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Letter from Lewis Cass, 9 December 1843

Source Note

, Letter, , Wayne Co., MI, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 9 Dec. 1843; unidentified handwriting; signature of ; two pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address, wafer seal, postal stamp, postal notation, dockets, and notation.
Bifolium measuring 10 × 8 inches (25 × 20 cm). The letter is inscribed on the recto and verso of the first leaf. The recto of the second leaf is blank, and the verso is blank except for addressing. The letter was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, sealed with a red adhesive wafer, and postmarked. The recto of the second leaf contains remnants of the adhesive wafer. Dockets and a notation were later added to the verso of the second leaf, and the document was refolded for filing.
The letter was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from December 1841 until JS’s death in June 1844 and served as church historian from December 1842 until his own death in March 1854. , who served as JS’s scribe from 1843 to 1844 and as clerk to the church historian and recorder from 1845 to 1865, docketed it a second time. The notation “Copied by A.J.” was apparently added by a clerk or secretary for Andrew Jenson, who served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. The letter was listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) circa 1904. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early dockets and notation, its listing in a circa 1904 inventory, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 13 Dec. 1841 and 21 Dec. 1842; Orson Spencer, “Death of Our Beloved Brother Willard Richards,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 16 Mar. 1854, [2].

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  2. [2]

    Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 456, 458; Woodruff, Journal, 22 Jan. 1865.

    Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  3. [3]

    Bitton and Arrington, Mormons and Their Historians, 48–52, 55.

    Bitton, David, and Leonard J. Arrington. Mormons and Their Historians. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988.

  4. [4]

    “Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [2], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  5. [5]

    See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 9 December 1843, Democratic presidential candidate in responded to a letter that JS sent from , Illinois, the previous month. JS wrote to Cass and several other presidential candidates, asking each one to describe their position on the injustices perpetrated against the in during the late 1830s. Cass had served as the governor of from 1813 to 1831, secretary of war under Andrew Jackson from 1831 to 1836, and minister to from 1836 to 1842.
Though initially refrained from campaigning for the presidency—he reportedly told a group in that “the first elective office in the world is not a charge to be sought”—supporters began urging him to run for office before he left his post in . When Cass returned to the in December 1842, he immediately embarked on a tour of key American cities, including , , , and . Prior to and in the wake of his tour, some Democratic electors expressed public support for Cass’s candidacy, and a few observers even identified him as a frontrunner. Speaking of rival ’s supporters in December 1842, the New York Herald declared, “They cannot disguise the fact that they are more afraid of General Cass than any rival candidate who has yet appeared in the field.” Though Cass obtained the support of some electors and key political allies such as former president Andrew Jackson, enthusiasm for his candidacy proved to be somewhat tepid in the state nominating conventions that took place throughout fall 1843. Despite this, Cass remained a high-profile candidate.
On 4 November, JS wrote to five candidates, including , asking each one how he would help the Latter-day Saints should he be elected president. Cass received the letter before 9 December, when he apparently composed the featured reply. In his response, Cass insisted that he did not seek the presidency and that he expected someone else to win the nomination. Though Cass had answered a communication from Latter-day Saint leaders on behalf of President Andrew Jackson in 1833, in this letter he informed JS that he had only a “vague knowledge” of the church’s redress petitions, since he had been living out of the country. He also stated that the Latter-day Saints should be treated as any other citizens under the law and asserted that he did not think the president had the power to award redress when the state of and Congress had rejected it.
mailed the letter from on 14 December, and it arrived in by 27 December. On that day, JS gave the letters from Cass and , instructing him to answer the two men and “shew them the folly of keeping p[e]ople out of their right and that there was power in governme[n]t to redress wrongs.” Phelps wrote a response to Calhoun’s letter on 2 January, but no corresponding letter to Cass is extant.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Historical Introduction to Letter to John C. Calhoun, 4 Nov. 1843.

  2. [2]

    Klunder, Lewis Cass, chaps. 2–4.

    Klunder, Willard Carl. Lewis Cass and the Politics of Moderation. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1996.

  3. [3]

    Klunder, Lewis Cass, 121.

    Klunder, Willard Carl. Lewis Cass and the Politics of Moderation. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1996.

  4. [4]

    Klunder, Lewis Cass, 122–126.

    Klunder, Willard Carl. Lewis Cass and the Politics of Moderation. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1996.

  5. [5]

    “First Movement of the People in Pennsylvania—General Lewis Cass and the Presidency—Voice of the People,” New York Herald (New York City), 28 Nov. 1842, [1]; “General Cass,” New York Herald, 20 Dec. 1842, [2].

    New York Herald. New York City. 1835–1924.

  6. [6]

    Klunder, Lewis Cass, 131–134.

    Klunder, Willard Carl. Lewis Cass and the Politics of Moderation. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1996.

  7. [7]

    Sidney Gilbert et al., Liberty, MO, to President of the United States, Washington DC, 10 Apr. 1834, copy; Lewis Cass, Washington DC, to Sidney Gilbert et al., Liberty, MO, 2 May 1834, William W. Phelps, Collection of Missouri Documents, CHL.

    Phelps, William W. Collection of Missouri Documents, 1833–1837. CHL. MS 657.

  8. [8]

    JS, Journal, 27 Dec. 1843.

  9. [9]

    “Correspondence of Gen. Joseph Smith and Hon. J. C. Calhoun,” Times and Seasons, 1 Jan. 1844, 5:394–396; JS, Journal, 5 Jan. 1844.

Page [1]

Dec. 9th ’43
Sir
I received not long since your letter of the 5th ult, in which after referring to the difficulties, which the people called Mormonites have experienced, you ask me, “what would be my rule of action toward them as a people should fortune favor my ascension to the Chief Magistracy.[”]
The contingency to which you refer, is one which I have never sought, and never shall seek to attain, nor will the prospect of it whether near or remote, have the slightest influence upon my feelings or opinions. And without any affectation of humility, I may truly say that when I look to the able men whose names are now before the , in connexion with that high office, I cannot but think that the selection will fall upon one of them, rather than upon me.
Still ordinary civility requires that I should answer you, and I do so with the less hesitation as your question involves neither doubt nor difficulty. I think then that the Mormonites should be treated as [p. [1]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Lewis Cass, 9 December 1843
ID #
1222
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D13:353–357
Handwriting on This Page
  • Unidentified

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Willard Richards reportedly drafted a letter to each presidential candidate on 4 November 1843. It is possible that Cass wrote the wrong date here or that Cass’s version of the letter was in fact dated 5 November. (Richards, Journal, 4 Nov. 1843; JS, Nauvoo, IL, to Henry Clay et al., 4 Nov. 1843, draft, JS Collection, CHL; Letter to John C. Calhoun, 4 Nov. 1843; see also “Correspondence between Gen Joseph Smith and the Hon. Henery Clay,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 29 May 1844, [2].)

    Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.

  2. [2]

    During this period, the church’s official name was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but some contemporaries, including detractors, referred to it as the “Mormon” or “Mormonite” church because of the church’s recognition and use of the Book of Mormon as part of its scriptural canon. (Revelation, 26 Apr. 1838 [D&C 115:4]; Book of Mormon, 1840 ed., title page; see also, for example, [Matthew S. Clapp], “Mormonism,” Painesville [OH] Telegraph, 15 Feb. 1831, [1]; Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 21, 180–187; and Discourse, 23 July 1843.)

    Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1822–1986.

    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.

  3. [3]

    Though the Democratic and Whig national nominating conventions did not take place until May 1844, several candidates had emerged as frontrunners by this time. The Democratic favorite was former president Martin Van Buren, with Lewis Cass, Richard M. Johnson, James Buchanan, and John C. Calhoun all gaining some regional support. James K. Polk did not join the race for president until 1844. Henry Clay was the overwhelming favorite to win the Whig nomination after the party expelled incumbent president John Tyler in September 1841 for vetoing key pieces of legislation favored by the Whigs. (“The Downfall of Van Buren,” and “News from Baltimore!—Van Buren and Cass Both Overboard!,” New-York Daily Tribune [New York City], 31 May 1844, [2]; Bicknell, America 1844, 51–64; Klunder, Lewis Cass, 130–131; Borneman, Polk, 84–87.)

    New-York Tribune. New York City. 1841–1842.

    Bicknell, John. America 1844: Religious Fervor, Westward Expansion, and the Presidential Election That Transformed the Nation. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2015

    Klunder, Willard Carl. Lewis Cass and the Politics of Moderation. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1996.

    Borneman, Walter R. Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America. New York: Random House, 2008.

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