Letter to the Church in Clay County, Missouri, 22 January 1834
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Source Note
JS, , and , Letter, , Geauga Co., OH, to “brethren in Christ Jesus scattered abroad,” , MO, 22 Jan. 1834. Retained copy, [ca. 22 Jan. 1834], in JS Letterbook 1, pp. 79–81; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 1.
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Historical Introduction
JS, , and wrote this 22 January 1834 letter in response to a 15 December 1833 letter that wrote from , Missouri, to church leaders in , Ohio, requesting advice on what church members in should do after being driven from their homes in . Phelps and other church leaders in Missouri had already petitioned Missouri governor to help restore church members to their property in Jackson County, to protect them from further violence until they were able to protect themselves, and to commence a court of inquiry into the violence against the Mormons, but they were disappointed by the governor’s response. According to Phelps’s letter, Dunklin had ordered part of the militia to stand prepared to “guard a court martial, and court of Enquiry” and had expressed his willingness to help restore the church members to their lands; however, Dunklin had also indicated that he did not have the authority to keep a military force in Jackson County to protect the Mormons from possible attacks in the future. “I do not write this letter to entertain you with news, or for to wake you up to our dreadful condition,” Phelps wrote to the leaders in Kirtland, “but that you may timely give us some advice what is best to do in our tarry till Zion is redeemed!”JS and other church leaders in answered ’s question both in the letter featured here and by sending a revelation that JS had dictated on 16–17 December 1833 explaining why church members had been driven out of and instructing them how to obtain redress for their losses. Pursuant to the instructions contained in the letter and revelation, church leaders in petitioned president Andrew Jackson to help restore displaced church members to their homes and property in Jackson County, Missouri. They also wrote to Dunklin, asking him to write to Jackson in support of the church leaders’ petition. Both Jackson and declined their requests. The letter featured here also indicates that JS and church leaders in Kirtland had similarly sent a petition to Dunklin and were also planning to send a petition to Jackson. These petitions have not been located.In addition to discussing the situation in , the 22 January 1834 letter addressed other issues, including the making of printing type and the activities of , who had been ordered to keep the peace and to appear before the court of common pleas for threatening JS’s life. Hurlbut had recently returned from a journey through , , and , where he had been looking for evidence to support his claim that the Book of Mormon was based on an unpublished work of fiction written by Solomon Spalding and also “to examine the validity of Joseph Smith’s claims to the character of a Prophet.” Although Hurlbut obtained some of Spalding’s papers, both he and were never able to produce a manuscript that bore any relation to the Book of Mormon. However, Hurlbut did collect several purported signatures and statements from people in New York claiming that the Spalding manuscript was the basis for the Book of Mormon and attesting to the poor character of JS and his family. Nevertheless, the letter featured here informed the members that because of the judgment against Hurlbut, “his influence was pritty much distroyed.”
Footnotes
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1
William W. Phelps et al., Petition to Daniel Dunklin, 6 Dec. 1833, copy, William W. Phelps, Collection of Missouri Documents, CHL.
Phelps, William W. Collection of Missouri Documents, 1833–1837. CHL. MS 657.
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2
“The Governor is willing to restore us,” Phelps wrote, “but as the constitution gives him no power to guard us, when back, we are not willing to go.” Dunklin’s official response to the petition is dated 4 February 1834; thus Phelps probably received this information about Dunklin’s position from Alexander Doniphan and David R. Atchison, who had been hired as legal counsel to the church and who had been in communication with Missouri attorney general Robert W. Wells. (Letter from William W. Phelps, 15 Dec. 1833; Daniel Dunklin, Jefferson City, MO, to William W. Phelps et al., 4 Feb. 1834, copy; Robert W. Wells, Jefferson City, MO, to Alexander Doniphan and David R. Atchison, 21 Nov. 1833, copy, William W. Phelps, Collection of Missouri Documents, CHL.)
Phelps, William W. Collection of Missouri Documents, 1833–1837. CHL. MS 657.
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3
Letter from William W. Phelps, 15 Dec. 1833, italics in original.
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4
Revelation, 16–17 Dec. 1833 [D&C 101].
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5
Edward Partridge et al., Petition to Andrew Jackson, 10 Apr. 1834, copy; Sidney Gilbert et al., Liberty, MO, to Andrew Jackson, 10 Apr. 1834, copy; William W. Phelps et al., Liberty, MO, to Daniel Dunklin, 10 Apr. 1834; Daniel Dunklin, Jefferson City, MO, to William W. Phelps et al., Liberty, MO, 20 Apr. 1834; Daniel Dunklin, Jefferson City, MO, to William W. Phelps et al., Kirtland, OH, 22 Jan. 1836; Lewis Cass, Washington DC, to Sidney Gilbert et al., Liberty, MO, 2 May 1834, William W. Phelps, Collection of Missouri Documents, CHL.
Phelps, William W. Collection of Missouri Documents, 1833–1837. CHL. MS 657.
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6
Geauga Co., OH, Court of Common Pleas, Court Records, 1807–1904, Final Record Book P, pp. 431–432, microfilm 20,278, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
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7
Winchester, Plain Facts, 9–11; “To the Public,” Painesville (OH) Telegraph, 31 Jan. 1834, [3]; Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, chaps. 17, 19.
Winchester, Benjamin. Plain Facts, Shewing the Origin of the Spaulding Story, concerning the Manuscript Found, and Its Being Transformed into the Book of Mormon; with a Short History of Dr. P. Hulbert, the Author of the Said Story . . . Re-published by George J. Adams, Minister of the Gospel, Bedford, England. To Which Is Added, a Letter from Elder S. Rigdon, Also, One from Elder O. Hyde, on the Above Subject. Bedford, England: C. B. Merry, 1841.
Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1822–1986.
Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion, from Its Rise to the Present Time. With Sketches of the Characters of Its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in Which the Famous Golden Bible Was Brought before the World. To Which Are Added, Inquiries into the Probability That the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written by One Solomon Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.
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