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Affidavit, 8 September 1838

Source Note

JS and , Affidavit, [, MO], 8 Sept. 1838; certified by . Featured version published in “The Mormon Difficulties,” Niles’ National Register (Washington DC), 13 Oct. 1838, p. 103.
“The Mormon Difficulties” appears in an issue of the Niles’ National Register containing sixteen pages measuring 11⅞ × 8⅛ inches (30 × 21 cm). Each page of the issue contains three columns of printed text, with each column measuring 2½ inches (6 cm) wide. In the mid-nineteenth century, the featured copy was bound together with the twenty-five other issues in volume 55 and with an index and title page, creating a book measuring 11⅞ × 8⅛ × ¾ inches (30 × 21 × 2 cm). The volume was rebound sometime in the mid-twentieth century. This and other volumes of the Niles’ National Register were acquired by the Utah Territorial Library before 1852. In 1890, the Utah Territory legislature directed that some items in the territorial library be transferred to the University of Deseret, which was later renamed the University of Utah; the volume has remained in the university’s custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Catalogue of the Utah Territorial Library, 60.

    Catalogue of the Utah Territorial Library, October, 1852. Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory: Brigham H. Young, 1852.

  2. [2]

    An Act providing for and Regulating the Utah Territorial Library [13 Mar. 1890], Laws of the Territory of Utah, p. 99, sec. 3.

    Laws of the Territory of Utah, Passed at the Twenty-Ninth Session of the Legislative Assembly, Held at the City of Salt Lake, the Capital of Said Territory, Commencing January 13, A. D. 1890, and Ending March 13, A. D. 1890. Salt Lake City: Tribune Printing and Publishing, 1890.

Historical Introduction

On 8 September 1838, JS and prepared an affidavit in , Missouri, for and Edgar Flory, who were sent from , Missouri, to investigate tensions between church members and vigilantes in northwestern . While in Caldwell County, Price and Flory asked about allegations that the were conspiring with American Indians to “commit depredations” against white Missourians who were not members of the church. Latter-day Saints had a special affinity toward Indians, believing them to be descendants of a Book of Mormon people known as the . The Saints believed that converted Indians would help build the , or city of , which an 1830 JS revelation indicated would be established “among the Lamanites.” A revelation in July 1831 identified Zion as being located in , Missouri, near the border separating Euro-American settlements from territory set aside for Indians.
The Saints also believed that the Lamanites would play a key role in the calamities preceding the second coming of Jesus Christ. According to the Book of Mormon, the “remnant of Jacob [Lamanites], shall be among the Gentiles [European Americans], yea, in the midst of them, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, if he go through, both treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.” Realizing that such ideas could produce a hostile reaction among non-Mormons, church leaders discouraged the Saints from speaking openly of these beliefs.
Though Latter-day Saints proselytized among indigenous peoples in the 1830s, few of them joined the church. Nevertheless, allegations repeatedly arose during the decade that church members were allying with Indians to attack European Americans. These charges contributed to the Saints’ expulsion from in 1833 and from , Missouri, in 1836. During the 1836 crisis, church leaders in , Ohio, unsuccessfully attempted to defuse the situation with a statement that dismissed the allegations as the “subtle purposes of those whose feelings are embittered against” the church. The church leaders insisted the Saints in were determined “to be among the first to repel any [Indian] invasion, and defend the frontier from all hostilities.”
As tensions between the Saints and other Missourians escalated in August 1838, church members were once again accused of conspiring with Indians. By 1 September, former Latter-day Saint Nathan Marsh prepared a statement in indicating he had firsthand knowledge of the rumored alliance. Marsh claimed he had heard Latter-day Saint preachers teach that “the time had arrived, when the flying Angel should pass through the land accompanied by the Indians, to accomplish the work of destruction.” He further stated that JS publically announced he had fourteen thousand men, whom Marsh presumed to be Indians, ready to answer JS’s call. According to Marsh, “all classes” of Latter-day Saints were “rejoicing . . . that the time had arrived, when all the wicked should be destroyed from the face of the earth, & that the Indians would be the principal means by which this object would be accomplished.” On 1 September, Chariton County citizens Daniel Ashby, James Keyte, and forwarded Marsh’s statement to governor and suggested that he call out the state militia to suppress the insurrection allegedly being planned by Latter-day Saints and Indians.
About the same time that Marsh made his statement, vigilantes in , Missouri, called on and other counties to send volunteers to help arrest JS and . In a meeting on 3 September 1838, Chariton County citizens decided not to send troops but instead to appoint , who was a member of the House of Representatives, and Flory, another county resident, as an investigative committee to verify the allegations made against the Latter-day Saints. Price and Flory attended a preliminary hearing in Daviess County on 7 September, during which Judge evaluated the charges against JS and Wight relating to the Saints’ confrontation with anti-Mormon on 8 August. After the hearing, Price and Flory concluded that Black’s accusations against the Saints were exaggerated, and the two men wanted to meet with Latter-day Saint leaders “to learn the facts of this great exitement.”
On 8 September, JS and met in , Missouri, with , Flory, and , who was acting as JS’s attorney. After hearing about “this whole matter, the present state of exitement and the cause of all this confusion,” Price and Flory “expressed their fullest sattisfaction upon this matter,” agreeing that the Saints “had been outrageously imposed upon.” Following the meeting, JS and Rigdon prepared an affidavit denying Marsh’s claims and affirming the Saints’ allegiance to and the . , a judge in the court, certified the document. After Price and Flory received the affidavit and returned to Keytesville, the seat, they described their findings in a written report dated 10 September. The report, which included a copy of the affidavit, may have been first published as a handbill or in a local newspaper, perhaps explaining why the report and affidavit appeared in the 22 September 1838 issue of the Columbia Patriot, a newspaper published in , Missouri, approximately sixty miles southeast of Keytesville. Copies of the 22 September issue of the newspaper are apparently not extant. On 13 October, the Niles’ National Register reprinted the report and affidavit; the Register’s version of the affidavit is featured here.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    “The Mormon Difficulties,” Niles’ National Register (Washington DC), 13 Oct. 1838, 103.

    Niles’ National Register. Washington DC, 1837–1839; Baltimore, 1839–1848; Philadelphia, 1848–1849.

  2. [2]

    According to the Book of Mormon, the Lamanites were Hebrews who migrated from Jerusalem to the Americas around 600 BC. (See “Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon”; and Ashurst-McGee, “Zion Rising,” chap. 4.)

    Ashurst-McGee, Mark. “Zion Rising: Joseph Smith’s Early Social and Political Thought.” PhD diss., Arizona State University, 2008.

  3. [3]

    Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 501 [3 Nephi 21:23]; Revelation, Sept. 1830–B [D&C 28:9]; see also Walker, “Seeking the Remnant,” 1–33.

    Walker, Ronald W. “Seeking the ‘Remnant’: The Native American during the Joseph Smith Period.” Journal of Mormon History 19 (Spring 1993): 1–33.

  4. [4]

    Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C 57:1–3].

  5. [5]

    Under the 1830 Indian Removal Act, Indians were required to relocate from their land in the eastern United States to land west of the Mississippi River. In December 1832, an article in the church’s Independence, Missouri, newspaper celebrated the federal government’s relocation policy as a “marvelous” fulfillment of prophecy, allowing the descendants of the Lamanites to gather together and help build Zion. (Satz, American Indian Policy, 64–87; “The Indians,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1832, [6].)

    Satz, Ronald N. American Indian Policy in the Jacksonian Era. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1975.

    The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

  6. [6]

    Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 500 [3 Nephi 21:12]; see also Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 488, 500 [3 Nephi 16:15; 20:16–17]; Micah 5:8; Pratt, Mormonism Unveiled, 15; Pratt, Voice of Warning, 188, 191–192; and Underwood, Millenarian World of Early Mormonism, 79–81.

    Pratt, Parley P. Mormonism Unveiled: Zion’s Watchman Unmasked, and its Editor, Mr. L. R. Sunderland, Exposed: Truth Vindicated: The Devil Mad, and Priestcraft in Danger! New York: O. Pratt & E. Fordham, 1838.

    Pratt, Parley P. A Voice of Warning and Instruction to All People, Containing a Declaration of the Faith and Doctrine of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, Commonly Called Mormons. New York: W. Sanford, 1837.

    Underwood, Grant. The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993.

  7. [7]

    For example, when two Indians attended a church meeting in Jackson County in 1833, a white church member informed the visitors that “the time would soon come when they should embrace the Gospel and also that if we will not fight for our selves the Indians will fight for us.” Responding to a report of this exchange, First Presidency member Frederick G. Williams conceded that “all this may be true” but cautioned the Missouri Saints that “it is not needful that it should be spoken for it is of no service to the saints and has a tendency to stir up the people to anger.” (Frederick G. Williams, Kirtland, OH, to “Dear Brethren,” 10 Oct. 1833, in JS Letterbook 1, p. 59; see also Letter to William W. Phelps, 31 July 1832.)

  8. [8]

    See Taylor, “Telling Stories about Mormons and Indians,” 115–123, 181–187.

    Taylor, Lori Elaine. “Telling Stories about Mormons and Indians.” PhD diss., State University of New York at Buffalo, 2000.

  9. [9]

    Ezra Booth, “Mormonism—No. VI,” Ohio Star (Ravenna), 17 Nov. 1831, [3]; Isaac McCoy, “The Disturbances in Jackson County,” Missouri Republican (St. Louis), 20 Dec. 1833, [2]; “Public Meeting,” LDS Messenger and Advocate, Aug. 1836, 2:354.

    Ohio Star. Ravenna. 1830–1854.

    Missouri Republican. St. Louis. 1822–1919.

    Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.

  10. [10]

    Letter to John Thornton et al., 25 July 1836.

  11. [11]

    The 1838 allegations stemmed from a poorly understood intertribal meeting held on Indian lands late that summer. As one Missourian stated, “There are strong aprehensions also of hostilities by the Indians from the cherokees having built a large council house and inviting all the other tribes, and holding secret consultations.” In reality, the Cherokees called the conference to promote peaceful relations among the Indian nations that were thrown together in the wake of the 1830 Indian Removal Act; the meeting’s intent was not to plan attacks against white settlers. Nevertheless, European Americans in the state ascribed sinister intentions to the Cherokees, consistent with previous scares in the 1830s that resulted in faux Indian wars in Missouri. (E. A. Lampkin, Carrollton, MO, to Thomas G. Bradford, Washington DC, 8 Sept. 1838, Thomas G. Bradford, Correspondence, CHL; Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, 195–200; McCandless, History of Missouri, 2:55–57; “A Long Letter, and a View of Franklin County in 1838,” Republican Tribune [Union, MO], 24 Mar. 1922, 1, 8; see also Historical Introduction to Affidavit, 5 Sept. 1838.)

    Bradford, Thomas G. Correspondence, 1822–1840. CHL.

    Foreman, Grant. Advancing the Frontier, 1830–1860. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1933.

    McCandless, Perry. A History of Missouri. 3 vols. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1971–1973.

    Republican Tribune. Union, MO. 1919–1937.

  12. [12]

    Nathan Marsh, Statement, no date, in Daniel Ashby et al., Brunswick, MO, to Lilburn W. Boggs, 1 Sept. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA.

    Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.

  13. [13]

    Daniel Ashby et al., Brunswick, MO, to Lilburn W. Boggs, 1 Sept. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA. Another former Latter-day Saint, John Sapp, made a statement similar to Marsh’s three days later in Carroll County. (John Sapp, Affidavit, Carroll Co., MO, 4 Sept. 1838, in Joseph Dickson, Carrollton, MO, to Lilburn W. Boggs, 6 Sept. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA.)

    Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.

  14. [14]

    See Historical Introduction to Affidavit, 5 Sept. 1838; and Historical Introduction to Letter from Austin A. King, 10 Sept. 1838.

  15. [15]

    “The Mormon Difficulties,” Niles’ National Register (Washington DC), 13 Oct. 1838, 103; Eiserman, “Sterling Price,” 117–118.

    Niles’ National Register. Washington DC, 1837–1839; Baltimore, 1839–1848; Philadelphia, 1848–1849.

    Eiserman, Rick. “Sterling Price: Soldier—Politician—Missourian.” In Missouri Folk Heroes of the 19th Century, edited by F. Mark McKiernan and Roger D. Launius, 115–134. Independence, MO: Herald Publishing House, 1989.

  16. [16]

    See Historical Introduction to Recognizance, 7 Sept. 1838.

  17. [17]

    JS, Journal, 7 Sept. 1838; “The Mormon Difficulties,” Niles’ National Register (Washington DC), 13 Oct. 1838, 103.

    Niles’ National Register. Washington DC, 1837–1839; Baltimore, 1839–1848; Philadelphia, 1848–1849.

  18. [18]

    JS, Journal, 8 Sept. 1838.

  19. [19]

    “The Mormon Difficulties,” Niles’ National Register (Washington DC), 13 Oct. 1838, 103.

    Niles’ National Register. Washington DC, 1837–1839; Baltimore, 1839–1848; Philadelphia, 1848–1849.

Page 103

“We hereby certify that we have learned that a Mr. Nathan Marsh has certified that the people some time called Mormons have ingratiated themselves with the Indians, for the purpose of getting the Indians to commit depredations upon the people of this , which certificate of Marsh (as represented to us) is utterly false. We have never had any communication with the Indians on any subject; and we, and all the Mormon church, as we believe, entertain the same feelings and fears towards the Indians that are entertained by other citizens of this . We are friendly to the constitution and laws of this and of the , and wish to see them enforced.
JOSEPH SMITH, jr.
.”
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 8th day of September, A.D. 1838.
.
One of the justices of the county court within and for . [p. 103]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Affidavit, 8 September 1838
ID #
8617
Total Pages
1
Print Volume Location
JSP, D6:233–236
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