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Letter from John Whitmer, 29 July 1833

Source Note

, Letter with postscript by , , Jackson Co., MO, to and JS, , Kirtland Township, Geauga Co., OH, 29 July 1833. Retained copy, [ca. summer 1839], in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 52–56; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 2.

Historical Introduction

In this 29 July 1833 letter, and provided details about events unfolding in , Missouri, to church leaders in , Ohio. In the July 1833 issue of The Evening and the Morning Star, William W. Phelps published an editorial titled “Free People of Color,” which warned free black members of the about the state laws that prohibited free blacks from coming to or settling in the state “under any pretext whatever.” Phelps further stated, “So long as we have no special rule in the church, as to people of color, let prudence guide; and while they, as well as we, are in the hands of a merciful God, we say: Shun every appearance of evil.” In the same issue of the Star, a letter to all of the of the Church of Christ reiterated the need to shun the appearance of evil and added, “As to slaves we have nothing to say. In connection with the wonderful events of this age, much is doing towards abolishing slavery, and colonizing the blacks, in Africa.” These articles angered many Jackson County citizens who saw Phelps’s words as an invitation for free blacks to come surreptitiously and settle in Missouri, even though Phelps later claimed to have said the opposite. On 16 July 1833, Phelps issued an extra of the Star in which he attempted to mitigate the misunderstanding of his earlier article. He wrote:
We often lament the situation of our sister states in the south, and we fear, lest, as has been the case, the blacks should rise and spill innocent blood: for they are ignorant, and a little may lead them to disturb the peace of society. To be short, we are opposed to have free people of color admitted into the state; and we say, that none will be admitted into the church, for we are determined to obey the laws and constitutions of our country, that we may have that protection which the sons of liberty inherit from the legacy of Washington, through the favorable auspices of a Jefferson, and Jackson.
The extra apparently did nothing to calm the church’s opponents.
By 18 July 1833, non-Mormon residents of circulated a document enumerating their grievances against members of the Church of Christ and stating their determination to eliminate them from the county by purchasing their properties or by “such means as may be sufficient to remove them.” Signed by some three hundred residents of Jackson County, the document, known later among members of the church as the “manifesto,” also called for a meeting to be held on 20 July to further discuss the perceived problems with the Mormons and how to remove the church members from the county. At the meeting, the assembled Missourians adopted resolutions listing specific actions to be taken against the Mormons and appointed a committee to present their agreed-upon demands to a group of church leaders. The committee presented their ultimatum that same day and gave church leaders only fifteen minutes to reply. The Mormons refused to comply, after which the committee returned to the , where those who had gathered voted to demolish the Mormons’ . After destroying the shop, they tarred and feathered and and gave notice that they would return on 23 July.
and other church leaders reported that on 23 July, “the mob again assembled to the number of about 500 . . . [and] proceeded to take some of the leading elders by force declaring it to be their intention to whip them from fifty to five hundred lashes apiece.” , , , , , and “offered themselves as a ransom [to the mob] for the church, willing to be scourged or die, if that will appease their anger toward the church,” but the mob declared that all church members must leave or die. The confrontation on 23 July 1833 led to the creation of another document, known as the “memorandum of the agreement.” In the agreement Mormon leaders pledged that most of the leaders of the church and half of the members would leave the county by the first of January 1834 and the remainder would leave by the first of April 1834.
Probably in the day or two after the 23 July agreement, left to inform JS and other church leaders in of these developments. After arriving at Walnut Farm in , probably a two-day journey, Cowdery wrote back to , Missouri, requesting an update on events there and copies of the manifesto and memorandum of agreement. When Cowdery mailed the letter from Walnut Farm is unknown, but given normal mail conveyance time in that era, at least two days would have been required to transport the letter to Independence. The Missouri church leaders therefore probably received Cowdery’s letter no earlier than 27 July 1833.
The letter featured here, which includes copies of the manifesto and of the Mormons’ agreement to leave the county, indicates that the church leaders in had received ’s letter and was written in response to his request. In the 29 July letter, , the principal author, provided an update on recent developments in while added a note on both the anxiety and faithfulness of the Missouri church members. Phelps also included the text of two hymns that had recently been sung in Missouri. Though the body of the letter was largely directed to Cowdery, the postscript from Phelps appears to have been directed to JS. It is not known how or when this letter reached . copied it into JS’s letterbook in late 1839. JS’s 18 August letter to Whitmer, Phelps, and the other church leaders in Jackson County demonstrates familiarity with the contents of this letter, although JS’s letter also references information that Cowdery reported to JS in person.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    “Free People of Color,” The Evening and the Morning Star, July 1833, 109.

    The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

  2. [2]

    “The Elders Stationed in Zion to the Churches Abroad,” The Evening and the Morning Star, July 1833, 111.

    The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

  3. [3]

    The Evening and the Morning Star, Extra, 16 July 1833, [1].

    The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

  4. [4]

    “To His Excellency, Daniel Dunklin,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 114; Corrill, Brief History, 19; Whitmer, History, 42–44; [Edward Partridge], “A History, of the Persecution,” Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:17–18.

    The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

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

  5. [5]

    “To His Excellency, Daniel Dunklin,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 114.

    The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

  6. [6]

    Cowdery likely left Independence after the creation of the memorandum of agreement on 23 July but before 25 July. He likely did not leave before 23 July because had he been any appreciable distance from Independence on or shortly after 23 July, he probably would not have known of the memorandum’s creation. Further, a reminiscent account by William E. McLellin places Cowdery in Jackson County on 22 July. Cowdery likely left before 25 July because in the letter featured here, John Whitmer told Cowdery that on 25 July many “at the school received the gift of tongues”—something Cowdery would already have known about if he had been present at or near the school of the prophets at the time. (Memorandum of Agreement, 23 July 1833, CHL; Schaefer, William E. McLellin’s Lost Manuscript, 166.)

    Memorandum of Agreement, 23 July 1833. CHL.

    Schaefer, Mitchell K., ed. William E. McLellin’s Lost Manuscript. Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2012.

  7. [7]

    Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson Co., MO, 18 Aug. 1833.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Letter from John Whitmer, 29 July 1833 Letterbook 2

Page 53

deem it almost superfluous to say is justified as well by the laws of nature as by the law of self preservation. It is more than two years since the first of these fanatics or knaves; for one or the other they u[n]doubtedly are, made their first appearance amongst us and pretending as they did and now do— to hold personal communion and converse, face to face with the most high God, to receive communications and revelations direct from heaven, to heal the sick by the , & in short to perform all the wonderworking miracles wrought by the inspired apostles & prophets of old. We believed them to be deluded fanatics or weak and designing knaves and that they & their pretensions would soon pass away, but in this we were decieved.
The acts of a few designing leaders amongst them have thus far succeeded in holding them together as a society and since the arrival of the first of them they have been daily increasing in numbers & if they had been respectable citizens in society & thus deluded, they would have been entitled to our pity rather than to our contempt & hatred, but from their appearance, from their manners and their conduct since their coming among us, we have every reason to believe fear that with very few exceptions, they were of the very dregs of <​that​> society from which they came, lazy, Idle & vicious, This we concieve is not idle assertion, but a fact susceptible of proof, for with these few exceptions above named, they brought into our country county, little or no property with them, & left less behind them, and we infer that those only yoked themselves to the Mormon Car who had nothing earthly or heavenly to loose by the change, and we fear that if some of the leaders amongst them had paid the forfeit due to crime, instead of being chosen embassadors of the most high, they would have been inmates of solitary cells. But their conduct here stamps their characters in their true colours. More than a year since, it was ascertained that they had been tampering with our slaves and endeavoring to sow dissensions & raise seditions among them. Of this the Mormon Leaders were informed & they said they would deal with any of their members who should again in like case offend, but how specious are appearances? In a late Star published at , by the leaders of the sect, there is an article inviting free Negroes & Mulattoes from other States to become Mormons and remove and settle among us. This exhibits them in still more odious colors. It manifests a desire on the part of their society to inflict on our society an injury that they know not would be to us entirely unsupportable and one of the surest means of driving us from the for it would require none of the supernatural gifts that they pretend to, to see that the introduction of such a cast amongst us would corrupt our blacks & instigate them to bloodshed.—— They openly blaspheme the Most High God, and cast contempt on his holy religion by pretending to receive revelations direct from Heaven, by pretending to speak unknown tongues; by direct inspiration, and by divers pretences derogatory of God and religion, and to the utter subversion [p. 53]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from John Whitmer, 29 July 1833
ID #
1604
Total Pages
5
Print Volume Location
JSP, D3:186–198
Handwriting on This Page
  • James Mulholland

Footnotes

  1. [15]

    John Corrill later recalled that “the old citizens” of Jackson County “saw their county filling up with emigrants, principally poor. They disliked their religion, and saw also, that if let alone. they would in a short time become a majority, and, of course, rule the county.” That many Mormons immigrated to Missouri without sufficient preparation was previously alluded to in the July 1833 issue of The Evening and the Morning Star. (Corrill, Brief History, 19; “The Elders Stationed in Zion to the Churches Abroad,” The Evening and the Morning Star, July 1833, 110–111.)

    The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

  2. [16]

    An editorial in The Evening and the Morning Star later denied the charge “that the slaves in that county were ever tampered with by” the Mormons “or at any time persuaded to be refractory, or taught in any respect whatever, that it was not right and just that they should remain peaceable servants.” (“The Outrage in Jackson County, Missouri,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Jan. 1834, 122.)

    The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

  3. [17]

    See “Free People of Color,” The Evening and the Morning Star, July 1833, 109; “The Elders Stationed in Zion to the Churches Abroad,” The Evening and the Morning Star, July 1833, 110–111; and The Evening and the Morning Star, Extra, 16 July 1833, [1].

    The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

  4. [18]

    After the 1831 Nat Turner uprising, fear of slave insurrection was widespread in the United States.a In response to the allegation that the Mormons would “corrupt” the slaves and instigate slave insurrection, an editorial in The Evening and the Morning Star stated, “All who are acquainted with the situation of slave States, know that amid a dense population of blacks, that the life of every white is in constant danger, and to insinuate any thing which could possibly be interpreted by a slave, that it was not just to hold human beings in bondage, would be jeopardizing the life of every white inhabitant in the country. For the moment an insurrection should break out, no respect would be paid to age, sex, or religion, by an enraged, jealous, and ignorant black banditti.”b

    (aSee Howe, What Hath God Wrought, 323–327, 427–428; and Foner, Nat Turner, 56–125. b“The Outrage in Jackson County, Missouri,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Jan. 1834, 122.)

    Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848. The Oxford History of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

    Foner, Eric, ed. Nat Turner. Great Lives Observed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971.

    The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

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