Barkman, Anthony. To the public: Antony [sic] Barkman.  Nauvoo, Sept. 26, 1845.  [Nauvoo, 1845]
Broadside 25 x 10 cm.

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Anthony Barkman, an anti-Mormon and one of the Carthage Greys who guarded Joseph Smith at the time of his assassination, was arrested by Jacob Backenstos in Carthage on September 19.  Hosea Stout notes in his diary that Barkman signed the complaint on which he, Willard Richards, John Taylor, W.W. Phelps, and eight others were tried on September 24 and acquitted after Barkman admitted that he had been inducted to perjure himself.  In To the Public Barkman acknowledges that he was arrested for perjury—a charge undoubtedly arising out of his complaint against Richards, Taylor, and the others.  He further admits to threatening the life of Sheriff Backenstos, and states that during the time he was in custody in Nauvoo, he was well treated by the people there.  One might conjecture that Barkman issued this statement in exchange for his freedom.

To the Public was reprinted from the same setting in the Nauvoo Neighbor of October 1, and reprinted again in the New-York Messenger of October 25.

Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley, A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church.  Volume One, 1830-1847. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, Religious Studies Center, [1997]).  Item 282, p. 325.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University