“Full of Life, Fun, and Fight” - James Arlington Bennet, Correspondent, Forger, and Eccentric
At a Glance
Section titled “At a Glance”| Metadata | Details |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 2024-01-01 |
| Journal | Journal of Mormon History |
| Authors | John D. Beatty |
Abstract
Section titled “Abstract”Of the many correspondents of Joseph Smith in the early history of the Mormon Church movement, James Arlington Bennet was surely among the most eccentric. A flamboyant self-promoter and mathematician who likely suffered from a personality disorder, Bennet engaged in both a public and private correspondence not only with Smith, but with other leaders of the time. Brigham Young thought well enough of him when meeting Bennet on Long Island, New York, that he briefly gained the trust of Mormon leaders. Smith even made him inspector general of the Nauvoo Legion in 1842, presented him with an honorary doctor of laws degree, and considered him as a possible vice-presidential running mate in 1843. But Bennet’s penchant for lying and self-aggrandizement led eventually to the exposure of his true character and relegated him to the sidelines of any meaningful involvement with the Latter-day Saints. He may have had genuine sympathies for their cause—at least for a period—but, in his own mind, he never formally joined the church.Bennet’s life was filled with contradictions. Though he was Irish-born, he grew to despise Irish immigrants and often disguised his own ethnicity to census takers and others, even changing the spelling of his name. He hated Roman Catholicism, yet he entered into a common-law union with an Irish Catholic woman. As one who claimed to live by mathematical principles, he often showed an almost inexplicable lack of self-awareness in personal relationships, and sometimes lied and forged documents if he felt the deception would serve some useful purpose. Though he repudiated organized religion, he paid close attention through newspapers to many of the theological debates of his time and self-published two short religious tracts.Understanding the complexity of Bennet’s thoughts and the lack of veracity in many of his statements requires a study of the context of his life and extended family. There are no public archives of his letters other than that which have been dispersed to various private collections or what he allowed to be published in local newspapers. However, carefully dissecting those writings that are available allows a greater understanding of Bennet than what previous writers have attempted.One of the greatest controversies surrounding Bennet is his birthplace. Soon after Smith tapped him to be his presidential running mate, he was dropped when it became known that he was born in Ireland. Bennet protested and claimed a New York birthplace in a letter to Willard Richards, but his statements rang hollow to his contemporaries and can be proven false.1 Nevertheless, even today some scholars have taken him at his word and ascribe to him an incorrect New York birthplace.2 Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery have stated erroneously that Bennet posed to be Irish born “to further sales of his manual on bookkeeping even though his parents had immigrated to America before his birth.”3 More recently, Spencer W. McBride erred in stating he was “born and raised in New York.”4Bennet was born simply James Bennett on December 21, 1788,5 in Ballycanew, County Wexford, Ireland, one of at least four children born to Henry Bennett and wife Catherine (Warren).6 His grandfather Leonard Bennett, a saddler, had moved from Tullow, County Carlow, where Henry was born in 1739,7 to Ballycanew by 1760, where his name appeared in an allotment of pews in the local Church of Ireland.8 Henry was still in Ballycanew in 1799 when he claimed losses in the Irish Rebellion of 1798.9 The argument that Bennet was born in New York is based both on his letter to Richards and his reporting of New York as his birthplace on the 1850 and 1860 federal censuses.10 However, a signed affidavit written in his own hand and filed in his probate packet contradicts those claims: “I was born 21 Dec. 1788. Arrived in New York June 10, 1810. Arrived again, after a tour in Europe in November 1824.”11In December 1812, a roll of nonnaturalized British-born citizens designated as “alien enemies” records James Bennett in New York City and affirms his immigrant status.12 He was described as a “Teacher Mathematics,” aged twenty-four, with a wife not named, living at 62 Chatham. He reported that he had lived in the country for two years, six months, which squares with the June 1810 arrival date from the deposition. He had married Sophia Smith in a Methodist Church in New York City on May 8, 1811.13During the War of 1812, despite his alien status, James enlisted in the U.S. Army, offering his mathematical expertise to the artillery. He served as an orderly sergeant and later as a second lieutenant in the First Regiment, New York (Sitcher’s) Artillery, taking part in the defense of New York.14 Under a new variant of his name, “James Arlington Bennett,” he also served as a third lieutenant in the First Artillery, beginning on August 1, 1813. He was promoted to second lieutenant on December 24, 1813, and then was transferred to the corps artillery on May 12, 1814, finally resigning on October 14, 1814.15 In April 1852, he claimed a bounty land under the Scrip Warrant Act for 160 acres in Livingston County, Illinois.16In 1820, James published the first edition of The American System of Practical Book-keeping, an accounting textbook that brought him widespread renown and earned him a substantial income. It would appear in forty-one editions between 1820 and 1862, with examples of actual ledger entries that tied him to his brother Leonard Bennett.17 (Leonard Bennett, two years James’s senior, became a Methodist minister and applied for American citizenship in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, in September 1838, giving his birthplace as Ballycanew.)18 When James first published his book, he listed himself on its title page as “Professor to the Accountants Society of New York, late a Professor to the Accountants Society of Pennsylvania, and a member of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of the University of the State of New York.” One source notes that he gave lectures on accounting at Albany and Philadelphia as well as in New York City.19Income from the book allowed Bennet to buy land and build a mansion. In 1825, he purchased one hundred acres of farm land and forest overlapping portions of the towns of Gravesend and New Utrecht “on the southeasterly side of the public road or highway leading from Flatbush to New Utrecht.”20 He developed the land into a farm and constructed Arlington House, a house with a grand façade that included Corinthian columns. It was large enough for him to establish a school in its rooms, while in a walnut tree outside he built a ninety-foot winding stairway that led to a balcony from which he could view the surrounding country.21During this period, Bennet developed a complex relationship with his family. He and his wife, Sophia, had two children that reached adulthood: Corolla, born in 1826, and James Henry in 1832.22 A third child, Emma, born about 1822, was the result of an incestuous affair Bennet had with his niece Catherine Bennett, daughter of his eldest brother, William, and later the wife of Abraham Hooghkerk/Hokerk.23 The circumstances of this event are not known with certainty, but Catherine, who was born in 1804, may have gone to her uncle’s home as a student at age eighteen, where she became pregnant. Bennet acknowledged paternity in his will and in 1845 sold to Emma for $1,000 a one-thousand-acre tract in Hamilton County, New York, that he had purchased in 1833.24 Emma was listed in the Hokerk household in the state census of 1855 and was later a teacher.25In the early 1840s, with his income increasing from his book, Bennet began taking an interest in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It appears to have begun as a curiosity and may have stemmed from his own disaffection with traditional organized religion. During the early 1840s, the University of Nauvoo adopted James’s book as an official text.26 Joseph Smith had obtained a state charter for the university at Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1841, in order to educate his followers, though no buildings had yet been erected for a campus. Still, Bennet was likely flattered by the attention and may have entered into correspondence with several church leaders as a result.In 1842, a series of favorable articles on the Mormons appeared in the New York press. James Gordon Bennett (no relation), the editor of the New York Herald, sent a correspondent to Nauvoo in the winter of 1842, sending back positive reports about his experience and of meeting Mormon leaders. During the same period, James Arlington Bennet began a correspondence with General John Cook Bennett (no relation), Smith’s chief military advisor, mayor of Nauvoo, and a counselor in the First Presidency. On April 12, 1842, after offering his own services as a military advisor, he received from the general an appointment as inspector-general of the Nauvoo Legion.27 The Illinois legislature had established the legion as a militia organization and component of the Illinois state militia. Over time it evolved as Nauvoo’s defense, guarding and defending its property from the increasing threats of a hostile public. Already the prophet faced condemnation in Missouri for treason and was wanted by its governor. Ten days later, James also received an honorary doctor of law degree from the university.28The appointment and honor came just as a major scandal was about to break for the Latter-day Saints. In May 1842, the church withdrew fellowship from John Cook Bennett, who began in June writing a series of public letters that culminated in a scathing book, History of the Saints, attacking Smith’s character and the practice of polygamy. The letters fanned the already burning flames of public hatred for Mormonism, but James Arlington Bennet—at least for the moment—renounced General Bennett’s assertions and chose to side with Smith and his followers. Writing to the Herald in May and using the pseudonym Cincinnatus, he argued that the Mormons did not hold their property in common like the “Shaking Quakers,” but believed in private property as did other Americans. He added: “There is no people on earth who are more circumscribed in their behavior, nor who hold the matrimonial tie in more sacred reverence than the Mormons… . They are Christians in the fullest sense of the term, believing in the Old and New Testaments as inspired books … and the Book of Mormon as a corroborative history… . We therefore should not permit our prejudice to condemn what we may not be able to comprehend. We should judge the tree by its fruit.”29On June 17, after facing more criticism, Bennet defended his acceptance of the commission in the Nauvoo Legion by showing its link to the Illinois state militia under the authority of the governor. He stated that he had done nothing improper. “I am commissioned as Inspector General, with the rank and title of Major General in the Militia of the State of Illinois, the Nauvoo Legion being a corps of that Militia.” He added that John Bennett, “being aware of my having been an officer in the corps of the United States Artillery during the late war, and finding that I was somewhat acquainted with Military Engineering, nominated me for the office to which I have been elected.”30 During the same month, he also published a lengthy poem that began, “Hail ye Mormons, chosen band,” which was published both in the Herald and in the Times and Seasons.31John Cook Bennett’s controversial letters made Mormonism a favorite topic in the press of the time, with Smith becoming the center of the storm. James Gordon Bennett’s Herald took a less prejudicial view than many other newspapers. Attempting to win the other two Bennet(t)s to his side, John Cook Bennett traveled to New York to meet them and convince them to copublish his book, but both refused.32 In his June letter, James had criticized John and argued that the Latter-day Saints “were not quite so dangerous a people … they are extremely peaceable and well-disposed… . They are called fanatics by others, but those are greater fanatics, I think, who will not permit them to enjoy their Religion according to the dictates of their own conscience.”33 James would later denounce John Bennett’s character to Smith and advise him to let him go. “His own conscience, if he has any, will be sufficient punishment.”34In yet another public letter dated October 16, 1842, Bennet continued his defense.However, there were doubts planted in Bennet’s mind about the Nauvoo experiment, even as he defended it. Without detailing his apprehensions explicitly, he confessed in another letter that “the great Nauvoo explosion … blew down a most splendid house that I was erecting one night in a Mormon dream.” He continued to defend Smith but was now more cautious in his tone: “I think, on the whole, the General’s book will do the Mormon cause more good than any thing that has as yet appeared on the subject. It makes Mormonism so fascinating that, I am sure, if I don’t set up on my own hook, I shall join the Prophet’s standard before long.”36Smith welcomed the blossoming friendship at first, and even though Bennet had resisted joining the church, Smith took a favorable view of Bennet’s letters as a means of countering the growing anti-Mormon feeling of the time. In a letter dated June 30, 1842, and carried by his secretary Willard Richards on an eastern trip, the prophet introduced himself and invited James to visit Nauvoo.37 It would be their first direct contact, since previously, John Bennett had served as an intermediary. In August, even before Richards had reached his destination, Smith and Hugh McFall allegedly summoned James as the next-ranking officer in the Nauvoo Legion to return to headquarters and assume command, though this was deemed a fake by McFall a month later.38Bennet responded cautiously in a public letter, vowing his continued support but refusing to assume the post for legal reasons: Now sir, I shall ever hold myself ready to defend the Mormon people … from mob violence, but at the same time feel that I am not bound to act against the constitutional authorities of the State of Illinois… . I have transmitted the Order to his Excellency Governor Carlin for instructions, while at the same time I shall repair immediately to Nauvoo and take command of the Legion… . I should desire no better fun than to dispatch you with order, on my horse Cicero, among the whizzing bullets, or blue pills of Galena.39In August 1842, Richards and his wife reached Arlington House with the letter from Smith. He was, in some measure, on a fact-finding mission to determine where exactly Bennet stood with the Mormon cause. Impressed by what he found, he wrote back to Smith at Nauvoo: “We were most cordially welcomed by Gen. Bennett, Lady, and family consisting of one son and one daughter. His mansion is of the first order, surpassed by none in New York and few in … He is a and at the of the in New He is a and believing that should be the of or the of his own has applied himself with to and to his Richards reported that Bennet Smith great a prophet as and a better But he not in in any of time. He to no or and were he to join any, would as join the Mormons as any other but not it would him a better to join any … he with a hatred … that should never take the life of an to his but live on was enough for Smith to take him into his at a time when his were in the of John Bennett’s The prophet faced the of for in Missouri as well as growing from Illinois to James wrote to the prophet on September 1, his own religious as he had to Richards but also “I have been a Mormon in and can never be one in any other yet I feel I am a of the on the that Smith would ever a from Missouri where he had been with Bennet it would be to against you who would He the prophet against to John Bennett’s or the from Illinois will not do to to for as this in the would be treason against the State and would to … I most that you had one hundred true at Nauvoo and that I had command of would I to the before I that an will from Nauvoo to the of the Mormon of Bennet’s had begun to and his growing sense of As he later in a letter to the the was for “the fun of The attention his his for and his to his own military he had a part of a and being a yet of Bennet’s and Smith wrote him an letter on September with when I the of that we have through in the State of Missouri and then and and the and to the of … we down and be … The Legion would in the defense of their but what would that I have down their and a on in and … I you would to me in to this and let me … I am ready to be up a in that that can to the greatest and the at Nauvoo in Smith’s still to Bennet’s to their cause. In August, Brigham Young and a and of the New York of the church, Arlington House and were Young wrote in his on August to the Arlington House, Long Island, in with brother and had a visit with General James Arlington Bennett and with I The Young added: with General Bennett and to Island, where we in the He me to which I and we him and to his where we night and had a a letter to his wife written on September Young a few had a good visit with Bennet we night the we his farm his took a from the of his could on to the Island, A the took his wife, and son in to his with my a for … we down to … we to where we could of in the and to his to Nauvoo that he had Bennet’s However, when it became that the had not any their relationship grew as did Bennet’s relationship with Smith. In a letter to the prophet dated October 24, James repudiated his the as a in the blue for most a it was, a or of the would in the least me to or cause. I am of being a most being by the religious letter in other and was and at the same time. of and he with their so are to a and to you as the most of the But my mind is of so mathematical and a that the of makes no on and you will not be when I that I you as a than I do we have you with for then the to his own and He Smith a for as a personal that he could not it for the In what was likely a he that he had to the of his book to and had received as an I had so during that it to up He further that he more from the He also his commission from the Nauvoo Legion and did so by his with that which he had defended a can be that a commission in the legion was a Herald for the fun of by as it is not believed even now by the public. In short I to be through Governor of the State of He would to the title of general even though he had his but he was himself from the Mormons for by the of the letter, Smith in a letter of his Bennet’s statements by you are of being most being by the religious will be by as experience most He defended his of the Book of Mormon and other to him by and he Bennet’s that they those of could not be to mathematical the of and he my … if you had been as well acquainted with and as with and the of would have the of years and filled you with for like not only but they are the most on took the greatest at Bennet’s refusing to what he in with his own religious I who have the of and the of the of … shall I to be a I who have the of and with … myself into a … I from the authority of … and myself into a to act the of He with a will to in the Nauvoo had the correspondence to but Richards, his in through the correspondence on his the letters and them to be among the He sent them for in the Times and and Nauvoo to which Bennet by Smith, Richards wrote a letter of to Bennet in December and that he had been for was not by the and even sent the letter to be published in the in New York, from its great that it would him great in both Europe He also in a letter dated 1, that he never to in Illinois to the Bennet also an letter I have the Smith wrote in his Richards received a letter from A Bennet which me the of Bennet’s relationship with the prophet continued to into The that Smith had so had and by the he to his to as an for the U.S. He had to that the was the only direct of Illinois and threats to his at Nauvoo, and as his there grew his of Bennet after the early Smith Richards to Bennet the on a Mormon Attempting to to Bennet’s Richards letter about the of Illinois, just like in for who would to the of a state when the was on the … General, if and in are by now is time… . and shall it… . and the of … Joseph Smith against you shall … our will by or and the if with who can their to the Smith had no of On 8, Richards a of Bennet’s Irish and reported the to Smith, leading the of the to the and it to a Richards wrote to Bennet on him of this to Richards in a letter dated April and himself from the In what was an he “the of my not being a born would not me from the He had himself as he only in an to a for his bookkeeping a view to take a in I made two to myself a before the in York but was in he the parents to America in York from the on the of June 1788. is on the house He had the of the June date while that he had in 1810. He on to “There have been I to have it thought that I was born the of an American years of them from the that his could never be Bennet continued to and enjoy the The veracity of his birthplace was for he believed Smith’s was he Nauvoo and established his own Mormon in the “I would just that I for no for of the States or other he early in the letter in a of Smith’s he was and in a less added that if Smith could be into office by he would in his but by he had no to win even a he therefore it will serve you are at to my name for any office you may my name is with will any thing to the it is at not with any view of at a but for The came with Smith for a the for the Mormons grew more the did not their New York Richards wrote to Bennet on June two days after Smith had the Nauvoo stating that Smith’s was the only to their from by the militia of Illinois. He for military never had time to days after letter, Smith to Illinois authorities and was at On June a mob the him and his brother the was still not his to Mormon he continued to for some in the of the Latter-day Saints, if only to his desire for military On August he claimed to Richards that Joseph and had appeared to him in a He described a of with and an who and to me which I did in great is to any standard of he on my a of … .