Footnotes
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.
“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.
See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.
Footnotes
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.)
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.
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.
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.
Although this letter and others that Hotchkiss wrote to his business partners and to JS are either addressed with or postmarked from Fair Haven, Connecticut, Hotchkiss’s residence was a mile or two away in New Haven. (See Bond from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–A; and Bond from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–B.)
Although the 1841 bankruptcy act would come to profoundly change the legal process and perception of bankruptcy in the United States, applying for bankruptcy was seen as undesirable and even dishonorable in early 1842. (Balleisen, Navigating Failure, 49–90.)
Balleisen, Edward J. Navigating Failure: Bankruptcy and Commercial Society in Antebellum America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
In agreeing to purchase land from Hotchkiss and his partners in August 1839, JS, Hyrum Smith, and Sidney Rigdon signed forty-two promissory notes. By 1842, the church had paid off only two of the notes, representing $3,000 in interest. The other forty, including the final payment of $50,000 in principal, were unpaid. (Bond from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–A; Report of Agents, ca. 30 Jan. 1841.)
Even though Hotchkiss suggested an immediate arrangement for payment, the bankruptcy act required JS, as a debtor applying for bankruptcy, to cease making payments to any creditor. The act specified that all creditors would be paid after the bankruptcy proceedings concluded. Hotchkiss may have been unaware of these requirements or may have been trying to obtain payment on the debt regardless of JS’s bankruptcy petition. (An Act to Establish a Uniform System of Bankruptcy [19 Aug. 1841], Public Statutes at Large, 27th Cong., 1st Sess., chap. 9, pp. 441–442.)
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.