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Missouri law defined riot as the assemblage of three or more people, “with the intent . . . to do any unlawful act, with force or violence, against the person or property of another, or against the peace, or to the terror of the people.” (An Act concerning Crimes and Their Punishments [20 Mar. 1835], Revised Statutes of the State of Missouri [1834–1835], p. 202, art. 7, sec. 6.)
The Revised Statutes of the State of Missouri, Revised and Digested by the Eighth General Assembly, During the Years One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Four, and One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Five. Together with the Constitutions of Missouri and of the United States. 3rd ed. St. Louis: Chambers and Knapp, 1841.
JS, Journal, 7–9 Aug. 1838; Historical Introduction to Affidavit, 5 Sept. 1838, in JSP, D6:219–222.
JSP, D5 / Rogers, Brent M., Elizabeth A. Kuehn, Christian K. Heimburger, Max H Parkin, Alexander L. Baugh, and Steven C. Harper, eds. Documents, Volume 5: October 1835–January 1838. Vol. 5 of the Documents series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Ronald K. Esplin, Matthew J. Grow, and Matthew C. Godfrey. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2017.
JS, Journal, 7 Sept. 1838; Recognizance, 7 Sept. 1838 [State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Riot]; An Act concerning Crimes and Their Punishments [20 Mar. 1835], Revised Statutes of the State of Missouri [1834–1835], p. 202, art. 7, sec. 6.
The Revised Statutes of the State of Missouri, Revised and Digested by the Eighth General Assembly, During the Years One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Four, and One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Five. Together with the Constitutions of Missouri and of the United States. 3rd ed. St. Louis: Chambers and Knapp, 1841.
Warrant, 12 Sept. 1838 [State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Riot]. Evaluating the veracity of these claims presents a challenge. From the time the Mormons left Black’s property on 8 August, he and his allies had claimed that the Saints were defying the law, that the regularly constituted authorities could not maintain order, and that only vigilante action could bring the Mormons to justice. Church members and interested outsiders perceived these claims to be thinly veiled rhetoric actually intended to convince men from neighboring counties to aid Black and his allies in expelling the Mormons from Daviess County. By early September, a multi-county anti-Mormon force was gathering near Adam-ondi-Ahman. In this context, the Saints presumably would have seen men appearing with arrest warrants as instruments of the mob and therefore may have resisted what they would have considered illegitimate authority. (JS, Journal, 8–9 Sept. 1838; Historical Introduction to Letter from Austin A. King, 10 Sept. 1838, in JSP, D6:237–239.)
JSP, D6 / Ashurst-McGee, Mark, David W. Grua, Elizabeth Kuehn, Alexander L. Baugh, and Brenden W. Rensink, eds. Documents, Volume 6: February 1838–August 1839. Vol. 6 of the Documents series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Ronald K. Esplin, Matthew J. Grow, and Matthew C. Godfrey. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2017.
Alexander Doniphan, “Camp on Grand River,” Daviess Co., MO, to David R. Atchison, Richmond, MO, 15 Sept. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA. Prosecuting attorney Thomas Burch made a transcript of the proceedings. Only seven of the thirteen defendants who appeared had been named in one of the previous extant complaints: Alanson Brown, Ephraim Owen, Alanson Ripley, George A. Smith, Amos Tubs, James Whitaker, and Joseph W. Younger. It is unclear how the other six men—William Aldrich, James Bingham, Moses Daley, Perry Durfee, John Lemmon, and Absalom Sentchfield—came to be in custody at the hearing. (Transcript of Proceedings, ca. 18 Sept. 1838 [State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Riot].)
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
Burnett, Recollections and Opinions, 65.
Burnett, Peter H. Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer. New York: D. Appleton, 1880.
Daviess Co., MO, Circuit Court Record, bk. A, 43–44, Daviess County Courthouse, Gallatin, MO.
Daviess County, Missouri. Circuit Court Record, vol. A, July 1837–Oct. 1843. Daviess County Courthouse, Gallatin, MO.
Indictment, ca. 10 Apr. 1839 [State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Riot]. As grand jury proceedings are kept secret by law, no transcript of the witness testimonies has survived. (See “Grand Jury,” in Bouvier, Law Dictionary, 1:449.)
Bouvier, John. A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union; with References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law. 2 vols. Philadelphia: T. and J. W. Johnson, 1839.
Indictment, ca. 10 Apr. 1839 [State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Riot]. With the exception of Caleb Baldwin, whose name did not appear in any previous documents associated with the riot case, each of the defendants had been bound over at either the 7 September or 18 September preliminary hearings. Alanson Ripley was the only individual bound over at the 18 September 1838 hearing who was not named in the indictment.
Lilburn W. Boggs, Jefferson City, MO, to John B. Clark, Fayette, MO, 27 Oct. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA.
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
See Historical Introduction to Promissory Note to John Brassfield, 16 Apr. 1839, in JSP, D6:422–426.
JSP, D6 / Ashurst-McGee, Mark, David W. Grua, Elizabeth Kuehn, Alexander L. Baugh, and Brenden W. Rensink, eds. Documents, Volume 6: February 1838–August 1839. Vol. 6 of the Documents series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Ronald K. Esplin, Matthew J. Grow, and Matthew C. Godfrey. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2017.
In the docket entries noting the continuance and then the dismissal, Wilson listed Moses Daley first among the defendants, rather than JS, likely because Daley was the first named defendant who was not named in the change of venue order. (Docket Entry, Continuance, 14 Aug. 1839 [State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Riot]; Docket Entry, Nolle Prosequi, 10 Dec. 1839 [State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Riot].)
Docket Entry, Continuance, 17 Aug. 1839 [State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Riot]. An apparent scribal error omitted the docket entry for the continuance of the riot case at the November 1839 term and the case’s dismissal during the August 1840 term. However, the circuit court clerk recorded the continuances and dismissals of the other Mormon-related cases, suggesting that the riot case was almost certainly continued and then dismissed, although not recorded. (See Docket Entry, Continuance, 4 Nov. 1839 [State of Missouri v. Gates et al. for Treason]; and Docket Entry, Nolle Prosequi, 5 Aug. 1840 [State of Missouri v. Gates et al. for Treason].)
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