Brigham Young Letter Discovered

The Kentucky Historical Society has discovered a letter from President Brigham Young to Governor William Owsley in which President Young asked the governor to call a special session of the Kentucky legislature and allow the Church “asylum” in that state. The letter was recently discovered while microfilm operators were filming the official papers of the governors for the state archives. The Historical Society has not found any copy of a reply from the governor to President Young.

The letter, dated April 30, 1845, was hand carried by messenger from Nauvoo, Illinois, to Louisville, Kentucky, and mailed from there to the state capital at Frankfort.

It was sent in that manner because, as President Young explained, “Many of our communications from Nauvoo have failed of their destination, and the mails around us have been intercepted by our enemies.” The letter bore a Louisville postmark of May 16, 1845.

The background to this and similar letters can be found in Comprehensive History of the Church by B. H. Roberts, volume 2, pages 522–26:

“As early as March [1845] a document had been drafted by John Taylor, making an appeal to the governors of all of the states of the American Union, excepting Missouri and Illinois, for protection, counsel, and asylum for the Church of the Latter-day Saints in its hour of trial. …

“The document as prepared for the governors of the respective states appears in the Journal of John Taylor for 1845.”

The letter, drafted by Elder Taylor, then a member of the Council of the Twelve, and signed by President Young, reviews the persecutions of the Church in Missouri and Illinois. It then cites the order of extermination from Missouri, the repeal of the Nauvoo Charter by Illinois, and the fact that most of the Saints are either citizens of the United States or recent immigrants desiring to become citizens.

“Will it be too much to ask you to convene a special session of the legislature, and furnish us an asylum where we can enjoy our rights of conscience and religion unmolested? Or will you in a special message to that body when convened, recommend a remonstrance against such unhallowed acts of oppression and expatriation, as this people have continued to receive from the states of Missouri and Illinois? …”

Elder Roberts indicates that nothing came of the petitions. Only one governor, Thomas S. Drew of Arkansas, answered. He maintained that he was helpless in interfering with the internal affairs of another state “where its operations do not distract or in any way affect the good order of the citizens of Arkansas,” and suggested the removal of the Saints to the West.