Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson County, Missouri, 18 August 1833
Source Note
JS, Letter, , Geauga Co., OH, to , , , , , and , , Jackson Co., MO, 18 Aug. 1833; sent copy; handwriting and signature of JS; three pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address, postal markings, docket, and redactions.
Bifolium measuring 11 × 8⅞ inches (28 × 23 cm). The document was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, and sealed with a red adhesive wafer. The letter was later refolded for filing. A docket in the handwriting of reads: “Letter from | J. Smith Jun | Aug. 1833”. The second leaf has two holes in the paper and is therefore missing text. The letter has undergone conservation at the folds, which has distorted some of the text.
This letter, along with other papers that belonged to , was in the Partridge family’s possession until at least the mid-1880s, sometime after which it came into the possession of the Church Historian’s Office.
See Partridge, Genealogical Record, 1, 18–22; see also Whitney, “Aaronic Priesthood,” 5–6; and the full bibliographic entry for the Edward Partridge Papers in the CHL catalog.
Partridge, Edward, Jr. Genealogical Record. 1878. CHL. MS 1271.
Whitney, Orson F. “The Aaronic Priesthood.” Contributor, Apr. 1885, 241–250.
Historical Introduction
In early August, JS dictated two revelations concerning church members in . The first of these, dated 2 August 1833, that a be built in . The second revelation, which JS dictated on 6 August, instructed the entire church that in the event that “men will smite you or your familles,” members were to “bear it patiently.” When arrived in , Ohio, on 9 August 1833, he gave JS a firsthand account of the hostilities against church members in , Missouri. Nine days later, on 18 August, JS personally wrote this lengthy letter of comfort and encouragement to his beleaguered brethren in Missouri. After learning of the violence in Jackson County from Cowdery, JS wrote in the 18 August letter that “we have had the word of the Lord” and then provided information that was not included in his prior revelations: “You shall [be] deliverd from you[r] dainger and shall again flurish in spite of hell.” Perhaps thinking of a revelation dictated over two years earlier that commanded to establish a press in , JS also wrote in the letter that though the mob in Independence had razed the , another “must be built.” JS added, “We shall get a press immediately in this place and print th[e] Star,” referring to the early Mormon newspaper, “until you can obtain deliverence and git up again.” Not only the printing office but also the legally purchased land and ’s in Jackson County remained vital: “It is the will of the Lord that the Store shud [should] be kept and that not one foot of land perchased should be given to the enimies of God.” JS again consoled the members of the church in Missouri by telling them that “the harder the persicution the greater the gifts of God upon his chirch.”
Following the July violence in , word of the events spread quickly through local and regional newspapers. On 2 August 1833, the Western Monitor in Fayette, Missouri, published the 20 July minutes kept by the Jackson County citizens and their selected committee who on 20 July destroyed ’s and tarred and feathered and . A newspaper, the Missouri Republican, published a similar piece seven days later, applauding the Jackson County residents’ initiative. The article in the Republican spread rapidly throughout the nation; it was republished in as early as 21 August. Within eight days of ’s arrival in on 9 August, at least two local newspapers, the Painesville Telegraph and the Chardon Spectator, published reports of the events in Missouri. JS wrote in the following letter that “since the inteligence of the Calamity of has reached the ears of the wicked,” he and the rest of the church members in Kirtland were under the necessity of watching their homes by night “to keep off the Mob[b]ers.”
JS further explained, “We are no safer here in then you are in .” He referred, for instance, to threats from the activities of . During the months following his June 1833 excommunication, Hurlbut delivered anti-Mormon lectures near Kirtland, as well as in , Pennsylvania, where he had previously proselytized for the church. Soon thereafter Hurlbut began soliciting funds to finance a trip east to gather information concerning a manuscript that he said JS had plagiarized to write the Book of Mormon, 1830. JS wrote in the letter featured here that because of Hurlbut, “we are suffering great persicution . . . to spite us he is lieing in a wonderful manner and the peapl [people] are running after him and giveing him mony to b[r]ake down mormanism.”
Shortly after writing this 18 August missive, JS sent and to with the letter and other important documents, including the revised plat of the . The two men left no later than 4 September and arrived in Independence during the latter part of that month. In the letter featured here, JS directed church members in to “make a show as if to” prepare to leave and “wait patiently until the Lord come[s] and resto[res] unto us all things.” He also offered hope in this letter by noting that church leaders in would “w[a]it the Comand of God to do whatever he ple[a]se and if he shall say go up to and defend thy Brotheren by the sword we fly.” In late October 1833, church leaders in “declared publicly . . . that we as a people should defend our lands and houses.” On 21 October, “the mob, or at least some of the leaders began to move.” Violence soon began again, and by mid-November most church members had fled north from Jackson County into .
Winchester, Plain Facts, 5–9; “W. R. Hine’s Statement,” Naked Truths about Mormonism (Oakland, CA), Jan. 1888, 2.
Winchester, Benjamin. Plain Facts, Shewing the Origin of the Spaulding Story, concerning the Manuscript Found, and Its Being Transformed into the Book of Mormon; with a Short History of Dr. P. Hulbert, the Author of the Said Story . . . Re-published by George J. Adams, Minister of the Gospel, Bedford, England. To Which Is Added, a Letter from Elder S. Rigdon, Also, One from Elder O. Hyde, on the Above Subject. Bedford, England: C. B. Merry, 1841.
Naked Truths about Mormonism: Also a Journal for Important, Newly Apprehended Truths, and Miscellany. Oakland, CA. Jan. and Apr. 1888.
Winchester, Plain Facts, 8–11; see also Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, chap. 19.
Winchester, Benjamin. Plain Facts, Shewing the Origin of the Spaulding Story, concerning the Manuscript Found, and Its Being Transformed into the Book of Mormon; with a Short History of Dr. P. Hulbert, the Author of the Said Story . . . Re-published by George J. Adams, Minister of the Gospel, Bedford, England. To Which Is Added, a Letter from Elder S. Rigdon, Also, One from Elder O. Hyde, on the Above Subject. Bedford, England: C. B. Merry, 1841.
Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion, from Its Rise to the Present Time. With Sketches of the Characters of Its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in Which the Famous Golden Bible Was Brought before the World. To Which Are Added, Inquiries into the Probability That the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written by One Solomon Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.
See Letter to Vienna Jaques, 4 Sept. 1833; Knight, History, 439; Oliver Cowdery, Kirtland, OH, to John Whitmer, Missouri, 1 Jan. 1834, in Cowdery, Letterbook, 14–17; and “History of Orson Hyde,” 12, Historian’s Office, Histories of the Twelve, ca. 1856–1858, 1861, CHL.
Knight, Newel. History. Private possession. Copy in CHL. MS 19156.
Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Historian’s Office. Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861. CHL. CR 100 93.
O thou disposer of all Events, thou dispencer of all good! in the name of Jesus Christ I ask thee to inspire my heart indiht [indite] my thaughts guide my peen [pen] to note some kind word to these my Brotheren in that like the rays of the sun upon the Earth wormeth [warmeth] the face thereof so let this word I write worm [warm] the hearts of my Brotheren or as the gentle rain deceneth [descendeth] upon the earth or the dews upon the mountanes refresheth the face of nature and Causeth her to smile so give unto thy servent Joseph have a word that shall refresh the hearts and revi[v]e the spir[i]ts yea souls <of> those afflicted ones who have been called to leave their homes and go to a strange land not knowing what should befall them behold this is like Abraham a strikeing <evidence> of their acceptance before the <Lord> in this thing but this is not all <they are>but called to contend with the beast of the wilderness for a long time whos[e]Jaws <are>were open to devour them thus did Abraham and also Paul at Ephesus b[e]hold thou art like him<them> and again the affliction of my Brotheren reminds me of Abraham offering up Isaac his only son but my Brotheen [brethren] have have been called to give up even more than this their wives and their children yea and their own life also O Lord what more dost thou require at their hands before thou wilt come and save them may I not say thou wilt yea I will <say> Lord thou wilt save them out of the hands of their enemies thou hast tried them in the fu[r]nace of affliction a furnace of thine own choseing [choosing]and couldst thou have tried them more then thou hast O Lord then let this suffice and from henceforth <let> this <be> reco[r]ded <be> in heaven for thine angels to look upon and for a testimony against all those ungodly men who have commited those ungodly deeds forever and ever and <yea>let thine anger <is>be enkindled against them and<let>them<and they shall> be consumed before thy face and be far removed from Zion O <they will go>letthem go down to <the> pit and give pl[a]ce for thy saints for thy spirit will not always strive with man therefore I fear for all these things yet O Lord glorify thyself thy will be done and not minebut I must conclude my pray[er] my heart being full of real desire for all such are not reprobate that they cannot be saved——
Dear Brotheren in fellowship and <love> towards you and with a broken heart and a contrite Spirit I take the pen to address you but I know not what to— say to you and the thaught <that> this <of> letter will be so long coming to you my heart faints within me I feel to exclaim O Lord let the desire of my heart be felt and realizied this moment <upon you hearts> and teach you all things thy servent would communicate to would you my Brotheren since the inteligence of the Calamity of has reached the ears of the wicked there is no saifty for us here but evevery man has to wa[t]ch their houses every night to keep off the Mob[b]ers Satan has Come down in Great wrath upon all the of God and the[re] is no saifty only in the arm of Jehovah none else can deliver and he will not deliver unless we doprove ourselves faithful to him in the severeest trouble for he that will have his robes washed in the blood of the Lamb must come up throught great tribulation even the greatest of all affliction but know this when men thus deal with you and speak all maner of evil of you falsly for the sake of Christ that he is your friend and I verily know that he will spedily deliver Zion for I have his immutible covenant that this shall be the case but god is pleased to keep it hid from mine eyes the means how exactly the thing will be donethe chirch in concluded with one accord to die with you or redeem you and never at any time have I felt as I now feel that pure love and for you my Brotheren the wormth [warmth] and Zeal for you saf[e]ty that we can scarcely hold our spirits but wisdom I trust will keep us from madness and desperation and the power of the Go[s]pel will enable us to stand and [p. [1]]
“Indite” meant “to compose; to write; to commit to words in writing” and “to direct or dictate what is to be uttered or written.” (“Indite,” in American Dictionary.)
An American Dictionary of the English Language: Intended to Exhibit, I. the Origin, Affinities and Primary Signification of English Words, as far as They Have Been Ascertained. . . . Edited by Noah Webster. New York: S. Converse, 1828.
On 23 July 1833, representatives of the Jackson County citizens met with six church leaders in Independence. Edward Partridge later wrote, “Nothing appeared satisfactory to the mob but for our people to either leave the county or be put to death. Seeing the determination of the mob, some few of the leading elders offered their lives, provided that would satisfy them, so as to let the rest of the society live, where they then lived, in peace.” The six church leaders were Partridge, John Corrill, Isaac Morley, John Whitmer, William W. Phelps, and Sidney Gilbert. None of those leaders or any church members were killed that day. ([Edward Partridge], “A History, of the Persecution,” Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:18; “To His Excellency, Daniel Dunklin,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 114–115.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
Church leaders in Missouri also viewed the events taking place as part of a painful but necessary purification. John Whitmer wrote, “We need the prayers of all the disciples of our Redeemer for it is a time of great anxiety to behold the cleansing of this Church & also the land from wickedness & abominations.” (Letter from John Whitmer, 29 July 1833.)
The phrase “go down to the pit” is a common Old Testament trope for death. (See Psalm 30:3, 9; Isaiah 38:18; Ezekiel 28:8; 32:18; and Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 101 [2 Nephi 24:19].)