[], 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; 1–84 pp.; Cincinnati, OH: Glezen and Shepard, stereotypers and printers, 1840. The copy used herein is held at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Historical Introduction
While incarcerated at , Missouri, in March 1839, JS addressed a letter to the church “at Illinois and scattered abroad and to in particular,” instructing the Saints to gather up “a knoledge of all the facts and sufferings and abuses put upon them by the people of this .” Edward Partridge responded with an account that became the three opening installments of “A History, of the Persecution, of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints in Missouri,” an eleven-part series published in the church’s newspaper, Times and Seasons, between December 1839 and October 1840. “A History, of the Persecution” receives comprehensive treatment in volume 2 of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers and is available on this website.
may have intended to tell the entire story himself, but he fell ill shortly after publication of “A History, of the Persecution” began and died on 27 May 1840. Prompted by Partridge’s illness and subsequent death, the editors of the Times and Seasons, and , sought elsewhere for source materials to continue the series. It is probable that they composed the fourth installment to provide a brief transition from Partridge’s account, which ends in 1836, and the conflicts in and adjoining counties in 1838. The fifth and seventh installments reprinted passages from ’s History of the Late Persecutions Inflicted by the State of Missouri upon the Mormons (Detroit: Dawson and Bates, 1839). In May 1840, the sixth installment reprinted passages from ’s eighty-four page pamphlet, 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 (Cincinnati: Glezan and Shepard, 1840). More of Rigdon’s work was reprinted in the eighth through tenth installments, published from July to September 1840. The series concluded with an eleventh installment in the October 1840 issue, featuring General ’s callous speech to the Saints after their surrender at , Missouri, in November 1838.
A manuscript version of ’s Appeal to the American People, referred to as the “petition draft” titled “To the Publick” and endorsed by JS, Rigdon, and , was read to a conference of Saints in , Illinois, on 1 November 1839. The conference voted to approve its publication in the name of the church. and then collaborated to arrange for publication of the text in late 1839 and early 1840. Though no author is named on the title page, Rigdon was acknowledged as author when the pamphlet was advertised in the Times and Seasons in 1840 and 1841. JS and Elias Higbee had some expectation that funds from the sale of the publication would help defray costs of their trip to in late 1839. In July 1840, a second edition was printed by Shepard & Stearns in to raise funds for Orson Hyde and ’s mission to .
Although many of the events reported in ’s pamphlet can be corroborated from other sources, his chronology is often inaccurate. (Consult the annotation in Histories, Volume 2 for correction to portions published as part of “A History, of the Persecutions.”) However, his account contains the text of several significant documents. Among these are JS’s 5 September 1838 affidavit concerning the 7 August 1838 visit to and those of and and regarding the massacre. Consequently, though in many respects Rigdon’s document is more advocacy than history, it offers access to some material not readily found elsewhere.
as they pleased, and take their property; for they could get no law in . They not only said that they would drive them from the , but from the also: and it was seriously talked of in , that the saints must leave the ; and they carried it so far as to publish their intentions in the papers.
While these war-like preparations were going on by the mob; the saints also began to make preparations for defence. But it was then, as before, they did not do it until they had petitioned the for protection; when, instead of receiving the protection sought for, they received for answer, “Vox populi, Vox Dei.” “The voice of the people is the voice of God.” As much as to say, “If the people say you must go, you must go.” The before mentioned was still Governor. The saints, finding they had nothing to expect from the authorities, but a full sanction to the acts of the mob; had no alternative left, but to have recourse to arms.
Both parties began to assume a formidable attitude, so much so, that it gave alarm to some of the other citizens, who did not join with the mob: they interfered, and tried to stop, as they said, the effusion of blood. During this time, there was a body of armed men, from sixty to one hundred, who, in the face of the authorities of the country and all civil law, was ranging the , stopping movers, driving them back, whipping and abusing the saints wherever they could be caught; and threatening the chastity of females. , the circuit judge, was an eye witness to these base transactions, and under the solemnities of an oath, to put a stop to them: so were all the civil authorities of the country, yet, every man of them, regardless of his oath, either took an active part in aiding this band, or else winked at their doings. The operations of this mob, was from the first of May, till the last of August, 1836, from three to four months. They did a great deal of mischief; were the cause of many deaths: many persons were beaten most inhumanly; much property also was destroyed; families that were moving into the country, were sto[p]ped, many of them driven back, and compelled to live in their wagons until houses could be obtained; and when obtained, they were in sickly [p. 14]