JS, History, 1838–1856, vol. C-1, created 24 Feb. 1845–3 July 1845; handwriting of , , Jonathan Grimshaw, and ; 512 pages, plus 24 pages of addenda; CHL. This is the third volume of a six-volume manuscript history of the church. This third volume covers the period from 2 Nov. 1838 to 31 July 1842; the remaining five volumes, labeled A-1, B-1, D-1, E-1 and F-1, continue through 8 Aug. 1844.
Historical Introduction
This document, “History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842],” is the third of six volumes of the “Manuscript History of the Church” (in The Joseph Smith Papers the “Manuscript History” bears the editorial title “History, 1838–1856”). The completed six-volume collection covers the period from 23 December 1805 to 8 August 1844. The narrative in this volume commences on 2 November 1838 with JS and other church leaders being held prisoner by the “’s forces” at , Missouri, and concludes with the death of Bishop at , Illinois, on 31 July 1842. For a more complete discussion of the entire six-volume work, see the general introduction to this history.
Volume C-1 was created beginning on or just after 24 February 1845 and its narrative was completed by 3 May 1845, although some additional work continued on the volume through 3 July of that year (Richards, Journal, 24 and 28 Feb. 1845; Historian’s Office, Journal, 3 May 1845; 3 and 4 July 1845). It is in the handwriting of and contains 512 pages of primary text, plus 24 pages of addenda. Additional addenda for this volume were created at a later date as a supplementary document and appear in this collection as “History, 1838-1856, volume C-1 Addenda.” Compilers and Thomas Bullock drew heavily from JS’s letters, discourses, and diary entries; meeting minutes; church and other periodicals and journals; and reminiscences, recollections, and letters of church members and other contacts. At JS’s behest, Richards maintained the first-person, chronological-narrative format established in previous volumes, as if JS were the author. , , , and others reviewed and modified the manuscript prior to its eventual publication in the Salt Lake City newspaper Deseret News.
The historical narrative recorded in volume C-1 continued the account of JS’s life as prophet and president of the church. Critical events occurring within the forty-five-month period covered by this text include the Mormon War; subsequent legal trials of church leaders; expulsion of the Saints from Missouri; missionary efforts in by the and others; attempts by JS to obtain federal redress for the Missouri depredations; publication of the LDS Millennial Star in England; the migration of English converts to ; missionary efforts in other nations; the death of church patriarch ; the establishment of the city charter; the commencement of construction of the Nauvoo ; the expedition that facilitated temple construction; the introduction of the doctrine of proxy baptism for deceased persons; the dedicatory prayer by on the Mount of Olives in Palestine; publication of the “Book of Abraham” in the Nauvoo Times and Seasons; publication of the JS history often referred to as the “Wentworth letter;” the organization of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo; and the inception of Nauvoo-era temple endowment ceremonies.
<March 20 Letter of Joseph Smith in > our habitation with the Saints. We received some letters last evening, one from , one from , and one from all breathing a kind and consoling Spirit, we were much gratified with their contents we had been a long time without information and when we read those letters they were to our souls as the gentle air is refreshing, but our joy was mingled with grief because of the suffering of the Poor and much injured Saints, and we need not say to you that the flood gates of our hearts were hoisted, and our eyes were a fountain of tears, but those who have not been enclosed in the walls of a Prison without cause or provocation can have but little idea how sweet the voice of a friend is, one token of friendship from any source whatever, awakens and calls into action every sympathetic feeling it brings up in an instant every thing that is passed, it seizes the present with a vivacity of lightning, it grasps after the future with the fierceness of a tiger, it retrogrades from one thing to another until finally all enmity malice and hatred and past differences, misunderstandings, and mismanagements are slain victorious at the feet of hope, and when the heart is sufficiently contrite, then the voice of inspiration steals along and whispers, my Son peace be unto thy soul, thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment, and then if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high, thou shalt triumph over all thy foes, thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again, with warm hearts and friendly hands thou art not yet as Job, thy friends do not contend against thee, neither charge thee with transgression as they did Job, and they who do charge thee with transgression, their hope shall be blasted and their prospects shall melt away, as the hoar frost melteth before the burning rays of the rising Sun, and also that God hath set to his hand and seal, to change the times and Seasons and to blind their minds that they may not understand his marvellous workings, that he may prove them also, and take them in their own craftiness— also because their hearts are corrupted, and the thing which they are willing to bring upon others, and love to have others suffer may come upon them[HC 3:293]selves to the very uttermost that they may be disappointed also, and their hopes may be cut off, and not many years hence that they and their posterity shall be swept from under heaven, saith God, that not one of them is left to stand by the wall, cursed are all those that shall lift up the heal against mine anointed, saith the Lord, and cry they have sinned, when they have not sinned before me saith the Lord, but have done that which was mete in mine eyes, and which I commanded them, but those who cry transgression, do it, because they are the servants of Sin, and are the children of disobedience themselves, and those who swear false against my servants, that they might bring them unto bondage, and death. Wo unto them because they have offended my little ones they shall be severed from the ordinances of mine house, their basket shall not be full, their houses and their barns shall perish, and they themselves shall be despised by those that flattered them, they shall not have right to the Priesthood, nor their posterity after them from generation to generation, it had been better for them that [p. 903]