Part 4: November 1843

Much of the documentary record for November revolves around JS’s political engagement. On 2 November, JS met with , , , , and , and the group agreed to write a letter to five potential candidates for the presidency of the —, , , Richard M. Johnson, and —“to enquire what their feelig [feelings] were or what their course would be towards the sai[n]ts if they were elected.” Two days later, read the drafted letter aloud, JS approved it, and it was sent to the various candidates for the 1844 election. Clay wrote back immediately with a noncommittal statement that he would “enter into no engagements, make no promises, give no pledges, to any particular portion of the people of the U. States.” Calhoun and Cass also eventually responded with similar evasive letters; Johnson and Van Buren did not reply to the Saints’ inquiry.

In early November, JS also corresponded with , a member who had proposed that the Saints work with surveyor Colonel and use his influence in to once again petition the federal government for redress. JS approved of this idea, and Frierson arrived in by the end of the month. After meeting with JS and other church leaders, Frierson drafted a memorial to Congress, and church leaders appointed committees to find signers for it. On 29 November, at a meeting of prominent Nauvoo citizens, JS and others discussed additional plans to secure redress from Congress—including JS’s motion “that every man in the meting who could w[i]eld a pen write an address to his mother count[r]y.” This motion coincided with JS’s earlier instructions to his scribe to write an appeal to the citizens of , JS’s native state, asking them to use their political influence to help the Latter-day Saints obtain redress and justice for the losses they suffered in .

In November 1843, JS also attended to other civic and ecclesiastical matters, including overseeing prayer meetings, civil and ecclesiastical trials, and the temporal concerns of the Latter-day Saints, as well as dictating a revelation addressed to . Two documents featured in this part illuminate another challenging issue JS faced during the month. On 21 November, JS preferred charges against church member for attempting to seduce a young woman and using JS’s name “in a blasphemous maner.” Four days later, the held Sagers’s trial. Though the council took no action against Sagers, JS implored the Saints to “do away with evry evil & practice virtue & Holiness before the Lord” and condemned fornication and adultery. Sometime in late November, JS met in council with the and during the course of the meeting dictated a revelation instructing Page, who was then living in , to preach to the citizens of and establish a church congregation in that city.

Part 4 features fourteen documents created in November 1843, including letters, a revelation, and a poem.