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Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson County, Missouri, 18 August 1833

Source Note

JS, Letter, , Geauga Co., OH, to , , , , , and , , Jackson Co., MO, 18 Aug. 1833; sent copy; handwriting and signature of JS; three pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address, postal markings, docket, and redactions.
Bifolium measuring 11 × 8⅞ inches (28 × 23 cm). The document was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, and sealed with a red adhesive wafer. The letter was later refolded for filing. A docket in the handwriting of reads: “Letter from | J. Smith Jun | Aug. 1833”. The second leaf has two holes in the paper and is therefore missing text. The letter has undergone conservation at the folds, which has distorted some of the text.
This letter, along with other papers that belonged to , was in the Partridge family’s possession until at least the mid-1880s, sometime after which it came into the possession of the Church Historian’s Office.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See Partridge, Genealogical Record, 1, 18–22; see also Whitney, “Aaronic Priesthood,” 5–6; and the full bibliographic entry for the Edward Partridge Papers in the CHL catalog.

    Partridge, Edward, Jr. Genealogical Record. 1878. CHL. MS 1271.

    Whitney, Orson F. “The Aaronic Priesthood.” Contributor, Apr. 1885, 241–250.

Historical Introduction

In early August, JS dictated two revelations concerning church members in . The first of these, dated 2 August 1833, that a be built in . The second revelation, which JS dictated on 6 August, instructed the entire church that in the event that “men will smite you or your familles,” members were to “bear it patiently.” When arrived in , Ohio, on 9 August 1833, he gave JS a firsthand account of the hostilities against church members in , Missouri. Nine days later, on 18 August, JS personally wrote this lengthy letter of comfort and encouragement to his beleaguered brethren in Missouri. After learning of the violence in Jackson County from Cowdery, JS wrote in the 18 August letter that “we have had the word of the Lord” and then provided information that was not included in his prior revelations: “You shall [be] deliverd from you[r] dainger and shall again flurish in spite of hell.” Perhaps thinking of a revelation dictated over two years earlier that commanded to establish a press in , JS also wrote in the letter that though the mob in Independence had razed the , another “must be built.” JS added, “We shall get a press immediately in this place and print th[e] Star,” referring to the early Mormon newspaper, “until you can obtain deliverence and git up again.” Not only the printing office but also the legally purchased land and ’s in Jackson County remained vital: “It is the will of the Lord that the Store shud [should] be kept and that not one foot of land perchased should be given to the enimies of God.” JS again consoled the members of the church in Missouri by telling them that “the harder the persicution the greater the gifts of God upon his chirch.”
Following the July violence in , word of the events spread quickly through local and regional newspapers. On 2 August 1833, the Western Monitor in Fayette, Missouri, published the 20 July minutes kept by the Jackson County citizens and their selected committee who on 20 July destroyed ’s and tarred and feathered and . A newspaper, the Missouri Republican, published a similar piece seven days later, applauding the Jackson County residents’ initiative. The article in the Republican spread rapidly throughout the nation; it was republished in as early as 21 August. Within eight days of ’s arrival in on 9 August, at least two local newspapers, the Painesville Telegraph and the Chardon Spectator, published reports of the events in Missouri. JS wrote in the following letter that “since the inteligence of the Calamity of has reached the ears of the wicked,” he and the rest of the church members in Kirtland were under the necessity of watching their homes by night “to keep off the Mob[b]ers.”
JS further explained, “We are no safer here in then you are in .” He referred, for instance, to threats from the activities of . During the months following his June 1833 excommunication, Hurlbut delivered anti-Mormon lectures near Kirtland, as well as in , Pennsylvania, where he had previously proselytized for the church. Soon thereafter Hurlbut began soliciting funds to finance a trip east to gather information concerning a manuscript that he said JS had plagiarized to write the Book of Mormon, 1830. JS wrote in the letter featured here that because of Hurlbut, “we are suffering great persicution . . . to spite us he is lieing in a wonderful manner and the peapl [people] are running after him and giveing him mony to b[r]ake down mormanism.”
Shortly after writing this 18 August missive, JS sent and to with the letter and other important documents, including the revised plat of the . The two men left no later than 4 September and arrived in Independence during the latter part of that month. In the letter featured here, JS directed church members in to “make a show as if to” prepare to leave and “wait patiently until the Lord come[s] and resto[res] unto us all things.” He also offered hope in this letter by noting that church leaders in would “w[a]it the Comand of God to do whatever he ple[a]se and if he shall say go up to and defend thy Brotheren by the sword we fly.” In late October 1833, church leaders in “declared publicly . . . that we as a people should defend our lands and houses.” On 21 October, “the mob, or at least some of the leaders began to move.” Violence soon began again, and by mid-November most church members had fled north from Jackson County into .

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Revelation, 2 Aug. 1833–A [D&C 97:10].

  2. [2]

    Revelation, 6 Aug. 1833 [D&C 98:23].

  3. [3]

    Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson Co., MO, 10 Aug. 1833.

  4. [4]

    Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C 57:11].

  5. [5]

    “Mormonism,” United States Telegraph (Washington DC), 21 Aug. 1833, [2]; JS History, vol. A-1, 330.

    United States Telegraph. Washington DC. 1826–1837.

  6. [6]

    “‘Regulating’ the Mormonites,” Missouri Republican (St. Louis), 9 Aug. 1833, [3].

    Daily Missouri Republican. St. Louis. 1822–1869.

  7. [7]

    “Mormonites in Missouri,” Daily National Intelligencer (Washington DC), 21 Aug. 1833, [2].

    Daily National Intelligencer. Washington DC. 1800–1869.

  8. [8]

    Report, Painesville (OH) Telegraph, 16 Aug. 1833, [3]; “Mormonites,” Chardon (OH) Spectator and Geauga Gazette, 17 Aug. 1833, [3]; see also Historical Introduction to Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson Co., MO, 10 Aug. 1833.

    Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1822–1986.

    Chardon Spectator and Geauga Gazette. Chardon, OH. 1833–1835.

  9. [9]

    Appeal and Minutes, 21 June 1833; Minutes, 23 June 1833; JS, Journal, 28 Jan. 1834.

  10. [10]

    Winchester, Plain Facts, 5–9; “W. R. Hine’s Statement,” Naked Truths about Mormonism (Oakland, CA), Jan. 1888, 2.

    Winchester, Benjamin. Plain Facts, Shewing the Origin of the Spaulding Story, concerning the Manuscript Found, and Its Being Transformed into the Book of Mormon; with a Short History of Dr. P. Hulbert, the Author of the Said Story . . . Re-published by George J. Adams, Minister of the Gospel, Bedford, England. To Which Is Added, a Letter from Elder S. Rigdon, Also, One from Elder O. Hyde, on the Above Subject. Bedford, England: C. B. Merry, 1841.

    Naked Truths about Mormonism: Also a Journal for Important, Newly Apprehended Truths, and Miscellany. Oakland, CA. Jan. and Apr. 1888.

  11. [11]

    Winchester, Plain Facts, 8–11; see also Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, chap. 19.

    Winchester, Benjamin. Plain Facts, Shewing the Origin of the Spaulding Story, concerning the Manuscript Found, and Its Being Transformed into the Book of Mormon; with a Short History of Dr. P. Hulbert, the Author of the Said Story . . . Re-published by George J. Adams, Minister of the Gospel, Bedford, England. To Which Is Added, a Letter from Elder S. Rigdon, Also, One from Elder O. Hyde, on the Above Subject. Bedford, England: C. B. Merry, 1841.

    Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion, from Its Rise to the Present Time. With Sketches of the Characters of Its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in Which the Famous Golden Bible Was Brought before the World. To Which Are Added, Inquiries into the Probability That the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written by One Solomon Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.

  12. [12]

    Revised Plat of the City of Zion, ca. Early Aug. 1833.

  13. [13]

    See Letter to Vienna Jaques, 4 Sept. 1833; Knight, History, 439; Oliver Cowdery, Kirtland, OH, to John Whitmer, Missouri, 1 Jan. 1834, in Cowdery, Letterbook, 14–17; and “History of Orson Hyde,” 12, Historian’s Office, Histories of the Twelve, ca. 1856–1858, 1861, CHL.

    Knight, Newel. History. Private possession. Copy in CHL. MS 19156.

    Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

    Historian’s Office. Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861. CHL. CR 100 93.

  14. [14]

    Letter, 30 Oct. 1833.

Page [3]

and thus the testimony of the Kingdom must go unto all and there are many ways that God designs to bring about his ritious purposees and in the day of Judgement he designs to make us the Judges of the whole world generation in which we live O how unsearchable are the depths of his mysteries and his ways past finding out Brotheren the testamony which you have given of your honesty and the truth of this work will be felt Eteaaly [eternally] by this generation for it will be proclaimed to Ends of the Earth that there are men now liveing who have offered up their lives for this as a testimony of their religion our Brotheren in the East will handle this testimony to good advantage it seems to inspire every heart to a lively sence of faith and to arm them <​with​> double fortitude and power and the harder the persicution the greater the gifts of God upon his chirch yea all things shall work together for good to them who are willing to lay down their lives for Christ sake we are suffering great persicution on account of one man by the name of who has been expeled from the for lude and adulterous conduct and to spite us he is lieing in a wonderful manner and the peapl [people] are running after him and giveing him mony to b[r]ake down mormanism which much endangers <​our lives​> at preasnt [present] but god will put a stop to his carear soon and all will be well my heart this moment <​is made​> glad for we have just receivd you[r] letter containing the bond with which our enemies bound themselves and to distroy and also the blessing <​of​> god in poreing out upon his spirit upon you and we have had the word of the Lord that you shall [be] deliverd from you[r] dainger and <​shall​> again flurish in spite of hell [that i]s god has communicated to m[e] by the that this should be <​the case​> after much p[rayer] and suplication and also that an other printing office must be built the Lord knows how and also it is the will of the Lord that the shud [should] be kept and that <​not​> one foot of <​land​> the perchased should <​be​> given to the enimies of God or sold to them but if any is sold let it be sold to the chirch we cannot git the consent of the Lord that we shall give the ground to the enemies yet let those who are bound to leave the land to make a show as if to do untill the Lord delivr[.] a word to the wise is sufficient therefore Jud[g]e what I say for know assuredly that every foot of ground that falls into the hands of the enimies with consent is not easy to be obtained again O be wise and not let the knowledge I give unto <​you​> be known abroad for your sak[e]s hold fast that which you have received trust in god considder Elijah when he prayed for rain go often to your holy plases and <​look​> for a cloud of light to apper to your help O God I ask thee in the name of Jesus of nazereth to Save all things concerning Zion and build up her wait [waste] places and restore all things O god send forth Judgement unto victory O come down and cause the moutans [mountains] to flow down at thy presance and now I conclude by telling you that we w[a]it the Comand of God to do whatever we he ple[a]se and if <​he​> shall say go up to and defend thy Brotheren by <​the sword​> we fly and we count not dear our live dear to us I am your Brother in Christ
Joseph Smith Jr [p. [3]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson County, Missouri, 18 August 1833
ID #
179
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D3:258–269
Handwriting on This Page
  • Joseph Smith Jr.

Footnotes

  1. [46]

    See Matthew 19:28; Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 509 [3 Nephi 27:27]; and Revelation, 11 Sept. 1831 [D&C 64:37].

  2. [47]

    See Romans 11:33; and Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 130 [Jacob 4:8].

  3. [48]

    See Matthew 5:10–12; and Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 480 [3 Nephi 12:10–12].

  4. [49]

    See Romans 8:28.

  5. [50]

    TEXT: “b[page torn]ake”.

  6. [51]

    Letter from John Whitmer, 29 July 1833.

  7. [52]

    TEXT: Page torn. Supplied text is from the version of this letter found in Partridge, Genealogical Record, 22.

    Partridge, Edward, Jr. Genealogical Record. 1878. CHL. MS 1271.

  8. [53]

    TEXT: “[Page torn]s”. Supplied text is from the version of this letter found in Partridge, Genealogical Record, 22.

    Partridge, Edward, Jr. Genealogical Record. 1878. CHL. MS 1271.

  9. [54]

    TEXT: “m[page torn]”. Supplied text is from the version of this letter found in Partridge, Genealogical Record, 22.

    Partridge, Edward, Jr. Genealogical Record. 1878. CHL. MS 1271.

  10. [55]

    TEXT: “p[page torn]”. Supplied text is from the version of this letter found in Partridge, Genealogical Record, 22.

    Partridge, Edward, Jr. Genealogical Record. 1878. CHL. MS 1271.

  11. [56]

    See Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson Co., MO, 6 Aug. 1833.

  12. [57]

    “Store” refers to the Gilbert & Whitney store in Independence. On 20 July 1833, Sidney Gilbert agreed to close the store to prevent the mob from destroying it. ([Edward Partridge], “A History, of the Persecution,” Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:18.)

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

  13. [58]

    A week earlier, Cowdery advised church members in Jackson County to “look out another place to locate on” but not to move sooner than the agreement with their opponents required. He also counseled, “You may be under the necessity to sell some of our lands, but be wise, hold on to the sacred places.” Here, JS modified those instructions. (Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson Co., MO, 10 Aug. 1833.)

  14. [59]

    See Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 140 [Jacob 6:12].

  15. [60]

    See 1 Kings 18:42–45.

  16. [61]

    See Matthew 12:20.

  17. [62]

    See Isaiah 64:1, 3.

  18. [63]

    TEXT: “w[page torn]it”.

  19. [64]

    After members of the Church of Christ were forced to evacuate Jackson County in November 1833, a 24 February 1834 revelation authorized an expedition, later known as Zion’s Camp, to help the refugees resettle on their Jackson County lands. JS led the group, departing Kirtland on 5 May 1834, but they were ultimately unsuccessful in achieving their major objective. (Revelation, 24 Feb. 1834 [D&C 103].)

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