Footnotes
Historian’s Office, Journal, 7 June 1853; Wilford Woodruff, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to George A. Smith, 30 Aug. 1856, in Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 1, p. 364.
Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.
Historian’s Office. Letterpress Copybooks, 1854–1879, 1885–1886. CHL. CR 100 38.
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.
“Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [4], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL. The JS Collection includes five letters that Orson Hyde wrote in 1844. The circa 1904 inventory references a letter from Hyde to the “council of the Church.” During his trip to Washington DC in spring 1844, Hyde addressed three letters, including this one, specifically to the Council of Fifty. (See Orson Hyde, Washington DC, to “Dear Brethren,” Nauvoo, IL, 9 June 1844; and Orson Hyde, Washington DC, to “Dear Brethren,” Nauvoo, IL, 11 June 1844, JS Collection, 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
“Texas Treaty,” Daily Madisonian (Washington DC), 12 Apr. 1844, [2]; Howe, What Hath God Wrought, 679.
Daily Madisonian. Washington DC. 1841–1845
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.
See “Mr. Clay’s Letter,” and “To the Editor of the Globe,” Globe (Washington DC), 29 Apr. 1844, 139, 140.
Globe. Washington DC. 1831–1845.
Council of Fifty, “Record,” 19 Mar. 1844; “List of Letters,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 17 Jan. 1844, [3]. As a postmaster, Rigdon was entitled to franking privileges, meaning he could receive mail for free.
Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.
JS, Journal, 25 May 1844. In this letter, Richards informed Hyde that the council was still committed to electing JS as president of the United States and that if Congress were to pass all or part of the memorial, the council would decide whether to accept or reject the final product. (Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to Orson Hyde, [Washington DC], 25 May 1844, copy, Willard Richards, Journals and Papers, CHL.)
Senator Atchison presented a bill “to facilitate and encourage the settlement of the Territory of Oregon” on 21 December 1843. On that occasion, he also moved that a select committee be formed by five senators who were “a committee of its friends” rather than have the bill referred to an assigned standing committee of senators who were unlikely to support it. (Congressional Globe, 28th Cong., 1st Sess., pp. 56–57 [1843].)
The Congressional Globe, Containing Sketches of the Debates and Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Congress. Vol. 8. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1840.
Gilliam was a politician and military officer who captained a company that participated in the efforts to drive Latter-day Saints from Missouri in 1838. Gilliam also served as a Missouri state senator from 1838 to 1844. In spring 1844, he led a group of about 320 emigrants to the Oregon territory from Missouri. (Lockley, “Reminiscences of Mrs. Frank Collins,” 360; Carey, History of Oregon, 1:546–547n9; Missouri Archives Division, Office of Secretary of State, Missouri General Assembly, 35; “Oregon,” Daily National Intelligencer [Washington DC], 21 June 1844, [3].)
Lockley, Fred. “Reminiscences of Mrs. Frank Collins, nee Martha Elizabeth Gilliam.” Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society. 17 (Dec. 1916): 358–372.
Carey, Charles Henry. History of Oregon. 3 vols. Chicago: Pioneer Historical Publishing Company, 1922.
Missouri General Assembly, 1812–1976: A Bicentennial Project. Missouri: Secretary of State, 1976?.
Daily National Intelligencer. Washington DC. 1800–1869.
In his 26 April 1844 letter to JS and the Council of Fifty, Hyde also stated that Douglas intended to visit JS in Nauvoo. (See Letter from Orson Hyde, 26 Apr. 1844.)
Hyde may have read Robert Greenhow’s 1844 book History of Oregon and California. Greenhow’s volume was first published as a report to the United States Senate in 1840 and was republished under a new title by a Boston publisher in 1844. Just prior to Hyde’s visit to Washington, the Senate debated a bill to authorize the purchase of Greenhow’s book for members of Congress. (Robert Greenhow, The History of Oregon and California, and Other Territories on the North-West Coast of North America; Accompanied by a Geographical View and Map of Those Countries, and a Number of Documents as Proofs and Illustrations of the History [Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1844]; Robert Greenhow, Memoir, Historical and Political, on the Northwest Coast of North America, and the Adjacent Territories [Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1840]; Congressional Globe, 28th Cong., 1st Sess., pp. 292–293, 530–532 [1844].)
Greenhow, Robert. The History of Oregon and California, and the Other Territories on the North-West Coast of North America; Accompanied by a Geographical View and Map of Those Countries, and a Number of Documents as Proofs and Illustrations of the History. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1844.
Greenhow, Robert. Memoir, Historical and Political, on the Northwest Coast of North America, and the Adjacent Territories. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1840.
The Congressional Globe, Containing Sketches of the Debates and Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Congress. Vol. 8. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1840.
Lucien Woodworth, a member of the Council of Fifty, had traveled to Texas earlier that spring to speak with President Sam Houston about what property incentives might be available to the Latter-day Saints if they were to relocate there. On 2 May 1844, Woodworth arrived back in Nauvoo and reported to the Council of Fifty that property values were low but would likely rise if the United States annexed Texas. According to council records, Woodworth “did all he could to have Houston go against annexation,” perhaps because Woodworth thought it more likely that the Saints could establish a theocracy in an independent Texas rather than if Texas were a part of the United States. (JS, Journal, 14 Mar. and 2 May 1844; Council of Fifty, “Record,” 11 Mar. and 3 May 1844.)
Conflict between Texas and Mexico continued after Texas declared its independence in 1836. This conflict was due, in part, to the fact that the Mexican Congress did not stand by the terms that General Antonio López de Santa Anna signed when he was taken prisoner by Texians at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. In 1842 Mexican forces twice captured San Antonio, and threat of future attacks loomed over Texas settlers. (See Howe, What Hath God Wrought, 665–669.)
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.