(MORMONS.) Reply of Joseph Smith to the Letter of J. A. B--- of A---n House, New York. 24 pages. 12mo, disbound; minor wear and soiling. Liverpool: R. Hedlock and T. Ward, [1844] First separate edition. James Arlington Bennett was baptized by Brigham Young in August 1843, was soon named as Inspector-General of the Nauvoo Legion, and two months later sought to run for governor of Illinois with Joseph Smith's endorsement. Smith's reply was scathing--he refused to "pettify myself into a clown to act the farce of political demagoguery." Smith closed with a postscript that clearly intended to shut the door on Bennett's ambitions: "The court martial will attend to your case in the Nauvoo Legion."
The letter was printed in Times & Seasons and the Nauvoo Neighbor late in 1843, but this was the only separate printing. Crawley 198 (states that based on the style, the letter was "obviously written by W.W. Phelps" on Smith's behalf); Flake 7994. Only one other example traced at auction (Parke-Bernet sale, 7 February 1968, lot 99, and sold again at Swann, 17 November 2016, lot 233).