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Letter to Seymour Brunson and Nauvoo High Council, 7 December 1839

Source Note

JS and , Letter, , to and Nauvoo high council, [, Hancock Co., IL], 7 Dec. 1839. Featured version copied [between Apr. and June 1840] in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 89–91; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 2.

Historical Introduction

On 7 December 1839, JS and wrote a letter to and the rest of the to report on the delegation’s efforts to obtain redress from the federal government. On 5 December, JS and Higbee had written to report on their meeting with President and their plans to meet with the congressional delegation from . In this 7 December letter, JS and Higbee described their efforts to lobby Congress and gave details of two meetings with the Illinois delegation. At these meetings, JS and Higbee presented their grievances against and enlisted the assistance of the Illinois representatives and senators to present to Congress a petition they had started to draft before departing for . Representative John Todd Stuart (a Whig from , Illinois) agreed to help prepare the memorial, and Senator (a Democrat from Jonesboro, Illinois) agreed to introduce it in the Senate.
It is not entirely clear why JS and singled out in the letter’s salutation. They possibly thought Brunson was the most reliable addressee when corresponding by mail. later similarly opted to address all correspondence with the church’s delegation in to Higbee because Smith thought it would “come more safe to his address” while JS was traveling between the capital and .
The original letter is not extant. The version featured here is a copy entered into JS Letterbook 2 by sometime between April and June 1840. made an additional copy of this letter for a third party at about the same time. It is unclear whether Thompson’s copy or Coray’s copy was made first. However, Coray’s copy is featured here because its provenance is more certain. Only one slight substantive difference, noted in the annotation herein, exists between the two copies.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Letter to Hyrum Smith and Nauvoo High Council, 5 Dec. 1839.

  2. [2]

    JS, Sidney Rigdon, and Elias Higbee, “Petition to United States Congress for Redress,” ca. 29 Nov. 1839, JS Collection, CHL; Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840; see also the affidavits contained in Record Group 233, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, National Archives, Washington DC.

    Record Group 233, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives / Petitions and Memorials, Resolutions of State Legislatures, and Related Documents Which Were Referred to the Committee on Judiciary during the 27th Congress. Committee on the Judiciary, Petitions and Memorials, 1813–1968. Record Group 233, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1789–2015. National Archives, Washington DC. The LDS records cited herein are housed in National Archives boxes 40 and 41 of Library of Congress boxes 139–144 in HR27A-G10.1.

  3. [3]

    Letter from Hyrum Smith, 2 Jan. 1840.

  4. [4]

    Coray, Autobiographical Sketch, 17, 19.

    Coray, Howard. Autobiographical Sketch, after 1883. Howard Coray, Papers, ca. 1840–1941. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2043, fd. 1.

  5. [5]

    JS and Elias Higbee, Washington DC, to Seymour Brunson, 7 Dec. 1839, copy, JS Collection, CHL.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Letter to Seymour Brunson and Nauvoo High Council, 7 December 1839 Letterbook 2 Letter to Seymour Brunson and Nauvoo High Council, 7 December 1839, Copy History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page 91

can do nothing of consequence until the House is organized; neither can the s. <​Message​> until then be received— We design taking a paper and forwarding it to you.
Your Brethren in the bonds of the
Jos. Smith Jr.
[p. 91]
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Source Note

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Page 91

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter to Seymour Brunson and Nauvoo High Council, 7 December 1839
ID #
497
Total Pages
3
Print Volume Location
JSP, D7:77–81
Handwriting on This Page
  • Howard Coray

Footnotes

  1. [16]

    At this time, the president’s annual message to Congress was a written document and not a speech he delivered in person. On 24 December 1839, Robert D. Foster forwarded to Commerce a published version of the anticipated message. (Congressional Globe, 26th Cong., 1st Sess., Appendix, 1–7; Letter from Robert D. Foster, 24 Dec. 1839; Message from the President of the United States, Senate doc. no. 1, 26th Cong., 1st Sess. [1839].)

    The Congressional Globe, Containing Sketches of the Debates and Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Congress. Vol. 8. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1840.

    Message from the President of the United States, to the Two Houses of Congress, at the Commencement of the First Session of the Twenty-Sixth Congress. December 24, 1839. Senate Doc. no. 1, 26th Cong., 1st Sess. (1839).

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