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Letter to Emma Smith, 25 June 1844

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Letter to Emma Smith, 25 June 1844

Source Note

JS, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to , [, Hancock Co., IL], 25 June 1844. Featured version inscribed [25 June 1844]; handwriting of ; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes dockets, redactions, notation, and archival marking.
Single leaf measuring 12⅜ × 7½ inches (31 × 19 cm). The top, left, and bottom edges of the recto appear to have the square cut of manufactured paper; the right side of the recto is unevenly cut, which suggests the leaf was removed from a book or larger sheet. The paper was folded multiple times and was later refolded for filing.
, who served as JS’s scribe from December 1841 until JS’s death in June 1844 and served as church historian from December 1842 until his own death in March 1854, docketed the letter: “Copy of Letter to | — June 25— 1844 | Joseph.” It was also 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 graphite notation “A. J” was added to the document by Andrew Jenson, who began working in the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) in 1891 and served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early dockets, its notation, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection suggest continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. See JS, Journal, 13 Dec. 1841 and 21 Dec. 1842; Orson Spencer, “Death of Our Beloved Brother Willard Richards,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 16 Mar. 1854, [2]. It is possible that rather than indicating that this letter is a copy, this docket indicates that this letter was copied.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

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

Historical Introduction

On 25 June 1844, in , Illinois, JS composed a letter to his wife in , Illinois, updating her on his situation and on governor ’s efforts to keep the peace in Nauvoo and the rest of . JS and others had traveled to Carthage on 24 June to answer a charge of for their roles in the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor’s press. JS and his party arrived in Carthage that night and lodged at ’s . , a member of JS’s party tasked with carrying letters and other messages to and from Nauvoo, later recalled that as they passed the public square, members of the local unit of militia, the Carthage Greys, and militia units from other areas in Illinois threatened and taunted them. According to Wheelock, the crowd dispersed after Ford called from the window of the hotel to tell the crowd that he would have JS “pass before the troops upon the Square” the next morning.
The next day in his letter to , JS related the events of 25 June until “2½ O Clock, P.M.”—the time given in the dateline. In particular, he explained that he and his brother had been arrested again that morning, this time on a charge of for having called out the a week earlier. He also informed Emma that he had had an interview with . Apparently in the course of this interview, Ford had invited JS and Hyrum to review the militia from , Illinois. During the review, Ford introduced JS and Hyrum as generals, which caused unrest among the Greys, who were serving as JS’s escort or guard. This unrest appears to have escalated after the review concluded. JS called it a mutiny in this letter, and described it as a revolt in his journal. Besides recounting the Carthage Greys’ behavior, JS also told Emma that an militia unit was being sent to and gave her instructions on how to treat its members. A postscript to this letter, written at 3:00 p.m., offered the hopeful conclusion that Ford would bring JS with him when he visited Nauvoo.
It is unclear whether the letter to was ever sent. , who often recorded in his journal when letters were written or sent to during his time with JS in June, made no mention of this letter or of anyone carrying anything to Emma in on 25 June. Moreover, while Emma and her descendants retained the letters JS sent her on 23 and 27 June, there is no extant sent copy of the 25 June letter. The extant version of the letter, featured here, includes cancellations and corrections and thus appears to be either a draft or a rough copy. While Willard Richards most frequently acted as JS’s scribe at this time, the featured letter is in the handwriting of .

Footnotes

  1. Clayton, Journal, 12 and 23–24 June 1844.

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

  2. Cyrus Wheelock, London, England, to George A. Smith, 29 Dec. 1854, [2]–[4], Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.

  3. Willard Richards, Journal Excerpt, 23–27 June 1844. According to Ford, he invited JS and Hyrum Smith to review the McDonough County militia “at the urgent request of the troops themselves, to gratify their curiosity in beholding persons who had made themselves so notorious in the country.” (Ford, History of Illinois, 343.)

    Ford, Thomas. A History of Illinois, from Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847. Containing a Full Account of the Black Hawk War, the Rise, Progress, and Fall of Mormonism, the Alton and Lovejoy Riots, and Other Important and Interesting Events. Chicago: S. C. Griggs; New York: Ivison and Phinney, 1854.

  4. Willard Richards, Journal Excerpt, 23–27 June 1844. Newspaper accounts before and after JS’s death circulated the rumor that JS fainted in response to taunts from the troops during his review. While General Miner R. Deming, who commanded the Greys, later dismissed the confrontation as a misunderstanding, Ford later admitted that the Greys had “behaved badly” during the review. According to Ford’s later history of Illinois, the Greys thought they were being used as a “triumphal escort” for the prisoners rather than a guard and “entertained a very bad feeling” toward General Deming. Ford explained that once the Greys understood “the true motive in showing the prisoners to the troops, . . . they cheerfully returned to their duty.” Both Ford and Deming denied reports of unrest or that Deming had ordered the Greys to be arrested before peace was restored. (“Correspondence of the Missouri Republican,” Daily Missouri Republican [St. Louis], 28 June 1844, [2]; “From Nauvoo,” Cleveland Herald, 10 July 1844, [1]; Miner R. Deming, Carthage, IL, 30 June 1844, Letter to the Editor, Warsaw [IL] Signal, 24 July 1844, [1]; Ford, History of Illinois, 343; see also Gregg, History of Hancock County, Illinois, 372–373.)

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

    Cleveland Herald. Cleveland. 1843–1853.

    Warsaw Signal. Warsaw, IL. 1841–1853.

    Ford, Thomas. A History of Illinois, from Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847. Containing a Full Account of the Black Hawk War, the Rise, Progress, and Fall of Mormonism, the Alton and Lovejoy Riots, and Other Important and Interesting Events. Chicago: S. C. Griggs; New York: Ivison and Phinney, 1854.

    Gregg, Thomas. History of Hancock County, Illinois, Together with an Outline History of the State, and a Digest of State Laws. Chicago: Charles C. Chapman, 1880.

  5. See Source Note for Letter to Emma Smith, 23 June 1844; and Source Note for Letter to Emma Smith, 26–27 June 1844. This letter was not included in The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, while the texts of the 23 and 26–27 June 1844 letters were included. In contrast, JS’s history does include this 25 June letter, probably because the draft copy was retained by Richards after the deaths of JS and Hyrum Smith. (JS History, vol. F-1, 157.)

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Letter to Emma Smith, 25 June 1844 History, 1838–1856, volume F-1 [1 May 1844–8 August 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter to Emma Smith, 25 June 1844
ID #
1446
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
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