JS had recently received several letters documenting the Quorum of the Twelve’s success in Great Britain. In October 1840, a general conference in Manchester, England, reported the church’s British membership was 3,626. Heber C. Kimball also had informed JS that missionaries had been sent to Ireland and the East Indies. (Letter from Brigham Young, 29 Apr. 1840; Letter from Brigham Young, 7 May 1840; Letter from Heber C. Kimball and Others, 25 May 1840; “Minutes of the General Conference,” LDS Millennial Star, Oct. 1840, 1:165–166; Letter from Heber C. Kimball, 9 July 1840.)

Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.

The increasingly contentious situation between Mormons and non-Mormons in Missouri culminated on 27 October 1838, when Governor Lilburn W. Boggs issued an executive order calling for the Saints to “be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace.” Three days later, a segment of the Missouri militia raided the Saints’ settlement at Hawn’s Mill in Caldwell County, Missouri, resulting in the deaths of seventeen men and boys. (Lilburn W. Boggs, Jefferson City, MO, to John B. Clark, Fayette, MO, 27 Oct. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City; Joseph Young and Jane A. Bicknell Young, Affidavit, Record Group 233, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, National Archives, Washington DC.)

Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.

Record Group 233, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives / Petitions and Memorials, Resolutions of State Legislatures, and Related Documents Which Were Referred to the Committee on Judiciary during the 27th Congress. Committee on the Judiciary, Petitions and Memorials, 1813–1968. Record Group 233, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1789–2015. National Archives, Washington DC. The LDS records cited herein are housed in National Archives boxes 40 and 41 of Library of Congress boxes 139–144 in HR27A-G10.1.

See Psalm 46:7, 11.

The use of the term freemen here implied that Illinois offered the Saints freedoms equal to those of other citizens. In 1841 Noah Webster defined freeman as “one who enjoys liberty, or who is not subject to the will of another; one not a slave or vassal” and “one who enjoys or is entitled to a franchise or peculiar privilege.” (“Freeman,” in American Dictionary [1841], 718.)

An American Dictionary of the English Language; First Edition in Octavo, Containing the Whole Vocabulary of the Quarto, with Corrections, Improvements and Several Thousand Additional Words. . . . Edited by Noah Webster. 2nd ed. 2 vols. New Haven: By the author, 1841.

See Luke 10:34.

Many Saints noted the hospitality and charity of Quincy’s residents. For example, John L. Butler recalled that one man allowed several families to reside without cost in “ten or twelve small houses that he had built on purpose to rent,” and Sarah Pea Rich noted that those in Quincy did “all they could to give our bretheren employment and assisted maney that ware in need.” (Butler, Autobiography, [31]; Rich, Autobiography, 53.)

Butler, John L. Autobiography, ca. 1859. CHL. MS 2952.

Rich, Sarah DeArmon Pea. Autobiography and Journal, 1885–1890. Sarah DeArmon Pea Rich, Autobiography, 1884–1893. CHL.

On 28 February 1839, a meeting of Quincy citizens appointed Joseph T. Holmes to a committee in charge of collecting donations for the Saints. Samuel Holmes, Bushnell, and Morris were placed on another committee “to draw up subscription papers and circulate them among the citizens for the purpose of receiving contributions in clothing and provisions.” Illinois senator Richard M. Young, Carlin, Leech, Morris, Holmes, and Holmes lent their support to the Saints when they signed a statement on 8 May 1839 urging others to donate to the impoverished newcomers.a Bartlett was one of the editors of the Quincy Whig, which published a number of positive articles on the Saints.b

Quincy Whig. Quincy, IL. 1838–1856.

Greene, John P. Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons or Latter Day Saints, from the State of Missouri, under the “Exterminating Order.” By John P. Greene, an Authorized Representative of the Mormons. Cincinnati: R. P. Brooks, 1839.

See Proverbs 7:3.

Although the charter did not include any rights that had not previously been provided for in an Illinois municipal charter, the combination of powers rendered Nauvoo’s unique among Illinois charters. (See Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840.)

See Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840. Passage of Nauvoo’s charter was a bipartisan initiative. In 1854 Illinois governor Thomas Ford suggested that this was largely due to John C. Bennett’s lobbying in Springfield in November 1840. Ford recalled that Bennett “addressed himself to Mr. [Sidney] Little, the whig senator from Hancock, and to Mr. Douglass [Stephen A. Douglas], the democratic secretary of State, who both entered heartily into his views and projects. Bennet managed matters well for his constituents. He flattered both sides with the hope of Mormon favor; and both sides expected to receive their votes.” (Ford, History of Illinois, 263.)

Ford, Thomas. A History of Illinois, from Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847. Containing a Full Account of the Black Hawk War, the Rise, Progress, and Fall of Mormonism, the Alton and Lovejoy Riots, and Other Important and Interesting Events. Chicago: S. C. Griggs; New York: Ivison and Phinney, 1854.

This passage alludes to the Saints’ expulsion from Missouri, which was brought about partly by Governor Lilburn W. Boggs’s 27 October 1838 executive order. In addition, the Missouri legislature had refused to officially consider the Saints’ petition for redress. (Lilburn W. Boggs, Jefferson City, MO, to John B. Clark, Fayette, MO, 27 Oct. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City; Letter from Elias Higbee, 21 Feb. 1840.)

Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.

See the preamble to the United States Declaration of Independence.