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Agreement with Amos Rees and Alexander Doniphan, 28 November 1838

Source Note

and , Agreement, with , on behalf of JS and others, [likely , MO], 28 [Nov.] 1838. Featured version copied [after 28 Nov. 1838]; one page; unidentified handwriting; Hiram Kimball Collection, CHL. Includes docket.
Single leaf measuring 12½ × 7¾ inches (32 × 20 cm). The agreement was inscribed on the verso. On the recto is a previously inscribed deed record for an unrelated transaction. The document was folded for filing, and a docket was added in unidentified handwriting: “Doniphan & | Rees | Agreement | (for Defending | on trial) | E Partridge | & others”.
The agreement was apparently acquired by church agent . It later came into the possession of his daughter Sarah Granger Kimball and then other members of the Kimball family. The agreement and other Kimball family papers were donated to the Church History Department in 2013.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See the full bibliographic entry for the Hiram Kimball Collection in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 28 November 1838, attorneys and signed an agreement with on behalf of JS and other Latter-day Saint prisoners, promising to defend them against charges that had been brought against them concerning the October 1838 conflict between Mormons and non-Mormons in northwestern . Judge had scheduled a November hearing to take place in , Missouri, to evaluate the prosecution’s evidence that JS and fifty-two other Latter-day Saint men had allegedly committed treason, murder, burglary, arson, robbery, and larceny. On 12 November, the date the hearing began, JS explained in a letter to his wife that he and the other defendants had retained Rees as their legal counsel and expected Doniphan to join Rees. The two men had represented the Saints following their , Missouri, difficulties in 1833, and JS told Emma in the letter that Rees and Doniphan were “able man and will do well no doubt.” On 28 November 1838, the day before the hearing ended, Partridge deeded to the attorneys more than one thousand acres of Jackson County land that he held for the church. Although the deed states that Rees and Doniphan purchased the land with $5,000 “in hand,” the featured agreement clarifies that Partridge paid the lawyers in land in exchange for their legal services.
The agreement lists only thirteen of the men who were on trial, but several details suggest that the terms probably applied to all fifty-three defendants. Textually, the blank space between the names of the last two defendants listed on the agreement, as well as the apparent ellipsis following the last name, suggests that whoever made a copy of the original document may have omitted the names of other defendants for convenience. Additionally, though and had been initially retained to represent only forty-two of the defendants, they were assigned by the court to also provide counsel to the remaining eleven men, who were “unable to employ counsel to assist them in their defense.” Among those eleven defendants was , even though his defense was supposed to be paid for by the state and not by the church. Because this agreement includes McRae’s name and does not include all of the names of the forty-two men who had hired Rees and Doniphan, it seems likely that several names were omitted but that the terms of the agreement applied to all fifty-three men.
The agreement with and marked the first time the church voluntarily sold land to non-Mormons—a significant shift in church policy. From 1831 to 1833, Latter-day Saints purchased land in and around , the seat of Jackson County, believing it to be the “centre place” of , at which to build the “City of Zion.” As bishop, oversaw and managed this property. Following the Saints’ expulsion from the county in 1833, JS instructed that “it is not the will of the Lord for you to sell your Lands in ,” and “it is better that you should die in the ey[e]s of God, then that you should give up the Land of Zion.” In an 1834 appeal to the American public for redress, church leaders stated, “To sell our land [in Jackson County] would amount to a denial of our faith, as that land is the place where the Zion of God shall stand.” The land Partridge deeded to the attorneys constituted more than half of the land he had purchased for the church in Jackson County prior to the Saints’ expulsion. Although the transaction included most of the church-owned land along the western border of Jackson County, none of the land in and around Independence was deeded to the attorneys. Because of the religious significance of the Jackson County land, it seems highly unlikely that Partridge made this transaction without JS’s consent. About three months later, in March 1839, JS instructed church leaders “to sell all the Land in Jackson [County] and all other lands in the State whatsoever” to help pay for the removal of destitute Latter-day Saints from .
and signed the agreement featured here on 28 November, the day before the preliminary hearing ended. Presumably, they furnished the original copy of this agreement to after he deeded the land to them. The agreement acknowledges that Rees and Doniphan received the deed from Partridge and that in return, the attorneys would represent the Latter-day Saint defendants in the next day’s hearing and in any further trials or appeals related to the case. Rees and Doniphan, who were joined in early 1839 by Peter Burnett, served as JS’s legal counsel until he escaped state custody and fled to in April 1839.
The original agreement apparently is not extant. At a later date, someone presumably interested in ’s land transactions copied the agreement onto the back of a leaf that contained a record of an 1837 deed transferring the plat to Partridge.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Historical Introductions to Letter to Emma Smith, 4 Nov. 1838; Letter to Emma Smith, 12 Nov. 1838; and Agreement with Jacob Stollings, 12 Apr. 1839.

  2. [2]

    Letter to Emma Smith, 12 Nov. 1838; William T. Wood et al., Independence, MO, to William W. Phelps et al., 28 Oct. 1833, William W. Phelps, Collection of Missouri Documents, CHL.

    Phelps, William W. Collection of Missouri Documents, 1833–1837. CHL. MS 657.

  3. [3]

    Jackson Co., MO, Deed Records, 1827–1909, vol. F, pp. 292–293, 28 Nov. 1838, microfilm, 1,017,980, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

  4. [4]

    Transcript of Proceedings, 12–29 Nov. 1838 [State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Treason and Other Crimes], pp. [1]–[2].

    Missouri, State of. “Evidence.” Hearing Record, Richmond, MO, 12–29 Nov. 1838, State of Missouri v. Joseph Smith et al. for Treason and Other Crimes (Mo. 5th Cir. Ct. 1838). Eugene Morrow Violette Collection, 1806–1921, Western Historical Manuscript Collection. University of Missouri and State Historical Society of Missouri, Ellis Library, University of Missouri, Columbia.

  5. [5]

    Transcript of Proceedings, 12–29 Nov. 1838 [State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Treason and Other Crimes], pp. [1]–[2].

    Missouri, State of. “Evidence.” Hearing Record, Richmond, MO, 12–29 Nov. 1838, State of Missouri v. Joseph Smith et al. for Treason and Other Crimes (Mo. 5th Cir. Ct. 1838). Eugene Morrow Violette Collection, 1806–1921, Western Historical Manuscript Collection. University of Missouri and State Historical Society of Missouri, Ellis Library, University of Missouri, Columbia.

  6. [6]

    Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C 57:2–3].

  7. [7]

    Revelation, 9 Feb. 1831 [D&C 42:30–36]; Edward Partridge, Affidavit, 15 May 1839, Edward Partridge, Papers, CHL.

    Edward Partridge, Papers, 1818–1839. CHL. MS 892.

  8. [8]

    Letter to Edward Partridge, 5 Dec. 1833; Letter to Edward Partridge et al., 10 Dec. 1833.

  9. [9]

    William W. Phelps et al., “An Appeal,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Aug. 1834, 183. In 1838, the Saints still owned land in Jackson County, even though they had failed to reoccupy the land, had departed from Clay County, and had resettled in Caldwell County. For church members to sell land in Jackson County was considered by JS and other church leaders to be a serious offense in early 1838, at which time such an offense had been included among charges leveled against Oliver Cowdery. (Minute Book 2, 26 Jan. 1838; Minutes, 12 Apr. 1838, in JSP, D6:86, 88, 93.)

    The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

  10. [10]

    Edward Partridge, Affidavit, 15 May 1839, Edward Partridge, Papers, CHL.

    Edward Partridge, Papers, 1818–1839. CHL. MS 892.

  11. [11]

    Jackson Co., MO, Deed Records, 1827–1909, vol. F, pp. 292–293, 28 Nov. 1838, microfilm, 1,017,980, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C 57:2–3].

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

  12. [12]

    Far West Committee, Minutes, 8 Mar. 1839.

    Far West Committee. Minutes, Jan.–Apr. 1839. CHL. MS 2564.

  13. [13]

    Burnett, Recollections and Opinions, 53–55, 65–68.

    Burnett, Peter H. Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer. New York: D. Appleton, 1880.

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Editorial Title
Agreement with Amos Rees and Alexander Doniphan, 28 November 1838
ID #
8398
Total Pages
2
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