[], An Appeal to the American People: Being an Account of the Persecutions of the Church of Latter Day Saints; and of the Barbarities Inflicted on Them by the Inhabitants of the State of Missouri, second edition; i-vi, 7–60 pp.; Cincinnati, OH: Shepard and Stearns, 1840. The copy used herein is held at CHL.
A manuscript draft of this pamphlet, simply titled “To the Publick” was presented to a conference of church members at , Illinois, on 1 November 1839. The conference voted to approve the manuscript and authorized its publication on behalf of the church. The pamphlet, when published, carried the endorsement of JS, , and as “Presidents of said Church.”
and collaborated on the publication of the text, which was available in print by May 1840. Though no author is named on the title page, was acknowledged as author in an 1840 Times and Seasons newspaper article, and when the pamphlet was advertised in that church periodical in 1841. JS and held some expectation that funds from the sale of An Appeal would eventually help defray costs of their late-1839 trip to .
By July 1840, and had been authorized to produce a second, revised edition to be published by Shepard & Stearns in . Page related some of the circumstances surrounding its publication and circulation in a letter sent to JS, “. . . at [Ohio] we parted for a few days . . . Elder Hyde went to Cincinnati where in my absince he published a second Edition of the ‘Apeal to the American people’ (2000 copies)[.] when I arrived the work was about completed[.] after disposing of as many of them as posible and suplying the market about cincinnati and the adjacient country he left me with some fourteen or fifteen hundred on hand, to dispose of” (John E. Page, Philadelphia, PA, to JS et al., Nauvoo, IL, 1 Sept. 1841, JS Collection, CHL). Funds from this printing were to be for the express purpose of subsidizing Hyde and Page’s imminent mission to in Palestine.
The second edition was essentially a lightly edited reprint of the first, with a four-page “Publisher’s Preface” added. In the preface, and noted the purpose of the publication, explained the severe hardships imposed by the persecutions upon Page’s own family, provided a detailed account of a vision experienced by Hyde, and expressed enthusiasm about the prospects of the mission. The preface also contained a copy of an official letter of appointment and commendation for Hyde and Page from an April 1840 church conference at , Illinois, signed by JS, and a letter of reference from , governor of .
Although many of the events reported in both editions of ’s pamphlet can be corroborated from other sources, his chronology of events is often inaccurate. However, Rigdon’s account does contain the texts of several significant documents. Among these are JS’s September 1838 affidavit concerning the 7 August 1838 visit to and those of and regarding the massacre. Consequently, though in many respects Rigdon’s document from a historical perspective is more advocacy than history, it offers access to some important material not readily found elsewhere.
dered the houses, robbed the henroosts, and carried off every thing which was valuable, they burned the houses, amounting in all to upwards of two hundred; and then commenced a general destruction of the timber on the land. Some tracts which were well timbered, were soon stripped of every tree. Such of the farms as they did not occupy, they took all the rails from and used them for their own purposes. There were several thousand acres of land thus seized, on which improvements were made to a considerable extent, and the owners utterly forbid to enjoy them, and they have been compelled to sell them for no valuable consideration, while those usurpers were quietly enjoying the good of them. While these brutalities were going on, the public papers were constantly employed in giving publicity to the foulest lies that could be created.
While the mob was engaged in this course of plunder, there were outrages of the most extraordinary character committed by them, ever committed by human beings. The plans they laid, in order to plunder were of the most extraordinary kind. They would serve writs on those whom they wished to plunder and have them thrown into jail, and then rob them of every thing they had about them; watches, money, and other valuables, and bear them off as plunder. In this business were employed some of the leading, (some, did I say) better say all the leading men of the .
Men were caught and tied to trees, and then shot at: but the heart sickens to tell the abominations of this band of barbarians; for who but barbarians could be guilty of such deeds of cruelty? We wish it to be distinctly understood, that the and all the authorities of the , were acquainted with these cruelties; and no effort was made to bring the offenders to justice, or to have the property, thus taken, returned to the owners. The guns that they ordered to be given up by the authority of the , they keep until this day. In this, the government of the , has identified itself in the number of the plunderers, and become one with those villians.
The following are some of the persons engaged in this robbery:
Richard Fristo[e], County Judge; , Judge and General of the Militia, and member of the Presbyterian church; ; Samuel Hale; , Esq.; Jones Flournoy; ; —— Hensley, Esq.; , a lawyer; Reekman Childs, lawyer; Lewis Franklin; , Lieut. Governor; Rev. , Baptist missionary, and his son-in-law Likins [Johnston Lykins?]; Lovelady, Campbellite; —— Johnson; all of these Reverend divines, were among this band of plunderers. Many others were in the number whose names will be forthcoming at another time; we mention these, because they wished to be called gentlemen, men of humanity and piety, but we leave the public to form their own judgment.
Thus, desolated and robbed, the saints were left to seek homes where they could be found; while their enemies were pouring a flood of abuse after them, for the purpose of justifying themselves and hiding their iniquity from the gaze of that part of the public, who abhor mobocracy. The majority of them sought homes in , where they found rest for a little season, and a little season only. Very shortly after their arrival in , they began to purchase lands—made improvements—build mills and other machin [p. 12]