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Notice, 6 June 1844

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Notice, 6 June 1844

Source Note

JS, Notice, , Hancock Co., IL, 6 June 1844. Featured version published [ca. 19 June 1844] in “Caution,” Nauvoo Neighbor (Nauvoo, Hancock Co., IL), 19 June 1844, vol. 2, no. 8, [3]. For more complete source information, see the source note for Notice, 26 Aug. 1843.

Historical Introduction

On 6 June 1844, JS composed a notice in , Illinois, cautioning the public against accepting banknotes, which were apparently being fraudulently circulated. These banknotes originated in late 1836 when JS and several other leaders attempted to promote the growth of the economy in , Ohio, by establishing a financial institution they called the Kirtland Safety Society Bank. The stockholders elected a large group of bank directors from their ranks, and the directors elected JS and as the two officers of the bank. Although they attempted to obtain a charter from the legislature, the officers ultimately reorganized the institution as a banking company in January 1837 and began operating it as an unchartered bank, briefly renaming the institution the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company. External opposition, the lack of a charter, funding problems, and the financial panic of 1837 led the Kirtland Safety Society to struggle with solvency. As a result, JS and Rigdon resigned their positions as officers and removed themselves from the organization. and replaced them in July 1837. The new officers continued to operate the banking institution even though it was nearly insolvent by this time. They issued hundreds of additional notes as loans in late July, which likely contributed to the institution’s collapse soon thereafter.
By August 1837 the had closed and was considered a failed or broken bank, meaning it was insolvent. As such, its notes were void and could no longer be redeemed for specie. Later that month, JS wrote a notice that was published in the church’s newspaper, Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate, warning the public that the bank had failed and that “speculators, renegadoes and gamblers” were “duping the unsuspecting and the unwary, by palming upon them, those bills, which are of no worth, here.” Despite JS’s warning, the notes of the Safety Society continued to circulate outside of .
The notes of the were apparently still in circulation years later as counterfeit notes. Counterfeiting, which included both the creation of fake currency and the circulation of the notes of failed or fraudulent banks, was not uncommon in in the 1840s. Counterfeit money was also a problem in . In March 1843 the Nauvoo City Council passed an ordinance fining individuals for using or possessing counterfeit coins or paper currency. To aid the public in determining which circulating notes were authentic and redeemable for specie, presses throughout the country published specialized newspapers. Some included lists of failed or fraudulent banks, while others—called “counterfeit detectors”—differentiated the counterfeit notes from authentic ones. In 1844 one such newspaper, Clark’s New-England Bank Note List, included the Kirtland Safety Society in its list of failed banks, which likely indicates that it was aware that notes from the institution were still being circulated.
Additional notes may have been put into circulation by an individual or individuals with ties to the , such as , one of the final two officers, or the bank’s directors. JS and others charged Parrish with embezzlement, fraud, theft, and counterfeiting after the Safety Society collapsed in 1837. Parrish, who served as the primary clerk before being elected treasurer, also held the bank’s stock ledger in 1843; it is possible he took possession of more, if not all, of the institution’s records and assets—including the bank’s unissued and redeemed notes. However, it is ultimately unclear how and when the notes came into circulation. In any case, JS sought once again to put a stop to their circulation.
JS’s 6 June 1844 notice, published in the city newspaper, Nauvoo Neighbor, cautioned the public against accepting or passing on the old notes. He emphasized the illegitimacy of the notes and warned that those who circulated the notes willingly injured the Latter-day Saints. JS further expressed his hope that law enforcement would stop those illegally passing the notes, meting out justice to all equally.
No manuscript of the notice is apparently extant. The notice was first printed in the 19 June 1844 issue of the Nauvoo Neighbor. The notice as printed in the newspaper is featured here.

Footnotes

  1. “Part 5: 5 October 1836–10 April 1837”; Historical Introduction to Constitution of the Kirtland Safety Society Bank, 2 Nov. 1836.

  2. Ohio statutes required a bank to be chartered, or incorporated by the legislature, before legally operating. Despite this, banks were commonly established without a charter and functioned extralegally, as in the case of the Kirtland Safety Society. (“Part 5: 5 October 1836–10 April 1837”; Historical Introduction to Articles of Agreement for the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company, 2 Jan. 1837; Golembe, State Banks and the Economic Development of the West, 13–16, 52–54; Coover, “Ohio Banking Institutions, 1803 to 1866,” 312–313.)

    Golembe, Carter H. State Banks and the Economic Development of the West 1830–1844. New York: Arno, 1978.

    Coover, A. B. “Ohio Banking Institutions, 1803–1866.” The Scholarly Journal of the Ohio Historical Society 21 (April–July 1912).

  3. “Part 5: 5 October 1836–10 April 1837”; “Part 6: 20 April–14 September 1837.”

  4. “Part 6: 20 April–14 September 1837”; “Argument to Argument Where I Find It; Ridicule to Ridicule, and Scorn to Scorn,” Elders’ Journal, Aug. 1838, 58.

  5. “Look Out,” Daily Herald and Gazette (Cleveland), 8 July 1837, [2]; “Part 6: 20 April–14 September 1837”; see also Historical Introduction to Notice, ca. Late Aug. 1837.

    Daily Herald and Gazette. Cleveland. 1837–1839.

  6. Notice, ca. Late Aug. 1837.

  7. When a large group of Latter-day Saints known as the “Kirtland Camp” left Kirtland in summer 1838 to relocate to Missouri, its members were confronted in their travels by groups in various villages and townships in northern and central Ohio who demanded that they repay the notes of the Kirtland Safety Society in their possession and threatened them with litigation. (Kirtland Camp, Journal, 4–7, [23]–[24], [28].)

    Kirtland Camp. Journal, Mar.–Oct. 1838. CHL. MS 4952.

  8. Mihm, Nation of Counterfeiters, 6–9.

    Mihm, Stephen. A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.

  9. Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 4 Mar. 1843, 167–168.

  10. “Ohio,” Clark’s New-England Bank Note List (Boston), Mar. 1844, 14; Apr. 1844, 14; July 1844, 14. Beginning in the 26 June 1844 issue, the Nauvoo Neighbor included a “Bank Note Table” from St. Louis on the third page. (“St. Louis Bank Note Table,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 16 [26] June 1844, [3].)

    Clark’s New-England Bank Note List. Boston. 1838–1845.

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

  11. Minutes, 12 Apr. 1838; “Argument to Argument Where I Find It; Ridicule to Ridicule, and Scorn to Scorn,” Elders’ Journal, Aug. 1838, 58. A reminiscent account from Brigham Young suggests that Parrish was reissuing redeemed notes, which would have been considered embezzlement. (“Joseph Smith, the Prophet,” Historical Record, Jan. 1888, 7:433–434; see also Staker, Hearken, O Ye People, 545n89.)

    The Historical Record, a Monthly Periodical, Devoted Exclusively to Historical, Biographical, Chronological and Statistical Matters. Salt Lake City. 1882–1890.

    Staker, Mark L. Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith’s Ohio Revelations. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2009.

  12. Newel K. Whitney, Nauvoo, IL, to Samuel F. Whitney, 18 July 1843, [1], Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU.

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

  13. Two advertisements in this issue are dated 19 June. While it is possible that the paper was published on 19 June, the inclusion of these advertisements suggests that this issue came out later than the 19 June issue date. The notice was printed a second time in the 26 June 1844 issue of the Nauvoo Neighbor. (“Take Notice,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 19 June 1844, [3]; “Notice.—Wanted,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 19 June 1844, [3]; “Caution,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 16 [26] June 1844, [3].)

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Notice, 6 June 1844
History, 1838–1856, volume F-1 [1 May 1844–8 August 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page [3]

CAUTION.
HAVING once notified the Public against receiving a certain currency, called “”, I again caution all persons against receiving of, or trading in, said paper money as all that was issued as genuine was redeemed; after the first officers who signed said bills retired, a new set of officers were appointed: and the vault of the institution was broken open and robbed, of several hundred thousand dollars: the signatures forged upon the said stolen bills, and those bills are being slily bartered or had in trade for the purpose of willful and malicious prosecution and collection. In the first place, the bills are not collectable by law in an unchartered institution: in the second place they are spurious, the signatures being a forgery, and every person passing or trading a bill is guilty of passing counterfeit money, besides the barefaced act of swindling. And lastly, he that uses said bills in any way as a medium of trade, is guilty of fraud and shows a wicked and corrupt determination to wilfully, maliciou[s]ly, and feloniously rob the ; and if the executors of the laws, are as ready to mete out even handed justice to such men as to the Mormons, more indictments, will indicate more honesty. Time will show.
JOSEPH SMITH
, June 6th, 1844.—7:3w [p. [3]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Notice, 6 June 1844
ID #
1384
Total Pages
1
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
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Footnotes

  1. Notice, ca. Late Aug. 1837.

  2. JS here overstated the resolution of the bank’s finances. Ohio banking laws before 1840 did not allow holders of banknotes from unchartered banks to sue for repayment, so there was no need for JS to ensure that all circulating notes were redeemed. However, entries in the bank’s stock ledger suggest that in 1837 some church members who were not stockholders in the institution had bought up notes, either purchasing the devalued notes or trading goods for them, and then turned them in to the bank to relieve JS and Rigdon of the burden of repayment. Despite these efforts, contemporaneous sources indicate that not all the notes were redeemed and that genuinely issued notes remained in circulation alongside those put into circulation fraudulently after the bank’s closure. (An Act Further to Amend the Act Entitled “An Act to Prohibit the Issuing and Circulating of Unauthorized Bank Paper,” Passed January 27, 1816, and to Repeal Certain Acts and Parts of Acts Therein Named [23 Mar. 1840], Statutes of the State of Ohio [1841], p. 144, sec. 8; Tanner, Address, [24]; Kirtland Safety Society, Stock Ledger, 130, 180; Kirtland Camp, Journal, [23]–[24], [28].)

    Statutes of the State of Ohio, of a General Nature, in Force, December 7, 1840; Also, the Statutes of a General Nature, Passed by the General Assembly at Their Thirty-Ninth Session, Commencing December 7, 1840. Columbus, OH: Samuel Medary, 1841.

    Tanner, Nathan. Address, no date. CHL. MS 2815.

    Kirtland Camp. Journal, Mar.–Oct. 1838. CHL. MS 4952.

  3. After the Kirtland Safety Society failed, the bank’s officers, Frederick G. Williams and Warren Parrish, or its directors emptied the vault, which some church leaders, including JS, considered to be a form of stealing. (“Argument to Argument Where I Find It; Ridicule to Ridicule, and Scorn to Scorn,” Elders’ Journal, Aug. 1838, 58.)

  4. This almost certainly refers not to specie but to the printed notes of the Kirtland Safety Society. The bank had consistently struggled financially and never amassed more than twelve thousand dollars in specie or notes from other banks, making it unlikely that JS was referring to bank funds. An August 1838 editorial in the Elders’ Journal alleged that Warren Parrish “stole the paper out of the institution, and went to buying bogus or counterfeit coin with it.” The same editorial claimed that the amount Parrish stole from the bank was “twenty five thousand dollars at one time, and large sums at others.” (“Part 5: 5 October 1836–10 April 1837”; Introduction to the Kirtland Safety Society; “Argument to Argument Where I Find It; Ridicule to Ridicule, and Scorn to Scorn,” Elders’ Journal, Aug. 1838, 58.)

  5. An Act Further to Amend the Act Entitled “An Act to Prohibit the Issuing and Circulating of Unauthorized Bank Paper,” Passed January 27, 1816, and to Repeal Certain Acts and Parts of Acts Therein Named [23 Mar. 1840], Statutes of the State of Ohio (1841), p. 144, sec. 8.

    Statutes of the State of Ohio, of a General Nature, in Force, December 7, 1840; Also, the Statutes of a General Nature, Passed by the General Assembly at Their Thirty-Ninth Session, Commencing December 7, 1840. Columbus, OH: Samuel Medary, 1841.

  6. This is a printing notation unique to the Nauvoo Neighbor for notices and advertisements. Such notations were often used to indicate the placement of the content or how long it should run in the paper. The “3w” may signify that the notice should be reprinted for three weeks.