The 1842 Extradition Attempt

At the same time Bennett’s true colors were making themselves publicly known, events of a far more sinister aspect were coming to a head. On the evening of May 6, 1842, an unknown assailant shot Lilburn W. Boggs, former governor of Missouri, as he sat in his home in Independence, Missouri.[19] Eight days later, on May 14, news of the event reached Nauvoo, apparently with the erroneous report that Boggs had been killed in the attack.[20] Joseph Smith’s enemies in the area were quick to connect him with the attack. The same day Joseph heard about it, for example, David Kilbourn—a presbyterian merchant, land speculator, and lawyer with ties to John C. Bennett—wrote to Missouri governor Thomas Reynolds accusing Joseph of complicity in the assassination attempt and calling for his arrest.[21] One week later, on May 21, Sylvester M. Bartlett, editor of the Quincy Whig, addressed the issue in the pages of his paper: “There are several rumors in circulation in regard to the horrid affair,” wrote Bartlett. “One of which throws the crime upon the Mormons—from the fact, we suppose, that Mr. Boggs was governor at the time, and no small degree instrumental in driving them from the state.—Smith too, the Mormon Prophet, as we understand, prophesied a year or so ago, his death by violent means. Hence, there is plenty of foundation for rumor.”[22] Joseph was quick to deny the charge, complaining by letter to the Whig’s editor the following day of the “manifest injustice” he had done him. “He died not through my instrumentality,” wrote Joseph, pointing out that Boggs might simply have been the victim of political intrigue. “I am tired of the misrepresentation, calumny and detraction heaped upon me by wicked men,” Joseph added, “and desire and claim only those privileges guaranteed to all men by the Constitution and Laws of the United States and Illinois.”[23]

The issue might have died there had not John C. Bennett kept it alive in letters published in the Sangamo Journal on July 15. “In 1841,” reported Bennett, “Joe Smith predicted or prophesied in a public congregation in Nauvoo, that Lilburn W Boggs, ex-Governor of Missouri, should die by violent hands within one year. From one or two months prior to the attempted assassination of Gov. Boggs, Mr. O. P. Rockwell left Nauvoo for parts unknown to the citizens at large. I was then on terms of close intimacy with Joe Smith, and asked him where Rockwell had gone? ‘Gone,’ said he, ‘GONE TO FULFILL PROPHECY!’” Bennett provided affidavits from other individuals to the same effect, openly acknowledging his “determination . . . [to] arouse the public indignation” against Joseph, “if there is yet virtue and courage left in man.”[24]

Authorities could do nothing on the basis of the circumstantial evidence and rumor provided by Kilbourne, Bartlett, Bennett, and others. But when Boggs himself—who fully recovered from the attack—signed an affidavit on July 20 accusing Joseph of being “accessary before the fact of the intended murder” and requesting Governor Reynolds to extradite Joseph to Missouri for trial, officials from Illinois and Missouri sprang into action.[25] Acting on Boggs’s affidavit, Reynolds signed a requisition on July 22 requiring Illinois governor Thomas Carlin to deliver Joseph to Missouri for trial.[26] Concerned for Joseph’s well-being, “about eight hundred, or upwards” of the citizens of Nauvoo signed a petition that same day urging Carlin not to issue a writ for Joseph “to be given up to the authorities of Missouri” but to try him in Illinois if he really thought the Prophet may have committed the crime.[27] Carlin received the Saints’ petition on July 26 but chose to honor Reynolds’s requisition instead, issuing a writ for Joseph’s arrest on August 2.[28]

Reynolds’s requisition, based on Bogg’s affidavit, was ill-conceived. Extradition, as defined in the Constitution, requires that one be charged with committing a crime in one state and then fleeing to another.[29] Boggs’s affidavit, upon which the extradition proceedings were based, accused Joseph of being “accessary before the fact” and identified him as “a citizen or resident of the State of Illinois” but failed to accuse him of actually committing a crime in Missouri and then fleeing to Illinois. Without such an accusation, Reynolds had no constitutional grounds for calling on Carlin to deliver Joseph to Missouri for trial—meaning, in effect, that Carlin’s arrest warrant for Joseph was not issued on legal grounds.

Six days after Carlin issued his warrant, Thomas King of Adams County and two other officers showed up in Nauvoo with the warrant in hand and arrested Joseph Smith and Orrin Porter Rockwell, “the latter being charged with shooting ex-Governor Boggs of Missouri with intent to kill . . . and Joseph with being accessory.”[30] The municipal court immediately convened and issued a writ of habeas corpus.[31] Unsure of the authority of the municipal court’s writ in this particular case, King and his men left Joseph and Rockwell in the custody of Henry G. Sherwood, Nauvoo city marshal, and returned to Quincy with the arrest warrant to seek instructions from Carlin.

Without the arrest warrant in his possession, Sherwood had no legal authority to retain Joseph and Rockwell in custody. Neither man was anywhere to be found when King returned two days later. Convinced, apparently, that “Governor Carlin’s course which he had pursued was unjustifiable and illegal” and that “the whole business [was] but another evidence of the effects of prejudice,”[32] both men had gone into hiding—Rockwell back east to Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and Joseph in various locations in and around Nauvoo.[33] King, no doubt furious with this new development, reportedly “endeavored to alarm sister Emma & the Brethren by his threats, but could not do it they understanding the nature of the Law in that case.”[34] The sheriff and his men remained in the area for several days, “utter[ing] heavy threats . . . that if they could not find Joseph they would lay the city in ashes,” William Clayton reported. “They say they will tarry in the city a month but they will find him.”[35]

Joseph first stayed at the home of his uncle John Smith in Zarahemla, across the river from Nauvoo, in Iowa Territory. Pursuant to instructions from Joseph, on the night of August 11, Emma, Hyrum, William Law, Newel K. Whitney, George Miller, William Clayton, and Dimick B. Huntington rowed out to the island between Nauvoo and Montrose to meet with the Prophet and Erastus H. Derby. There it was decided that Joseph should “abide for a season” at the home of Edward Sayers, some distance upriver from Nauvoo on the Illinois side.[36]

Joseph stayed at Sayer’s home six days. After accidentally meeting Martin Henderson Harris, nephew of Martin Harris, while getting some exercise in the woods and then hearing of rumors in Nauvoo that his hiding place had been discovered, Joseph retired to Carlos Granger’s home in the northeast part of Nauvoo on the night of August 17.[37] Here he remained another six days, when he received a “few lines from sister Emma informing him that she would expect him home this evening believing that she could take care of him better at home than elsewhere.” Joseph accordingly left Granger’s home “soon after dark” on August 23 and arrived home “without being noticed by any person.”[38]

Joseph kept a low profile for several more days, meeting with members of the Twelve and a few others at his home or in the red brick store.[39] After another six days, however, he felt sufficiently secure to make an unannounced appearance at a special conference on August 29. “The brethren were rejoiced to see him,” recorded William Clayton. “He had not been seen for three weeks and his appearance amongst the brethren under present circumstances caused much animation and joy, it being unexpected. Some had supposed that the was gone to Europe and some to Washington. . . . Every one rejoiced to see him.” As he addressed the conference, Joseph called for volunteers to go out and disabuse the public mind concerning his character—a call some three hundred and eighty answered immediately.[40]

Five days later, however, Joseph was back on the run. The day began with the Prophet entertaining former Apostle John Boynton in his home, when a note was brought in from David Hollister, who was acting as an informant of sorts for Joseph, “to the effect that the Missourians were again on the move.” Shortly after noon, three officers showed up at Joseph’s house, having apparently reached it undetected by “com[ing] up the river side and hitch[ing] their horses below the Nauvoo House and then proceed[ing] on foot.” While Boynton stalled for time, Joseph, who had been eating lunch with his family, “passed out at the back door and through the corn in his garden” to the red brick store, where Newel K. Whitney’s family was living at the time. By this time Emma was talking with the officers, who insisted on searching the house even though they had no search warrant with them. Joseph remained at the red brick store until nine that evening—thereby avoiding another search conducted at his home “soon after Sun down”—after which he retreated to the home of Edward Hunter, “where he was welcomed and made comfortable by the family.”[41]

The following day, Sunday, Joseph sent William Clayton a letter he had written September 1, shortly after his unexpected conference appearance. Pursuant to Joseph’s request, the letter—which outlined procedures for how baptisms for the dead were to be recorded—was read to the Saints assembled in the grove near the temple.[42]

The week Joseph remained in hiding was not an idle one. Several trusted friends, such as Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, William Clayton, and Newel K. Whitney dropped by for instruction. George Adams and David Rogers delivered several letters from Saints in the east, including one from Willard Richards. Joseph dictated a lengthy letter to Mormon sympathizer James Arlington Bennet in New York and dictated a “long Epistle to the Saints” on September 7, which provided further instruction about recording baptisms for the dead and which he “ordered to be read next sabbath.”[43] Emma, Wilson Law, Amasa Lyman, and George A. Smith paid him a visit after dark on the evening of September 9.[44] The following day was one of the designated “training days” for the Nauvoo Legion, during which Nauvoo swarmed with people. After spending the day “very close and still; lest on account of the quantity of people passing two and fro he should accidently be discovered,” Joseph received word from Emma “that she wished him to come home, as she thought he would be as safe at home as any where for the present.” Heeding his wife’s request a second time, Joseph arrived home after dark “safe and undiscovered.”[45]

Joseph slowly came out of hiding over the course of the next four weeks, although a lingering sickness of Emma kept him at home a good part of the time. Gathering rumors that “many of the Missourians were coming to unite with the Militia of this State” to search for him, however, sent him off to the home of James Taylor—John Taylor’s father—after dark the evening of October 7.[46] There he remained—except for one brief visit to his family[47]—until October 28, when, “from the appearance of thinks [things] abroad” he was “encouraged to believe that his enemies wont trouble him much more at present” and moved back home.[48]

Joseph’s first big break on the extradition issue came several weeks later, when Stephen A. Douglas recommended to several of Joseph’s associates that Joseph petition Thomas Ford, the newly elected governor of Illinois, to revoke former governor Carlin’s arrest warrant for Joseph. Taking Douglas’s advice, Joseph’s associates asked U.S. district attorney Justin Butterfield to prepare the petition, which he did, at the same time remarking, William Clayton recorded, that “[Joseph’s] arrest was based upon far weaker premises than he had previously supposed, inasmuch as the affidavit of Ex Gov. Boggs said nothing about Joseph having fled from justice, . . . and the constitution only authorizes the delivery up of a ‘fugitive from Justice to the Executive authority of the State from which he fled.’”[49] Unsure of his authority to revoke an act of the previous governor, Ford consulted with six justices of the Illinois Supreme Court concerning Joseph’s petition. The justices, Ford wrote to Joseph, “were unanimous in the opinion that the requisition from Missouri was illegal and insufficient to cause your arrest, but were equally divided as to the propriety and Justice of my interference with the acts of Governor Carlin.” Ford, playing it safe, declined to revoke Carlin’s writ and recommended that Joseph “submit to the laws and have a Judicial investigation” into his rights.[50] In a letter to Joseph, Butterfield confirmed Ford’s report of the justices advice and recommended that Joseph immediately come to Springfield, where the charges against him were sure to be discharged by habeas corpus either through the Illinois Supreme Court or the U.S. Circuit Court currently in session.[51]

Joseph and several trusted friends complied with Butterfield’s request. The party arrived in Springfield on December 30 with Joseph in custody of Wilson Law, who had arrested him four days earlier on the authority of Carlin’s Proclamation—an executive order of sorts that Carlin had issued September 20, 1842, giving any citizen the right to arrest Joseph.[52] Unsure of where Carlin’s original writ for Joseph’s arrest was and not wanting to leave any room for Joseph’s enemies to make a competing arrest on the authority of that writ, Joseph petitioned Ford the following day for a new writ for his arrest, which was promptly granted. Joseph was then arrested on the authority of this new writ by William F. Elkin, sheriff of Sangamon County.[53] This placed him, for the time being, in custody of both Elkin and Law, and secure from arrest by someone in possession of Carlin’s original warrant.

In the meantime, Butterfield had decided that since this habeas corpus hearing dealt with extradition and since extradition was a constitutional concern, the federal U.S. Circuit Court was the most appropriate venue for it. Disregarding Ford’s earlier suggestion that Joseph’s hearing be held before the Illinois State Supreme Court, Butterfield petitioned Nathaniel Pope, judge of the U.S. Circuit Court then in session in Springfield, that Joseph be allowed a hearing there and that he also be released on bail. Pope agreed to both, appointing Monday, January 2, for the hearing and setting Joseph’s bail at $4,000.[54]

Joseph’s presence in Springfield did not go unnoticed by her citizens, nor by members of the state legislature then in session. As Joseph and his party came “to the head of the stairs” after leaving Judge Pope, for example, “some man observd there goes Smith the prophet and a good looking man he is. & (said another) as damnd a rascal as ever lived. . . . & any one that takes his part is as damed a rascal as he is.” Wilson Law retorted, “I am th[e] man. & I take his part.” The confrontation quickly turned into a name-calling match and was moving outside into the street when the marshal interfered and restored order.[55] Later in the day, the Illinois House of Representatives effected an impromptu adjournment when a team of horses spooked and went clattering down the road past the State House, and someone yelled, “Joe Smith is running away.”[56]

Joseph spent the remainder of Saturday, December 31, conversing with friends and new acquaintances on topics ranging from the Nauvoo Legion to the Nauvoo Charter. A good part of Sunday was spent in worship services held in the hall used by the House of Representatives. The following day, Monday, which had been set aside for Joseph’s habeas corpus hearing, opened with Josiah Lamborn, the state attorney, requesting the hearing be pushed back a day. Pope scheduled it for Wednesday, January 4, giving Joseph and his associates another two days of downtime.[57] These were spent in conversation, as well as in watching the state Senate in action. While Joseph’s thoughts on the Senate’s activities are unknown, it is clear that this latter activity afforded Willard Richards no small entertainment. This was especially so when it came to watching the antics of Edward D. Baker, a senator from Sangamon county. The “Senator. appears much like an african Monken [Monkey],” Richards recorded, “at <one> moment standing by one stove. the next by another on the opposite side of the chamber. setting down in every senators chair in his way & he never gooes out of his way for his way is every where & and his nose in every mans face. eating apples staring at & pointing & staring at every one, . . . a monkey without a monkey’s wit.”[58]

The hearing, when it was finally held, went relatively smoothly. The only real opposition was provided by state attorney Josiah Lamborn, who argued, first, that extradition was a state matter and that this federal circuit court therefore had no jurisdiction in this case; and second, that it was inappropriate in a habeas corpus hearing—which is simply a review of the arresting documents—to ask whether Joseph was in Missouri when Boggs was shot because that was delving into the evidence concerning guilt or innocence that could only be heard in a trial. Butterfield challenged Lamborn’s objections by arguing that extradition was a federal matter, and therefore the federal court had jurisdiction, and that discussing Joseph’s whereabouts was not an attempt to establish guilt or innocence but simply to point out that Joseph had not committed a crime in one state and then fled to another as extradition requires. Butterfield then pointed out the illegality of the documents—especially Boggs’s affidavit—used to arrest Joseph, which said nothing about Joseph having fled from justice in Missouri. Lamborn’s rebuttals were weak at best, Richards recorded, with the state attorney “apparently saying littl[e] more than the natu[r]e of his situation required—& no more than would be usefull in satisfying the public mind—that there had been a fair investigation—of the whole matter.”[59]

In his decision given the following day, Pope agreed with Butterfield’s arguments and discharged Joseph.[60] The five-month-long ordeal ended with Joseph and his party leaving Springfield for Nauvoo on January 7 in high spirits. On the journey home, Wilson Law composed a song, with the assistance of Willard Richards, for the occasion—sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne and later known as the Mormon Jubilee—in which he praised those who had had a hand in bringing the whole affair to a successful close. “And are you sure the news is true?” ran the opening verse,

And are you sure he’s free?

Then let us Join with one accord,

And have a Jubilee.

Chorus

We’ll have a Jubilee. my frie[n]ds

We’ll have a Jubilee

With heart & voice we’ll all rejoice

In that our Prophet’s free[61]

Along with demonstrating the resiliency of Joseph and his associates, the 1842 extradition attempt also provides an important glimpse into the character and talents of Emma. Often a silent figure in Church history, Emma emerges from the background following a letter she received early on from Joseph instructing her on what to do should the need arise for them to flee to Wisconsin, as some of Joseph’s associates were urging him to do. Evidently following up on an earlier conversation, Joseph also advised Emma in this letter against personally visiting Thomas Carlin in Quincy: “You may write to him,” he wrote his wife, “whatever you see proper, but to go and see him, I do not give my consent at present.”[62] Emma responded she was ready to go to Wisconsin if necessary, but that she was still confident that Joseph could “be protected without leaving this country.”[63]

Emma then wrote a lengthy letter to the governor maintaining Joseph’s innocence and asking, even begging, him to recall the writs he had issued for Joseph’s and Rockwell’s arrest. “You must be aware that Mr Smith was not in Missouri, and of course he could not have left there,” she wrote, evidently in an effort to draw Carlin’s attention to the inappropriateness of extradition in this case.[64] Carlin wrote back that he was simply fulfilling his duty as governor to deliver fugitives from justice to the executives of other states, so long as those other executives have “complied with the requisitions of the act of congress in that case made and provided.”[65] Emma responded, in a follow-up letter, that that was precisely the point—the “requisitions of the act of congress” regarding extradition had not been complied with in this case, as there was ample evidence that Joseph “was not in Missouri” when the crime was committed, and that therefore “he is not a fugitive from justice.” “It only requires a knowledge of the constitution of the United States, and statute of the State of Missouri,” Emma informed the governor, “and a knowledge of the outrages committed by some of the inhabitants of that State [Missouri] upon the people called Mormons, . . . to know that there is not the least confidence to be placed” in Boggs and other Missouri officials.[66]

Choosing to take issue with another point Emma brought up—that of the legality of the municipal court’s writ of habeas corpus in this case—Carlin sidestepped Emma’s point about extradition in his response the following month. Nor would he acknowledge the very real threats that had been leveled against the Prophet in the past, writing that he had “not the most distant thought that any person in Illinois, or Missouri, contemplated personal injury to Mr Smith by violence in any manner whatever.”[67] No record has been found of Emma responding to this second letter of Carlin.

In the end, Emma failed in her effort to persuade Carlin to recall the arrest warrant he had issued against her husband. In the correspondence surrounding that effort, however, one gets a rare glimpse into the personality and thoughts of Joseph’s wife. As her expressive and thoughtful letters show, she was a woman of extraordinary ability and temperament who understood the finer points of the complex issue and articulated an intelligent argument. Carlin himself, we are told, “expressed astonishment at the judgement and talent manifest in the manner of her address” after reading her first letter;[68] and while he was unwilling to concede any ground to Emma, one gets the distinct impression that when he closed his last letter to her “with sentiments of high regard and esteem,” he really did mean it.[69]

One also sees, in the brief correspondence between Joseph and his wife during this time, the degree to which the Prophet himself relied on her judgment and support—a degree of dependence perhaps too few over the years have appreciated. In Joseph’s letter to Emma about writing to Carlin, for example, he addresses the recommendation of some of his associates that he flee alone to Wisconsin, where his family would later join him. “My mind will eternally revolt at every suggestion of that kind,” Joseph wrote his wife. “My safety is with you. . . . Any thing more or less than this cometh of evil. . . . If I go to the Pine County, you shall go along with me, and the children; and if you and the children go not with me, I don[’]t go.”[70] Emma’s judgment carried a lot of weight with Joseph during this stressful time. As we have already seen, for example, Joseph twice followed Emma’s advice on when it was safe for him to return home from hiding. The Prophet’s soliloquy on meeting Emma on the island is too well known to repeat here but is further evidence of how much he relied on his wife for comfort and support.