and Twenty-Fourth of April, 1835. Putnam, OH: Beaumont and Wallace, 1835.
Nell, William C. The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, with Sketches of Several Distinguished Colored Persons: To Which Is Added a Brief Survey of the Condition and Prospects of Colored Americans. Boston: Robert F. Wallcut, 1855.
It is not clear what legal steps JS had in mind. According to common law, in certain circumstances, threats amounted to assault. In November 1841, Nauvoo’s city council passed an ordinance criminalizing “profane or indecent language, or behavior” and the use of “unbecoming language towards any City officer when in the discharge of his duty, or of menacing, threatening, or otherwise obstructing, said officer.” (“Assault,” in Bouvier, Law Dictionary, 1:97; Minutes, 13 Nov. 1841.)
Bouvier, John. A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union; With References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Deacon and Peterson, 1854.
The phrase “without collision” appears in the memorial to Congress authored by JS and others. (Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840.)
The phrase “free trade and sailors’ rights” was the rallying cry of the United States during the War of 1812. It neatly encapsulated two of the issues that led to the conflict, including the search and seizure of sailing vessels and the British practice of impressment. After the war, various political and social movements adopted and repurposed the phrase, transforming it into a generic patriotic slogan. (Gilje, Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights, 1–9.)
Gilje, Paul A. Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights in the War of 1812. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
David Crockett (1786–1836) had adopted the term “go ahead” as his motto. Crockett had fought in the War of 1812, which was considered a “Second War of Independence,” and served as a member of the United States House of Representatives. He later moved to the Mexican state of Tejas and was killed in the Battle of the Alamo in the Texian war for independence from Mexico. During his life, and especially after his death, Crockett was mythologized as an American folk hero known as a rugged and brave frontiersman manifesting an independent spirit. (See Crockett, Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, 13; and Wallis, David Crockett, 129, 186, 289–300.)
Crockett, David. A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, of the State of Tennessee. Philadelphia: E. L. Carey and A. Hart, 1834.
Wallis, Michael. David Crockett: The Lion of the West. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011.
Governor Carlin commissioned JS as a lieutenant general in the Nauvoo Legion in 1841. He also commissioned JS as a justice of the peace in 1842. (Commission from Thomas Carlin, 10 Mar. 1841; Thomas Carlin, Commission as Justice of the Peace, Springfield, IL, to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 13 June 1842, BYU.)
The phrase “our lives, and our fortunes” echoes the concluding statement in the Declaration of Independence: “we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” On 4 July 1838, Sidney Rigdon had concluded an oration, wherein he promised that mob violence would be met with violence, by stating, “We pledge this day to one another, our fortunes, our lives, and our sacred honors.” (Oration Delivered by Mr. S. Rigdon, 12.)
See Book of Mormon, 1840 ed., 336–337, 341–342, 380 [Alma 44:5; 46:12–13; 58:12].
See Exodus 20:18.
See Revelation 6:10; and Book of Mormon, 1840 ed., 274 [Alma 20:18].