Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Fascinating Letter from an Anglican Priest Regarding His Experience in Nauvoo
A letter I inadvertently came across in my research on 19th-century American Anglicanism. It is written by a British Anglican priest who made an impromptu visit to Nauvoo during the time of Joseph. He writes of his experience catching the prophet in a lie, and of the generally rough culture of the city. As far as I know, I am the only LDS to come across this artifact and mention it publicly - not that I've looked very widely:
http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/caswall_city.html
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Church Authorities Appeal to Iowa Governor, February 28, 1846
• Letter dated Feb 28, 1846 from church authorities to “His Excellency, Governor of the Territory of Iowa.” (Iowa would not become a state until later in 1846). The letter is a petition to allow the saints to cross the Iowa Territory unmolested. The letter is marked by its appeals to constitutional protection (forensic) and emotional, community values (epideictic).
• Some important facts: The saints set out, forced out of Illinois (having previously been forced out of Missouri on an extermination order), at the Iowa border. They had built Nauvoo, etc. etc. The early parties floated across the Miss on rafts and small boats while the bulk of the exiles and refugees (ultimately numbering in the tens of thousands [12,000 to 15,000] were able to walk across the Miss, since it was so cold it froze. They camped across the river briefly in Sugar Creek, IA, unable to proceed in the cold.
• Because of the frigid temperatures, the extreme poverty (saints had to sell their homes and belongings for next to nothing in Illinois), the creeping starvation, and the massive labor it took to walk, drive wagons, and pull handcarts, It took the saints 4 months to cross Iowa’s three hundred miles (Arrington 98). To provide perspective, it took them only three months to cover the remaining one thousand miles to the Salt Lake Valley. So Iowa was very much their crucible during this exodus. It was also, however, a kind of refuge.
• The Letter:
To His Excellency,
Governor of the Territory of Iowa,
Honored Sir: The time is at hand, in which several thousand free citizens of this great Republic, are to be driven from their peaceful homes and firesides, their property and farms, and their dearest constitutional rights – to wander in the barren plains, and sterile mountains of western wilds, and linger out their lives in wretched exile far beyond the pale of professed civilization; or else be exterminated upon their own lands by the people, and authorities of the state of Illinois. As life is sweet we have chosen banishment rather than death. But Sir, the terms of our banishment are so rigid that we have not sufficient time allotted us to make the necessary preparations to encounter the hardships and difficulties of those dreary and uninhabited regions. We have not time allowed us to dispose of our property, dwellings, and farms, consequently, many of us will have to leave them unsold, without the means of procuring the necessary provisions, clothing, teams, etc. to sustain us but a short distance beyond the settlements: hence our persecutors have placed us in very unpleasant circumstances.
To stay, is death by ‘fire and sword’, to go into banishment unprepared, is death by starvation. But yet under these heart-rending circumstances, several hundreds of us have started upon our dreary journey, and are now encamped in Lee county, Iowa, suffering much from the intensity of the cold. Some of us are already without food, and others barely sufficient to last a few weeks: hundreds of others must shortly follow us in the same unhappy condition.
Therefore, we, the Presiding Authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as a committee in behalf of several thousand suffering exiles, humbly ask your Excellency to shield and protect us in our constitutional rights, while we are passing through the territory over which you have jurisdiction. And should any of the exiles be under the necessity of stopping in this territory for a time, either in the settled or unsettled parts, for the purpose of raising crops, by renting farms or upon the public lands, or to make the necessary preparations for their exile in any lawful way, we humbly petition your Excellency to use an influence and power in our behalf; and thus preserve thousands of American citizens, together with their wives and children from intense sufferings, starvation and death.
And your petitioners will every pray.
This letter is printed in the book, A Documentary History of Religion in America to 1877 (3rd ed.), eds Edwin S Gaustad and Mark A. Noll. p. 351
A number of things strike me about the rhetoric of this document. For example, one notes that quintessentially 19th-century use of litotes, deliberate understatements that invite the reader to elaborate the intensity of the situation described. To say that "banishment," "exile," "starvation," "extermination," and the overall stripping of constitutional rights create "very unpleasant circumstances" seems, well, a tad restrained.
But this stylistic device seems part of more global phronetic strategy. For example, the saints are not petitioning the governor based on the high ideals of religious freedom (though that argument, too, is implicit). They seem to focus instead on those constitutional rights that promise the more practical freedoms afforded by life, liberty, and property. In this way, they appeal to the governor on the terms of his office as a territorial custodian.
Additionally, what is missing from this letter is as significant as what isn't. The saints never identify their "persecutors." The agents of this travesty of justice are never named. Why? Their persecutors are the peers of the very man they now petition. Even if the Iowa governor is not best buds with the Missouri and Illinois governors, he shares their office and obligation. By not naming them, the saints attempt to weaken the link between them and the recipient of this letter. It is easier to think of those who kill, starve, and strip innocent citizens as abstract monsters rather than fully embodied and legally installed peer governors. Furthermore, to recall that their persecutors are such high government officials returns to mind the fact that the Mormons are known and treated as provocative religious extremists and threats to the state - an identification this letter takes pains to conceal.
I have not yet found any formal response from the governor, but I am eager to look.
• Some important facts: The saints set out, forced out of Illinois (having previously been forced out of Missouri on an extermination order), at the Iowa border. They had built Nauvoo, etc. etc. The early parties floated across the Miss on rafts and small boats while the bulk of the exiles and refugees (ultimately numbering in the tens of thousands [12,000 to 15,000] were able to walk across the Miss, since it was so cold it froze. They camped across the river briefly in Sugar Creek, IA, unable to proceed in the cold.
• Because of the frigid temperatures, the extreme poverty (saints had to sell their homes and belongings for next to nothing in Illinois), the creeping starvation, and the massive labor it took to walk, drive wagons, and pull handcarts, It took the saints 4 months to cross Iowa’s three hundred miles (Arrington 98). To provide perspective, it took them only three months to cover the remaining one thousand miles to the Salt Lake Valley. So Iowa was very much their crucible during this exodus. It was also, however, a kind of refuge.
• The Letter:
To His Excellency,
Governor of the Territory of Iowa,
Honored Sir: The time is at hand, in which several thousand free citizens of this great Republic, are to be driven from their peaceful homes and firesides, their property and farms, and their dearest constitutional rights – to wander in the barren plains, and sterile mountains of western wilds, and linger out their lives in wretched exile far beyond the pale of professed civilization; or else be exterminated upon their own lands by the people, and authorities of the state of Illinois. As life is sweet we have chosen banishment rather than death. But Sir, the terms of our banishment are so rigid that we have not sufficient time allotted us to make the necessary preparations to encounter the hardships and difficulties of those dreary and uninhabited regions. We have not time allowed us to dispose of our property, dwellings, and farms, consequently, many of us will have to leave them unsold, without the means of procuring the necessary provisions, clothing, teams, etc. to sustain us but a short distance beyond the settlements: hence our persecutors have placed us in very unpleasant circumstances.
To stay, is death by ‘fire and sword’, to go into banishment unprepared, is death by starvation. But yet under these heart-rending circumstances, several hundreds of us have started upon our dreary journey, and are now encamped in Lee county, Iowa, suffering much from the intensity of the cold. Some of us are already without food, and others barely sufficient to last a few weeks: hundreds of others must shortly follow us in the same unhappy condition.
Therefore, we, the Presiding Authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as a committee in behalf of several thousand suffering exiles, humbly ask your Excellency to shield and protect us in our constitutional rights, while we are passing through the territory over which you have jurisdiction. And should any of the exiles be under the necessity of stopping in this territory for a time, either in the settled or unsettled parts, for the purpose of raising crops, by renting farms or upon the public lands, or to make the necessary preparations for their exile in any lawful way, we humbly petition your Excellency to use an influence and power in our behalf; and thus preserve thousands of American citizens, together with their wives and children from intense sufferings, starvation and death.
And your petitioners will every pray.
This letter is printed in the book, A Documentary History of Religion in America to 1877 (3rd ed.), eds Edwin S Gaustad and Mark A. Noll. p. 351
A number of things strike me about the rhetoric of this document. For example, one notes that quintessentially 19th-century use of litotes, deliberate understatements that invite the reader to elaborate the intensity of the situation described. To say that "banishment," "exile," "starvation," "extermination," and the overall stripping of constitutional rights create "very unpleasant circumstances" seems, well, a tad restrained.
But this stylistic device seems part of more global phronetic strategy. For example, the saints are not petitioning the governor based on the high ideals of religious freedom (though that argument, too, is implicit). They seem to focus instead on those constitutional rights that promise the more practical freedoms afforded by life, liberty, and property. In this way, they appeal to the governor on the terms of his office as a territorial custodian.
Additionally, what is missing from this letter is as significant as what isn't. The saints never identify their "persecutors." The agents of this travesty of justice are never named. Why? Their persecutors are the peers of the very man they now petition. Even if the Iowa governor is not best buds with the Missouri and Illinois governors, he shares their office and obligation. By not naming them, the saints attempt to weaken the link between them and the recipient of this letter. It is easier to think of those who kill, starve, and strip innocent citizens as abstract monsters rather than fully embodied and legally installed peer governors. Furthermore, to recall that their persecutors are such high government officials returns to mind the fact that the Mormons are known and treated as provocative religious extremists and threats to the state - an identification this letter takes pains to conceal.
I have not yet found any formal response from the governor, but I am eager to look.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Joseph Smith Papers
A massive ongoing archival project to assemble and organize "all" of the primary documents that were written by Joseph Smith or his clerks. It includes journals, legal documents, revelations, correspondence, history, etc.
http://josephsmithpapers.org/
http://josephsmithpapers.org/
Thursday, August 5, 2010
General Conference Addresses
General Conference is a semi-annual gathering of all members of the church - both in Salt Lake City and via satellite around the world - during which highest church leaders address the membership on various gospel related topics. Here is a link to the archives on the official LDS website:
http://lds.org/conference/display/0,5234,23-1,00.html
http://lds.org/conference/display/0,5234,23-1,00.html
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Mormon Oratory Bibliography by Gideon Burton
http://burton.byu.edu/MormonOratory/Mormon%20Oratory%20Bibliography.pdf
Also see his website on Mormon oratory:
http://burton.byu.edu/MormonOratory/default.htm
Also see his website on Mormon oratory:
http://burton.byu.edu/MormonOratory/default.htm
Friday, February 12, 2010
Cannon and O'Higgins: Under the Prophet in Utah, 1911
This is a critical piece about the painful political integration of the church early in the 20th century. The author is a politically connected, former member who lived in Utah.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/mor/upu/index.htm
http://www.sacred-texts.com/mor/upu/index.htm
Parley P. Pratt - Angel of the Prairies
An ostensibly fictional dream vision of P.P. Pratt's regarding the establishment of a vast, Mormon kingdom in the Midwest.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/mor/aoftp/aoftp.htm
From correspondence posted at http://www.sacred-texts.com/mor:
'After having contacted his colleague Marlin Jacobs I received the following answer from Mr. Jacobs to Stan Barker on January 14th 2004:
Stan,
"Angel of the Prairies" was a piece of fiction written by Pratt in Nauvoo. It was transformed into a speech given by Pratt by anti-Mormon lawyer Theodore Schroeder in his defense of the Spaulding Manuscript Theory in the American Historical Magazine, which B. H. Roberts responded to in the same magazine (which changed its name to Americana). We have this series (both Schroeder and Roberts) on the web site.
According to Roberts, Pratt did write "Angel of the Prairies," but only as fiction.
Malin
Conclusion: The document ‘Angel of the Prairies’ is a fictitious story written by Parley P. Pratt and is in no way connected with the theology or revelations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.'
http://www.sacred-texts.com/mor/aoftp/aoftp.htm
From correspondence posted at http://www.sacred-texts.com/mor:
'After having contacted his colleague Marlin Jacobs I received the following answer from Mr. Jacobs to Stan Barker on January 14th 2004:
Stan,
"Angel of the Prairies" was a piece of fiction written by Pratt in Nauvoo. It was transformed into a speech given by Pratt by anti-Mormon lawyer Theodore Schroeder in his defense of the Spaulding Manuscript Theory in the American Historical Magazine, which B. H. Roberts responded to in the same magazine (which changed its name to Americana). We have this series (both Schroeder and Roberts) on the web site.
According to Roberts, Pratt did write "Angel of the Prairies," but only as fiction.
Malin
Conclusion: The document ‘Angel of the Prairies’ is a fictitious story written by Parley P. Pratt and is in no way connected with the theology or revelations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.'
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