Documents, Volume 13

This fascinating volume of ninety-eight documents brings to life Joseph Smith's busy and sometimes tumultuous life during four autumn months: from August 1 to December 29 of 1843. The contents focus on letters. In fact, fifty-one of the documents are letters, only twenty-one of them written by or for Joseph Smith. The Prophet is living in a busy Nauvoo, a largely agrarian town that is growing with thousands of Latter-day Saints migrating from the United States and England. Houses are being built and dozens of businesses provide services of all kinds. Migrants, travelers, and workers from all places embark from the steamboats that stop there each day.During the summer and autumn months of 1843, workers were active in building the Nauvoo Mansion, the Nauvoo House, and the Nauvoo Temple. Occasionally, Smith preached in the partially built temple or in a nearby grove. Many of the residents were British converts of the proselyting efforts of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who served between 1837 and 1843 in the British Isles.Nauvoo became a reserve where the Saints and their prophet sought a time of peace, in a place of peace that they had not enjoyed in the previous few years. But the social and political crises during the summer of 1843 led the Latter-day Saints and other residents to seek political safety. Political tension expanded in Hancock County and the Saints faced the self-proclaimed “Anti-Mormon Party” and supportive Warsaw Message newspaper. Joseph Smith exchanged letters with Governor Ford on a regular schedule to keep him informed of potential threats from the Missouri and Illinois residents who wanted the Saints to leave the area. Smith felt he could protect the city and its residents with the Nauvoo Legion. Church leaders also hoped to gain support of Congress for redress, but their appeals were resisted.The documents in this volume record both political and social events that occurred between August and December of 1843. As noted in the volume introduction, “Joseph Smith continued to introduce, clarify, and expand important points of church doctrine and theology through sermons, private instruction, and sacred religious rituals. Smith gave at least nine public discourses during this period on a variety of topics, including the priesthood, the sealing power, and eternal covenants. . . . While speaking about the different orders of the priesthood in late August, he taught that the Melchizedek Priesthood, unlike the Aaronic Priesthood, held the keys to ‘administer[i]ng endless lives to the sons and daughte[r]s of Adam, kingly powe[r]s. of ano[i]nting’” (xxxi, 65).“In private, Smith continued to administer to a select group of church members sacred rituals and ordinances, intended for the temple then under construction. Contemporaneous accounts refer to meetings of this group by a variety of names, including ‘prayer meeting,’ ‘quorum,’ ‘council,’ and once as ‘council of the quorum.’” The first meeting of this council occurred in May 1842, when Smith taught nine men about “washing & anointings, endowments, and the communications of keys . . . & and all those plans & principles by which any one is enabled to secure the fulness of those blessings which has been prepared for the chu[r]ch of the first-born, and come up, and abide in the prese[n]ce of Eloheim in the eternal worlds.” In late May 1843, Smith gave the council “inst[r]uction on the prie[s]thood. The new and everlasting covena[n]t. &c. &c.” in connection with some council members receiving an additional ordinance that sealed them to their spouses for eternity (xxxi–xxxii, 66–68).In a later paragraph, the introduction notes that Joseph Smith's teachings about eternal marriage was the doctrine of plural marriage. Smith began practicing plural marriage in Nauvoo in April 1841, and over the next two and a half years he instructed a select group of Latter-day Saints to participate in the practice. Smith was sealed to at least fifteen women as plural wives in 1843, including two during the period covered by this volume: nineteen-year-old Malissa Lott, the daughter of Cornelius and Pamelia Darrow Lott, caretakers of Smith's Nauvoo farm, and fifty-six-year-old Fanny Young Murray, a widow and elder sister of church apostle Brigham Young. Lott and Murray were likely the last two women sealed to Joseph Smith during his lifetime. While most Latter-day Saints remained unaware that Smith and others engaged in the practice, the church leader quietly shared his teachings on the doctrine during the second half of 1843. On July 12, he dictated a revelation on marriage that captured in writing earlier teachings about the priesthood and the new and everlasting covenant. The revelation also explained that God had commanded Abraham and other prophets to marry “many wives,” and instructed Smith and others to “do the works of Abraham, enter ye into my law and ye Shall be Saved” (xxxii–xxxiii, 72–76).The introduction's last paragraph notes that the documents in this volume demonstrate, in part that cracks were forming in the veneer of peace and harmony. Resistance to the practice of plural marriage threatened to erode the internal unity that Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints had tried to cultivate since arriving in Nauvoo nearly five years earlier, while external enemies in Missouri and Illinois persisted in a relentless push to “sweep Mormonism and its founder into nothingness.” The tumultuous event of fall and early winter 1843, such as the rise of the Anti-Mormon Party and the nascent opposition to plural marriage by [William] Law and others, laid the foundation for the explosive conflict that erupted in 1844 and culminated in the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith (xxxvii, 97).These introductory pages prepare the reader for what was happening in the months before August and what was continuing in the next four months. Thus, the reader will want to read the introduction because the documents in this volume are a close continuation of what was happening during the months and years before August 1843. This volume continues the story laid out in the previous volume and that carries it into the next volume. Had those three volumes not been so long, all three would have (or could have) been published together in one long volume. Short comments selected below are examples of texts in each part of this book.Part 1 begins on the Sunday morning of August 3, 1843, when Joseph Smith delivered a funeral discourse for church member Elias Higbee. To participate, the people gathered at the preaching stand near the Nauvoo Temple construction. Four of them reported the event, and their handwritten notes yielded varying numbers of words and fluctuating messages. Reporters Willard Richards and Martha Jane Knowlton Coray created the longest reports, William Clayton and Franklin D. Richards the shortest. In early June, Higbee died five days after contracting cholera (32–39).The main theme of concern in August is politics. Joseph Smith pledged to vote for Cyrus Walker the Whig candidate, who was one of his personal attorneys. But when Hyrum Smith had a revelation that favored the Democratic candidate, Joseph supported Joseph Hoge in a sermon the next Sunday. Nauvoo's overwhelming support carried Hoge into the Illinois sixth congressional district (3–5, 20–27).A variety of “new” documents will please readers looking for hidden discoveries and original manuscripts. A subscription of Willard Richards's small pocket-sized forty-leaf booklet has existed since August 1843 to March 18. Joseph Smith's signature is the first on the list of the booklet's purchasers. Another little-known document is a letter written to Joseph Smith by the leaders of Paicouchaiby and other Potawattomi, dated around August 14, 1843. And there are letters from Smith, written by Willard Richards to Thomas Ford (7–20, 45–54, 64–70, 72–84, 185–90).Parts 2 and 4 are the smallest in this volume of Joseph Smith's history books with eleven entries in this part and fourteen in part 4. Part 2 reminds us that Joseph Smith was involved in both civic and ecclesiastical responsibilities. Among them were his service in the Nauvoo high council and as lieutenant general of the Nauvoo Legion. He met with his family at home and took them to a traveling circus. In mid-September he counseled with other Latter-day Saint leaders and instructed them on their responsibilities. He was concerned on the need to protect church members, and he was faced with Hancock County citizens who had joined supporters of the Anti-Mormon Convention that called for Smith's stepdown from his political positions. The group the Latter-day Saints called the “Carthage Mob” moved into action. On that same day Smith moved his family into a new home, the Nauvoo Mansion. After he heard a Unitarian minister's visiting sermon in mid-September, Smith presented a discourse on the proper use of medicine as outlined in Levi Richards's eight-page journal (95–97, 109–11).Also of interest in part 2 are the “Military Exemption” from Robert D. Foster for John Murdon, dated September 7; letters from John Mills, dated August 6; Francis M. Higbee, September 8; Thomas Ford, September 17; Chauncey Robison, September 20; Thomas Ford, September ca. 20; an unidentified author, September 23; Francis Gladden Bishop, September 263; and Horace Hotchkiss, September 27; and on medical practices, August 13, 1843-A, August 13, 1843-AB; and August 27 (20–27, 97–129).Part 3 begins with a cold month in Nauvoo that marked the season's first snowfall. The Smiths held a dinner party in the town's newest hotel, the Nauvoo Mansion. A few days later, Smith held a church conference during which Sidney Rigdon was tried for his standing in the church, but the members voted that he should retain his station. The conference reported that the construction work of the Nauvoo Temple had slowed because of lack of provisions and team work. Smith encouraged members to move the work forward and assigned George J. Adams to collect funds for the project from both the Saints and other honorable men (133–34).Nauvoo's growth from immigrants in England and the eastern United States during this year reached around eleven thousand people. Most of the growth remained in Great Britain, and in both gathering places there was some doctrinal agreements and some apostacy in a few branches. John C. Bennett's negative lectures and writings also encouraged prejudice toward the church. During a visit to Philadelphia in late October, William Smith told Joseph that friends were scarce and that bias was strong. Joseph reminded him of his belief in the Constitution of the United States. He sought help from Illinois governor Thomas Ford for more public arms and sought reparations for those who were driven from Missouri in the1830s (134–35).In part 3 we find sixteen letters, and one entry each of remarks, answers, minutes, authorization, discourse, pay order, and petition. The letters are from the following: Thomas Ward and Hiram Clark, October 3, 1843; Reuben Hedlock, October 4; Fayette Mace, October 7; Erastus Derby, October 9; Horace Hotchkis, October 12–13; Jared Carter, October 14; Thomas Ford, October 16; Reuben Hedlock, October 16–17; Brigham Young, October 23; Samuel Comer, October 23; Joseph L. Heywood, October 23; James Arlington Bennet, October 24; Osee Welch, October 25; William Smith, October 28; Horace Hotchkiss, October 30; and John E. Page, October 30. Other entries include minutes and discourses, October 15; a discourse, October 15; remarks, October 3; and a petition from George B. Wallace and others with a linked letter from John E. Page, October 30.As noted earlier, part 2 and part 4 are the smallest of the five parts. Part 4 includes eight letters, with half outgoing and half incoming. Most of the entries for November are about Joseph Smith's political activities. On November 2, Smith met with five others—Hyrum Smith, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, John Taylor, and William Clayton. Their purpose was to write to the five potential candidates for the U.S. presidency and find what their feeling was toward the Saints. The letters drafted by Willard Richards and approved by Smith were sent to Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Lewis Cass, Richard M. Johnson, and Martin Van Buren. In their responses, Clay was noncommittal. Calhoun and Cass responded after time with similar thoughts, but Johnson and Van Buren did not respond (241).Joseph L. Heywood suggested that they contact Colonel John Frierson, the United States surveyor, to seek his influence in Washington D.C. When Frierson reached Nauvoo, he met with church leaders and drafted a memorial to Congress. Joseph Smith had other ideas as well. He asked the staff to send letters to friends in Vermont where Smith was born and raised. In November 1843, Smith also remained involved in other civic and ecclesiastical events. He dictated a revelation focused to apostle John E. Page, and sat in a trial against a member who was caught attempting to seduce a young woman (241–42).The documents in part 4 occupy just over ninety pages, including photos of the letters to John C. Calhoun, Harris Sagers, John E. Page, and a large photograph of Henry Clay. The following examples of the texts represent a few of them. When the Twelve met together in late November 1843 to discuss plans of preaching in various places, one member read a petition and Joseph Smith responded by dictating a revelation (281–84). Efforts to win support from government officers failed, namely, “President [Andrew] Jackson in 1834, President Martin Van Buren in 1839, and members of the United States Congress in 1840 and 1846” (242–48).Other documents include a revelation, remarks, minutes, and a poem from William W. Phelps. He wrote the poem on November 7, 1843, and authorized it for George J. Adams a few days later. It may have been an attempt to close arrangements with Joseph Smith for land and to get a home of his own. The transcript reads: The goodly city of Nauvoo,November 7. (and that will do.)President Smith; how do ye do?From me this line will speak with you.Health, peace and grace, and all things, tooBe unto you 〈thee〉 till life is through.A blight o'er me, has shadow'd you;But still my soul to you is true;I ask no wealth of old or new,But come what will, I'll make it do.I can not live as others do,And be a half a man with you;I am a man, as men can view,And god will let me die or do!You bless the Twelve with things anewSo bless my wife with something, too.Twelve years she's waded throughThe sea of woe without ado,And still remains the same—and true;Deed her a lot; and that will do:([William] Clayton knows the one in view.)May God your path with honor strewIs Phelps’ [William Phelps's] poetry to you (253–55).Part 5 consists of 150 pages (pp. 294–445 in the book), including ten letters, four minutes, four ordinances, three military orders, and thirteen other documents, plus four photographs—including those of Congressman John C. Calhoun and presidential candidate Lewis Cass—and four illustrations, notably “The Green Mountain in and Joseph Smith and others in the County in Missouri noted earlier, letters and comments written in one month and responded to in and events that the are in this volume. threats of in November 1843 continued into The in Hancock County led an to in that and took into where a sent him to to for the next This Joseph Smith and other members to similar so they began to prepare The Nauvoo drafted an ordinance to protect Joseph Smith the Nauvoo to prepare to the and to a city The Anti-Mormon Party in Hancock County was not with responses, and others were to Joseph Smith and the Saints expanded their efforts to get for their in Missouri and sought additional from Congress. Most of the documents in part 5 with some to church documents in December 1843 include the following: one an attempt to help the Saints gain for the they in Missouri in the In John and published Joseph Smith's to the Green Mountain that sought help from Smith's friends in his This important document was written by William W. at Smith's and it reminded Vermont residents of their history in and it Smith not just as a religious leader but also as a and general for The document was written and sent to the in November and around December It was read in a meeting on December where Smith members to and focus on a Smith's to the Mountain was published in the and the of this because the original is important document is an ordinance that was read in the December 1843, meeting and with The document reads: “The ordinance Missouri to and Nauvoo to or any other on to the an could be with or without and in the city for The ordinance also that the governor could an but only with the of Nauvoo's The letter that William W. wrote for Joseph Smith and sent to Thomas Ford on December 1843, and on December 12, 1843, to an from and to Thomas sent on December 1843, are and important communications between Smith and Ford four December respond to in December the and to an ordinance the of a December an of Nauvoo's Joseph Smith had counseled the Saints in to or but had been and In Nauvoo, the city council the of in a a or other in a a and the law against and Joseph Smith at first that he wanted to stop but a to him the to and do it only by the his family and others led the city council to Smith to keep his and him the to one in each of the four The ordinance him to it the or of and other use was as for and medical This was the ordinance in December that Smith and some people the as of in Smith's of the other two ordinance documents are December and December The Nauvoo created the December ordinance in a to a and of a attempt to Joseph Smith. The council also it to prepare for an from and Joseph Smith the city and Nauvoo to be The on December was a to the conflict over the of in The council an ordinance that would make who to Joseph Smith or other Nauvoo residents involved in that earlier event to and It that this was intended to keep the Saints from any and threats from earlier five that documents occupy pages 3 to The pages from there to under that to each volume in The Joseph Smith This is and it includes under thirteen the and eight other the first for new for people who are more once in the The for that the reader place the in the documents into the of important events in Joseph Smith's The of most of the and and in this volume. The places town and city in volume with as they existed during the on the The ten two of the and three for four for Nauvoo, and one for the United of Great and The Joseph Smith and list Joseph and eleven and Joseph and and their and The pages that for most of the people in the volume. The are to the people of to Joseph Smith's at this The and for Church in Nauvoo, of in Nauvoo, of the Church in and are focused on August, October, and December 1843. The on a of how the of looking for on events and people in four months. they noted that more half of the documents in this volume were of people. The most were from but and accounts are also A to all of the in volume is in the of pages, which begins with The of of and with variety of and comments and the of the contents and of make 1843 a of in and in the of with an interest in the history of the Church of of Latter-day Saints

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