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Edward Partridge and Tar and Feathers

The love that God has for us is called charity and if we don’t have it, we are nothing. With it though we are fit subjects for heaven. Why is this virtue the greatest of them all? This story illustrates one reason.

July 20, 1833, Independence, Missouri–a mob of some 4-500 men angrily decided that they did not like the Mormons who had taken residence in their county, and that they must leave. They drafted a resolution over the signature of the leading citizens of the county. Twelve men were appointed to present the demands to the Mormon leaders. They approached Edward Partridge, William W. Phelps and others with the unjust demands.

The men asked for three months to consider the demands and decide a course. That was denied them. They asked for ten days and that too was denied. They had fifteen minutes to decide what to do with 1200 people and their possessions. Meanwhile the mob returned to the courthouse and awaited their decision. When it did not come quickly enough the mob attacked. They went first to the Church-owned printing office, kicked open the door, tossed out the press, and tore down the entire building, burying in the process two of the Phelps children. They then went for the Church-owned Gilbert and Whitney store and began demolishing it and scattering the goods. Only when Gilbert promised to be out in three days did the mob desist in their actions.

With loud yelling and cursing the mob began searching for the Church leaders. They burst into the home of Edward Partridge and, while his family watched, they dragged him to the public square of Independence. With the mob frothing around them Edward Partridge and young Charles Allen were given an ultimatum that they must renounce the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith or leave the county.

Bishop Partridge refused to do either, stating he “was not conscious of having injured anyone in the county, therefore,” he said, “I could not consent to leave it.”

This infuriated the mob further and they began to strip him of his clothes for the intent of tarring and feathering him. He asked for the dignity of keeping his shirt and pants on and this was granted. They poured hot tar, mingled with pearl ash, a flesh eating acid over his body and then covered him with feathers. Partridge stood there without struggle or retaliation as they brutalized him.

“I bore my abuse,” he later said, “with so much resignation and meekness that it appeared to astound the multitude who permitted me to retire in silence, many looking very solemn. Their sympathies having been touched as I thought.  And as to myself I was so filled with the spirit and love of God that I had no hatred toward my persecutors or anyone else.”

There it is! Charity is a gift from God through the Holy Ghost and when a man is filled with the love of God he bears no ill will to any man—not even, and especially his enemies. That is why charity is the greatest of all. Thank goodness that only people like this dwell with God.

And as for the good Bishop, he would go on to offer himself a ransom for his beleaguered people, and eventually so wear out his life as to die a premature death in Nauvoo.

March 13, 2014

Copyright Glenn Rawson 2022