, Journal Excerpt, 23–27 June 1844; handwriting of ; nineteen pages; in Willard Richards, Journal, CHL. Portions of some entries were written in pencil before they were overwritten in ink.
Historical Introduction
JS’s journal, kept by , ended with the entry of 22 June 1844, just before JS left , Illinois, in company with Richards, , and . Richards, who remained with JS until the moment of JS’s death on 27 June, evidently left JS’s journal in Nauvoo when the four men departed for , Illinois. Richards, however, recorded in his own journal many of the events of the last five days of JS’s life. These events include JS’s arrival on the bank in on the morning of 23 June and his trip to Carthage, during which JS and Hyrum gave themselves up to authorities on the charge of treason. Richards’s journal also recounts JS’s activities in Carthage during the days preceding his and Hyrum’s deaths. The material Richards recorded in his own journal during this time is in the same format and style as the record he had been keeping for JS. Richards’s hasty, terse notations and precise attention to details—illustrated by his practice of recording the specific times events occurred—indicate that he continuously carried his journal with him and recorded many of the events as he witnessed them, possibly with the intention of using the record to fill in JS’s journal at a later date. Richards’s journal entries for 23–27 June 1844 provide a contemporaneous firsthand account of JS’s activities during the last five days of his life, and they are reproduced here in full. Richards first inscribed portions of these entries in pencil and then rewrote them in ink. In a few cases, while overwriting, he skipped or altered the original penciled text. The transcription here reproduces the final ink version and does not capture the slight variations in the penciled text.
For additional details on the events leading to the deaths of JS and Hyrum Smith, see Oaks and Hill, Carthage Conspiracy.
Oaks, Dallin H., and Marvin S. Hill. Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975.
Page [26]
at 8. pre[se]nted a — as per copy filed. to commit Joseph & to Jail.— we remonstatd [remonstrated] & and he angerd— we remonstatd— and he waitd till about 9— when we he[a]rd by — that the had consented & Escorted— Joseph & — & , and , , — Dr Southwick,— . & — to Jail we <were> receivd by the Jailer. — & put first put in the crim[i]nals cell but he aftewad [afterward] gave us the debtoros [debtors’] depa[r]tment.— where we all slept— from 1/2 past eleven till six A.M.
at Eleven copied the mittimus. we copi[e]d the mittimus— [7 lines blank] [p. [26]]
The mittimus, signed by Justice of the Peace Robert Smith (who presided over the proceedings in which the bonds were taken in the riot case), justified incarcerating JS and Hyrum on the grounds that their trial for treason had to be postponed because material witnesses were absent. The mittimus commanded the jailor to receive JS and Hyrum into custody “in the jail . . . there to remain until discharged by due course of law.” (“Statement of Facts,” Times and Seasons, 1 July 1844, 5:562.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
JS’s legal counsel Hugh Reid protested the mittimus on the grounds that its contents, “so far as they relate to the prisoners having been brought before the justice for trial, and it there appearing that the necessary witness of the prosecution were absent, is wholly untrue.” Rather, Reid reported, Robert Smith had adjourned his court after the bonds were received in the riot case “without calling on” JS and Hyrum Smith “to answer to the charge of treason, or even intimating to their counsel or the prisoners, that they were expected to enter into the examination that night.” Illinois law required judges in criminal cases to “inquire into the truth or probability of the charge” before committing to jail someone who had been charged with a crime. (“Statement of Facts,” Times and Seasons, 1 July 1844, 5:562, 564; An Act to Regulate the Apprehension of Offenders, and for Other Purposes [1 July 1827], Laws of the State of Illinois [1834–1837], p. 238.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at Their First Session, Commencing December 1, 1834, and Ending February 13, 1835. Vandalia, IL: J. Y. Sawyer, 1835.
Woods had gone with Thomas Ford to Robert Smith, “who gave as a cause of issuing the warrant of committal, that the prisoners were not personally safe at the hotel” where they had been staying. According to Hugh Reid, Ford “did not think it within the sphere of his duty to interfere” with Smith’s mittimus. Ford later wrote that Smith and Bettisworth “were acting in a high and independent capacity, far beyond any legal power in me to control.” (James Woods, Hugh Reid, “Statement of Facts,” Times and Seasons, 1 July 1844, 5:562, 564; Ford, History of Illinois, 338.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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.
John S. Fullmer also accompanied JS and the others to jail, and Gilbert Belnap reported that he stayed with JS this night. (John S. Fullmer, Preston, England, to George A. Smith, Utah Territory, 27 Nov. 1854, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL; Belnap, Autobiography, chap. 8.)
Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.
Belnap, Gilbert. Autobiography, 1856. CHL. MS 1633.
Thomas Ford later wrote that JS and the others were transferred out of the cell “upon their remonstrance and request, and by my advice.” The debtors’ room was on the first floor of the building. (Ford, History of Illinois, 338; Stephen Markham, Fort Supply, Utah Territory, to Wilford Woodruff, 20 June 1856, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL.)
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.
Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.
No manuscript copy of the mittimus written in the hand of any of JS’s associates has been located. Hugh Reid included a transcript of it in his “Statement of Facts” published in the Times and Seasons. (“Statement of Facts,” Times and Seasons, 1 July 1844, 5:562.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.