Footnotes
JS, Journal, 29 June 1842; “Clayton, William,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:718.
Jenson, Andrew. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901–1936.
Richards, Journal, 9 Aug. 1844; “Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, 1 Nov. 1844, 5:693; see also Minutes, Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:30.
Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Andrus and Fuller, Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers, 24; Wilkinson et al., Brigham Young University, 4:255.
Andrus, Hyrum L., and Chris Fuller, comp. Register of the Newel Kimball Whitney Papers. Provo, UT: Division of Archives and Manuscripts, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, 1978.
Wilkinson, Ernest L., Leonard J. Arrington, and Bruce C. Hafen, eds. Brigham Young University: The First One Hundred Years. Vol. 4. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1976.
Footnotes
Historical Introduction to Letter from Thomas Ford, 17 Dec. 1842; Letter from Justin Butterfield, 17 Dec. 1842; Petition to Chauncey Robison, 26 Dec. 1842; Petition to the United States Circuit Court for the District of Illinois, 31 Dec. 1842; Petition to Thomas Ford, 31 Dec. 1842; Affidavit, 2 Jan. 1843.
JS, Journal, 5 Jan. 1843; Clayton, Journal, 5–6 Jan. 1843; Thomas Ford, Order Discharging JS, 6 Jan. 1843.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
JS, Journal, 7 and 10 Jan. 1843; Clayton, Journal, 7 and 10 Jan. 1843.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
John C. Bennett, Springfield, IL, to Sidney Rigdon and Orson Pratt, Nauvoo, IL, 10 Jan. [1843], Sidney Rigdon, Collection, CHL.
See Historical Introduction to Promissory Note to John Brassfield, 16 Apr. 1839; and the dismissals filed during the August 1840 term relating to the 1839 Daviess County grand jury indictments involving JS and others in the nolle prosequi docket entries for State of Missouri v. Gates et al. for Treason; State of Missouri v. Baldwin et al. for Arson; State of Missouri v. Gates et al. for Arson; State of Missouri v. Worthington et al. for Larceny; and State of Missouri v. JS for Receiving Stolen Goods, available in the Legal Records section of the Joseph Smith Papers website, josephsmithpapers.org.
On 1 September 1840, Boggs—apparently unaware that the Boone County Circuit Court dismissed the 1839 indictments the previous month—sent a requisition to Illinois governor Thomas Carlin for JS’s extradition. Although Carlin issued a warrant for JS’s arrest, the officer charged with arresting JS was unable to find him and returned the warrant to the governor unserved. Carlin reissued the same warrant in June 1841, resulting in a habeas corpus hearing before state supreme court justice Stephen A. Douglas during 8–10 June 1841. Douglas ruled that because Carlin’s initial warrant had been returned unserved, it was invalid and Missouri would need to initiate new extradition proceedings. (Requisition, 1 Sept. 1840, State of Missouri v. JS for Treason [Warren Co. Cir. Ct. 1841], Joseph Smith Extradition Records, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL; Editorial, Times and Seasons, Sept. 1840, 1:169–170; “The Late Proceedings,” Times and Seasons, 15 June 1841, 2:447–449.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
In summer 1842, Bennett accused JS of proposing marriage to both Sidney Rigdon’s daughter Nancy Rigdon and Orson Pratt’s wife, Sarah Marinda Bates Pratt. Because of these accusations, rumors spread that both Sidney Rigdon and Orson Pratt were aligned with Bennett. For months afterward, apprehension and mistrust marked JS’s relationships with both men. (Letter to Nancy Rigdon, ca. Mid-Apr. 1842; “Astounding Mormon Disclosures! Letter from Gen. Bennett,” Sangamo Journal [Springfield, IL], 8 July 1842, [2]; “Further Mormon Developments!! 2d Letter from Gen. Bennett,” Sangamo Journal, 15 July 1842, [2]; JS, Journal, 12–13 May 1842; 28 June 1842; 21 Aug. 1842; Letter from Sidney Rigdon, 1 July 1842; “Elder Rigdon,” Times and Seasons, 15 Sept. 1842, 3:922–923; Bennett, History of the Saints, 226–229, 241–245, 247–248; “John C. Bennett,” Times and Seasons, 1 Aug. 1842, 3:868–878; Account of Meeting, 15 July 1842; Minutes, 22 July 1842; Letter to Horace Hotchkiss, 26 Nov. 1842; Minutes, 20 Jan. 1843.)
Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.
Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.
After Pratt shared the letter with him, JS in turn shared it with a group of guests at a banquet at his home on 18 January. He subsequently delivered the letter to John Taylor, who made a copy of it and wrote an editorial denouncing Rigdon and his association with Bennett. Taylor probably intended to publish the letter and editorial in the Times and Seasons. (JS, Journal, 18 Jan. 1843; John C. Bennett, Springfield, IL, to Sidney Rigdon and Orson Pratt, 10 Jan. [1843], copy, JS Collection [Supplement], CHL; Historical Department, Journal History of the Church, 10 Jan. 1843.)
Historical Department. Journal History of the Church, 1896–. CHL. CR 100 137.
For a discussion of Clayton’s role as JS’s agent during this period, see Historical Introduction to Land Transaction with Chauncey Robison, 22 Oct. 1842.
The letter of reply from Butterfield is apparently no longer extant but is referenced in a reply from JS. (JS, Nauvoo, IL, to Justin Butterfield, 18 Mar. 1843, JS Collection, CHL.)
During January, Bennett “delivered a series of lectures against Mormonism” in St. Louis, but it is unclear whether he ever went to Independence, Missouri, as indicated in this letter. (“St. Louis,” New York Herald [New York City], 14 Feb. 1843, [1].)
New York Herald. New York City. 1835–1924.
It is not clear whether Rigdon was involved with Bennett or with the document beyond passing it on to Pratt as Bennett requested. Despite Rigdon’s declarations of allegiance to JS, evidence suggests that Rigdon was at least somewhat ambivalent toward him during this period. On 20 October 1842, Butterfield addressed a lengthy letter to Rigdon containing legal advice regarding the attempts to extradite JS to Missouri. Two months later, Butterfield shared a copy of the letter with William Clayton and Willard Richards, which indicated that Rigdon either had not received the original letter or did not forward it to JS. The copy of the letter was subsequently published in the December 1842 issue of the Times and Seasons. During the October 1843 conference, JS accused Rigdon of purposely keeping the letter from him. Rigdon admitted that he had not given him the letter but stated that he had “received it at a time when he was sick, and unable to examine it” and was therefore unaware that it would have benefited JS. Despite his sickness, Rigdon was likely still disenchanted with JS because of JS’s purported marriage proposal to Rigdon’s daughter Nancy Rigdon. (Justin Butterfield, Chicago, IL, to Sidney Rigdon, [Nauvoo, IL], 20 Oct. 1842, Sidney Rigdon, Collection, CHL; Clayton, Journal, 14 Dec. 1842; Justin Butterfield, “Letter to Sidney Rigdon, Esq.,” Times and Seasons, 15 Dec. 1842, 4:33–36; Letter to Nancy Rigdon, ca. Mid-Apr. 1842; “Minutes of a Special Conference,” Times and Seasons, 15 Sept. 1843, 4:330.)
Rigdon, Sidney. Collection, 1831–1858. CHL. MS 713.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Despite his earlier estrangement, Pratt had begun to mend his relationship with JS by this time. After receiving the letter from Rigdon, Pratt delivered it to JS. On 18 January 1843, JS read the letter to a gathering of approximately seventy close friends and family who were celebrating Judge Nathaniel Pope’s ruling. JS made clear to the group that Pratt had showed him the letter and that “Mr Rigdon did not want to have it known that he had any hand in shewing the letter.” (JS, Journal, 18 Jan. 1843.)
“Verbatim et literatim” is Latin for “word for word and letter for letter.”
In September and November 1840, the Times and Seasons published correspondence from Bennett under the pseudonym “JOAB, General in Israel” condemning the conduct of Missouri against the Saints. In October 1840, the newspaper reported that Bennett “spoke at some length, on the oppression, to which the church had been subject.” On 15 March 1842, the Times and Seasons published a series of Bennett’s correspondence in which he denounced “the vast injustice and cruelty which Missouri has meted out to that great philanthropist and devout Christian, General Joseph Smith, and his honest and faithful adherents—the Latter Day Saints, or Mormons.” (“Burglary! Treason!! Arson!!! Murder!!!!,” Times and Seasons, Sept. 1840, 1:165–167; Minutes and Discourse, 3–5 Oct. 1840; John C. Bennett [Joab, pseud.], Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, 1 Nov. 1840, 2:205–206; “Correspondence between Dr. C. V. Dyer and Gen. J. C. Bennett,” Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1842, 3:724.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
As part of JS’s ongoing bankruptcy case, the Nauvoo high council proposed making a bond out to Butterfield in his capacity as a United States attorney that covered the amount JS owed the federal government, payable quarterly with interest. The high council proposed securing the bond by a mortgage of Illinois real estate valued at twice the amount of JS’s debt. On 17 December, Butterfield wrote to Charles B. Penrose, United States solicitor of the treasury, seeking his approval of the proposal. (Henry G. Sherwood et al., Springfield, IL, to Justin Butterfield, Springfield, IL, 16 Dec. 1842, microfilm; Justin Butterfield, Springfield, IL, to Charles B. Penrose, 17 Dec. 1842, microfilm, Records Related to Church Interaction with Federal Government, copy at CHL.)
Records of the Solicitor of the Treasury / National Archives Reference Service Report, 23 Sept. 1964. “Record Group 206, Records of the Solicitor of the Treasury, and Record Group 46, Records of the United States Senate: Records Relating to the Mormons in Illinois, 1839–1848 (Records Dated 1840–1852), Including Memorials of Mormons to Congress, 1840–1844, Some of Which Relate to Outrages Committed against the Mormons in Missouri, 1831–1839.” Microfilm. Washington DC: National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1964. Copy in Records Related to Church Interaction with Federal Government, 1840–1852, CHL.