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Letter from John C. Calhoun, 2 December 1843
Source Note
Source Note
, Letter, Fort Hill, Pickens District, SC, to JS, [, Hancock Co., IL], 2 Dec. 1843. Featured version copied [ca. Dec. 1843]; handwriting of ; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes notations and docket.
Single leaf measuring 9¾ × 7¾ inches (25 × 20 cm) and ruled with thirty horizontal lines, printed in blue ink. The text of the letter is inscribed on the recto of the leaf. A notation in the handwriting of appears on the recto: “Copy”. The document was trifolded horizontally and folded twice vertically. The recto and verso contain notations: “2,” “No–”, and “2”, likely inscribed by editor or another employee before the copy was published in the Times and Seasons. The letter was later refolded and docketed for filing.
A graphite docket on the verso of the document is in the handwriting of Andrew Jenson, who began working in the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) in 1891 and served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. The graphite notation “Copied by A. J.” was added by a clerk or secretary for Jenson. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The letter’s early notations and docket and its later inclusion in the JS Collection suggest continuous institutional custody.
Footnotes
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- [2]
Jenson, Autobiography, 192, 389; Cannon, Journal, 9 Feb. 1891; Jenson, Journal, 9 Feb. 1891 and 19 Oct. 1897; Bitton and Arrington, Mormons and Their Historians, 47–52.
Jenson, Andrew. Autobiography of Andrew Jenson: Assistant Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. . . . Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1938.
Cannon, George Q. Journals, 1855–1864, 1872–1901. CHL. CR 850 1.
Jenson, Andrew. Journals, 1864–1941. Andrew Jenson, Autobiography and Journals, 1864–1941. CHL.
Bitton, David, and Leonard J. Arrington. Mormons and Their Historians. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988.
- [3]
See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.
Historical Introduction
Historical Introduction
On 2 December 1843, South Carolina senator responded to a letter from JS inquiring about Calhoun’s policy toward the should he be elected president in 1844. Calhoun had spent more than thirty-five years in public service in the House of Representatives and Senate, as well as serving as secretary of war and vice president. Though a staunch Federalist early in his career, Calhoun became a vocal proponent of states’ rights by the late 1820s. While serving as vice president in 1828, Calhoun argued that a state had the power to nullify any act of the federal government that it considered unconstitutional—a doctrine later referred to as nullification. Calhoun’s ideas about states’ rights were shaped partly by the South’s commitment to protecting the institution of slavery. In contrast, JS and the Latter-day Saints maintained that the state of failed to protect their individual rights during the 1830s and felt that the federal government had the greater potential and responsibility to protect the liberty and rights of the nation’s citizens.
JS first met in late 1839 or early 1840. In late 1839, JS, , and arrived in to petition the federal government for redress for the property losses incurred by the Latter-day Saints in . During that time, JS met directly with President and congressional leaders. In his later history, JS stated: “I also had an interview with Mr. whose conduct towards me very ill became his station.” At that time, Calhoun told JS that he did not think the federal government had the power to intervene in the Latter-day Saints’ case with Missouri. JS’s interactions with Calhoun and other federal officials during this time apparently convinced him that “there was little use for me to tarry, to press the just claims of the Saints on the protection of the President or Congress.”
Undeterred by previous failed attempts to obtain redress, JS and other Latter-day Saint leaders launched another effort to lobby Congress and the American people for reparations in fall 1843. In addition to overseeing the creation of two lengthy memorials to Congress and encouraging influential church members to write to the citizens of their native states, church leaders “agre[e]d to write a letter to the 5 candidats for the Presiden[c]y to enquire what their feelig [feelings] were or what their course would be towards the sai[n]ts if they were elected.” On 4 November 1843, drafted these letters, including one that was mailed to in South Carolina.
In his 2 December reply, stated that as president he would enforce the law impartially regardless of a citizen’s religious affiliation. He also reiterated what he had told JS years before, namely that he did not think that the Latter-day Saints’ grievances against the government fell under the federal government’s jurisdiction. The letter was mailed from Calhoun’s estate at Fort Hill, South Carolina, and was received in by 27 December.
’s original letter is apparently not extant, but created a copy sometime shortly after its reception. Notations on the front and back of the document, most of which were likely written by , suggest that the copy was created in preparation for the publication of JS’s and Calhoun’s entire correspondence in the 1 January 1844 issue of the Times and Seasons. Richards’s copy of Calhoun’s letter is featured here.
On 27 December 1843, JS instructed scribe to answer letters from and his fellow candidate and to “shew them the folly of keeping p[e]ople out of their right and that there was power in governme[n]t to redress wrongs.” Phelps drafted the response by 2 January 1844 and read it to JS, and possibly a group of “gentlemen” gathered at JS’s home, three days later. JS’s initial letter, Calhoun’s response, and JS’s rejoinder were published together in the 1 January 1844 issue of Times and Seasons and later republished in the Nauvoo Neighbor, the New York Herald, and other newspapers across the country.
Footnotes
- [1]
- [2]
[Calhoun], Exposition and Protest, 22–38; see also Calhoun, Fort Hill Address, 1–20.
[Calhoun, John C.]. Exposition and Protest, Reported by the Special Committee of the House of Representatives, on the Tariff; Read and Ordered to Be Printed, Dec. 19th, 1828. Columbia, SC: D. W. Sims, 1829.
Calhoun, John C. The Fort Hill Address of John C. Calhoun, July 26, 1831. Richmond: Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government, 1960.
- [3]
In a September 1830 letter to Virgil Maxcy, Calhoun acknowledged that “the peculiar domestick institution of the Southern States” put them “in opposite relations to the majority of the Union.” “Thus situated,” argued Calhoun, “the denial of the right of the State to interfere constitutionally in the last resort, more alarms the thinking, than all other causes.” (John C. Calhoun, Fort Hill, SC, to Virgil Maxcy, 11 Sept. 1830, in Meigs, Life of John Caldwell Calhoun, 1:417–419.)
Meigs, William M. The Life of John Caldwell Calhoun. 2 vols. New York: G. E. Stechert, 1917.
- [4]
- [5]
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JS History, vol. C-1, 1016; see also Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 4 Feb. 1840, 3. When JS departed Washington DC, he left Elias Higbee behind to continue lobbying Congress for redress. (Historical Introduction to Letter from Elias Higbee, 20 Feb. 1840–A.)
- [7]
JS, Journal, 2 Nov. 1843; JS et al., Memorial to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 28 Nov. 1843, Record Group 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives, Washington DC; Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 16 Dec. 1843–12 Feb. 1844; for examples of appeals to citizens of eastern states, see General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys, 21 Nov.–ca. 3 Dec. 1843; Pratt, Appeal to the Inhabitants of the State of New York, 1–6; Sidney Rigdon, “To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, in Legislative Capacity Assembled,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 31 Jan. 1844, [1]; and Phineas Richards, “An Appeal, to the Inhabitants of Massachusetts,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 7 Feb. 1844, [2].
Pratt, Parley P. An Appeal to the Inhabitants of the State of New York, Letter to Queen Victoria: (Reprinted from the Tenth European Edition,): The Fountain of Knowledge, Immortality of the Body, and Intelligence and Affection. Nauvoo, IL: John Taylor, 1844.
Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.
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JS, Journal, 27 Dec. 1843. Fort Hill is in present-day Clemson, South Carolina.
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The notations “2” and “No— 2” inscribed on the recto and verso of the document probably referred to the sequence of the letters exchanged between JS and Calhoun. JS’s 4 November 1843 letter to Calhoun was likely the first letter, and Calhoun’s 2 December 1843 reply was the second; an extant copy of the third letter, written from JS to Calhoun on 2 January 1844, contains the notation “Copy 3.” (JS, Nauvoo, IL, to John C. Calhoun, Fort Hill, SC, 2 Jan. 1844, copy, JS Collection, CHL; “Correspondence of Gen. Joseph Smith and Hon. J. C. Calhoun,” Times and Seasons, 1 Jan. 1844, 5:393–395.)
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“Correspondence of Gen. Joseph Smith and Hon. J. C. Calhoun,” Times and Seasons, 1 Jan. 1844, 5:393–396; “Correspondence of Gen. Joseph Smith and Hon. J. C. Calhoun,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 10 Jan. 1844, [2]–[3]; “Very Important and Curious from the Mormon Empire on the Mississippi,” New York Herald (New York City), 26 Jan. 1844, [2]; see also, for example, “Correspondence of Gen. Jos. Smith and Hon. J. C. Calhoun,” Niles’ National Register (Baltimore), 3 Feb. 1844, 357–358.
Niles’ National Register. Washington DC, 1837–1839; Baltimore, 1839–1848; Philadelphia, 1848–1849.
<Hon > ’s Reply
Fort Hill 2d Decr 1843
Sir
You ask me what would be my rule of action, relative to the Mormons, or , should I be elected President, to which I answer; that, if I should be elected, I would strive to administer the Government. according to the Constitution and the laws of the ; and that, as they make no distinction between citizens of different religion creeds, I should make none. As far as it depends on the Executive Department, all should have the full benefit of both, and none should be exempt from their operation.
But, as you refer to the case of , candour compels me to repeat, what I said to you at ; that according to my views, the case does not come within the Jurisdiction of the Federal government, which is one of limited and specific powers.
With respect I am &c &c
Mr Joseph Smith. [7 lines blank] [p. [1]]
Source Note
Source Note
Document Transcript
Document Information
Document Information
Footnotes
Footnotes
Insertion in unidentified handwriting.
- [1]
In his political tract Exposition and Protest, written in 1828, Calhoun argued, “The general government is one of specific powers, and it can rightfully exercise only the powers expressly granted, and those that may be ‘necessary and proper’ to carry them into effect; all others being reserved expressly to the states, or to the people.” ([Calhoun], Exposition and Protest, 5.)
[Calhoun, John C.]. Exposition and Protest, Reported by the Special Committee of the House of Representatives, on the Tariff; Read and Ordered to Be Printed, Dec. 19th, 1828. Columbia, SC: D. W. Sims, 1829.