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Discourse, 7 November 1841, as Reported by Wilford Woodruff

Source Note

JS, Discourse, , Hancock, Co., IL, 7 Nov. 1841. Featured version copied [ca. 7 Nov. 1841] in Wilford Woodruff, Journal, vol. 4, 1 Jan. 1841–31 Dec. 1842, p. [109]; handwriting of ; Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898, CHL.
Wilford Woodruff, Journal, vol. 4, 1 Jan. 1841–31 Dec. 1842; handwriting of ; 183 pages; Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, CHL. Includes charts, drawings, redactions, and use marks.
Bound blank book measuring 6¼ × 4 × 1 inches (16 × 10 × 2½ cm), with leatherbinding. The volume contains 124 leaves (248 pages) measuring 6 × 3¾ inches (15 × 9½ cm), with an additional loose leaf of yellow paper that was folded and placed at the end of the journal. The outer edges of the leaves have a shell pattern with blue and red bodies and white veins. The front and back covers contain the remnants of a brass clasp that was presumably used to hold the book closed. Toward the top of the spine, the inscriptions “WW” and “1841–2” are written in black ink. A fragment of an old Church Historian’s Office sticker inscribed “184[1]” and “18[42]” remains near the bottom of the spine.
On an unknown date, the inside of the front cover of the journal was labeled by an unidentified scribe: “3 | January 1st 1841, | to | December 31, 1842,”. inscribed his journal in two parts on the first 182 pages, leaving two pages blank between the parts. The remainder of the volume is blank, except for three pages that Woodruff later used to record baptisms for the dead that he and his wife, Phebe Carter Woodruff, participated in during 1842 and 1844.
It is unclear when Woodruff donated the volume to the Church Historian’s Office (now CHL). and his assistants drew upon the volume for information as he wrote volume C-1 of the multivolume manuscript history of the church during 1845. and the Church Historian’s Office staff similarly drew upon the journals in writing an addendum for volume C-1 during 1854. Woodruff’s “Private Papers” were listed in a catalog record that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office in March 1858. A July 1858 inventory clarified that these papers included Woodruff’s journals. The journals likewise appear in an inventory produced circa 1878. The volume’s inclusion in these inventories suggests continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See JS History, vol. C-1, 1232, 1242, 1244; and Woodruff, Journal, 6 and 29 Oct.; 14 Nov. 1841.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  2. [2]

    See JS History, vol. C-1 Addenda Book, 19–20, 44–45; and Woodruff, Journal, 7 and 21 Nov. 1841.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  3. [3]

    “Historian’s Office Catalogue Book March 1858,” [25], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  4. [4]

    “Contents of the Historian and Recorder’s Office—G. S. L. City July 1858,” 9, Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  5. [5]

    “Index of Records and Journals in the Historian’s Office 1878,” [25], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

Historical Introduction

On Sunday, 7 November 1841, JS delivered a discourse to the in , Illinois, counseling them not to judge others unrighteously. According to , JS and members of the arrived at the grounds near the Nauvoo , where they found “many hundreds of Saints” gathered for worship. JS invited recently returned missionary to preach, and Clark sermonized for two hours on “charity, temperence and every thing that is good and lovely.” Clark evidently gave particular attention to the subject of temperance, likely advocating the ideology of the temperance movement popular in nineteenth-century , which condemned the excessive consumption of alcohol.
Following ’s sermon, JS addressed the congregation and chastised Clark, stating that Clark had used “the sectarian method of preaching” and that “by such preaching no one could learn the principles of righteousness.” JS then spoke on the meaning of temperance and on other principles, including charity. He urged the Saints not to make accusations of sin against each other because doing so followed the example of the devil. JS explained that the Lord’s mercy and “Charity coverd a multitude of sins.” JS also addressed the subject of superstition, explaining that many of his own actions were calculated to “break down” superstitions and traditions.
Multiple accounts of this discourse exist. Both and mentioned the sermon in their diary entries for 7 November. Richards’s entry includes only a brief summary of the sermon; Woodruff’s account captures somewhat more of JS’s remarks and was possibly created from notes Woodruff took during the sermon. Four days after JS delivered the discourse, Richards wrote a detailed account of the sermon in a letterlink when version posted to his brother Levi. Richards explained in the letter, however, that he was “wholly incapaci[t]ated for giving a correct description of the sermon” and cautioned that his summary was not written “for the press.” In his efforts to compile the history of the church, Richards drew upon his short diary entry to record a synopsis of the sermon in his rough draft notes. That synopsis was copied into JS’s multivolume manuscript history of the church before later being crossed out. At some point between 18 October and 20 November 1854, with the help of the Historian’s Office staff, church historian , who was likely in attendance when JS gave the original discourse, expanded the account of the sermon as part of the addenda to volume C-1 of the manuscript history. He drew upon Woodruff’s diary and presumably his own memory as his main sources for the sermon. Although these other renditions of the sermon illuminate the text, Woodruff’s rendering represents the most contemporaneous account of the sermon and is the version featured here, with details from the other accounts noted in the footnotes.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Woodruff, Journal, 7 Nov. 1841. Wilford Woodruff wrote, “I first called upon Br Joseph with some of the Twelve from thence to B[righam] Young, from thence to the meeting ground near the Temple.” Brigham Young’s reminiscent history for the date records, “Br. Joseph & several of the Twelve called on me, we went to meeting, when Joseph spoke on temperance virtue, charity & truth.” In addition to Woodruff and Young, seven other members of the Twelve (Heber C. Kimball, Orson Pratt, William Smith, Lyman Wight, John Taylor, George A. Smith, and Willard Richards) were in or around Nauvoo in November 1841 and could have attended the meeting. (Woodruff, Journal, 7 Nov. 1841; Historian’s Office, Brigham Young History Drafts, 59; “An Epistle of the Twelve,” Times and Seasons, 15 Nov. 1841, 2:600–602.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    Historian’s Office. Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861. CHL. CR 100 93.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  2. [2]

    Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to Levi Richards, Manchester, England, 11 Nov. 1841, typescript, Richards Family Papers, CHL. William Oglesby Clark was born in Madison, Indiana, on 25 June 1817. He was baptized by Morris Phelps on 12 April 1835 in Will County, Illinois. On 30 May 1841, he left Montrose, Iowa Territory, on a mission to northern Illinois and Wisconsin. He returned to Nauvoo on 6 November 1841. (Short, “Biography of William O. Clark,” 131, 134–141.)

    “Richards Family Letters 1840–1849.” Typescript. Richards Family Papers, 1965. CHL.

    Short, Julia R. “Biography of William O. Clark.” Journal of History 6 (Jan. 1913): 131–176.

  3. [3]

    According to George A. Smith, Clark admonished the Saints to practice “temperance in the extreme.” JS also discussed temperance in his sermon, likely in response to Clark’s remarks. (JS History, vol. C-1 Addenda Book, 19. For more information on the temperance movement in nineteenth-century America, see Walters, American Reformers, 125–146; and Historical Introduction to Revelation, 27 Feb. 1833 [D&C 89].)

    Walters, Ronald G. American Reformers: 1815–1860. Rev. ed. New York: Hill and Wang, 1997.

  4. [4]

    Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to Levi Richards, Manchester, England, 11 Nov. 1841, typescript, Richards Family Papers, CHL. The term sectarian was commonly used in the 1830s and 1840s, often pejoratively, to denote a mode of thought “governed by the spirit of bigotry and proselytism.” The term was specifically used to highlight the religious divisions within American society. In this context, JS may have used it to reference temperance societies, including the emerging Washingtonian movement, which some observers charged with sectarianism. Accordingly, in making this statement, JS was evidently saying that Clark’s preaching was divisive and resembled the tactics of the period’s proponents of temperance reform. (Tappan, “Life and Writings of President Appleton,” 371; Phillips, Campbellism Exposed, 195–196; Wilentz, Chants Democratic, 311, 315.)

    “Richards Family Letters 1840–1849.” Typescript. Richards Family Papers, 1965. CHL.

    Tappan, Benjamin. “Life and Writings of President Appleton.” Literary and Theological Review 4, no. 15 (Sept. 1837): 351–372.

    Phillips, William. Campbellism Exposed; or, Strictures on the Peculiar Tenets of Alexander Campbell. Cincinnati: Hitchcock and Walden, 1837.

    Wilentz, Sean. Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788–1850. 20th anniversary ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

  5. [5]

    JS History, vol. C-1 Addenda Book, 20; Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to Levi Richards, Manchester, England, 11 Nov. 1841, typescript, Richards Family Papers, CHL.

    “Richards Family Letters 1840–1849.” Typescript. Richards Family Papers, 1965. CHL.

  6. [6]

    According to Willard Richards, superstition was the main topic of JS’s sermon. Richards wrote in his diary that JS “preached on supersitin.” Richards then wrote his brother Levi that he had heard JS preach “on Superstition, &c.” Both Richards’s rough draft notes and the original summary of the sermon in the manuscript history of the church likewise state that JS “preached on the principles of superstition.” (Richards, Journal, 7 Nov. 1841; Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to Levi Richards, Manchester, England, 11 Nov. 1841, typescript, Richards Family Papers, CHL; Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 7 Nov. 1841; JS History, vol. C-1, 1244.)

    Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.

  7. [7]

    Only a typescript copy of the letter is presently available; the original letter to Levi Richards has not been located. (Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to Levi Richards, Manchester, England, 11 Nov. 1841, typescript, Richards Family Papers, CHL.)

  8. [8]

    Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 7 Nov. 1841; JS History, vol. C-1, 1244.

  9. [9]

    JS History, vol. C-1 Addenda Book, 19–20.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Discourse, 7 November 1841, as Reported by Wilford Woodruff
Discourse, 7 November 1841, as Reported by Willard Richards History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 Addenda “History of Joseph Smith”

Page [109]

preached about 2 hours when Br Joseph arose & reproved him as pharisaical & hypocritical & not edifying the people Br Joseph then deliverd unto us an edifying adress showing us what temperance faith virtue, charity & truth was he also said if we did not accuse one another God would not accuse us & if we had no accuser we should enter heaven he would take us there as his backload if we would not accuse him he would not accuse us & if we would throw a cloak of charity over his sins he would over ours for charity coverd a multitude of sins & what many people called sin was not sin & he did many things to break down superstition & he would break it down he spoke of the curse of ham for laughing at Noah while in his wine but doing his harm. [p. [109]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Discourse, 7 November 1841, as Reported by Wilford Woodruff
ID #
707
Total Pages
1
Print Volume Location
JSP, D8:355–359
Handwriting on This Page
  • Wilford Woodruff

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Clark returned from a mission on 6 November 1841. Upon Clark’s arrival in Nauvoo, JS requested that he preach to the Saints on 7 November. (Short, “Biography of William O. Clark,” 141.)

    Short, Julia R. “Biography of William O. Clark.” Journal of History 6 (Jan. 1913): 131–176.

  2. [2]

    An 1854 addendum to the manuscript history of the church, created by church historian George A. Smith and the Historian’s Office staff, noted that Clark was “reproving the Saints for a lack of Sanctity and a want of holy living; enjoying sanctity, solemnity and temperance in the extreme in the rigid sectarian style.” (JS History, vol. C-1 Addenda Book, 19–20; see also Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to Levi Richards, Manchester, England, 11 Nov. 1841, typescript, Richards Family Papers, CHL.)

  3. [3]

    Clark later explained that he was “young and full of zeal” when he gave the sermon in question and that he “well remembered” JS’s reproof and found it “profitable.” (Short, “Biography of William O. Clark,” 141.)

    Short, Julia R. “Biography of William O. Clark.” Journal of History 6 (Jan. 1913): 131–176.

  4. [4]

    According to Willard Richards, JS stated that “he would tell them what virtue was, viz. to keep all the commandments of God without doubting or querying about it.” (Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to Levi Richards, Manchester, England, 11 Nov. 1841, typescript, Richards Family Papers, CHL.)

  5. [5]

    According to Willard Richards, JS also said that the “spirit of accusing is a spirit of evil and many may be condemned by it.” (Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to Levi Richards, Manchester, England, 11 Nov. 1841, typescript, Richards Family Papers, CHL.)

  6. [6]

    According to Willard Richards, JS utilized the story of the woman accused of adultery in John 8:3–11 to explain that “no man will be condemned before God who has no accuser.” JS also explained that if a group was entirely in agreement on their actions, there was no condemnation; however, if one in the company objected, “he turns accuser,” making their actions inappropriate. He stated, “Our actions are between us and God if we infringe not on the rights of others.” (Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to Levi Richards, Manchester, England, 11 Nov. 1841, typescript, Richards Family Papers, CHL.)

  7. [7]

    Willard Richards rendered JS’s statement as “If the brethren would not acuse him he would not acuse them, but would take them all on his back and bear them safe through the gates into the kingdom, &c. &c. &c.” (Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to Levi Richards, Manchester, England, 11 Nov. 1841, typescript, Richards Family Papers, CHL.)

  8. [8]

    See 1 Peter 4:8.

  9. [9]

    According to Willard Richards, JS also told those present: “God gives laws to suit the circumstances of his creatures. Laws in themselves [are] contradictory; ‘Thou shalt not kill;’ then to Abraham ‘Slay thy son Isaac.’ Abraham rendered obedience, nothing doubting. This was virtue, perfecting his faith by works.” (Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to Levi Richards, Manchester, England, 11 Nov. 1841, typescript, Richards Family Papers, CHL.)

  10. [10]

    In 1854 church historian George A. Smith and the Historian’s Office staff expanded this text to include more comments regarding Noah and Ham. JS reportedly stated: “Noah was a righteous man, and yet he drank wine, and became intoxicated the Lord did not forsake him in consequence thereof; for he retained all the power of his Priesthood and when he was accused by Cainaan, he cursed him by the Priesthood which he held, and the Lord had respect to his word and the Priesthood which he held, notwithstanding he was drunk; and the curse remains upon the posterity of Cainaan until the present day.” It is unclear whether Smith and the Historian’s Office staff were relying upon Smith’s memory or were working from other unknown source materials for this portion of the expanded text. (JS History, vol. C-1 Addenda Book, 20; see also Letter to Oliver Cowdery, ca. 9 Apr. 1836; and Haynes, Noah’s Curse, 6–8.)

    Haynes, Stephen R. Noah’s Curse: The Biblical Justification of Slavery. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

  11. [11]

    See Genesis 9:18–27. Willard Richards reported that JS said, “Where two or three are agreed— suppose it to be to take a glass of wine in the secret chamber and enjoy themselves for an hour and harm no one,” they would not be condemned for such actions. According to Richards, JS then stated that “drunkenness is not good; but in such a case God might take no notice of it, if no one entered a complaint or accused the parties.” The 1854 rendering of the sermon in JS’s manuscript history suggests that JS also said that “Noah was a righteous man, and yet he drank wine, and became intoxicated,” but “the Lord did not forsake him in consequence thereof.” These statements from JS may have been a response to criticism directed toward those in Nauvoo who imbibed alcohol. For instance, the Warsaw Signal accused the Saints of hypocrisy, claiming that drinking and drunkenness were not uncommon among the Saints, even though they advocated temperance. (Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to Levi Richards, Manchester, England, 11 Nov. 1841, typescript, Richards Family Papers, CHL; JS History, vol. C-1 Addenda Book, 19–20; “Temperance among the Mormons,” Warsaw (IL) Signal, 14 July 1841, [2]; and “Mormon Temperance,” Warsaw Signal, 6 Oct. 1841, [2].)

    Warsaw Signal. Warsaw, IL. 1841–1853.

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