Footnotes
Correspondence between editors and manuscripts curator at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL, 15 May 2017, copy in editors’ possession.
Correspondence between editors and manuscripts curator at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL, 15 May 2017, copy in editors’ possession.
Footnotes
See An Act to Establish a Uniform System of Bankruptcy [19 Aug. 1841], Public Statutes at Large, 27th Cong., 1st Sess., chap. 9, pp. 440–449.
The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, from the Organization of the Government in 1789, to March 3, 1845. . . . Edited by Richard Peters. 8 vols. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1846–1867.
For more information on the bankruptcy act of 1841, see “Joseph Smith Documents from May through August 1842.”
The firm of Ralston, Warren & Wheat was composed of partners James H. Ralston, Calvin A. Warren, and Almeron Wheat. A 5 April 1842 notice from the firm stated that one of the partners would be at Nauvoo and Carthage, Illinois, around 14 April 1842 and would take applications for bankruptcy. (“Ralston, Warren & Wheat, Attorneys at Law,” Wasp, 16 Apr. 1842, [3].)
The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.
JS, Journal, 18 Apr. 1842. The bankruptcy act of 1841 granted primary authority over bankruptcy proceedings to the federal district court, which for JS and other residents of Nauvoo was in Springfield, Illinois. However, the act stipulated that petitions and depositions could be filed before any commissioner appointed by the federal district court. This rule allowed the Saints to begin their application for bankruptcy in Carthage, about 25 miles away, instead of traveling to Springfield, which was 130 miles away. (An Act to Establish a Uniform System of Bankruptcy [19 Aug. 1841], Public Statutes at Large, 27th Cong., 1st Sess., chap. 9, pp. 445–446, sec. 5; Letter from Calvin A. Warren, ca. 23 June 1842.)
The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, from the Organization of the Government in 1789, to March 3, 1845. . . . Edited by Richard Peters. 8 vols. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1846–1867.
The notice was dated 28 April 1842. It ran only once in the Sangamo Journal but was published weekly for six consecutive weeks in the Wasp, from 7 May to 11 June 1842.
See An Act to Establish a Uniform System of Bankruptcy [19 Aug. 1841], Public Statutes at Large, 27th Cong., 1st Sess., chap. 9, p. 442, sec. 2.
The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, from the Organization of the Government in 1789, to March 3, 1845. . . . Edited by Richard Peters. 8 vols. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1846–1867.
The bankruptcy act of 1841 was very popular. More than 41,000 individuals in the United States filed petitions under the act; 1,592 petitions were filed in Illinois from February 1842 to March 1843, when the act was repealed. (Balleisen, Navigating Failure, 124, 172.)
Balleisen, Edward J. Navigating Failure: Bankruptcy and Commercial Society in Antebellum America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
Although the Saints experienced earlier mob violence in both Ohio and Missouri, JS was likely referencing the more recent and financially devastating 1838 conflict in Missouri, which resulted in his imprisonment and the forced expulsion of the Saints from the state. (See Introduction to Part 3: 4 Nov. 1838–16 Apr. 1839.)
These debts likely included those that JS and church agents had amassed when purchasing land in Illinois and Iowa Territory from Isaac Galland, as well as from Hotchkiss and his partners, John Gillet and Smith Tuttle. (See Agreement with George W. Robinson, 30 Apr. 1839; and Bond from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–A.)
One of the “unjust” debts to which JS may have been referring was a $4,866 debt that he, Hyrum Smith, Peter Haws, George Miller, and Henry W. Miller owed the United States government for their 1840 purchase of the steamboat Des Moines, which they had renamed Nauvoo. The steamboat operated for two months before it was run aground—allegedly by its pilots—and badly damaged, rendering it inoperable. Unable to repay the debt with the income the steamboat was meant to generate, JS and his cofinanciers attempted to sue the pilots, but the two men could not be located and the lawsuit was withdrawn on 7 May 1841. Payment for the steamboat was due in May 1841 and remained unpaid into 1842. The United States government appointed Justin Butterfield, United States Attorney for Illinois, to litigate the debt; he initiated a lawsuit on 3 April 1842 against JS and his cofinanciers to reclaim the money they owed to the federal government. (Oaks and Bentley, “Joseph Smith and Legal Process,” 735–782; Hancock Co., IL, Circuit Court Records, 1829–1897, vol. C, p. 84, microfilm 947,496, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)
Oaks, Dallin H., and Joseph I. Bentley. “Joseph Smith and Legal Process: In the Wake of the Steamboat Nauvoo.” Brigham Young University Law Review, no. 3 (1976): 735–782.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.