Footnotes
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–.
Although the CHL currently houses seven letters written between Thomas Ford and JS in 1843, the earlier inventory identifies only four. (“Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [3], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.)
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.
Footnotes
In his letter, JS specifically requested that Ford send his “instructions by the bearer.” (JS, Journal, 7 Dec. 1843; Affidavit from Dellmore Chapman and Letter to Thomas Ford, 6 Dec. 1843.)
JS, Nauvoo, IL, to Thomas Ford, [Springfield, IL], 1 Jan. 1844, JS Collection, CHL.
In his 1854 history of Illinois, Ford similarly noted that “laws fail to provide remedies for great evils,” but he stated that this belief frequently inspired extralegal violence and that Illinois’s governors and judges historically “winked at and encouraged the proceedings” of vigilantes, believing that they “were not only justifiable, but absolutely necessary for the existence of government” in a frontier state such as Illinois. In 1841, as an Illinois state supreme court justice, Ford personally encouraged the creation of a vigilante organization in Ogle County after many of the citizens there determined “that delays, insufficient jails, changes of venue, hung juries, and perjured evidence, should no longer screen” thieves from punishment. That vigilante force ultimately destroyed a local newspaper printing office and summarily executed two suspected horse thieves. (Ford, History of Illinois, 233, 247–249; Mahas, “Nauvoo Whistling and Whittling Movement,” 39–40.)
Ford, Thomas. A History of Illinois, from Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847. Containing a Full Account of the Black Hawk War, the Rise, Progress, and Fall of Mormonism, the Alton and Lovejoy Riots, and Other Important and Interesting Events. Chicago: S. C. Griggs; New York: Ivison and Phinney, 1854.
Mahas, Jeffrey D. “‘I Intend to Get Up a Whistling School’: The Nauvoo Whistling and Whittling Movement, American Vigilante Tradition, and Mormon Theocratic Thought.” Journal of Mormon History 43, no. 4 (Oct. 2017): 37–67.
Shortly after the third attempt to extradite JS to Missouri, Ford sent Mason Brayman to investigate the circumstances. Brayman came to Nauvoo, where he requested and received substantial documentation, including affidavits, concerning the Latter-day Saints’ expulsion from Missouri. The Saints sent Shadrach Roundy to Springfield with additional affidavits, which were eventually delivered to Ford. (JS, Journal, 7–8 July 1843; Letter from Mason Brayman, 29 July 1843.)
According to Brayman, Ford received the packet of evidence assembled during the third extradition attempt in July and began examining it. However, “in consequence of his other pressing duties” he put it aside. Brayman assured JS that the evidence so clearly demonstrated the illegality and injustice of Missouri’s extradition requests that Ford would “issue no more writs” for that purpose. (Letter from Mason Brayman, 29 July 1843, underlining in original.)