Letter from Horace Hotchkiss, 27 May 1842
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Source Note
, Letter, , New Haven Co., CT, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 27 May 1842; handwriting of ; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address, postal stamp, postal notations, endorsement, and docket.Bifolium measuring 10⅞ × 7⅝ inches (28 × 19 cm), ruled with twenty-seven lines on the recto of the first leaf and twenty-nine lines on the verso of the first leaf and on the recto of the second leaf; the verso of the second leaf was left unlined for the address panel. The letter was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, and sealed with a red adhesive wafer. The letter was later trifolded vertically for filing.The document was docketed by , who served as scribe to JS from 1842 to 1844. The document was likely one of four 1842 letters from listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office circa 1904. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early docket, the circa 1904 inventory, and inclusion in the JS Collection by 1973 indicate continuous institutional custody.
Footnotes
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1
JS, Journal, 29 June 1842; “Clayton, William,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:718.
Jenson, Andrew. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901–1936.
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2
“Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [2], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
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3
See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.
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Historical Introduction
On 27 May 1842, wrote from to JS in , Illinois, replying to JS’s 13 May 1842 letter and expressing concern about JS’s decision to petition for bankruptcy. Although the nation’s new bankruptcy act allowed JS to voluntarily petition for bankruptcy, Hotchkiss worried about the social and financial consequences of this decision. As one of JS’s largest creditors, Hotchkiss also requested information on the status of his land contracts with JS, as represented in JS’s bankruptcy petition. Hotchkiss was particularly concerned about land JS, , and had contracted to purchase from Hotchkiss and his partners, and , in August 1839.When JS applied for bankruptcy in April 1842, he included a schedule enumerating his debts, which listed the principal payment of $50,000 from his August 1839 bond with , , and . The schedule did not, however, include the annual interest payments that were also part of the agreement. As part of JS’s application for bankruptcy, JS or his lawyer also created a schedule of assets, which included the land JS had arranged to purchase in 1839 from Hotchkiss and his partners. In this 27 May letter, Hotchkiss cautioned JS against including this land in his schedule of assets, since JS had not fully paid for the land and did not yet hold the title.The question of whether or not the land should have been included in JS’s petition for bankruptcy was complicated by the fact that by January 1842 the agreement with Hotchkiss and his partners had become a fiduciary debt, or a debt related to JS’s role as trustee-in-trust for the , and not a personal debt. Justices of the district courts, who were responsible for trying bankruptcy cases filed under the bankruptcy act of 1841, held differing opinions on whether fiduciary debts should be included in bankruptcy petitions under the 1841 act, resulting in inconsistent court decisions and legal interpretations.The letter from was postmarked on 28 May, the day after he wrote it. JS replied to Hotchkiss’s letter on 30 June. The letter from Hotchkiss was presumably filed in JS’s office, where it was docketed by .
Footnotes
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2
Application for Bankruptcy, ca. 14–16 Apr. 1842; JS, Journal, 14–18 Apr. 1842. The agreement required annual interest payments of $3,000 a year for twenty years, totaling $60,000. (Report of Agents, ca. 30 Jan. 1841.)
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3
See Application for Bankruptcy, ca. 14–16 Apr. 1842. Although JS owned a significant amount of land in and around Nauvoo, only the land included in the 1839 agreement with Hotchkiss and his partners was identified among JS’s assets.
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4
Bond from First Presidency, 4 Jan. 1842; see also JS, Nauvoo, IL, to Horace Hotchkiss, Fair Haven, CT, 26 Nov. 1842, Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU.
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5
While the 1841 bankruptcy act explicitly disqualified debts “created in consequence of a defalcation as a public officer; or as executor, administrator, guardian or trustee, or while acting in any other fiduciary capacity,” in practice there were diverging legal opinions about how such debts should be treated. In a September 1842 decision of the Massachusetts Circuit Court, for example, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story noted that three of his fellow judges had given differing opinions about fiduciary debts and bankruptcy in their judgments. (An Act to Establish a Uniform System of Bankruptcy [19 Aug. 1841], Public Statutes at Large, 27th Cong., 1st Sess., chap. 9, p. 441, sec. 1; “In the Matter of John C. Tebbetts,” 259–269.)
The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, from the Organization of the Government in 1789, to March 3, 1845. . . . Edited by Richard Peters. 8 vols. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1846–1867.
“In the Matter of John C. Tebbetts” / “Circuit Court of the United States, Massachusetts, September 7, 1842, at Boston. In Bankruptcy. In the Matter of John C. Tebbetts.” Law Reporter 5 (Oct. 1842): 259–269.
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