Mormon Publications: 19th Century - Whereas a council of the authorities of the Church

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Nauvoo, September 24, 1845. Whereas a council of the authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, at Nauvoo, have this day received a communication from Henry Ashbury, John P. Robbins, Albert J. [sic] Pearson, P. A. Goodwin, J. N. Ralston, M. Rogers, and E. Conyers, Messrs. Committee of the citizens of Quincy, requesting us to communicate in writing our disposition. [Nauvoo, 1845].

Broadside 28 x 14 cm. In two columns.

Signed at end: By order of the Council, Brigham Young, Prest. Willard Richards, Clerk

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On September 24 Brigham Young, several of the Twelve, and about fifty others rode to Carthage, where twelve men, including Willard Richards, John Taylor, and W. W. Phelps, were to be tried on a complaint by Anthony Barkman for their involvement in the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor. At the hearing Barman admitted that he knew none of the defendants, and they were discharged for want of evidence. When the group returned to Nauvoo that evening, they were met by a committee from Quincy, named in this broadside’s title, which included some prominent Masons and a former Quincy mayor. This committee handed the Church leaders a report of a public meeting two days before which urged the Mormons to move from Hancock “within reasonable time” and expressed the opinion that should they so agree, the anti-Mormons would cease their efforts to expel them. That night Whereas a council of the authorities. . . was struck off, and the next morning it was formally presented to the Quincy committee.

In reality addressed to Governor Ford and the citizens of Illinois, this circular was an official statement that the Mormons would evacuate Illinois the following spring “for some point so remote, that there would not need to be a difficulty with the people and ourselves”—provided that those in Hancock and the surrounding counties assist them to dispose of their property and cease vexatious law suits and violent acts against them. A concluding paragraph remarks, “it is a mistaken idea that we ‘have proposed to remove in six months;’ for that would be so early in the spring, that grass might not grow nor water run, both of which would be necessary for our removal, but we propose to use our influence, to have no more seed time nor harvest among our people in the county after gathering our present crops.”

On September 25 word reached Nauvoo that the anti-Mormons were collecting near La Harpe and in Madison, Iowa, and the next day a report came from Carthage that some anti-Mormons were beginning to assemble there. About this time Thomas Ford appointed John J. Hardin to lead a contingent of volunteers to Hancock to restore order, and on September 27 Hardin issued a proclamation that no armed forces in Hancock County was to exceed four persons. Three days later he and 320 volunteers entered Nauvoo, accompanied by Stephen A. Douglas, William B. Warren, and the state attorney general James A. McDougal, special representatives of Governor Ford. That day the Warsaw Signal issued an extra reporting various public meeting, including one in Quincy on the 26th at which the proposals of the Mormons in the September 24 broadside were accepted. Hardin and his associates conferred with the Church leaders until October 2. The Nauvoo Neighbor of October 1 prints a letter from them, dated October 1, asking for a written statement of the Mormons’ intentions, together with a long reply from Brigham Young of the same date which includes the text of the September 24 broadside—reprinted from the same typesetting. Here Young comments that arrangement to move from Illinois had commenced before the recent outbreak of violence, that one thousand families, including the Twelve, are “fully determined to remove in the spring, independent of the contingency of selling our property,” that “some hundreds of farms, and some 2000 or more houses [are] for sale in this city and county,” and that “we do not intend to sow any wheat this fall.”

Hardin and his associates wrote to the Twelve on October 3 that they had met with the anti-Mormons from Hancock and representatives from nine surrounding counties and had received their acceptance of the propositions outlined by Brigham Young on October 1. “By carrying out in good faith, your proposition to remove as submitted to us,” their letter continues, “we think you should be, and will be permitted to depart peaceably next spring for your destination west of the Rocky Mountains.”

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 280, p. 323–24.

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