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Letter from Alanson Ripley, 10 April 1839

Source Note

, Letter, , Adams Co., IL, to JS, , , , and , [, Clay Co., MO], 10 Apr. 1839. Featured version copied [between 29 May and 30 Oct. 1839] in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 16–17; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 2.

Historical Introduction

On 10 April 1839, wrote from , Illinois, to JS and his fellow prisoners in the in , Missouri. In late 1838, Ripley was appointed by church leaders in , Missouri, to attend to the prisoners’ needs and “to importune at the feet of the judges” for the prisoners’ release. During the next few months, Ripley worked to fulfill this assignment. In early February 1839, he and four other church members apparently assisted the prisoners in an unsuccessful attempt to escape. In mid-March, Ripley assisted with and signed JS’s petition to the Supreme Court for . At the end of the month, he traveled to Liberty again to report that “all was well & the [prisoners’ families] were well also.” Upon his return to , Missouri, in early April, Ripley was told by the committee helping church members move out of Missouri that he needed to leave immediately for since anti-Mormons were threatening violence. Because of this need to seek “safty by leaving the State,” Ripley was “compelled to abandon the idea of importuning at the feet of the judges” and to “leave the prisoners in the hands of God.”
On 10 April 1839, soon after his arrival in , wrote this letter to the prisoners. After summarizing ’s developing plans to pursue justice for wrongs that Latter-day Saints had suffered in , Ripley explained his hurried departure from the state and offered to return to Missouri and continue supporting the prisoners. Ripley indicated that he was aware that the prisoners might obtain a change of venue after being indicted by a grand jury in and suggested that, if desired, he would intercept them and their guards en route to the next destination. After Ripley completed the main body of his letter, he added two postscripts relaying brief words of greeting from other Latter-day Saints in Quincy. It is unknown whether Ripley’s 10 April missive was sent to Missouri, because Saints in Quincy were aware that the prisoners had been moved from the in . Although the original letter is apparently not extant, copied it or a retained copy into JS Letterbook 2 sometime between 29 May and 30 October 1839.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Alanson Ripley, Statements, ca. Jan. 1845, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, 1839–1860, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.

  2. [2]

    Ripley, Jonathan Barlow, David Holeman, William D. Huntington, and Erastus Snow were later arrested and charged as accomplices to the escape attempt. (Samuel Tillery, Testimony, Liberty, MO, 11 Feb. 1839; Alanson Ripley, Testimony, Liberty, MO, 12 Feb. 1839, State of Missouri v. Ripley et al. [J.P. Ct. 1839], Clay County Archives and Historical Library, Liberty, MO.)

    State of Missouri v. Ripley et al. / State of Missouri v. Alanson Ripley, Jonathan Barlow, William D. Huntington, David Holman, and Erastus Snow (J.P. Ct. 1839). Clay County Archives and Historical Library, Liberty, MO.

  3. [3]

    Petition to George Tompkins, between 9 and 15 Mar. 1839; Hyrum Smith, Diary, 15 Mar. 1839.

    Smith, Hyrum. Diary, Mar.–Apr. 1839, Oct. 1840. CHL. MS 2945.

  4. [4]

    Hyrum Smith, Diary, 31 Mar. 1839.

    Smith, Hyrum. Diary, Mar.–Apr. 1839, Oct. 1840. CHL. MS 2945.

  5. [5]

    Alanson Ripley, Statements, ca. Jan. 1845, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, 1839–1860, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.

  6. [6]

    See Historical Introduction to Letter from Sidney Rigdon, 10 Apr. 1839.

  7. [7]

    Mulholland copied his own 29 May 1839 letter to Edward Partridge on page 15 of JS Letterbook 2, making that the earliest likely copying date for documents he subsequently copied but that had dates preceding 29 May.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Letter from Alanson Ripley, 10 April 1839
Letterbook 2 History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page 16

Ill. April 10th. 1839
Dear brethren in Christ Jesus,
It is with feelings in no small moment that I take up pen in hand to address you the prisoners of Jesus Christ and in the same faith of the gospel with myself who are holden by the cords of malice and of hellish plottings against the just, and of the lifting up the heel against the Lords anointed, but they shall soon fall and not rise again, for their destruction is sure, for no power beneath the Heavens can save them.— is wielding a mighty shaft against the whole kidney of foul calumniators and mobocrats of . Yesterday he spent part of the day with of this the President told him, that he was informed that was calculating to take out a bench warrant for himself and others, and then make a demand of his Excellency for them to be given up to be taken back to for trial, And he was assured by that noble minded hero, that if undertook that thing he would get himself insulted; he also assured him that the people called Mormons should find a permanent protection in this , he also solicited our people one and all to settle in this , and if there could be a tract of country that would suit our convenience he would use his influence for congress to make a grant of it to us, to redress our wrongs, and make up our losses.
We met last night in of the whole and passed some resolutions with respect to sending to the City of . We are making every exertion possible that lays in our power to accomplish that grand object, upon which hangs our temporal salvation, and interwoven with this our Eternal Salvation; and so closely allied to each other are they, that I want to see the head connected with the body again and while we are enjoying one, let us be ripening for the other: But my heart says where is he whose lips used to whisper the words of life to us? Alas! he is in the hands of Zions enemies. Oh Lord crieth my heart will not heaven hear our prayers and witness our tears? Yes saith the spirit thy tears are all bottled up, and shall speedily be rewarded with the deliverence of thy dearly beloved brethren.
But when I see the fearful apprehensions of some of our brethren it causes me to mourn, one instance of which I will mention. When I arrived at , I made my mind known to some of the community, and I told them that I wanted that they should send a messenger to the gaol [jail] to communicate with you, but I was denied the privelege. They said that the was so anxious to be free once more, that they would not consider the danger that the was in. They met in council and passed resolutions that I myself, , , should leave for forthwith: But my spirits have been grieved ever since, So that I can hardly hold my peace. They are so afraid of bears, that they hardly remember [p. 16]
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Source Note

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Page 16

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Alanson Ripley, 10 April 1839
ID #
435
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D6:409–414
Handwriting on This Page
  • James Mulholland

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See Ephesians 1:1.

  2. [2]

    See Philemon 1:1, 9; and Ephesians 3:1.

  3. [3]

    Ripley was probably alluding to language in JS’s 20 March 1839 general epistle: “Cursed are all those that shall lift up the heal against mine anointed.” (Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 Mar. 1839 [D&C 121:16]; see also Psalm 41:9; and John 13:18.)

  4. [4]

    That is, Sidney Rigdon.

  5. [5]

    That is, Thomas Carlin.

  6. [6]

    See Letter from Sidney Rigdon, 10 Apr. 1839.

  7. [7]

    The council meeting was perhaps held in response to the instruction in JS’s 20 March 1839 general epistle that while he remained imprisoned, “a general conferance of the most faithfull and the most respictible of the authorities of the church” should manage “the general affairs of the church.” The meeting’s resolutions probably dealt with Rigdon’s plan to seek redress from the federal government for the Saints’ losses in Missouri. (Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 Mar. 1839; Letter from Sidney Rigdon, 10 Apr. 1839.)

  8. [8]

    See Revelation, 22–23 Sept. 1832 [D&C 84:85].

  9. [9]

    See Psalm 56:8.

  10. [10]

    Like Ripley, Lyman and Barlow assisted the prisoners. Lyman signed the attestation of JS’s March 1839 petition for a writ of habeas corpus, affirming the truth of the claims in the document. During a visit Barlow and other men made to the jail on 7 February 1839, the prisoners attempted to escape, and the visitors were subsequently charged with assisting in the unsuccessful attempt. (Petition to George Tompkins, between 9 and 15 Mar. 1839; Jonathan Barlow, Testimony, Liberty, MO, 12 Feb. 1839, State of Missouri v. Ripley et al. [J.P. Ct. 1839], Clay County Archives and Historical Library, Liberty, MO.)

    State of Missouri v. Ripley et al. / State of Missouri v. Alanson Ripley, Jonathan Barlow, William D. Huntington, David Holman, and Erastus Snow (J.P. Ct. 1839). Clay County Archives and Historical Library, Liberty, MO.

  11. [11]

    Ripley probably returned to Far West in early April 1839, after visiting the prisoners on 31 March.a It is not known when the Far West removal committee—the council referred to here—passed the resolution ordering Ripley, Lyman, and Barlow to depart for Illinois. The committee’s minutes for 1–4 April were likely among the records that were stolen or destroyed by anti-Mormon vigilantes later that month.b On 6 April, anti-Mormons ordered the remaining Latter-day Saints to leave Far West immediately. The removal committee’s 6 April minutes indicate that a planned visit to Liberty was abruptly canceled and Henry G. Sherwood was ordered to go to Illinois immediately for help. During the same meeting, the committee may have instructed Ripley, Lyman, and Barlow to go to Illinois, but this direction is not mentioned in the minutes.c Lyman and Barlow presumably departed Far West sometime in April, about the same time as Ripley, and settled in Quincy.

    (aHyrum Smith, Diary, 31 Mar. 1839. bKimball, “History,” 101. cFar West Committee, Minutes, 6 Apr. 1839.)

    Smith, Hyrum. Diary, Mar.–Apr. 1839, Oct. 1840. CHL. MS 2945.

    Kimball, Heber C. “History of Heber Chase Kimball by His Own Dictation,” ca. 1842–1856. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 2.

    Far West Committee. Minutes, Jan.–Apr. 1839. CHL. MS 2564.

  12. [12]

    Ripley was perhaps alluding to JS’s 20 March general epistle, which alluded to Aesop’s fable of the bear and the two travelers. (Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 Mar. 1839.)

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