Footnotes
Willard Richards succinctly summarized the topic of JS’s discourse as “economy of Nauvoo.” (Richards, Journal, 15 Oct. 1843.)
Richards, Franklin D. Journals, 1844–1899. Richards Family Collection, 1837–1961. CHL. MS 1215, boxes 1–5.
Alanson Ripley, “Nauvoo,” Times and Seasons, June 1840, 1:122.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
An Act to Incorporate the Nauvoo Agricultural and Manufacturing Association, in the County of Hancock [27 Feb. 1841], Laws of the State of Illinois [1840–1841], p. 139, sec. 2.
General Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Eighteenth General Assembly, Convened January 3, 1853. Springfield: Lanphier and Walker, 1853.
Sidney Rigdon, “To the Editor of the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 21 June 1843, [3].
Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.
The editorial further argued that workers were “not employed at what they ought to be. Men that have been accustomed to manufacturing cotton goods are making ditches on the prairie, woolen manufacturers are carrying the hod, and working at day labor, and silk weaver’s are mixing clay at the brickyard, iron smelters are turned farmers, and potters have got metamorphised into builders and wood choppers. . . . The prosperity of this place depends in a great measure upon the encouragement of home manufacture.” (“Home Manufacture,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 31 May 1843, [2].)
Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.
Lydia Knight, “Manufacturing Straw,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 10 May 1843, [3]; “Important to Weavers,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 17 May 1843, [2]; Sidney Rigdon, “To the Editor of the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 21 June 1843, [3]; James Spratley et al., “A Word from the Suffering Boot and Shoe Makers,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 13 Sept. 1843, [3]; Letter from Jared Carter, 14 Oct. 1843. Hoping to facilitate the construction of mills, the city granted JS a charter to build a wing dam on the Mississippi River in early December 1843. (JS, Journal, 23 Nov. 1843; “An Ordinance to Erect a Dam in the Mississippi River, and for Other Purposes,” 8 Dec. 1843, JS Office Papers, CHL; see also Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 8 Dec. 1843, 192–193.)
Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.
Richards, Journal, 15 Oct. 1843.
Richards, Franklin D. Journals, 1844–1899. Richards Family Collection, 1837–1961. CHL. MS 1215, boxes 1–5.
JS offered his opinion of doctors in two discourses given in 1843, including in April, when he told a group of immigrants, “The Doctors in this region dont know much. . . . Doctors wont tell you where to go to be well. they want to kill. or cure you to get Your money.” (Discourse, 13 Apr. 1843, underlining in original; Discourse, 17 Sept. 1843.)
JS was involved in numerous legal proceedings over the previous decade, many of which he characterized as “vexatious lawsuits.” Between June 1841 and June 1843, JS was arrested and taken before a judge on three separate occasions as part of Missouri officials’ attempts to extradite him there to face charges stemming from earlier conflicts in Missouri. In April 1843, JS commented that when he spoke about lawyers, they “began to say we will renounce you. on the stand.— but they dont come up & I take the libe[r]ty to say what I have a mind to about. them.” (Motto, ca. 16 or 17 Mar. 1838; “Joseph Smith Documents from February through November 1841”; “Joseph Smith Documents from September 1842 through February 1843”; “Joseph Smith Documents from March through July 1843”; Discourse, 13 Apr. 1843.)