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Letter from John Laws, 18 October 1841

Source Note

John Laws, Letter, , Philadelphia Co., PA, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 18 Oct. 1841; handwriting of John Laws; three pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address, postal notation, postal stamps, notation, endorsement, and docket.
Bifolium measuring 10 × 7¾ inches (25 × 20 cm). The letter was trifolded twice in letter style and then sealed with a red adhesive wafer, addressed, stamped with postmarks, and inscribed with postage. The middle of the second leaf was torn likely when the letter was opened. Residue from the adhesive wafer remains on the verso of the second leaf.
The document was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from 1843 to 1844 and as clerk to the church historian and recorder from 1845 to 1865. The letter is listed along with 1842 letters in a Church Historian’s Office inventory from circa 1904. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The docket, inventory, and inclusion in the JS Collection suggest continuous institutional custody of the letter since its receipt.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 456, 458; Woodruff, Journal, 22 Jan. 1865.

    Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  2. [2]

    “Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, 1, Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL. This item was mistakenly listed in the 1842 letters on the inventory, probably based on an incorrect notation from Bullock.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  3. [3]

    See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

John Laws, a local politician and resident of , wrote a letter of inquiry to JS in , Illinois, on 18 October 1841. During the previous two months, Laws, who was not a , had written at least three lengthy letters to city newspapers defending the church from attacks that had appeared in Philadelphia’s Daily Chronicle, Saturday Courier, and Public Ledger. In connection with this effort, Laws wrote to JS seeking additional information about a claim made in the Saturday Courier that the Saints had defrauded a Philadelphia church member out of his property earlier in 1841.
In the late 1830s and early 1840s, Latter-day Saint missionaries experienced tremendous success in the Delaware River valley between and . Out of this success, several church were established in the region, including a large branch in in December 1839. As the Latter-day Saint presence expanded in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, some Philadelphia newspapers began publishing unfavorable articles and letters to dissuade local residents from joining the church. Among the most damaging accusations printed in the Philadelphia papers were complaints that the church had been dishonest in its financial dealings in , Ohio, and that it continued to defraud members in eastern Pennsylvania. For example, the Saturday Courier published accusations that Latter-day Saint missionaries “scoured the branches in the east for money” and implied that the missionaries had “resorted to the most culpable and criminal means to obtain it.” The Daily Chronicle warned that the Saints were persuading new church members to “convert their property into cash to be placed in a common fund.” In the eyes of these critics, the chief purpose of the church was “to get possession of other people’s property.”
These rumors likely emanated from the church’s recent efforts to obtain lands in the East, the frequency with which early missionaries solicited financial assistance from the region’s converts, and perhaps a misunderstanding of the law of . Branches in the eastern contained some of the most financially successful members of the early church, and those members were sometimes asked by church leaders to provide assistance. For instance, , , and had solicited the help of eastern church members to pay the church’s debts to for land purchases in —the three men hoped to obtain lands from these Saints in exchange for commensurate properties in and . Hyrum Smith and Galland then intended to use the newly acquired properties to pay for the Hotchkiss lands. In August a Daily Chronicle correspondent, writing under a pseudonym, referenced Galland’s mission, calling him a land speculator and suggesting that his purpose was to “shuffle his western lands off” to unsuspecting converts.
Responding to these criticisms, Laws wrote letters to both the Public Ledger and the Daily Chronicle defending the Latter-day Saints. Although Laws had no intention of joining the church, he evidently had family members and friends who had converted. Although he hoped these individuals would one day “renounce the doctrine and cleave to that of their fathers,” Laws took exception to “the curses and anathemas” heaped upon the church in the newspapers and endeavored to correct the errors. Specifically, Laws addressed allegations that the Saints had not paid for Kirtland Bank note plates, stating that he was aware of evidence of payment. Laws further advocated for the religious rights of the Saints, pointing out that the laws of both the and the guaranteed freedoms to all faiths, including the Latter-day Saints. He decried the suggestion in the Saturday Courier that the Saints had “no doubt well deserved the punishment meted out to them” in .
Having previously defended the Saints in the press, Laws wrote the following letter to JS to obtain information regarding various claims about and Hannah Peirce’s April 1841 transfer of lands to . Seeking clarification on the matter, Laws requested that JS send him an affidavit and additional information that could prove the legitimacy of the land transaction.
The letter from Laws was mailed in on 22 October 1841 and likely arrived in in early November. Upon its receipt, wrote on the letter’s third page a notation containing the financial details of the land sale. The notation indicates that JS either responded to or intended to respond to Laws’s letter. Extant information, however, reveals no further communications regarding the matter. Furthermore, Laws does not appear to have published additional letters in the Philadelphia newspapers regarding the Latter-day Saints or Peirce’s land.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Laws was a resident of the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia as early as 1830. He served in city government offices as early as 1831. (1830 U.S. Census, Northern Liberties Ward 4, Philadelphia Co., PA, 84; “Cause of the Poles,” Hazard’s Register of Pennsylvania [Philadelphia], 24 Sept. 1831, 200; see also Martin, Martin’s Bench and Bar of Philadelphia, 93; and “John Laws, Alderman,” Public Ledger [Philadelphia], 19 Feb. 1841, [1].)

    Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

    Hazard’s Register of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia. 1828–1835.

    Martin, John Hill. Martin’s Bench and Bar of Philadelphia, Together with other Lists of Persons Appointed to Administer the Laws in the City and County of Philadelphia, and the Province and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Rees Welsh, 1883.

    Public Ledger. Philadelphia. 1836–1925.

  2. [2]

    “The Mormons,” Saturday Courier (Philadelphia), 14 Aug. 1841, [2]; “A Mormon Champion,” Saturday Courier, 4 Sept. 1841, [2].

    Saturday Courier. Philadelphia. 1841–1848.

  3. [3]

    Philadelphia Branch Record Book, 23 Dec. 1839.

    Philadelphia Branch, Record Book, 1840–1854. CCLA.

  4. [4]

    See, for example, “Communication,” Daily Chronicle (Philadelphia), 11 Sept. 1841, [1]; and “The Mormons,” Daily Chronicle, 25 Sept. 1841, [1]; see also “Anti-Mormon Slanders Refuted,” Public Ledger (Philadelphia), 28 Aug. 1841, [2].

    Daily Chronicle. Philadelphia. 1828–1834.

    Public Ledger. Philadelphia. 1836–1925.

  5. [5]

    “A Mormon Disturbance,” Daily Chronicle (Philadelphia), 19 Feb. 1841, [2]; “Communication,” Daily Chronicle, 11 Sept. 1841, [1].

    Daily Chronicle. Philadelphia. 1828–1834.

  6. [6]

    “Extraordinary Impositions of the ‘Latter Day Saints,’” Saturday Courier (Philadelphia), 10 July 1841, [2]; “To Readers and Correspondents,” Saturday Courier, 7 Aug. 1841, [2]; “Anti-Mormon Slanders Refuted,” Public Ledger (Philadelphia), 28 Aug. 1841, [2].

    Saturday Courier. Philadelphia. 1841–1848.

    Public Ledger. Philadelphia. 1836–1925.

  7. [7]

    “A Mormon Disturbance,” Daily Chronicle (Philadelphia), 19 Feb. 1841, [2]; “A Mormon Champion,” Saturday Courier (Philadelphia), 4 Sept. 1841, [2].

    Daily Chronicle. Philadelphia. 1828–1834.

    Saturday Courier. Philadelphia. 1841–1848.

  8. [8]

    See Letter from Benjamin Winchester, 18 Sept. 1841; and Letter from John E. Page, 1 Sept. 1841. For an explanation of the law of consecration, see Revelation, 9 Feb. 1831 [D&C 42:1–72].

  9. [9]

    See Fleming and Grua, “Impact of Edward Hunter’s Conversion,” 135.

    Fleming, Stephen J., and David W. Grua, eds. “The Impact of Edward Hunter’s Conversion to Mormonism in Chester County, Pennsylvania: Henry M. Vallette’s 1869 Letter.” Mormon Historical Studies 6, no. 1 (Spring 2005): 133–138.

  10. [10]

    Horace Hotchkiss, Fair Haven, CT, to Hyrum Smith, Nauvoo, IL, 13 May 1841, JS Office Papers, CHL; Letter from Horace Hotchkiss, 24 July 1841; Letter from William Smith, 5 Aug. 1841.

  11. [11]

    “Communication,” Daily Chronicle (Philadelphia), 11 Sept. 1841, [1]. The accusation was evidently a response to a July 1841 article that Galland had published in the Public Ledger, criticizing those who made charges against the church. (“Mormonism, Mormonism,” Public Ledger [Philadelphia], 21 July 1841, [2].)

    Daily Chronicle. Philadelphia. 1828–1834.

    Public Ledger. Philadelphia. 1836–1925.

  12. [12]

    “Anti-Mormon Slanders Refuted,” Public Ledger (Philadelphia), 28 Aug. 1841, [2]; “Anti-Mormon Slanders Refuted,” Public Ledger, 11 Sept. 1841, [3]; John Laws, Northern Liberties, PA, 15 Sept. 1841, Letter to the Editor, Daily Chronicle (Philadelphia), 18 Sept. 1841, [2].

    Public Ledger. Philadelphia. 1836–1925.

    Daily Chronicle. Philadelphia. 1828–1834.

  13. [13]

    Though it is uncertain exactly which early members of the Philadelphia branch were friends or family members of Laws, the Philadelphia Branch Record Book includes the names of Peter F. and Mary Ann Laws. (“Names of the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Philadelphia,” in Philadelphia Branch Record Book.)

    Philadelphia Branch, Record Book, 1840–1854. CCLA.

  14. [14]

    “Anti-Mormon Slanders Refuted,” Public Ledger (Philadelphia), 28 Aug. 1841, [2]; see also “Extraordinary Impositions of the ‘Latter Day Saints,’” Saturday Courier (Philadelphia), 10 July 1841, [2]; “The Mormons,” Saturday Courier, 14 Aug. 1841, [2]; “A Mormon Champion,” Saturday Courier, 4 Sept. 1841, [2]; “Communication,” Daily Chronicle (Philadelphia), 11 Sept. 1841, [1]; and “The Mormons,” Daily Chronicle, 25 Sept. 1841, [1].

    Public Ledger. Philadelphia. 1836–1925.

    Saturday Courier. Philadelphia. 1841–1848.

    Daily Chronicle. Philadelphia. 1828–1834.

  15. [15]

    “Anti-Mormon Slanders Refuted,” Public Ledger (Philadelphia), 11 Sept. 1841, [3]; see also “The Mormons,” Saturday Courier (Philadelphia), 14 Aug. 1841, [2]. Following their departure from Kirtland in 1838, JS and other church members owed a debt of approximately $2,000 to Thomas Underwood, Robert Bald, Asa Spencer, and Samuel Hufty for services rendered as engravers for the Kirtland Safety Society bank note plates. Almon Babbitt paid off the debt on 2 April 1841. Likely learning of the payment upon Hyrum Smith’s return from the East in late April, JS wrote to Oliver Granger that “the house and store encumbered by the debts for the ‘Plates’ are now at liberty.” (Transcript of Proceedings, 16 Apr. 1839, Underwood et al. v. Rigdon, JS, et al., [Geauga Co. C.P. 1839], Final Record Book X, 35; Case Costs, 16 Apr. 1839, Underwood et al. v. Rigdon, JS, et al. [Geauga Co. C.P. 1839], Execution Docket G, 676, Geauga County Archives and Records Center, Chardon, OH; Letter to Oliver Granger, 4 May 1841.)

    Public Ledger. Philadelphia. 1836–1925.

    Saturday Courier. Philadelphia. 1841–1848.

  16. [16]

    “Anti-Mormon Slanders Refuted,” Public Ledger (Philadelphia), 28 Aug. 1841, [2]; “Extraordinary Impositions of the ‘Latter Day Saints,’” Saturday Courier (Philadelphia), 10 July 1841, [2].

    Public Ledger. Philadelphia. 1836–1925.

    Saturday Courier. Philadelphia. 1841–1848.

  17. [17]

    Chester Co., PA, Deeds, 1688–1903, vol. U-4, pp. 82–83, 187–188, microfilm 557,205, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

Page [1]

October 18’ 1841
Sir. The undersigned having embarked in a controversy with some of the traducers of the will be viewed I trust as a sufficient apology for my troubling you with this communication, If however your opinion should not accord with my own I have no excuse to offer and you may dismiss the subject as a matter of no moment
It is possible that one or more communications published in the public Ledger and Daily Chronicle of this over the signature of J L in refutation of the aspersions cast upon the “Latter Day Saints” has met your eye if this shall have been the Case you can more readily estimate the motives of the writer in seeking for information from the only source that will be relied on. The authors of the communications refered to was prompted to the task by feelings of indignation at what he believed to be a conspiracy of News Paper Editors and others to overthrow Mormonism by the summary process of exterminating its proselytes by sanguinary means and not by reason and argument It is very evident that the unexpected and unwished for oppositions to their schemes has had a salutary effect in causing a cessation of hostilities for the present but whether to be revived again time will make manifest.
But what I wish to call your attention to is this. In a number of the Saturday Courier of August last may be found the following “last Saturday we were at the plantation of a friend of ours in and there we learned that the Mormon Preachers took the Deed of a Farm belonging to a that they pretended to give him a Claim for land in for $6000 the sum which [p. [1]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from John Laws, 18 October 1841
ID #
699
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D8:311–317
Handwriting on This Page
  • John Laws

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Latter-day Saints generally accepted Laws’s detailing of events, stating that they were “a statement of facts as they are” and could be “perused with pleasure.” (Notice, Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1841, 2:558.)

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  2. [2]

    “Anti-Mormon Slanders Refuted,” Public Ledger (Philadelphia), 28 Aug. 1841, [2]; “Anti-Mormon Slanders Refuted,” Public Ledger, 11 Sept. 1841, [3]; John Laws, Northern Liberties, PA, 15 Sept. 1841, Letter to the Editor, Daily Chronicle (Philadelphia), 18 Sept. 1841, [2].

    Public Ledger. Philadelphia. 1836–1925.

    Daily Chronicle. Philadelphia. 1828–1834.

  3. [3]

    The Public Ledger was published from 1836 to 1925 in Philadelphia. Following its 1836 founding, the paper gained public appeal and an immediate readership because it cost one cent per issue rather than the five to six cents that other papers cost. Between 1840 and 1850, the paper’s circulation grew from 15,000 to 40,000. (Rottenberg, Man Who Made Wall Street, 73.)

    Rottenberg, Dan. The Man Who Made Wall Street: Anthony J. Drexel and the Rise of Modern Finance. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 2001.

  4. [4]

    The Daily Chronicle was published between 1841 and 1847 in Philadelphia.

  5. [5]

    JS had been aware of one of Laws’s articles since at least 1 October 1841, when it was reprinted in the Times and Seasons. (“Anti-Mormon Slanders Refuted,” Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1841, 2:558–562.)

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  6. [6]

    The Saturday Courier had apparently advocated exterminating the Latter-day Saints as the only answer to the problems surrounding them. Laws declared his “utter detestation and abhorrence” for the Courier’s stance, calling it “the most illiberal unjust, unchristian-like . . . and dangerous in its tendency, that ever emenated from the American Press.” (“Anti-Mormon Slanders Refuted,” Public Ledger [Philadelphia], 28 Aug. 1841, [2], italics in original.)

    Public Ledger. Philadelphia. 1836–1925.

  7. [7]

    The Saturday Courier was published from 1841 to 1848 in Philadelphia.

  8. [8]

    Robert and Hannah Peirce transferred lands in Chester County, Pennsylvania, to Almon Babbitt, who was acting on behalf of the church, on 30 March 1841. The property was likely intended to be used as payment to Horace Hotchkiss; Babbitt subsequently transferred the property to Isaac Galland on 8 April 1841. Galland sold the property to Chester County resident John McClure, whose property bordered Peirce’s properties, in June 1841. (Chester Co., PA, Deeds, 1688–1903, vol. U-4, pp. 82–83, 185–188, microfilm 557,205, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; see also Letter from Robert Peirce, 20 Aug. 1841.)

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

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