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Introduction to Documents, Volume 13: August–December 1843

Joseph Smith Documents from August through December 1843

In late August 1843, , senior editor of the Pittsburgh Gazette, visited Joseph Smith in , Illinois, to interview the Latter-day Saint prophet for his newspaper. During their hour-long meeting, the men discussed politics, persecution, revelation, theophany, and the construction of the Saints’ on a bluff overlooking the . Though the tenor and accuracy of White’s published account of the interview were later questioned by the editor of the Nauvoo Neighbor, the interview’s diverse content reflected Smith’s multifaceted role as a civic and religious leader in 1840s . Smith was first and foremost the prophet, president, and trustee of a multinational church, but he was also the mayor of a bustling frontier city, chief justice of an active municipal court, and commanding officer of the largest independent militia unit in the state of . He was actively engaged in business affairs related to both the and the city of Nauvoo, outspoken in his political views, and committed to helping church members recognize and attain the blessings of divine providence. Smith’s position as both an ecclesiastical and a civic leader also meant that he received a continual stream of communications regarding spiritual, financial, and legal matters. He entertained countless visitors and migrants, including curious bystanders, earnest religious seekers, new immigrants from , and a delegation of Potawatomi Indians from .

The ninety-eight documents featured in this volume of The Joseph Smith Papers reflect the breadth of Smith’s myriad roles and activities between August and December 1843 and chronicle a busy, often tumultuous period of his life. They provide greater insight into the growth and prosperity of the city of , the development of Latter-day Saint theology and practice, and the expansion of opposition to Joseph Smith and the church in and abroad. Many of the documents in this volume exemplify important elements in the broader context of antebellum , including the role of government in protecting civil rights, the effect of foreign immigration on American society, and the development of the western frontier.

In August 1843, was a community teeming with activity. In the preceding years, thousands of Latter-day Saint migrants from the eastern and poured into the largely agrarian settlement. Hundreds of log cabins and wood-frame and brick houses as well as dozens of city streets were constructed on the flats adjacent to the , the bluff to the east of the flats, and the prairies beyond the bluff, with more dwellings in communities across the river in .

Dozens of businesses—including mercantile stores, gristmills, brickyards, hotels, blacksmith shops, a post office, and a —were interspersed among the community’s homes. Referring to the city and its residents in September 1843, recent arrival wrote to his brothers in New Hampshire, “There is a great deal of building a going on here this Summer and the place is groing fast. the most of the people are industrious and honest but poor.”

’s advantageous location on the made it a natural stopping point for travelers and commercial traffic. One contemporary observer noted that four or five steamboats landed at the city each day. The river also allowed the Latter-day Saints to transport sorely needed raw materials to Nauvoo; much of the lumber used to construct the city’s burgeoning number of homes and businesses, for example, was floated down the Mississippi from the church’s prolific in . In May 1843, Joseph Smith purchased a share of the steamboat Maid of Iowa, which conveyed residents back and forth across the river, carried laborers to the pineries, and transported freight and sundry mercantile goods.

In addition to constructing homes and businesses, church members continued to erect three other important structures during summer and autumn 1843. In late August, laborers completed work on the , a large two-story frame building that served as a hotel for travelers and guests as well as the Smith family’s residence. Workers also continued to build, albeit slowly, a larger boardinghouse called the on the southern edge of the city. The , the focus of the Latter-day Saints’ construction efforts, was taking shape on the bluff east of the flats. Thanks to church members’ contributions of money, goods, and labor, the edifice had a basement, flooring on the first story, and walls “as high as the arches of the first tier of windows all round” by late fall 1843. Joseph Smith occasionally preached within its unfinished walls or in a near the construction site. In several discourses delivered in late summer and early fall, Smith urged the Saints to continue providing the money, raw materials, and physical labor necessary to finish the temple, promising them that God would “fill it with power.”

Beyond the locus of , the church continued to grow and develop on the periphery. Spearheaded by the , proselytizing efforts in the British Isles between 1837 and 1843 resulted in thousands of new converts organized into dozens of church . After most of the returned to Nauvoo in mid-1841, church leaders in the and continued to communicate with each other and with the Latter-day Saints in the British Isles through letters and church publications such as the Times and Seasons and the Millennial Star. Heeding church leaders’ calls to gather to Nauvoo, British Saints began to immigrate to the United States in significant numbers in 1840 and 1841.

The influx of thousands of new settlers strengthened the church but placed additional stress on Smith and other leaders, who struggled to buy land, secure housing, and provide jobs for the primarily working-class converts from England’s industrial cities. Many of the documents featured in this volume illustrate the social, economic, and ecclesiastical challenges created by the church’s tremendous growth in England and Nauvoo.

Even as Joseph Smith attempted to lead church members to a bright future, the past continued to weigh him down. Over the previous decade, Smith and the Latter-day Saints had faced harassment through legal prosecution and intense, sporadic violence at the hands of the citizens of . Between 1831 and 1833, a large contingent of church members settled in , Missouri, after Smith dictated a revelation designating it as the place to build the “.” Threatened by the Latter-day Saints’ “fanatical” religious beliefs, growing political power, and perceived opposition to slavery, Jackson County residents destroyed church property, tarred and feathered two church members, and declared that “the mormons must leave the county,” or they “must die.” Church members were forcibly evicted from the county in late 1833, but similar concerns followed them as they migrated to other parts of the state. When church members began buying up land in , Missouri, in 1835 and 1836, local residents drafted resolutions calling for their removal. Latter-day Saint settlements also faced open hostility in 1838. After church members in Missouri experienced a series of injustices by their neighbors—including intimidation at the polls in , expulsion from the city of , and threats against the church settlement of —Joseph Smith and other church leaders called upon the Latter-day Saints to defend themselves. In October 1838, church members engaged in skirmishes with vigilantes and the Missouri militia, resulting in the destruction of property and loss of lives on both sides. Responding to the bloodshed, Missouri governor declared the Latter-day Saints enemies of the state and ordered that they be “exterminated or driven from the state.” Shortly thereafter, Smith was imprisoned for treason and other charges and held in state custody for nearly six months before escaping to . Joseph Smith’s experiences in Missouri left him anxious to protect himself and other Latter-day Saints from hostile forces. After the Illinois state legislature approved the act incorporating in 1840, Smith and other church leaders did so primarily by legal mechanisms—particularly the writ of and the Nauvoo courts—and the city’s independent militia unit, known as the .

Smith’s troubles with were far from over, however. Between June 1841 and July 1843, the governor of Missouri issued a requisition to the governor of for Smith’s extradition on three separate occasions, and these events significantly shaped the documentary record featured in Documents, Volume 13. During the 1841 and 1842 extradition attempts, Smith obtained writs of habeas corpus and successfully challenged the legality of his arrests in the Illinois Ninth Judicial Circuit Court and the federal circuit court in , Illinois, respectively. Despite failing to extradite Smith, Missouri officials, aided by excommunicated church member , persisted in their efforts. Smith was arrested again in June 1843, after Illinois governor honored the third extradition request, which was based on charges stemming from the 1838 conflict between Latter-day Saints and their neighbors in Missouri. With the aid of attorneys , , and , Smith obtained a writ of habeas corpus that temporarily stalled his extradition to Missouri. A week later, Smith and his attorneys obtained another writ from the Nauvoo Municipal Court, which discharged him after a hearing. Though writs of habeas corpus helped protect Joseph Smith from extradition to Missouri between 1841 and 1843, his repeated use of this legal procedure caused some Illinois residents to believe that he was manipulating the law to avoid justice. In many ways, the ever-present fear of arrest, extradition, and incarceration defined how Smith and other church leaders responded to the social and political crises that arose during the last five months of 1843.

Two incidents that occurred in midsummer 1843 contributed to rising tensions between the Latter-day Saints and their neighbors in western . On 7 August, Smith and other residents went to polling stations to vote in the Illinois congressional election. Latter-day Saints composed a majority of voters in the newly created sixth congressional district, and both the Whig and Democratic parties actively courted their votes. The Whigs nominated apparently to secure the Latter-day Saint vote.

Smith pledged to vote for Walker, but the day before the election he endorsed a revelation received by his brother indicating that church members should vote for the Democrat . Hoge won the election by a three-fourths majority. This angered local Whigs, who publicly declared that a “Revelation from Heaven . . . turned a majority against us.” One Whig newspaper explicitly alleged that “Mormons in the Sixth District were instructed to vote for Hoge.” The perception that the Latter-day Saints would vote en masse according to the whims of their leaders greatly disturbed and angered many Illinois residents. Latter-day Saints’ success in electing church members to several political offices in Hancock County—including , , and as county commissioner, school commissioner, and probate judge, respectively—further exacerbated the tension between them and other residents of Hancock County.

Joseph Smith’s growing political influence was not the only thing that troubled local residents: a violent altercation between Smith and tax collector in early August also reinforced the views of some who believed that Smith had no regard for the law or the civil officers who enforced it. Hostility between Bagby and Latter-day Saint leaders had been building since early 1842. Smith claimed that in March 1842 he paid property taxes on all the land owned by the church except one parcel, the taxes for which he asserted had already been paid. In March 1843, Bagby also questioned Smith’s personal secretary, , over alleged unpaid taxes, and later that year he seized a piece of Smith’s property and sold it to another resident. The two men engaged in a heated argument when Smith confronted Bagby about the property on 1 August 1843. After Bagby called him a liar and picked up a rock, Smith reportedly “struck him two or three times.” Bagby became a staunch enemy of Smith, determined to abase the Latter-day Saint leader. Bagby later informed his brother Charles Bagby that though he previously committed to visiting him in Kentucky, he felt “unwilling to leave the country now until I see the Arrogance of that abomination in human shape Joe Smith humbled low in the dust.”

The perceptions that Smith was “unwilling to submit to the ordinary restraints of law,” abused the power of habeas corpus during previous extradition attempts, and wielded undue political power and influence contributed to a growing tide of resentment on the part of and other residents of . In mid-August 1843, this opposition coalesced into the organization of a group of citizens who referred to themselves as “Anti-Mormons.” When the church members who were elected to political positions went to the county seat of , Illinois, to take their oaths of office on 12 August, they were met by more than fifteen citizens armed with “hickory clubbs— kn[i]ves. dirks and Pistols” who attempted to prevent them from taking their oaths. Failing to prevent the Latter-day Saints from taking office, the vigilantes planned an assembly “to consider about the morm[on]s retain[in]g their offices.” On 19 August, approximately two hundred citizens attended a “Great Meeting of Anti-Mormons” in an effort to facilitate Smith’s extradition to . At that meeting, a committee formed to draft a preamble and resolutions against the Latter-day Saints.

When they gathered again on 6 September, the self-proclaimed “Anti-Mormon Party”—which included , former Warsaw Signal editor , and militia colonel —unanimously adopted the committee’s resolutions and charged Joseph Smith with “a most shameless disregard for all the forms and restraints of Law.”

They resolved that if the governor of “would not surrender Joe Smith on the requisition of the Governor of . . . they would call in aid from other counties and other States to assist them in delivering him up.” The committee members further declared that they believed their lives were threatened by the Latter-day Saints and that they would “avenge any blood that might be shed” with violence. In language that echoed the words of other radical political movements and vigilantes—such as the resolutions of the citizens of a decade earlier—the Anti-Mormon Party resolved to resist any and all future wrongs imposed by Latter-day Saints “peaceably if we can, but forcibly if we must.”

The convention also “agreed not to obey the mandates of the Mormon officers of the county.” The Warsaw Message, edited by Thomas Gregg, gave the Anti-Mormon Party a strong public voice in the succeeding months by publishing its resolutions, later reprinting them in a special “extra” issue, and promoting the group’s activities around the state.

The Anti-Mormon Party’s public pronouncements—particularly that it would actively assist officials in extraditing Joseph Smith—rekindled old fears of mob violence and ushered in a state of heightened anxiety in . In mid-August, Smith received a message from attorney enclosing a letter from a friend in , Missouri. Patrick’s friend chastised him for defending Smith during the June 1843 extradition attempt and informed him that “if by her own authority cannot capture the prophet, it will be but a small matter to raise volunteers enough here to raze the city of Nauvoo to the ground.” Smith forwarded the correspondence to , noting that the Latter-day Saints did not fear an armed incursion into Nauvoo and that they stood ready to defend the honor of the governor and the state “when any danger actually threatens.” In the ensuing months, Smith corresponded regularly with Ford, keeping him abreast of potential threats from Missouri and from Illinois citizens whom Smith characterized as a “mobocratic insurrection.” Ford largely dismissed the threat of an armed incursion by Missourians but conceded that they would likely adopt “some other mode of annoyance.”

While the size and strength of the allowed Joseph Smith to feel confident that it could defend the against a full-scale attack, the Latter-day Saints’ sufferings in cast a long shadow over Smith during this period. For nearly ten years, he and other church leaders had unsuccessfully petitioned Missouri officials and federal authorities for redress for the persecutions and property losses the Latter-day Saints endured in Missouri between 1833 and 1839.

When church leaders petitioned Congress in early 1840, for example, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary ruled that the federal government had no jurisdiction over the case and that “the petitioners must seek relief in the courts of judicature of the State of Missouri, or of the .” Frustrated by this kind of rationale, Times and Seasons editor lamented in October 1843, “We have memorialized Congress, but they have turned a deaf ear to our supplication and referred us again to the state, and justice (!!!) of Missouri.”

Undaunted, Smith and other church leaders renewed their efforts to petition the federal government for reparation by drafting two additional memorials to Congress during late fall and early winter 1843. As part of a broader strategy to obtain justice, they also published appeals addressed to the citizenry of several eastern states and wrote letters to five potential candidates for the presidency of the to ascertain “what their course would be towards the sai[n]ts if they were elected” in 1844.

Three candidates replied with terse, noncommittal responses. Whig candidate —initially a favorite of Joseph Smith, who had declared himself a “Clay man” two months earlier—responded in mid-November, stating that while he sympathized with the Latter-day Saints’ “sufferings under injustice,” he could “enter into no engagements, make no promises, give no pledges, to any particular portion of the people of the U. States.” In early December, Democrat reiterated the Senate’s previous position when he told Smith that the Latter-day Saints’ case did not “come within the Jurisdiction of the Federal government, which is one of limited and specific powers.” Democrat declared that he did not think the president had the power to award redress when the state of and Congress had rejected it. Frustrated by their disappointing answers, Smith instructed to respond to Cass and Calhoun in late December and “shew them the folly of keeping p[e]ople out of their right and that there was power in governme[n]t to redress wrongs.”

As Latter-day Saint leaders appealed to government authorities for redress and deliberated over how to respond to threats of mob violence, a new, more imminent crisis materialized in early December. Several weeks earlier, a group of Missourians kidnapped resident for allegedly stealing horses from a resident of Clark County, Missouri. The Missourians seized Avery and took him across the , where he was detained and coerced into signing a confession that also implicated his father, , a member of the church also living in Hancock County. On 2 December, Hancock County militia colonel and a mob of church opponents from and seized Daniel Avery and forcibly carried him across the river into Missouri. Like his son, Daniel Avery was brought before a Missouri judge and incarcerated while he awaited trial. News of the two abductions reached on 5 December.

The Avery kidnappings set in motion a series of events that had long-lasting repercussions for Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints. Fears that additional church members could be seized and transported to at any time were compounded by erroneous reports that the governor of Missouri had issued another requisition for Smith’s arrest. Smith and the City Council took decisive action. On 8 December, the council passed a radical ordinance to protect Smith and other Latter-day Saints from abduction or arrest. Acting in his capacity as mayor and commanding general, Smith also issued orders to mobilize the to defend the city’s residents. In mid-December, the council enacted additional ordinances, which authorized the creation of a full-time municipal police force and required all legal officers seeking to arrest or subpoena individuals in Nauvoo to first go through the mayor. On 18 December, constable arrested , a participant in ’s kidnapping. Later that day, Joseph Smith authorized and a contingent of the to arrest Elliott’s coconspirator . Militia members returned to Nauvoo when Williams, who was a prominent member of the Anti-Mormon Party, assembled an armed mob to resist arrest. Nauvoo residents later engaged in vigilante activities to prevent witnesses from testifying against and Daniel Avery in Missouri.

Though overt hostilities subsided somewhat by the end of December, the actions Smith and the Latter-day Saints took to protect themselves inflamed tensions with Williams and the Anti-Mormon Party.

The fear generated by the Avery kidnappings, combined with the noncommittal responses from the presidential candidates, persuaded Joseph Smith and other municipal leaders to once again petition the nation’s highest legislative body for redress. In early December, Smith convened a special session of the city council to pass legislation in response to the kidnappings. During the meeting, he proposed to “petition congress to take the under their protecti[o]n.” The council formed a committee to draft a new memorial to Congress. In the memorial’s final draft, which the city council approved in late December, the Latter-day Saints petitioned for redress as they had in other memorials. In this memorial, however, they also boldly requested that Congress grant the city of the powers and rights of a federal territory to ensure the protection of its citizens, including the power to call upon federal troops to defend the city against threats, real and imagined, from Missourians—a unique request. Smith and others apparently hoped that if Nauvoo gained the rights and powers of a federal territory, national leaders would be compelled to intervene in state affairs in order to protect the rights of a persecuted minority. The city council later commissioned church apostle to take the memorial to .

Amid the political and social developments that occurred between August and December 1843, 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 , the , and eternal covenants. In August 1843, for example, he gave a funeral discourse in which he stated that parents could be sealed, or linked, to their children by entering into an everlasting covenant. While speaking about the different orders of the priesthood in late August, he taught that the , unlike the , held the to “administer[i]ng endless lives to the sons and daughte[r]s of Adam, kingly powe[r]s. of ano[i]nting.”

In private, Smith continued to administer to a select group of church members sacred rituals, or , intended for the then under construction. Contemporaneous accounts refer to meetings of this group by a variety of names, including “prayer meeting,” “,” “council,” and once as “council of the quorum.”

The first meeting of this council occurred in May 1842, when Smith taught nine men about “ & , , and the communications of keys . . . & all those plans & principles by which any one is enabled to secure the fulness of those blessings which has been prepared for the , 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 . &c. &c.” in connection with some council members receiving an additional ordinance that sealed them to their spouses for eternity.

Smith introduced another important ordinance to the council in September 1843. On 28 September, Joseph and his wife were “anointed & to the highest and holiest order of the priesthood.” Other members of the council eventually received the same ordinance, which referred to in his journal as a “Second Anointing.” Beginning in October, other women received the ordinance and began regularly attending meetings of the council. In addition to participating in sacred rituals, the growing number of church members invited to attend these meetings prayed together and received instruction from Joseph Smith about teachings and doctrines associated with the .

Closely associated with Joseph Smith’s teachings about eternal marriage was the doctrine of plural marriage. Smith began practicing plural marriage in 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 , the daughter of and Parmelia Darrow Lott, caretakers of Smith’s Nauvoo , and fifty-six-year-old , a widow and elder sister of church apostle .

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 12 July, 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.”

This revelation circulated among a small number of prominent Latter-day Saints in July and August and elicited varied reactions. Most of those who were taught the doctrine of plural marriage during this time eventually came to accept the revelation, and some participated in the practice in the months that followed. On 12 August, read the revelation to the and presidency and then admonished them to accept it. According to later affidavits, most of those present received the doctrine favorably. , , and , however, reportedly “refused to receive said Revelation as from God.”

, a counselor in the , was likewise troubled by the new doctrine. After receiving a copy of the revelation, Law apparently met with Joseph Smith to discuss his reservations about the doctrine. “We talked a long time about it,” Law later recalled, and “finally our discussion became very hot and we gave it up.” Law’s opposition to the practice of plural marriage was apparently a poorly kept secret in late 1843, and it eventually became one of the central tenets of his vociferous opposition to Smith.

Though at times accepted or at least tolerated her husband’s practice of plural marriage, later testified that Emma Smith grew resentful “soon after” Joseph Smith was sealed to Partridge and her in mid-May.

According to , when Joseph Smith and read the 12 July revelation to Emma Smith, she “did not believe a word of it and appeared very rebellious.” Several days later, after a copy of the revelation was made, she destroyed the original dictated text. Clayton also noted that after Emma Smith returned from on 12 August, she resisted the doctrine of plural marriage “in toto” and Joseph Smith worried that she would “obtain a divorce & leave him.” Joseph Smith’s relationships with some of his plural wives continued to generate hard feelings between him and Emma in the weeks that followed.

On 31 August, Clayton noted in his journal that Emma Smith became “very jealouse” when Joseph Smith read aloud a letter from traveling , which discussed the fallout from a possible plural marriage proposal by Smith to branch member . Tensions between Joseph and Emma Smith apparently eased by October.

Other documents created during fall 1843 allude to the ways that church members discussed the practice of plural marriage or how Joseph Smith regulated it. Addressing rumors circulating in in October 1843, Smith told a group of Latter-day Saints to “set our women to work & stop th[e]ir spinni[n]g street yarn and talking about spiritual wives.” In late November, the Nauvoo high council tried church member after Smith accused him of seducing a young girl and claiming that Smith sanctioned such behavior. It is possible Smith taught Sagers about the doctrine of plural marriage, but it is unclear whether Smith authorized Sagers to practice it. The high council ultimately ruled that the charge was “not sustained.” Smith’s charges and the decision rendered by the high council suggest that Smith was not always successful in controlling the practice of plural marriage or putting down imitations of it.

Another source of internal tension during this period was Joseph Smith’s deteriorating relationship with his longtime counselor in the First Presidency . In early 1843, Smith received intelligence suggesting that Rigdon was in league with former church member in an effort to extradite Smith to . Smith threatened to have Rigdon disfellowshipped in March, but it was not until he received additional information in early August that Smith took more decisive action. In a mid-August discourse, Smith asserted that “a certain man in this city . . . has made a covena[n]t to bretray and give me up.” Smith then proposed that the congregation withdraw fellowship from Rigdon and that he “no longer be acknowledged as my counselor.” Smith temporarily suspended Rigdon’s priesthood and was so certain that the congregation would vote at an upcoming to drop Rigdon from the First Presidency that he privately installed as his replacement. However, when Smith expressed his dissatisfaction with Rigdon at the church’s semiannual conference held in early October, , , and came to Rigdon’s defense, and the congregation voted to retain him. Smith’s alienation from Rigdon and Law, two of his counselors in the First Presidency, epitomized the discord that was taking root within the church.

Even amid this turmoil, the days surrounding Christmas 1843 were characterized by domestic tranquility and joyous celebration for Joseph Smith. On 22 December, he spent a portion of his morning reading to his children, and on the following day he devoted time to “attending to . . . domestic duties [and] making preparations for a Christmas dinner party.” In the early morning hours of Christmas Day, Smith and his family were aroused by carolers, which, according to his history, “caused a thrill of pleasure to run thro[ugh] my soul.” In the afternoon, Joseph and hosted around fifty couples at a gala held in the . Smith’s journal noted that he, Emma, and their guests “spent the evening in Music Danci[n]g &c. in a most cheerful & frie[n]dly mannr during the festivities.” The cheery mood continued through the evening and following day when and arrived in after being released from prisons in . The Smith family was again serenaded by a large choir when the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Day, and the next evening, Joseph and Emma hosted another large gathering, complete with music and dancing, that lasted late into the night.

Though the holiday season generated good feelings and a spirit of celebration, fears about mob abduction and treachery from within were never far from the surface. On 29 December, the city council convened a special session to administer oaths of office to the city’s new police force. During the meeting, Joseph Smith as mayor instructed the new recruits on their duties to prevent theft, enforce city ordinances, and protect citizens; he also counseled them to “be at peace with all men so long as they will let us alone.” He then addressed another potential threat, solemnly telling the men, “I think my life more in danger from some little doe head of a fool in the city than from all the volobulory of enemies abroad, and if I can escape the hand of an assassin I can live as might Caesar, have lived if . . . [it] had not been for a Brutus.” He continued, “I have . . . pretended friends who have betrayed me as I am informed.”

Following the meeting, rumors began to circulate that the city’s police force had taken a private oath to defend Smith and oppose his enemies.

Though Smith had not identified the “doe head” or “Brutus” by name, some of the police were informed or assumed that it was either or because of their opposition to plural marriage. Several days later, when the city council met to sort rumor from fact, Smith vigorously denied allegations that he directed some of the police to secretly put Law “out of the way.” The rumors and misunderstandings that stemmed from Smith’s 29 December remarks proved fatal to his relationship with his second counselor. Law and his wife, , were conspicuously absent from a 30 December prayer meeting, and William Law stated in his journal several days later that though he did not consider Smith an enemy, “I did not say I was his friend.”

The documents featured in this volume of The Joseph Smith Papers underscore the growth and relative prosperity of the Latter-day Saint community centered in , as well as the growing religious, political, and social influence of the church and its members in western and abroad. They also demonstrate 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 and Illinois persisted in a relentless push to “sweep Mormonism and its founder into nothingness.” The tumultuous events of fall and early winter 1843, such as the rise of the Anti-Mormon Party and the nascent opposition to plural marriage by and others, laid the foundation for the explosive conflict that erupted in 1844 and culminated in the murder of Joseph and .

1
Interview, 29 Aug. 1843; “Not the Prophet,” or “N. T. P.,” Nauvoo, IL, 25 Dec. 1843, Letter to the Editor, Nauvoo Neighbor, 27 Dec. 1843, [3].
Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.
2
See, for example, Letter from Fayette Mace, 7 Oct. 1843; Letter from Osee Welch, 25 Oct. 1843; Letter from James Arlington Bennet, 24 Oct. 1843; Letter from John V. Curtis, 27 Nov. 1843; and Letters from Newton E. French and James H. Seymour, 27 Dec. 1843.
3
Letter from Paicouchaiby and Other Potawatomi, ca. 14 Aug. 1843; Letter to Paicouchaiby and Other Potawatomi, 28 Aug. 1843.
4
No reliable population data exists for Nauvoo in fall 1843, as contemporary estimates were often inflated. In January 1843, Smith told Springfield, Illinois, judge Nathaniel Pope that the city had about twelve thousand inhabitants; in July, a visitor estimated that Nauvoo had between fifteen thousand and eighteen thousand inhabitants. An early 1842 census of Nauvoo church members indicated that the city then had a population of approximately four thousand; an 1845 state census counted eleven thousand people living in the city. Given the high rate of immigration in 1842 and 1843, the city population was likely near the latter figure. (JS, Journal, 5 Jan. 1843; “Correspondence of the Journal of Commerce,” New York Journal of Commerce [New York City], 2 Aug. 1843, [2]; “Nauvoo and Joe Smith,” New-Haven [CT] Daily Herald, 14 Aug. 1843, [2]; Nauvoo Stake, Ward Census, 1842, CHL; Black, “How Large Was the Population of Nauvoo?,” 91–93.)
New York Journal of Commerce. New York City. 1827–1893.
New-Haven Daily Herald. New Haven, CT. 1841–1848.
Nauvoo Ward Census, 1842. CHL. LR 3102 27.
Black, Susan Easton. “How Large Was the Population of Nauvoo?” BYU Studies 35, no. 2 (1995): 91–94.
5
Susannah Law Taggart and George W. Taggart, Nauvoo, IL, to Samuel W. Taggart et al., Peterborough, NH, 6 and 10 Sept. 1843, Albert Taggart, Correspondence, CHL.
Taggart, Albert. Correspondence, 1842–1848, 1860. CHL.
6
“Nauvoo and Joe Smith,” New-Haven (CT) Daily Herald, 14 Aug. 1843, [2].
New-Haven Daily Herald. New Haven, CT. 1841–1848.
7
JS, Journal, 12 May and 8 July 1843; George Miller, St. James, MI, to “Dear Brother,” 27 June 1855, in Northern Islander, 23 Aug. 1855, [1]–[2].
Northern Islander. St. James, MI. 1850–1856.
8
JS, Journal, 12 May 1843; Ship Registers and Enrollments of New Orleans, Louisiana, 4:173; see also Notice, 26 Aug. 1843; Letter and Pay Order to Lucian Adams, 2 Oct. 1843; Letter from Erastus Derby, 9 Oct. 1843; Lease to David S. Hollister, 2 Dec. 1843; and Clayton, Journal, 2 and 4 Oct. 1843.
Ship Registers and Enrollments of New Orleans, Louisiana. 6 vols. University, LA: Louisiana State University, 1941.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
9
JS, Journal, 31 Aug. 1843; 15 Sept. 1843; 3 Oct. 1843; Robert D. Foster, “Pleasure Party, and Dinner at ‘Nauvoo Mansion,’” Nauvoo Neighbor, 4 Oct. 1843, [3].
Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.
10
Account Entries, July and Aug. 1843, Daybook A, 1842–1845, 238, Nauvoo House Association, Records, CHL.
Nauvoo House Association. Daybook, 1841–1843. Nauvoo House Association, Records, 1841–1846. CHL.
11
Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 5–6, 15, 23, 32, 40–41, 92–100.
Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, ca. 1845. CHL. MS 3365.
12
See, for example, JS, Journal, 21 May and 16 July 1843; Discourse, 13 Aug. 1843–A; Discourse, 17 Sept. 1843; and Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 37–38.
Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, ca. 1845. CHL. MS 3365.
13
Discourse, 27 Aug. 1843; Minutes and Discourses, 6–9 Oct. 1843; Discourse, 15 Oct. 1843.
14
“Joseph Smith Documents from September 1839 through January 1841”; “Joseph Smith Documents from February through November 1841”; Letter from Parley P. Pratt, 4 Dec. 1841; Editorial, Times and Seasons, 2 May 1842, 3:780; Historical Introduction to Letter from Reuben Hedlock, 4 Oct. 1843; “Emigration,” Millennial Star, Sept. 1840, 1:136; Revelation, 19 Jan. 1841 [D&C 124]; Proclamation, 15 Jan. 1841; JS et al., “A Proclamation, to the Saints Scattered Abroad,” Millennial Star, Mar. 1841, 1:269–274.
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
15
See, for example, Pay Order to Lucien Woodworth for Daniel Luce, 17 Aug. 1843; Discourse, 15 Oct. 1843; Letter from Thomas Ward and Hiram Clark, 3 Oct. 1843; Letter from Reuben Hedlock, 4 Oct. 1843; Letter from Reuben Hedlock, 16–17 Oct. 1843; and Letter from Jared Carter, 14 Oct. 1843.
16
Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C 57].
17
“To His Excellency, Daniel Dunklin,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 114, italics in original. For more information on the expulsion from Jackson County, Missouri, see “Joseph Smith Documents from February 1833 through March 1834.”
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
18
See “Joseph Smith Documents from October 1835 through January 1838.”.
19
“Joseph Smith Documents from February 1838 through August 1839”; Corrill, Brief History, 35–38; Foote, Reminiscences, no date, CHL; “Part 3: 4 Nov. 1838–16 Apr. 1839”; Lilburn W. Boggs, Jefferson City, MO, to John B. Clark, Fayette, MO, 27 Oct. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City.
Foote, Warren. Reminiscences, no date. CHL.
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
20
“Joseph Smith Documents from September 1839 through January 1841.”
21
Requisition, 1 Sept. 1840, State of Missouri v. JS for Treason (Warren Co. Cir. Ct. 1841), JS Extradition Records, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield, IL; “Joe Smith Arrested,” Warsaw (IL) Signal, 9 June 1841, [2]; “The Late Proceedings,” Times and Seasons, 15 June 1841, 2:447–449; JS, Journal, 8 Aug. 1842; Court Ruling, 5 Jan. 1843; Thomas Ford, Order Discharging JS, 6 Jan. 1843; see also “Joseph Smith Documents from February through November 1841”; “Joseph Smith Documents from May through August 1842”; and “Joseph Smith Documents from September 1842 through February 1843”; see also Historical Introduction to Extradition of JS et al. for Treason and Other Crimes; and Historical Introduction to Extradition of JS for Accessory to Assault.
Warsaw Signal. Warsaw, IL. 1841–1853.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
22
John C. Bennett, Springfield, IL, to Sidney Rigdon and Orson Pratt, 10 Jan. [1843], copy, JS Collection (Supplement), CHL; Samuel C. Owens, Independence, MO, to Thomas Ford, 10 June 1843, copy, JS Office Papers, CHL.
23
Clayton, Journal, 23 June 1843; Edward Southwick, St. Louis, MO, 12 July 1843, Letter to the Editor, Old School Democrat and Saint Louis Herald, 12 July 1843, [2]; Affidavit, 24 June 1843; see also “Part 4: June–July 1843”; and Historical Introduction to Extradition of JS for Treason.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
Old School Democrat and Saint Louis Herald. St Louis, MO. 1843–1844.
24
JS, Journal, 30 June 1843; Municipal Court, Minutes, 1 July 1843, Extradition of JS for Treason (Nauvoo Mun. Ct. 1843), JS Collection, CHL; see also Clayton, Journal, 30 June 1843.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
25
“Great Meeting of Anti-Mormons!,” Warsaw (IL) Message, 13 Sept. 1843, [1]–[2].
Warsaw Message. Warsaw, IL. 1843–1844.
26
An Act to Establish Seven Congressional Districts [1 Mar. 1843], Laws of the State of Illinois [1843], p. 72, sec. 2; Elihu B. Washburne, Statement, 18 Feb. 1886, pp. 1–2, typescript, Collection of Manuscripts about Mormons, 1832–1954, Chicago History Museum; Gregg, History of Hancock County, Illinois, 290; Ford, History of Illinois, 314, 317–319.
General Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Eighteenth General Assembly, Convened January 3, 1853. Springfield: Lanphier and Walker, 1853.
Collection of Manuscripts about Mormons, 1832–1954. Chicago History Museum.
Gregg, Thomas. History of Hancock County, Illinois, Together with an Outline History of the State, and a Digest of State Laws. Chicago: Charles C. Chapman, 1880.
Ford, Thomas. A History of Illinois, from Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847. Containing a Full Account of the Black Hawk War, the Rise, Progress, and Fall of Mormonism, the Alton and Lovejoy Riots, and Other Important and Interesting Events. Chicago: S. C. Griggs; New York: Ivison and Phinney, 1854.
27
Discourse, 6 Aug. 1843.
28
“The Ottawa Free Trader,” Warsaw (IL) Message, 6 Sept. 1843, [2], italics in original. Hoge won 74 percent of the popular vote in Hancock County, which had the largest population in the voting district. In comparison, the next highest margin of victory for Hoge was in Lee County, where he won 54 percent of the vote. (Pease, Illinois Election Returns, 1818–1848, 140.)
Warsaw Message. Warsaw, IL. 1843–1844.
Pease, Theodore Calvin, ed. Illinois Election Returns, 1818–1848. Springfield, Illinois: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923.
29
Editorial, Warsaw (IL) Message, 4 Oct. 1843, [2].
Warsaw Message. Warsaw, IL. 1843–1844.
30
“Official Returns,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 16 Aug. 1843, [2]; “Great Meeting of Anti-Mormons!,” Warsaw (IL) Message, 13 Sept. 1843, [1]–[2].
Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.
Warsaw Message. Warsaw, IL. 1843–1844.
31
“Great Meeting of Anti-Mormons!,” Warsaw (IL) Message, 13 Sept. 1843, [1]–[2].
Warsaw Message. Warsaw, IL. 1843–1844.
32
The property in question was in “the City & Town of commerce,” which Smith contended was subsumed by the city of Nauvoo. Smith’s written history characterized Bagby’s attempt to collect taxes on this property as a ruse “by our enemies on the tax list for the purpose of getting more money from the saints.” (JS, Journal, 2 Mar. 1842; Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 2 Mar. 1842, 5.)
33
[Walter Bagby], Warsaw, IL, to Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, 10 Mar. 1843; Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to Walter Bagby, Warsaw, IL, 14 Mar. 1843, copy, Willard Richards, Journals and Papers, CHL; JS History, vol. E-1, 1714; see also Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 5 Sept. 1843, 67.
Richards, Willard. Subscription Notebook, Aug. 1843. Willard Richards, Journals and Papers, 1821–1854. CHL.
34
Clayton, Journal, 1 Aug. 1843; see also Jacob B. Backenstos, Deposition, Hancock Co., IL, 1 Aug. 1843, Helen Vilate Bourne Fleming, Collection, 1836–1963, CHL; and Historical Introduction to Discourse, 13 Aug. 1843–B.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
Fleming, Helen Vilate Bourne. Collection, 1836–1963. CHL. MS 9670.
35
Walter Bagby, Carthage, IL, to Charles D. Bagby, Glasgow, KY, 26 Nov. 1843, Bagby-Rogers-Wood-Fishback Family Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington.
Bagby-Rogers-Wood-Fishback Family Papers, 1805–1910. Special Collections, Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington.
36
“Great Meeting of Anti-Mormons!,” Warsaw (IL) Message, 13 Sept. 1843, [1]–[2].
Warsaw Message. Warsaw, IL. 1843–1844.
37
Notice, Warsaw (IL) Message, 13 Sept. 1843, [2]; “The Illinois Statesman,” Warsaw Message, 4 Oct. 1843, [2]; “Meeting at Green Plains,” Warsaw Message, 3 Jan. 1844, [2].
Warsaw Message. Warsaw, IL. 1843–1844.
38
JS, Journal, 12 and 19 Aug. 1843; “Great Meeting of Anti-Mormons!,” Warsaw (IL) Message, 13 Sept. 1843, [1]–[2].
Warsaw Message. Warsaw, IL. 1843–1844.
39
“Great Meeting of Anti-Mormons!,” Warsaw (IL) Message, 13 Sept. 1843, [1]–[2]. Organized in mid-1841, this group was variously referred to as the “Anti-Mormon Party,” “Anti-Mormon Convention,” or simply as “anti-Mormons.” Members largely abandoned the party in early 1843 before reorganizing it in August 1843. (“Anti-Mormon Meeting,” Warsaw [IL] Signal, 23 June 1841, [3]; “Marcellus,” “To the Citizens of Hancock County,” Warsaw Signal, 28 July 1841, [3]; Letter to Thomas Ford, 21 Aug. 1843; “Great Meeting of Anti-Mormons!,” Warsaw Message, 13 Sept. 1843, [1]; “A Rasp,” “Rev. John Harper,” Warsaw Message, 4 Oct. 1843, [2]; Gregg, History of Hancock County, Illinois, 290, 299.)
Warsaw Message. Warsaw, IL. 1843–1844.
Gregg, Thomas. History of Hancock County, Illinois, Together with an Outline History of the State, and a Digest of State Laws. Chicago: Charles C. Chapman, 1880.
40
“The Mormons,” New York Herald (New York City), 23 Sept. 1843, [1]; “Joe Smith in Danger,” New York Herald, 27 Sept. 1843, [2].
New York Herald. New York City. 1835–1924.
41
Letter from John Whitmer, 29 July 1833; “Great Meeting of Anti-Mormons!,” Warsaw (IL) Message, 13 Sept. 1843, [1]. Politicians, labor leaders, and social reformers in the United States and England had recited variations of this phrase since at least the early nineteenth century. (Henry Clay, Speech to House of Representatives, 8 Jan. 1813, Annals of the Congress, 12th Cong., 2nd Sess., vol. 25, p. 665 [1813]; Hartz, “Seth Luther,” 407; Pickering, “Political Violence and Insurrection in Early-Victorian Britain,” 114–133.)
Warsaw Message. Warsaw, IL. 1843–1844.
Annals of the Congress of the United States. Twelfth Congress.—Second Session: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States . . . Comprising the Period from November 2, 1812, to March 3, 1813, Inclusive. Vol. 25. Washington DC: Gales and Seaton, 1853.
Hartz, Louis. “Seth Luther: The Story of a Working-Class Rebel.” New England Quarterly 13, no. 3 (Sept. 1940): 401–418.
Pickering, Paul. “‘Peaceably If We Can, Forcibly If We Must’: Political Violence and In- surrection in Early-Victorian Britain.” In Terror: From Tyrannicide to Terrorism in Europe. Edited by Brett Bowden and Michael T. Davis. St. Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland Press, 2008.
42
“The Mormons,” New York Herald (New York City), 23 Sept. 1843, [1].
New York Herald. New York City. 1835–1924.
43
See, for example, “Notice,” Warsaw (IL) Message, 6 Sept. 1843, [2]; “Great Meeting of Anti-Mormons!,” Warsaw Message, 13 Sept. 1843, [1]–[2]; “Anti-Mormon Meeting at Green Plains,” Warsaw Message, 27 Sept. 1843, [1]; “Meeting at St. Marys,” Warsaw Message, 1 Nov. 1843, [2]; and “The Proceedings of the Anti-Mormon Convention,” Warsaw Message, 27 Sept. 1843, [2]. The newspaper, which Gregg himself characterized as a “Whig Paper—a Clay, Anti-Free Trade, Anti-Sub-Treasury, Anti-Mormon, & Anti-all-other Humbug paper,” sold copies of a special extra containing the 6 September meeting’s proceedings at the printing office. (“The Mormon Question,” Warsaw Message, 27 Sept. 1843, [2], italics in original; Notice, Warsaw Message, 27 Sept. 1843, [2].)
Warsaw Message. Warsaw, IL. 1843–1844.
44
Letter to Thomas Ford, 21 Aug. 1843.
45
Letter from Thomas Ford, 13 Sept. 1843; Letter to Thomas Ford, ca. 20 Sept. 1843; Letter to Thomas Ford, 16 Oct. 1843.
46
Sidney Gilbert et al., Liberty, MO, to Andrew Jackson, Washington DC, 10 Apr. 1834, copy, William W. Phelps, Collection of Missouri Documents, CHL; “Joseph Smith Documents from September 1839 through January 1841”; Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840; “Latter-day Saints,” Alias Mormons: The Petition of the Latter-day Saints, Commonly Known as Mormons, House of Representatives doc. no. 22, 26th Cong., 2nd Sess. (1840); Elias Higbee et al., Memorial to Congress, 10 Jan. 1842, photocopy, Material Relating to Mormon Expulsion from Missouri, CHL.
Phelps, William W. Collection of Missouri Documents, 1833–1837. CHL. MS 657.
Material Relating to Mormon Expulsion from Missouri, 1839–1843. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2145.
47
Report of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 4 Mar. 1840.
48
“Who Shall Be Our Next President?,” Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1843, 4:343, italics in original.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
49
JS et al., Memorial to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 28 Nov. 1843, Record Group 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives, Washington DC; Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 16 Dec. 1843–12 Feb. 1844; JS, Journal, 21 Nov. 1843; Minutes, 29 Nov. 1843; JS, Journal, 2 Nov. 1843; Letter to John C. Calhoun, 4 Nov. 1843; for examples of appeals to citizens of eastern states, see General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys, 21 Nov.–ca. 3 Dec. 1843; Pratt, Appeal to the Inhabitants of the State of New York, 1–6; Sidney Rigdon, “To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, in Legislative Capacity Assembled,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 31 Jan. 1844, [1]; and Phineas Richards, “An Appeal, to the Inhabitants of Massachusetts,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 7 Feb. 1844, [2]; see also Historical Introduction to Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, 28 Nov. 1843.
Pratt, Parley P. An Appeal to the Inhabitants of the State of New York, Letter to Queen Victoria: (Reprinted from the Tenth European Edition,): The Fountain of Knowledge, Immortality of the Body, and Intelligence and Affection. Nauvoo, IL: John Taylor, 1844.
Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.
50
Letter from Henry Clay, 15 Nov. 1843; see also Interview, 29 Aug. 1843. Lewis Cass similarly declared, “I think then that the Mormonites should be treated as all other persons are treated in this Country.” (Letter from Lewis Cass, 9 Dec. 1843.)
51
Letter from John C. Calhoun, 2 Dec. 1843.
52
Letter from Lewis Cass, 9 Dec. 1843.
53
JS, Journal, 27 Dec. 1843.
54
“Part 5: December 1843.”
55
Historical Introduction to Affidavit from Dellmore Chapman and Letter to Thomas Ford, 6 Dec. 1843.
56
Minutes, 8 Dec. 1843; Ordinance, 8 Dec. 1843; Military Order to Wilson Law, 8 Dec. 1843.
57
Ordinance, 12 Dec. 1843–A; Ordinance, 21 Dec. 1843.
58
JS, Journal, 18 Dec. 1843; Military Order to Wilson Law, 18 Dec. 1843–A; Clayton, Journal, 19 Dec. 1843.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
59
On 21 December 1843, a group of church members traveled to Iowa to detain Mark Childs and Ebenezer Richardson and prevent them from testifying against Daniel Avery in Missouri. The men apparently captured Richardson in Montrose, Iowa Territory, but he escaped before they could ferry him across the river to Nauvoo. (JS, Journal, 21 Dec. 1843; Charles Shumway, Report, ca. 1843, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL; Jackson, Narrative, 15–19.)
Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.
Jackson, Joseph H. A Narrative of the Adventures and Experience of Joseph H. Jackson, in Nauvoo. Disclosing the Depths of Mormon Villainy. Warsaw, IL: By the author, 1844.
60
Affidavit from Orson Hyde, 28 Dec. 1843.
61
JS, Journal, 8 Dec. 1843; Minutes, 8 Dec. 1843.
62
Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 16 Dec. 1843–12 Feb. 1844; Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 12 Feb. 1844, 2.
63
Discourse, 6 Aug. 1843; Discourse, 13 Aug. 1843–A; Discourse, 13 Aug. 1843–B; Discourse, 27 Aug. 1843; Discourse, 17 Sept. 1843; Minutes and Discourses, 6–9 Oct. 1843; Discourse, 15 Oct. 1843; Discourse, 9 Dec. 1843; Minutes and Discourse, 29 Dec. 1843.
64
Discourse, 13 Aug. 1843–A, p. 38 herein.
65
Discourse, 27 Aug. 1843.
66
See, for example, JS, Journal, 4–5 May and 26–28 June 1842; JS, Journal, 26 and 28–29 May 1843; 28 Sept. 1843; 1, 4, 8, 22, 27, and 29 Oct. 1843; 5, 12, and 15 Nov. 1843; 2 Dec. 1843; Woodruff, Journal, 2–3 and 30–31 Dec. 1843; 14 and 25 Jan 1844; 4 and 25–26 Feb. 1844; 8 and 21 Mar. 1844; 25 and 28 Apr. 1844; and Clayton, Journal, 10–11 and 25 Feb. 1844; 3, 19, 21, and 26 Mar. 1844; 18 and 25 Apr. 1844; 23 and 25 May 1844. Heber C. Kimball, a member of this council, described the group as “a small company” to whom Joseph Smith could “open his bosom . . . and feel him self safe,” while William Clayton referred to it on occasion as “the quorum of anointing” or the “Quorum of Priesthood.” (Heber C. Kimball, Nauvoo, IL, to Parley P. Pratt and Mary Ann Frost Pratt, “Manchester or Liverpool,” England, 17 June 1842, p. [1], Parley P. Pratt, Correspondence, CHL; Clayton, Journal, 2 Dec. 1843; 3 Feb. 1844.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
Pratt, Parley P. Correspondence, 1842–1855. CHL. MS 897.
67
JS, Journal, 4 May 1842; Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 4 May 1842, 11.
68
JS, Journal, 26 May 1843; Historian’s Office, Brigham Young History Drafts, 69. Between 28 and 29 May, Joseph and Emma Smith, James and Harriet Denton Adams, Hyrum and Mary Fielding Smith, Brigham and Mary Ann Angell Young, and Willard and Jennetta Richards Richards were sealed as couples for eternity. (JS, Journal, 28 and 29 May 1843.)
Historian’s Office. Brigham Young History Drafts, 1856–1858. CHL. CR 100 475, box 1, fd. 5.
69
JS, Journal, 28 Sept. 1843; JS, Journal, 23 July 1843.
70
Woodruff, Journal, 28 Sept. 1843; “Nauvoo Journals, May 1843–June 1844.”
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
71
See, for example, JS, Journal, 28 Sept. 1843; 1, 4, 8, 22, 27, and 29 Oct. 1843; 5, 12, and 15 Nov. 1843; 2 Dec. 1843; and Kimball, Journal, “Strange Events,” Jan. 1844.
Kimball, Heber C. Journals, 1837–1848. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL.
72
Smith’s first plural wife was likely Fanny Alger, a young woman who was sealed to him in Kirtland in the mid-1830s. On 5 April 1841, Louisa Beman became the first plural wife sealed to Smith in Nauvoo. (Historical Introduction to Letter from Thomas B. Marsh, 15 Feb. 1838; Joseph Bates Noble, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, 26 June 1869, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1:3; Historical Introduction to Revelation, 12 July 1843 [D&C 132].)
Smith, Joseph F. Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1869–1915. CHL. MS 3423.
73
Clayton, Journal, 2 Dec. 1843; Bergera, “Identifying the Earliest Mormon Polygamists, 1841–44,” 1–45, 52–74.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
Bergera, Gary James. “Identifying the Earliest Mormon Polygamists, 1841–44.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 38, no. 3 (Fall 2005): 1–74.
74
Historical Introduction to Revelation, 12 July 1843 [D&C 132].
75
JS was sealed to Malissa Lott on 20 or 27 September 1843 and to Fanny Young Murray on 2 November 1843. (Malissa Lott Willes, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, 20 May 1869, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1:23; Malissa Lott Willes, Testimony, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, [17 Mar. 1892], p. 95, questions 63–65, in United States Circuit Court [8th Circuit], Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints v. Church of Christ of Independence, Missouri, et al. [C.C.W.D. Mo. 1894], typescript, Testimonies and Depositions, CHL; Andrew Jenson, “Miscellaneous,” Historical Record, Dec. 1886, 5:119; Augusta Adams Young, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, 12 July 1869, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1:52; George A. Smith, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to Joseph Smith III, 9 Oct. 1869, in Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 2, pp. 892–894; “Remarks,” and “Obituary,” Deseret News [Salt Lake City], 29 June 1859, 130, 136.)
Smith, Joseph F. Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1869–1915. CHL. MS 3423.
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints v. Church of Christ of Independence, Missouri, et al. (C.C.W.D. Mo. 1894). Typescript. Testimonies and Depositions, 1892. Typescript. CHL.
The Historical Record, a Monthly Periodical, Devoted Exclusively to Historical, Biographical, Chronological and Statistical Matters. Salt Lake City. 1882–1890.
Historian’s Office. Letterpress Copybooks, 1854–1879, 1885–1886. CHL. CR 100 38.
Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.
76
Revelation, 12 July 1843 [D&C 132:32, 38].
77
See, for example, Mary Ann Frost Pratt, Affidavit, Utah Co., Utah Territory, 3 Sept. 1869, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 2:38; Thompson, Autobiographical Sketch, 7; Catherine Phillips Smith, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., UT, 28 Jan. 1903, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 2:40.
Smith, Joseph F. Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1869–1915. CHL. MS 3423.
Thompson, Mercy Rachel Fielding. Autobiographical Sketch, 1880. CHL. MS 4580.
78
“Affidavits,” Nauvoo Expositor, 7 June 1844, [2]; David Fullmer, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, 15 June 1869, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1:27–28; Thomas Grover, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, 6 July 1869, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1:42.
Nauvoo Expositor. Nauvoo, IL. 1844.
Smith, Joseph F. Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1869–1915. CHL. MS 3423.
79
Thomas Grover, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, 6 July 1869, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1:42; see also “Affidavits,” Nauvoo Expositor, 7 June 1844, [2]. Cowles resigned his seat on the high council on 23 September. Ebenezer Robinson later recalled that “Cowles was far more outspoken, and energetic in his opposition to that doctrine than almost any other man in Nauvoo.” (Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 23 Sept. 1843; Ebenezer Robinson, “Items of Personal History of the Editor,” Return, Feb. 1891, 29.)
Smith, Joseph F. Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1869–1915. CHL. MS 3423.
Nauvoo Expositor. Nauvoo, IL. 1844.
Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, ca. 1839–ca. 1843. Fair copy. In Oliver Cowdery, Diary, Jan.–Mar. 1836. CHL.
The Return. Davis City, IA, 1889–1891; Richmond, MO, 1892–1893; Davis City, 1895–1896; Denver, 1898; Independence, MO, 1899–1900.
80
“Affidavits,” Nauvoo Expositor, 7 June 1844, [2]; “Dr. Wyl and Dr. Wm. Law,” Salt Lake Daily Tribune, 31 July 1887, [6].
Nauvoo Expositor. Nauvoo, IL. 1844.
Salt Lake Daily Tribune. Salt Lake City. 1871–.
81
Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 3 and 5 Jan. 1844, 34, 38.
82
Historical Introduction to Revelation, 12 July 1843 [D&C 132]; Emily Dow Partridge Young, Testimony, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, [19 Mar. 1892], p. 366, question 350, Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints v. Church of Christ of Independence, Missouri, et al. [C.C.W.D. Mo. 1894], typescript, United States Testimony, CHL; see also Young, Diary and Reminiscences, 2. According to later affidavits, Heber C. Kimball sealed Joseph Smith to Emily and Eliza Partridge on 4 March and 8 March 1843, respectively, apparently unbeknownst to Emma Smith; Smith was resealed to the sisters in a ceremony performed on 11 May 1843 in her presence. (Emily Dow Partridge Young, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, 1 May 1869; Eliza Maria Partridge Lyman, Affidavit, Millard Co., Utah Territory, 1 July 1869, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1:11, 2:32–34; see also Emily Dow Partridge Young, Testimony, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, [19 Mar. 1892], p. 361, questions 247–250, 256, p. 363, questions 297, 300–302, 308, Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints v. Church of Christ of Independence, Missouri, et al. [C.C.W.D. Mo. 1894], typescript, United States Testimony, CHL; and Young, Diary and Reminiscences, 2.)
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints v. Church of Christ of Indepen- dence, Missouri, et al. (C.C.W.D. Mo. 1894). Typescript. United States Testimony, 1892. Typescript. CHL.
Young, Emily Dow Partridge. Diary and Reminiscences, Feb. 1874–Nov. 1883. CHL. MS 22253.
Smith, Joseph F. Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1869–1915. CHL. MS 3423.
83
Clayton, Journal, 12 July 1843; 16, 21, and 23 Aug. 1843; JS, Journal, 12 Aug. 1843; William Clayton, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, 16 Feb. 1874, [4], copy, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, CHL; see also Helen Mar Kimball Whitney, Journal, 11 July 1886, in Hatch and Compton, Widow’s Tale, 169; and [Elizabeth Ann Smith Whitney], “A Leaf from an Autobiography,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 Dec. 1878, 7:105.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
Smith, Joseph F. Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1869–1915. CHL. MS 3423.
Hatch, Charles M., and Todd M. Compton, eds. A Widow’s Tale: The 1884–1896 Diary of Helen Mar Kimball Whitney. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2003.
Woman’s Exponent. Salt Lake City. 1872–1914.
84
Clayton, Journal, 31 Aug. 1843; Letter from Jedediah M. Grant, 17 or 18 Aug. 1843.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
85
Clayton, Journal, 19 Oct. 1843.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
86
David Fullmer, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, 15 June 1869, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1:27; Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 3 and 5 Jan. 1844, 35, 38; Discourse, 15 Oct. 1843.
Smith, Joseph F. Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1869–1915. CHL. MS 3423.
87
Historical Introduction to Charges against Harrison Sagers Preferred to William Marks, 21 Nov. 1843; Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 25 Nov. 1843, 21–22; see also Historical Introduction to Remarks, 25 Nov. 1843.
Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, ca. 1839–ca. 1843. Fair copy. In Oliver Cowdery, Diary, Jan.–Mar. 1836. CHL.
88
JS, Journal, 18 Jan. 1843.
89
JS, Journal, 11 Feb. 1843; Letter to Sidney Rigdon, 27 Mar. 1843.
90
Discourse, 13 Aug. 1843–B.
91
Historical Introduction to Minutes and Discourses, 6–9 Oct. 1843.
92
JS, Journal, 22–23, 25–26, and 31 Dec. 1843; 1 Jan. 1844; Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 25 Dec. 1843, 88a; Woodruff, Journal, 25 Dec. 1843; see also “Dinner Party,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 31 Dec. 1843, [2].
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.
93
Minutes and Discourse, 29 Dec. 1843.
94
Many of the police officers believed it was their duty to “guard the city and especially Br Joseph Smith,” and at least some of them favorably compared their organization to the Danites, a vigilante force created in 1838 to defend the church and the First Presidency. (Haight, Journal, [21]; Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 3 Jan. 1844, 34–36; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 215–216; Jackson, Narrative, 16, 22; see also “Part 2: 8 July–29 October 1838.”)
Haight, Isaac Chauncey. Journal, 1852–1862. Photocopy. CHL. MS 1384.
Lee, John D. Mormonism Unveiled. St. Louis, MO: Sun Publishing Company, 1882.
Jackson, Joseph H. A Narrative of the Adventures and Experience of Joseph H. Jackson, in Nauvoo. Disclosing the Depths of Mormon Villainy. Warsaw, IL: By the author, 1844.
95
JS, Journal, 3–5 Jan. 1844; Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 3 and 5 Jan. 1844, 32–40.
96
JS, Journal, 30 Dec. 1843; Law, Diary, 5 Jan. 1844, in Cook, William Law, 45. Three days later, Law indicated that Smith accused Law of “injuring him by telling evil of him” and told Law that he “had no longer a place in the Quorum” and was removed from the First Presidency. (Law, Diary, 8 Jan. 1844, in Cook, William Law, 46.)
Cook, Lyndon W. William Law: Biographical Essay, Nauvoo Diary, Correspondence, Interview. Orem, UT: Grandin Book, 1994.
97
“The Mormon Question,” Warsaw (IL) Message, 27 Sept. 1843, [2].
Warsaw Message. Warsaw, IL. 1843–1844.

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