Declaration on Government and Law, ca. Aug. 1835 [D&C 134:5, 10].

Higbee mentioned this friend in one of his 20 February 1840 letters to JS. According to that letter, the friend was a man who lived in northern Missouri at the time of the conflict there and supposedly had firsthand knowledge of the events described in the church’s memorial. The friend may be the “Mr. Corwin” who testified before the committee on 22 February. (Letter from Elias Higbee, 20 Feb. 1840–A; Letter from Elias Higbee, 22 Feb. 1840.)

In late 1838 and early 1839, trials were pending for three different groups of church members. Two of those groups—one of which included JS—were imprisoned. On 10 January 1839, the Missouri General Assembly rejected a resolution that “it shall be the duty of the Governor of this State, at as early a period as practicable, after the trial of the aforesaid Mormons, to procure a copy of all the evidence taken, and to be taken in the said trial, as well as the papers, documents and returns of all the officers, which are or may be in possession of the Executive relative to the Mormon difficulties, and shall cause the same to be published in pamphlet form.” The state senate instead resolved that “a joint committee” of the state house and senate would be “raised on the subject of the Mormon difficulties.” Ultimately, that joint committee did not arrive at a definitive conclusion from their investigation and recommended further examination. (Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, 10 Jan. 1839, 187–188; Document Containing the Correspondence, 4.)

Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, On Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.

Document Containing the Correspondence, Orders, &c., in Relation to the Disturbances with the Mormons; and the Evidence Given before the Hon. Austin A. King, Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit of the State of Missouri, at the Court-House in Richmond, in a Criminal Court of Inquiry, Begun November 12, 1838, on the Trial of Joseph Smith, Jr., and Others, for High Treason and Other Crimes against the State. Fayette, MO: Boon’s Lick Democrat, 1841.

While incarcerated in Clay County, Missouri, from November 1838 to April 1839, JS and his fellow prisoners maintained their complete innocence in every petition they filed with Missouri courts and the state legislature. (See, for example, Memorial to the Missouri Legislature, 24 Jan. 1839; and Petition to George Tompkins, between 9 and 15 Mar. 1839.)

Individuals attempting to testify in behalf of JS and other church leaders incarcerated in Missouri faced intimidation as well as threats of violence and imprisonment. For example, David Pettegrew stated in an affidavit that when he was “a prisoner before Judge King we sent for many witnesses and when tha [they] came thay were taken and cast in to prison with us and we were not permited to have any witnesses.” (David Pettegrew, Affidavit, Montrose, Iowa Territory, 21 Mar. 1840, Mormon Redress Petitions, 1839–1845, CHL.)

Mormon Redress Petitions, 1839–1845. CHL. MS 2703.

See, for example, Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, 3 and 10 Jan. 1839, 167–168, 186–188; and Journal, of the House of Representatives, of the State of Missouri, 5 Dec. 1838, 78–80, 123–125.

Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, On Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.

Journal, of the House of Representatives, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, on Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.

Redfield was a member of the church who lived in Missouri from 1838 to 1839. (Redfield, Genealogical History of the Redfield Family in the United States, 242.)

Redfield, John Howard. Genealogical History of the Redfield Family in the United States. Albany: Munsell and Rowland; New York: Richardson, 1860.

Edward Partridge et al., Petition, 10 Dec. 1838, copy, Edward Partridge, Papers, CHL; David Harvey Redfield, Report, Dec. 1838–Jan. 1839, CHL.

Partridge, Edward. Papers, 1818–1839. CHL. MS 892.

Redfield, David H. Report, 16 Dec. 1838–13 Jan. 1839. CHL. MS 864.

Ashby was a state senator from Missouri’s tenth senate district, which included his home county of Livingston. (Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, 3; Baugh, “Call to Arms,” 414.)

Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, On Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.

Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).

Gilliam led a group of vigilantes from Clinton and Platte counties to Daviess County, Missouri, in October 1838. He was a senator in the Missouri General Assembly from 1838 to 1844. The Missouri Senate’s journal recorded Ashby’s and Gilliam’s respective votes on a variety of motions and resolutions concerning an investigation into “the Mormon difficulties.” ([Rigdon], Appeal to the American People, 41–43; Baugh, “Call to Arms,” 188; Missouri Archives Division, Office of Secretary of State, Missouri General Assembly, 35; see also, for example, Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, 10 Jan. 1839, 186–188.)

Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).

Missouri General Assembly, 1812–1976: A Bicentennial Project. Missouri: Secretary of State, 1976?.

Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, On Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.