Several members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles recalled similar statements JS made during the final months of his life. On 7 August 1844, for instance, in opposing the leadership claim of Sidney Rigdon, Brigham Young stated, “How often has Joseph said to the Twelve, I have laid the foundation; and you must build thereon, for upon your shoulders the kingdom rests.” On 25 March 1845 Orson Hyde presented a document to the council that quoted JS as saying to the Twelve in a Council of Fifty meeting in March 1844, “I roll the burthen and responsibility of leading this church off from my shoulders on to yours. Now, round up your shoulders and stand under it like men; for the Lord is going to let me rest a while.” (Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Minutes, 7 Aug. 1844; Orson Hyde, Statement about the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, ca. 25 Mar. 1845, Brigham Young Office Files, CHL; Council of Fifty, “Record,” 25 Mar. 1845.)
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Minutes, 1840–1844. CHL.
In the spring and early summer of 1844, JS’s journal and other accounts record a number of instances in which Robert D. Foster, Francis M. Higbee, and other men were reported to be conspiring against JS’s life. (See JS, Journal, 24 Mar. 1844; 13 Apr. 1844; 21 June 1844; Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Minutes, 18 Apr. 1844; and Joseph Jackson, Affidavit, 21 June 1844, JS Office Papers, CHL.)
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Minutes, 1840–1844. CHL.
At times during Rigdon’s tenure as postmaster in Nauvoo, JS harbored suspicions that Rigdon used his position to aid JS’s enemies. In May 1844 the Council of Fifty decided that Rigdon should resign as postmaster and that JS should take his place. Following JS’s death, George W. Robinson, Rigdon’s son-in-law and the original postmaster of Nauvoo, was reappointed on 2 September 1844. He was replaced on 16 December 1844 by council member Elias Smith. Following JS’s death, Emma Smith leased the Nauvoo Mansion to William Marks, an early supporter of Rigdon as successor to JS. Oliver B. Huntington later recorded that Marks boarded “a kind of gang” of “suspicious character[s]” at the home. In early March 1845, with the encouragement of Brigham Young and the Council of Fifty and with funding from the church’s trustees-in-trust, John Pack replaced Marks as the lessee of the Nauvoo Mansion. (JS, Nauvoo, IL, to James Arlington Bennet, 8 Sept. 1842; JS, Nauvoo, IL, to Horace Hotchkiss, 26 Nov. 1842, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 241–242; JS, Journal, 8 Nov. 1842; Council of Fifty, “Record,” 25 May 1844; U.S. Post Office Department, Record of Appointment of Postmasters, reel 28, vol. 12B, p. 514; Newell and Avery, Mormon Enigma, 210; “October Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, 1 Nov. 1844, 5:692; Huntington, History, 96, underlining in original.)
U.S. Post Office Department. Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832–September 30, 1971. National Archives Microfilm Publications, microcopy M841. 145 microfilm reels. Washington DC: National Archives, 1977.
Newell, Linda King and Valeen Tippetts Avery. Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, Prophet’s Wife, “Elect Lady,” Polygamy’s Foe, 1804–1879. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1984.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Huntington, Oliver B. History, 1845–1846. Oliver Boardman Huntington, Papers, 1843– 1932. BYU.