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.)
During the Nauvoo era, JS and the Latter-day Saints were not affiliated with any particular political party but instead supported individual candidates who were friendly to their cause. This practice caused some tension between the Latter-day Saints and their neighbors in 1843 when the Saints overwhelmingly voted for Democrat Joseph P. Hoge in the congressional election. In August 1843, JS announced he would vote for Whig Cyrus Walker, an attorney who had represented him during attempts by Missouri officials to extradite him to that state earlier that summer. However, JS also announced that his brother Hyrum Smith had received a revelation that the Saints would be better off supporting Hoge rather than Walker. Hoge received almost 90 percent of the votes in Nauvoo and ultimately won the election to represent the district in Illinois that included Hancock County. (Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, 508–509; Discourse, 6 Aug. 1843; JS, Journal, 6–7 Aug. 1843; “Part 4: June–July 1843”; “Official Returns of the Hancock County Election, August 7th, 1843,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 16 Aug. 1843, [2].)
Bushman, Richard Lyman. Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. With the assistance of Jed Woodworth. New York: Knopf, 2005.
Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.
Hyde told apostle John E. Page that “the prospects are not very flattering” regarding the potential for the growth of the church in Washington DC and that if Page had the choice of where to proselytize, he should not choose to labor in the capital. Hyde thereafter left Washington to raise money and “to enter into a field of labour” that he “may be the means of doing some little good in this glorious cause.” (Orson Hyde, Wilmington, DE, to John E. Page, Pittsburgh, PA, 6 May 1844, photocopy, CHL.)
Hyde, Orson. Letter, Wilmington, DE, to John E. Page, Pittsburgh, PA, 6 May 1844. Photocopy. CHL.
Cherokee chief John Ross had been in Washington DC seeking to secure Cherokee land claims and compensation for the Cherokee Nation’s forced removal from their homeland in 1838. Hyde was presumably interested in meeting Chief Ross because of the Council of Fifty’s larger interest in building relationships with and preaching among Native Americans. (See John Tyler, Washington DC, to John Ross et al., Washington DC, 20 Sept. 1841; John Ross, Washington DC, to William Wilkins, 19 Apr. 1844; John Ross et al., Washington DC, to William Wilkins, 30 May 1844; William Wilkins, Washington DC, to John Ross et al., 8 July 1844; John Ross et al., Washington DC, to William Wilkins, 17 July 1844, in Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, 104–105, 196–197, 203–205, 216–227; and Council of Fifty, “Record,” 4 Apr. 1844.)
Moulton, Gary E., ed. The Papers of Chief John Ross. Vol. 2, 1840–1866. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985.
The official record of the Council of Fifty regularly referred to individual council members as “Elder.” As the chair of the council, JS was the presiding elder. (See Council of Fifty, “Record,” 21 Mar. 1844.)