Footnotes
JS left the capital for Illinois shortly after the church’s memorial was presented to the Senate on 28 January 1840. Sidney Rigdon was ill in Philadelphia when Higbee wrote this letter and remained there until he left for New Jersey on 5 March 1840. (Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 14 Jan. 1840, 2; Letter from Elias Higbee, 9 Mar. 1840.)
Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840; Journal of the Senate of the United States, 26th Cong., 1st Sess., 28 Jan. and 12 Feb. 1840, 138, 173; Congressional Globe, 26th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 149 (1840).
Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, Being the First Session of the Twenty-Sixth Congress, Begun and Held at the City of Washington, December 2, 1839, and in the Sixty-Fourth Year of the Independence of the Said United States. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1839.
The Congressional Globe, Containing Sketches of the Debates and Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Congress. Vol. 8. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1840.
John Smith, Journal, 1836–1840, 29 Feb. 1840, [58].
Smith, John (1781-1854). Journal, 1833–1841. John Smith, Papers, 1833-1854. CHL. MS 1326, box 1.
Coray, Autobiographical Sketch, 17, 19.
Coray, Howard. Autobiographical Sketch, after 1883. Howard Coray, Papers, ca. 1840–1941. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2043, fd. 1.
“The committee room” presumably refers to one of several committee rooms in the United States Capitol.
At this time, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary consisted of five senators: Garret D. Wall of New Jersey, Thomas Clayton of Delaware, Robert Strange of North Carolina, John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, and Oliver H. Smith of Indiana. According to one of Higbee’s later letters, Crittenden and Strange were absent on this date. (Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 835–836, 894–895, 1937, 1990, 2107; Journal of the Senate of the United States, 26th Cong., 1st Sess., 16 Dec. 1839, 11; Letter from Elias Higbee, 21 Feb. 1840; see also Introduction to Part 3: 27 Jan.–8 Apr. 1840.)
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–2005, the Continental Congress, September 5, 1774, to October 21, 1788, and the Congress of the United States, from the First through the One Hundred Eighth Congresses, March 4, 1789, to January 3, 2005, inclusive. Edited by Andrew R. Dodge and Betty K. Koed. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2005.
Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, Being the First Session of the Twenty-Sixth Congress, Begun and Held at the City of Washington, December 2, 1839, and in the Sixty-Fourth Year of the Independence of the Said United States. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1839.
In 1840 the Missouri delegation to the United States Congress consisted of two Democratic senators, Thomas Hart Benton and Lewis F. Linn, and two Democratic representatives, John Jameson and John Miller. (Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 120, 646, 1324, 1452–1453, 1586.)
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–2005, the Continental Congress, September 5, 1774, to October 21, 1788, and the Congress of the United States, from the First through the One Hundred Eighth Congresses, March 4, 1789, to January 3, 2005, inclusive. Edited by Andrew R. Dodge and Betty K. Koed. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2005.
“15,000 souls” likely refers to the total number of Saints driven from Missouri but may refer to the estimated total membership of the church at this time. According to contemporary letters and the estimates of historians, between eight and ten thousand Saints were expelled from Missouri. (Elias Smith, Far West, MO, to Ira Smith, East Stockholm, NY, 11 Mar. 1839, Elias Smith, Papers, CHL; Heber C. Kimball, Far West, MO, to Joseph Fielding, Preston, England, 12 Mar. 1839, typescript, Heber C. Kimball Family Organization, Compilation of Heber C. Kimball Correspondence, 1983, CHL; LeSueur, 1838 Mormon War in Missouri, 35–36; Leonard, Nauvoo, 31, 671n33.)
Smith, Elias. Correspondence, 1834–1839. In Elias Smith, Papers, 1834–1846. CHL.
Kimball, Heber C. Correspondence, 1837–1864. Private possession. Copy at CHL.
LeSueur, Stephen C. The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1987.
Leonard, Glen M. Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, a People of Promise. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2002.
Higbee may have been estimating the number of Americans denied religious liberty at this time, but the source of his estimate is unclear. After the judiciary committee released its report on the church’s case, commentary in the church newspaper the Times and Seasons stated that “upwards of one hundred thousand American citizens, could not induce this magnanimous committee to put forth the helping hand, for a moment, to their relief.” The number of citizens mentioned in this commentary may have been the estimated total of Americans deprived of religious freedom but may also have been an estimate of the number of individuals who had supported the Saints’ petition to Congress. (“Important from Washington,” Times and Seasons, Mar. 1840, 1:74.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
In October 1838, Governor Lilburn W. Boggs issued orders to the state militia that the Mormons “must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace.” (Lilburn W. Boggs, Jefferson City, MO, to John B. Clark, Fayette, MO, 27 Oct. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City.)
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.