, Letter, , to JS, [, Hancock Co., IL?], 21 Feb. 1840. Featured version copied [between Apr. and June 1840] in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 100–103; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 2.
Historical Introduction
While in on 21 February 1840, wrote a letter to JS, the third in a series of seven extant letters apprising JS of the actions of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which was considering the ’s memorial to Congress. Higbee had testified before the committee the previous day, and the committee had adjourned with the understanding that Senator and Representative of would be allowed the following day to present their version of what had transpired in Missouri. In this letter, Higbee conveyed to JS much of what Linn and Jameson contended, as well as how he rebutted their arguments.
presumably sent this letter by post to , Illinois, where JS would have received it after he returned from on or before 29 February 1840. The original letter is not extant. copied the version featured here into JS Letterbook 2 sometime between April and June 1840.
to control our civil rights in no; particularly that ecclesiastical power should only be used in the ; and then no further than fellowship was concerned— I think they injured their cause to day. There is another appointment for them on the morrow at 10, o’clock. Their friend they said, was sick, consequently could not attend to day— said he thought it would be time enough to take it up in the Congress when they could not get justice in the State, and that he was confident, there was a disposition in the State of to do us justice should we apply: That the reason of their refusing to envestigate before, was, the trials of the prisoners were pending. And further said (when speaking of the trials before ) that he understood from Gentlemen that the prisoners commended the for his clemency and fair dealing towards them; and acknowledged they were guilty, in part, of the charges preferred against them. said he presumed I was not present when sd. men were tried. I replied in the negative; that I was not there, neither any body else that could be a witness in their favor. The Lawyers advised them to keep away if they desired the salvation of their lives. I observed that I had read the proceedings of the Legislature but did not now recollect them; but since yesterday I had have been reflecting on the subject and recollect a conversation, I had with Mr. who was the bearer of the petition to and he informed me, the reason why they refused an investigation was on account of the upper members being so violently opposed to it, that they used their utmost exertions and finally succeeded in getting a majority against it; and the reason of their taking this course was, in consequence of one of their members being in the Massacre at , Viz. Mr. Ashley [Daniel Ashby] & — was a leader of the first mob in , which the militia were called out to suppress.
[said] if it must come our out in Congress, it [p. 101]
Higbee mentioned this friend in one of his 20 February 1840 letters to JS. According to that letter, the friend was a man who lived in northern Missouri at the time of the conflict there and supposedly had firsthand knowledge of the events described in the church’s memorial. The friend may be the “Mr. Corwin” who testified before the committee on 22 February. (Letter from Elias Higbee, 20 Feb. 1840–A; Letter from Elias Higbee, 22 Feb. 1840.)
In late 1838 and early 1839, trials were pending for three different groups of church members. Two of those groups—one of which included JS—were imprisoned. On 10 January 1839, the Missouri General Assembly rejected a resolution that “it shall be the duty of the Governor of this State, at as early a period as practicable, after the trial of the aforesaid Mormons, to procure a copy of all the evidence taken, and to be taken in the said trial, as well as the papers, documents and returns of all the officers, which are or may be in possession of the Executive relative to the Mormon difficulties, and shall cause the same to be published in pamphlet form.” The state senate instead resolved that “a joint committee” of the state house and senate would be “raised on the subject of the Mormon difficulties.” Ultimately, that joint committee did not arrive at a definitive conclusion from their investigation and recommended further examination. (Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, 10 Jan. 1839, 187–188; Document Containing the Correspondence, 4.)
Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, On Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.
Document Containing the Correspondence, Orders, &c., in Relation to the Disturbances with the Mormons; and the Evidence Given before the Hon. Austin A. King, Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit of the State of Missouri, at the Court-House in Richmond, in a Criminal Court of Inquiry, Begun November 12, 1838, on the Trial of Joseph Smith, Jr., and Others, for High Treason and Other Crimes against the State. Fayette, MO: Boon’s Lick Democrat, 1841.
Individuals attempting to testify in behalf of JS and other church leaders incarcerated in Missouri faced intimidation as well as threats of violence and imprisonment. For example, David Pettegrew stated in an affidavit that when he was “a prisoner before Judge King we sent for many witnesses and when tha [they] came thay were taken and cast in to prison with us and we were not permited to have any witnesses.” (David Pettegrew, Affidavit, Montrose, Iowa Territory, 21 Mar. 1840, Mormon Redress Petitions, 1839–1845, CHL.)
Mormon Redress Petitions, 1839–1845. CHL. MS 2703.
See, for example, Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, 3 and 10 Jan. 1839, 167–168, 186–188; and Journal, of the House of Representatives, of the State of Missouri, 5 Dec. 1838, 78–80, 123–125.
Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, On Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.
Journal, of the House of Representatives, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, on Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.
Redfield was a member of the church who lived in Missouri from 1838 to 1839. (Redfield, Genealogical History of the Redfield Family in the United States, 242.)
Redfield, John Howard. Genealogical History of the Redfield Family in the United States. Albany: Munsell and Rowland; New York: Richardson, 1860.
Ashby was a state senator from Missouri’s tenth senate district, which included his home county of Livingston. (Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, 3; Baugh, “Call to Arms,” 414.)
Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, On Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.
Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).
Gilliam led a group of vigilantes from Clinton and Platte counties to Daviess County, Missouri, in October 1838. He was a senator in the Missouri General Assembly from 1838 to 1844. The Missouri Senate’s journal recorded Ashby’s and Gilliam’s respective votes on a variety of motions and resolutions concerning an investigation into “the Mormon difficulties.” ([Rigdon], Appeal to the American People, 41–43; Baugh, “Call to Arms,” 188; Missouri Archives Division, Office of Secretary of State, Missouri General Assembly, 35; see also, for example, Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, 10 Jan. 1839, 186–188.)
Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).
Missouri General Assembly, 1812–1976: A Bicentennial Project. Missouri: Secretary of State, 1976?.
Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, On Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.