Sidney Rigdon, Appeal to the American People, 1840, Second Edition, Page 50
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Sidney Rigdon, Appeal to the American People, 1840, Second Edition

Page 53

Source Note

[], An Appeal to the American People: Being an Account of the Persecutions of the Church of Latter Day Saints; and of the Barbarities Inflicted on Them by the Inhabitants of the State of Missouri, second edition; i-vi, 7–60 pp.; Cincinnati, OH: Shepard and Stearns, 1840. The copy used herein is held at CHL.

Historical Introduction

While incarcerated at , Missouri, in March 1839, JS addressed a letter to the church “at Illinois and scattered abroad and to in particular,” instructing the Saints to gather up “a knowledge of all the facts and sufferings and abuses put upon them by the people of this ”. Among the earliest responses to JS’s call was ’s pamphlet, An Appeal to the American People: Being an Account of the Persecutions of the Church of Latter Day Saints; and of the Barbarities Inflicted on Them by the Inhabitants of the State of Missouri (Cincinnati: Glezen and Shepard, 1840).
A manuscript draft of this pamphlet, simply titled “To the Publick” was presented to a conference of church members at , Illinois, on 1 November 1839. The conference voted to approve the manuscript and authorized its publication on behalf of the church. The pamphlet, when published, carried the endorsement of JS, , and as “Presidents of said Church.”
and collaborated on the publication of the text, which was available in print by May 1840. Though no author is named on the title page, was acknowledged as author in an 1840 Times and Seasons newspaper article, and when the pamphlet was advertised in that church periodical in 1841. JS and held some expectation that funds from the sale of An Appeal would eventually help defray costs of their late-1839 trip to .
By July 1840, and had been authorized to produce a second, revised edition to be published by Shepard & Stearns in . Page related some of the circumstances surrounding its publication and circulation in a letter sent to JS, “. . . at [Ohio] we parted for a few days . . . Elder Hyde went to Cincinnati where in my absince he published a second Edition of the ‘Apeal to the American people’ (2000 copies)[.] when I arrived the work was about completed[.] after disposing of as many of them as posible and suplying the market about cincinnati and the adjacient country he left me with some fourteen or fifteen hundred on hand, to dispose of” (John E. Page, Philadelphia, PA, to JS et al., Nauvoo, IL, 1 Sept. 1841, JS Collection, CHL). Funds from this printing were to be for the express purpose of subsidizing Hyde and Page’s imminent mission to in Palestine.
The second edition was essentially a lightly edited reprint of the first, with a four-page “Publisher’s Preface” added. In the preface, and noted the purpose of the publication, explained the severe hardships imposed by the persecutions upon Page’s own family, provided a detailed account of a vision experienced by Hyde, and expressed enthusiasm about the prospects of the mission. The preface also contained a copy of an official letter of appointment and commendation for Hyde and Page from an April 1840 church conference at , Illinois, signed by JS, and a letter of reference from , governor of .
Although many of the events reported in both editions of ’s pamphlet can be corroborated from other sources, his chronology of events is often inaccurate. However, Rigdon’s account does contain the texts of several significant documents. Among these are JS’s September 1838 affidavit concerning the 7 August 1838 visit to and those of and regarding the massacre. Consequently, though in many respects Rigdon’s document from a historical perspective is more advocacy than history, it offers access to some important material not readily found elsewhere.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 March 1839 [D&C 123:1, 6].

  2. [2]

    Sidney Rigdon, JS, et al., Petition Draft (“To the Publick”), circa 1838–1839.

  3. [3]

    “A History, of the Persecution,” Times and Seasons, May 1840, 1:99; Advertisement, Times and Seasons, 1 Jan. 1841, 1:272.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  4. [4]

    Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:103–104.

    Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Statement, circa 1 November 1839–B *Affidavit, 5 September 1838 [ State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Riot ]

Page 50

speechifying, as the papers of , published at the time, abundantly testify, the petition and memorial were laid on the table until the July following; thus utterly refusing to grant the memorialists their request, thereby refusing to investigate the subject; and thus it stands to this day, uninvestigated by any legal authority.
After we were cast into prison we heard nothing but threatenings, that if any judge or jury, or court of any kind should clear any of us that we should never get out of the alive. This soon determined our course, and that was to escape out of their hands as soon as we could, and by any means we could. After we had been some length of time in prison, we demanded a of , one of judges, which, with some considerable reluctance, was granted. Great threatenings were made at this time by the mob, that if any of us were liberated we should get out of the alive. After the investigation of our number was released from prison by the decision of the ; the remainder were committed to jail. He also returned with them until a favorable opportunity offered, which, through the friendship of the sheriff, Mr. Samuel Hadley and the jailor, Mr. Samuel Tillery, he was let out of the jail secretly in the night; and being solemnly warned by them to be out of the with as little delay as possible, he made his escape. Being pursued by a body of armed men, it was through the direction of a kind providence that he escaped out of their hands and safely arrived in , Illinois. This was in February, A. D. 1839.
In the May following, the remainder that were in , were taken to to be tried by a grand jury of the principal mobbers, in order to see if a could be found as could be expected from the characters of the jury. Bills were found, they obtained a change of venue to ; accordingly, the sheriff of , with guards, started to take them from to . On their way, after journeying a day or two, one evening the guard got drunk, they left them, and also made their escape to , Illinois.
Those that were in jail were brought to trial, but no bill of indictment was found against and Norman Shearer, and they were released and sent home. A bill was found against , Morris Phelps, and for murder, and also a man by the name of for robbery. They also obtained a change of venue to , and were carried thither and put into jail and there remained until the fourth of July. At this time the town was all hilarity and mirth at the celebration. They also made a flag and had it placed over the jail doors. In the evening, when the jailor brought in their suppers they walked out at the door—that is, , Morris Phelps and ; continued, the others were closely pursued, and was retaken and carried back; but the other two effected their escape to the State of . Some time afterwards had his trial, and was acquitted. remains in prison unto this day, 26th October, 1839.
As to those that were left in the counties of and , they were making all possible exertions to get away all the winter, contrary to the stipulations of and , granting [p. 50]
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Sidney Rigdon, Appeal to the American People, 1840, Second Edition
ID #
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Total Pages
62
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