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Letter to Thomas Ford, 16 October 1843

Source Note

JS, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to , , Sangamon Co., IL, 16 Oct. 1843. Featured version copied [ca. 16 Oct. 1843]; handwriting of ; one page; JS Collection (Supplement), CHL. Includes addressing and dockets.
Single leaf measuring 10⅝ × 7⅞ inches (27 × 20 cm) and ruled with thirty-four horizontal lines, printed in blue ink, now faded. The leaf was unevenly cut along the left side of the recto. The letter was inscribed on the recto and later folded and docketed for storage.
The letter was docketed by , 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. , who served as a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office from 1853 to 1859, docketed it a second time. The letter may be listed in an inventory produced by the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) circa 1904. The Church Historical Department (now CHL) published a register of the JS Collection in 1973. Between 1974 and 1984, staff continued to locate documents authored by or directed to JS in uncataloged church financial records and in name and subject files. The department also acquired additional JS documents from donors, collectors, and dealers. These newly located and acquired documents were kept together in a supplement to the JS Collection. A preliminary inventory of the supplement was created in 1992. This group of records was named the JS Collection (Supplement), 1833–1844, and its cataloging was finalized in 2017. The document’s early dockets and its inclusion in the JS Collection (Supplement) suggest continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    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].

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  2. [2]

    “Obituary of Leo Hawkins,” Millennial Star, 30 July 1859, 21:496–497.

    Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.

  3. [3]

    Although the CHL currently houses seven letters written between Thomas Ford and JS in 1843, the earlier inventory identifies only four. (“Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [3], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.)

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  4. [4]

    See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection (Supplement), 1833–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 16 October 1843, in , Illinois, JS wrote to governor and commander in chief of the state militia, , in , Illinois. The brief letter stated that , a member of JS’s clerical staff, was authorized to present Ford with a petition from the for additional public arms from the state armory. Illinois law allowed each volunteer militia unit organized after 1833 to submit a petition to the governor for the procurement of arms—either cannons for use in artillery companies or small arms such as muskets, rifles, and swords. The Nauvoo city charter, approved by the Illinois legislature in 1840, affirmed that the Nauvoo Legion was “entitled to their proportion of the public arms.” State law required that such petitions be signed by the requesting unit’s commanding officer and include the requested number of arms and the number of unit members. The number of available state arms was limited, however, and most militiamen went without or armed themselves.
Although the Nauvoo Legion possessed some public arms, its leaders determined sometime in summer 1843 to request additional arms. On 9 September, twenty-two legion members and officers drafted a petition calling on JS to request an additional 2,720 pistols, rifles, and muskets as well as eight cannons from . The men submitted the petition to JS on 11 September. In response, JS appointed , , and as a committee to present their request to Ford. The details of the committee’s work are not known, but on 4 October, JS “gave Phelps orders to take such steps as were necessary to procu[r]e arms— for the legion.” By 16 October, a formal petition was prepared in fulfillment of state laws, and JS drafted the letter to Ford.
served as scribe for the featured copy of the brief letter, which may have been originally intended as the sent copy. However, after Richards made corrections to this copy of the letter, he presumably inscribed a sent copy that has not been located. The letter identified as JS’s friend and as an “” of the Nauvoo Legion. Carrying the letter, Phelps departed for on 24 October in the company of Colonel . Phelps likely arrived in Springfield sometime near the end of October or the beginning of November and presumably delivered the letter and accompanying petition to the —or to one of his aides or office staff—upon his arrival in the city. On 6 November, Phelps returned to Nauvoo and reported to JS. According to JS’s journal, he “was pleasd” with Phelps’s report. There is no record of the petition for arms being granted.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    An Act for the Organization and Government of the Militia of This State [2 July 1833], Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois (1839), pp. 478–479, secs. 35–36; An Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo [16 Dec. 1840], Laws of the State of Illinois [1840–1841], p. 57, sec. 25.

    The Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois: Containing All the Laws . . . Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at Their First Session, Commencing December 1, 1834, and Ending February 13, 1835; and at Their Second Session, Commencing December 7, 1835, and Ending January 18, 1836; and Those Passed by the Tenth General Assembly, at Their Session Commencing December 5, 1836, and Ending March 6, 1837; and at Their Special Session, Commencing July 10, and Ending July 22, 1837. . . . Compiled by Jonathan Young Scammon. Chicago: Stephen F. Gale, 1839.

  2. [2]

    Leonard, Nauvoo, 115.

    Leonard, Glen M. Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, a People of Promise. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2002.

  3. [3]

    The quartermaster general of the Nauvoo Legion was assigned to review public arms in August 1842 and May 1843. In June 1843, the court-martial of the legion passed a resolution calling for the creation of an arsenal in which to store the legion’s public arms. (Nauvoo Legion Minute Book, 3 Aug. 1842, 29; 20 May 1843, 32–33; 10 June 1843, 35–36.)

  4. [4]

    Members of Nauvoo Legion, Petition, 9 Sept. 1843, Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU.

    Whitney, Newel K. Papers, 1825–1906. BYU.

  5. [5]

    JS, Journal, 11 Sept. 1843.

  6. [6]

    JS, Journal, 4 Oct. 1843.

  7. [7]

    JS, Journal, 24 Oct. 1843.

  8. [8]

    JS, Journal, 6 Nov. 1843.

  9. [9]

    There is no extant comprehensive record of state arms distributions from the Illinois government, and it is unclear whether such a detailed record was kept at the time. Around the end of 1843, the 1,751 men in the Nauvoo Legion’s Second Cohort—which comprised the bulk of the legion—possessed only 204 firearms, 98 swords, and 2 cannons. Presumably, this total referred to the number of state arms possessed by the legion and not the personal arms of its members. In June 1844, former major general Wilson Law reported that the legion had received a total of “three pieces of cannon and about two hundred and fifty stand of small arms and their accoutrements” from the state. (“General Return of the Second Cohort or Brigade of the Nauvoo Legion,” CHL; Message of the Governor of the State of Illinois, 10.)

    Nauvoo Legion, Second Cohort. General Return, 1843. CHL.

    Message of the Governor of the State of Illinois, in Relation to the Disturbances in Hancock County, December, 21, 1844. Springfield, IL: Walters and Weber, 1844.

Page [1]

, Ill, Oct 16th 1843.
Sir
The <​bearer​> has been appointed to present the petitions of the to draw public arms. <​and tranast [transact] other business​> Your will receive him and execute business with him, as your friend and my friend
Respectfully I have this honor to be Your Most obt Servt.—
Joseph Smith
Liet Gen N. Ligion
His Excellency .)
Governor of )
) [1/2 page blank] [p. [1]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter to Thomas Ford, 16 October 1843
ID #
2001
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D13:195–198
Handwriting on This Page
  • Willard Richards

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