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Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, circa 16 December 1843–12 February 1844

Source Note

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , JS, , and , Memorial, , Hancock Co., IL, to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, [], ca. 16 Dec. 1843–12 Feb. 1844; handwriting of ; signatures of memorialists; seventeen pages; Records of the United States Senate, Record Group 46, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC. Includes dockets. Transcription from digital images of the document provided by the National Archives, College Park, Maryland.
Nine leaves, the measurements of which are unknown. Each page is paginated in graphite in unidentified handwriting. The final page contains dockets in the handwriting of , who served as JS’s scribe from 1843 to 1844, and one unidentified scribe. The document was folded in half and then in thirds, perhaps for filing.
The document’s early custodial history is unclear. After the memorial was written and signed, took it to and conveyed it to Senator , who presented it to the Senate on 5 April 1844. The Senate referred the memorial to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary the same day, and it probably remained in Senate committee records after that time. The committee records were transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration sometime after the administration was organized in 1934.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 456.

    Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.

  2. [2]

    Congressional Globe, 28th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 482 (1844); see also Orson Hyde, Washington DC, to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 25 and 26 Apr. 1844, JS Collection, CHL.

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

  3. [3]

    See National Archives, “National Archives History.”

    National Archives. “National Archives History.” National Archives, Washington DC. Accessed 13 Mar. 2020. https://www.archives.gov/about/history.

Historical Introduction

On 21 December 1843, the City Council accepted a memorial to Congress that outlined the treatment experienced in in the 1830s and sought redress for their ordeal as well as greater protection for Nauvoo. The memorial requested that Congress grant all the powers and rights of a federal territory to the city of Nauvoo and its officers and authorize the Nauvoo mayor to call upon federal troops to help fortify the city against increasing threats from Missourians.
JS and the Latter-day Saints were keenly aware and fearful of potential mob violence. Roughly a decade had passed since church members first suffered harassment and violence in . Church leaders failed in several attempts to receive redress from governmental authorities at both state and national levels—including Missouri governors and courts as well as presidents and Congress—despite submitting numerous petitions and hundreds of individual affidavits. After years of disappointment, church leaders realized they needed fresh tactics to gain protection for church members’ rights, lives, and property. Recent events—particularly Missouri officials’ third attempt to extradite JS and the kidnappings of and by citizens of Missouri and —prompted city leaders to create new city ordinances and issue military orders to protect JS and . On 7 December 1843, Nauvoo residents held a public meeting to discuss requesting Illinois governor ’s assistance to “regain the citizens that have been kidnapped by the Missourians.” and others present motioned that the city council protect JS and other Latter-day Saints and “prevent the said Missourians and Government from committing further violence upon the citizens of Illinois.”
On 8 December, JS called a city council meeting in which he encouraged the council “to be prepared for any invasion from ” and proposed the idea of petitioning Congress “to take the city under their protecti[o]n.” That same day, the City Council created a committee, consisting of , , and , to draft a memorial requesting federal assistance and protection. On 16 December, the committee read a draft to the Nauvoo City Council, after which councilors suggested amendments. JS stated: “We wished to ask the privilege of calling on U. S troops to protect us in our privileges, which is not unconstitutional,— but lays in the breast of congress.” JS and the council debated the constitutional merits of the memorial and then referred it back to the committee for revision. On 21 December, the committee presented its revised memorial, which the council accepted with some amendments. Orson Pratt proposed one important amendment that called for “an additional Section to the ordinance requiring the U. S. troops to obey the orders of the Mayor in case of insurrection.” The final version of the memorial, the body of which was presumably completed on or shortly after 21 December, included language to this effect.
The final draft of the memorial, featured here, began with a short history of the Saints’ persecutions and a copy of the legislative act incorporating ; it was followed by the unusual request for Congress to grant all the rights and powers of a federal territory to the city of Nauvoo. Territorial rights and powers derived from the federal government, which oversaw and organized territorial entities. At the time, most federal lawmakers, particularly those affiliated with the Democratic Party, promoted states’ rights, or the power of individual states over that of the federal government. After their experiences in , church leaders came to believe that states abused their power at the expense of individual rights and that the federal government was better suited to protect individual citizens’ rights. Though the federal government did not help with their Missouri ordeal, citing it as a states’ rights issue, the Latter-day Saints and their leaders apparently hoped that if Nauvoo gained territorial rights and powers, the nation’s highest governing body would fulfill its constitutional obligation to protect the people. In order to accomplish this, the memorial asked that federal officials authorize the Nauvoo mayor to call upon federal troops to help the protect the city, compel the army to supply troops when called upon, and pay Nauvoo legionnaires the same as federal troops in such cases. These changes would alter the federal chain of command since only the president could mobilize federal troops in territories. This memorial represented a significant shift in the Saints’ strategy, wherein they went beyond seeking financial redress for past wrongs and actively worked to safeguard the people of Nauvoo against future persecution and violence.
The City Council approved the memorial on the afternoon of 21 December, but it remained unsigned until 12 February 1844. On that day, the city council met in the to revisit some items passed in December 1843, including city ordinances and the memorial. In the afternoon session, which began at one o’clock, the memorial was read, and the council members present, including JS as mayor, signed it.
The city council also voted to pay the expenses for to take the memorial to and present it to Congress. JS told Pratt to call “all the Representativs of , tell them our suffering have been such that we must have that document passed,— and we will have it. you must go in for it. go. to and call a delegation from his state.” JS also directed Pratt to talk to other prominent politicians, call public meetings in the capital city, and publish materials promoting JS’s presidential campaign. JS and the city council instructed Pratt to depart immediately for Washington DC, though he did not leave until at least 12 March 1844. He arrived by the end of March or beginning of April and succeeded in persuading , a senator from Illinois, to introduce the memorial in the Senate.
On 5 April 1844, presented the memorial to the Senate, which referred it to its Committee on the Judiciary. That committee apparently took no action in response to the Latter-day Saint request.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    For more on this history, see Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840; and Johnson, Mormon Redress Petitions.

    Johnson, Clark V., ed. Mormon Redress Petitions: Documents of the 1833–1838 Missouri Conflict. Religious Studies Center Monograph Series 16. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1992.

  2. [2]

    See “Part 4: June–July 1843”; “Joseph Smith Documents from August through December 1843”; Ordinance, 8 Dec. 1843; Military Order to Wilson Law, 8 Dec. 1843; and Minutes, 8 Dec. 1843.

  3. [3]

    Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 9 Dec. 1843, [1]; “Public Meeting,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 13 Dec. 1843, [1].

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

  4. [4]

    JS, Journal, 8 Dec. 1843; Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 8 Dec. 1843, 24.

  5. [5]

    Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 16 Dec. 1843, 25–26.

  6. [6]

    Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 21 Dec. 1843, 28.

  7. [7]

    The working draft of the memorial shows a variety of insertions, deletions, and other edits made throughout the collaboration leading to its completion. (See Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, 21 Dec. 1843, draft, JS Office Papers, CHL.)

  8. [8]

    See McDonald, States’ Rights and the Union, 97–141; Wilentz, Rise of American Democracy, 320–360; and Watson, Liberty and Power, 117–131.

    McDonald, Forrest. States’ Rights and the Union: Imperium in Imperio, 1776–1876. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000.

    Wilentz, Sean. The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005.

    Watson, Harry L. Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America. Rev. ed. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006.

  9. [9]

    JS, Journal, 21 Dec. 1843; for more on the territorial system in the United States, see Rogers, Unpopular Sovereignty, 20–45; and Berkhofer, “Northwest Ordinance and the Principle of Territorial Evolution,” 45–55.

    Rogers, Brent M. Unpopular Sovereignty: Mormons and the Federal Management of Early Utah Territory. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017.

    Berkhofer, Robert F., Jr. “The Northwest Ordinance and the Principle of Territorial Evolution.” In The American Territorial System, edited by John Porter Bloom. National Archives Conferences 5, Papers and Proceedings of the Conference on the History of the Territories of the United States. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1973.

  10. [10]

    Governors of territories, like state governors, could call out local or state militias, but only the president could mobilize federal forces. (See Rogers, Unpopular Sovereignty, 21.)

    Rogers, Brent M. Unpopular Sovereignty: Mormons and the Federal Management of Early Utah Territory. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017.

  11. [11]

    JS, Journal, 12 Feb. 1844; Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 12 Feb. 1844, 2; see also Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 12 Feb. 1844, 204.

  12. [12]

    Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 12 Feb. 1844, 2, underlining in original; see also Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 12 Feb. 1844, 204.

  13. [13]

    JS, Journal, 12 Feb. 1844; Watson, Orson Pratt Journals, 211–212.

    Watson, Elden J., comp. The Orson Pratt Journals. Salt Lake City: By the author, 1975.

  14. [14]

    Congressional Globe, 28th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 482 (1844); see also Orson Hyde, Washington DC, to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 25 and 26 Apr. 1844, JS Collection, CHL.

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

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 December 1840 Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, circa 16 December 1843–12 February 1844 History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842] History, 1838–1856, volume E-1 [1 July 1843–30 April 1844] “History of Joseph Smith” *Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, circa 16 December 1843–12 February 1844, Draft Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, circa 16 December 1843–12 February 1844, Thomas Bullock First Copy *Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, circa 16 December 1843–12 February 1844 History, 1838–1856, volume E-1 [1 July 1843–30 April 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page [2]

forests were converted into well cultivated and fruitful fields. There we expected to spend our days in the enjoyment of all the rights and liberties bequeathed to us by the sufferings and blood of our noble ancestors. But alas! our expectations were vain. Two years had scarcely elapsed before we were unlawfully and unconstitutionally assaulted by an organized mob consisting of the highest officers in the both civil and military, who openly and boldly avowed their— determination in a written circular to drive us from said . As a specimen of their treasonable and cruel designs your honorable body are referred to said circular of which the following is but a short extract namely
We the undersigned Citizens of , believing that an important crisis is at hand as regards our civil society in consequence of a pretended religious sect of people that have settled and are still settling in our styling themselves Mormons and intending as we do to rid our Society “peaceably if we can forcibly if we must” and believing as we do that the arm of the civil law does not afford us a guaranty or at least a sufficient one against the evils which are now inflicted upon us and seem to be increasing by the said religious sect, deem it expedient and of the highest importance to form ourselves into a company for the better and easier accomplishment of our purpose
This Document was closed in the following words
We, therefore, agree, that after timely warning and receiving an adequate compensation for what little property they cannot take with them they refuse to leave us in peace as they found us we agree to use such means as may be sufficient to remove them and to that end we each pledge to each other our bodily powers, our lives, fortunes, and sacred honors
To this unconstitutional document were attached the names of [p. [2]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, circa 16 December 1843–12 February 1844
ID #
3060
Total Pages
18
Print Volume Location
JSP, D13:373–393
Handwriting on This Page
  • Thomas Bullock

Footnotes

  1. [4]

    By 1837 church members acquired the title to some 3,100 acres of land in Missouri. (Clay Co., MO, Deed Records, 1822–1890, vol. D, pp. 23–25, 75–78, 197–198, 225–226, 246–247, 256–257, microfilm 955,264; vol. E, pp. 21–22, 42–43, 46–47, 118, 242–243, 399; vol. F, pp. 28–29, microfilm 955,265, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

  2. [5]

    The quoted document was reproduced in Letter from John Whitmer, 29 July 1833; “We the Undersigned Citizens of Jackson County,” [July 1833], Edward Partridge, Papers, CHL; and “To His Excellency, Daniel Dunklin, Governor of the State of Missouri,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 114–115. Some of the spelling and punctuation represented here varies from earlier versions of the text.

    Partridge, Edward. Papers, 1818–1839. CHL. MS 892.

    The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

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