Tea and Sympathy

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When I say to you the Mormons must go, I speak the mind of the camp and country. They can leave without force or injury to themselves or their property, but I say to you, Sir, with all candor, they shall go—they may fix the time within sixty days, or I will fix it for them.[1]

This statement, made in 1846 by Captain James W. Singleton, leader of an Illinois anti-Mormon group, is typical of the way many people felt about the Mormons during their forced exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the west. 

However, this was not the only reaction toward them. In the East there arose a great deal of sympathy for the “poor, distressed Mormons.” Several groups started relief activities. One of the most interesting took place in Washington, D.C, in October, 1847. The Millennial Star quoted a New York newspaper in reporting it to the British members of the Church: 

THE LADIES’ TEA-PARTY FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE MORMONS—The ladies’ tea-party for the relief of the 15,000 Mormons in the wilderness of the Far West, was opened at Washington, October 28th, at Garusi’s Saloon, and a most successful opening it was. . . . Suffice it for the present, that the ladies of all denominations, all over the city, headed by the Mayor and the clergy, went heart and hand into work. The venerable Mrs. ex-President Madison, Mrs. Polk, Mrs. General Macomb[2] and many others of the most influential and highly respected and most beautiful of the metropolis were united in the benevolent enterprise. . . .[3]

Tickets for the event were priced at fifty cents each, and enabled the guests to hear the Marine Band and the popular vocal group, the “Euterpeans,” both of whom volunteered their services.[4] Several people in the Washington area volunteered their homes as collecting points for clothing and money to help the Mormons. 

An article in the Daily National Intelligencer stated that those who had organized the project were: 

. . . satisfied after careful inquiry that there is nothing in the character or condition of these wretched outcasts to throw any shadow of doubt over their title to partake of the commiseration and charitable relief which every humane and Christian soul holds a debt to the suffering portion of the human family. . . .[5]

A notice in the Daily Union the day before the event reminded the citizens of Washington of the great work they had done during a recent famine in Ireland. It said their work had “saved the lives of upwards of nine thousand persons in the South and West of Ireland,” and asked, “Shall it be said that the same people have driven from their peaceful homes fifteen hundred of our own people to perish of hunger and cold in the wilderness? We trust not.”[6]

Washington was not the only city where groups were organized to help the Mormons. Colonel Thomas L. Kane, perpetual friend of the “saints,” helped organize one in Philadelphia. It was held in Independence Hall in November, 1847, and presided over by Mayor John Swift. Colonel Kane’s father, Judge John Kane, and many other leaders of Philadelphia took part in the meeting.[7] They adopted a preamble and resolutions asking the local citizens to help. 

Colonel Kane was active in several other appeals. He wrote a letter to Josiah Quincy, Mayor of Boston, which was published in the Boston Post. After telling of the suffering of the Mormons, the letter closes with the statement, “They are dying while we are talking about them.”[8]

In January, 1848, Brigham Young appointed a group of missionaries to go east to appeal for funds. Apostle Ezra T. Benson and Elder Jesse C. Little, President of the Eastern States Mission of the Church, led the group. Others were called to assist them. “Soon Elders Erastus Snow, Jesse C. Little, John E. Page, William I. Appleby, and Alexander Badlam were out collecting funds in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, etc.”[9] Colonel Kane also worked with this group. They held a meeting “in the chapel of the University, New York,” and were led by the mayor of the city, William V. Brady. Again many of the leaders of the community helped,[10] and the group adopted resolutions asking the citizens to help. Elders Benson and Little were in attendance to answer questions. 

It appears that during the exodus of the Mormons from Nauvoo, they received a great deal of sympathy and help. One of the unanswered questions is how successful the various fund raising activities were, and how much the “poor distressed Mormons” benefited from them. This question remains largely unanswered. However, when Elder Benson returned to Council Bluffs in April, 1848, after three months in the East, he brought with him about three thousand dollars that had been collected from non-members of the Church.[11]

Certainly not all Americans joined to help, and many felt as Captain Singleton did about the Mormons, but a great many others, including several national leaders, offered sympathy and help which was not confined just to meetings and resolutions. 

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[1] B.H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City, 1930), p. 9.

[2] General Alexander Macomb (1782-1841) Senior Major-General and Commanding General of the United States Army, 1820-1841. 

[3] Millenml Star, IX (1847), 365. 

[4] The Daily Union (Washington) October 27, 1847, 3/5. 

[5] Daily National Intelligencer (Washington) October 25, 1847, 3/4. 

[6] The Daily Union (Washington) October 27, 1847, 2/6. 

[7] Some of those helping in Philadelphia were Joel Jones, who was President of Girard College and shortly elected Mayor of Philadelphia, and John Ripley Chandler, who was editor of Graham’s American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art and Fashion. He was elected to Congress the next year and was later Minister to the Two Sicilies.

[8] Boston Post, February 16, 1848. 

[9] “Manuscript History of the Eastern States Mission,” located in the L.D.S. Church Historian’s Office, February 14, 1848. 

[10] Among those active in the New York meeting was Theodore Frelingjuysen, who had been a United States Senator and Chancellor of the University of the City of New York. He had been the last Vice-presidential candidate, running with Henry Clay in 1844. He later became President of Rutgers College. Benjamin Franklin Buttler, who proposed the resolutions of help, had been Attorney General for President Jackson. 

[11] “Manuscript History of the Eastern States Mission,” op. cit.