JS, History, 1838–1856, vol. D-1, created 4 July 1845–4 Feb. 1846 and 1 July 1854–2 May 1855; handwriting of , Robert L. Campbell, and ; 275 pages, plus 6 pages of addenda; CHL. This is the fourth volume of a six-volume manuscript history of the church. This fourth volume covers the period from 1 Aug. 1842 to 1 July 1843; the remaining five volumes, labeled A-1, B-1, C-1, E-1 and F-1, continue through 8 Aug. 1844.
Historical Introduction
History, 1838–1856, volume D-1, constitutes the fourth of six volumes documenting the life of Joseph Smith and the early years of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The series is also known as the Manuscript History of the Church and was originally published serially from 1842 to 1846 and 1851 to 1858 as the “History of Joseph Smith” in the Times and Seasons and Deseret News. This volume contains JS’s history from 1 August 1842 to 1 July 1843, and it was compiled after JS’s death.
The material recorded in volume D-1 was initially compiled under the direction of church historian , with the assistance of . After Richards’s death in 1854, continued work on the volume as the new church historian with Bullock’s continued help. The process adopted by Richards and Bullock involved Richards creating a set of rough draft notes and Bullock transcribing the notes into the volume along with the text of designated documents (such as letters and meeting minutes). George A. Smith followed a similar pattern, though he dictated the draft notes to Bullock and other scribes.
According to the Church Historian’s Office journal, finished the third volume of the series, volume C-1, on Thursday, 3 July 1845, in , Illinois. He began work on the fourth volume, D-1, the next day, beginning on page 1362 with the entry for 1 August 1842. (The pages in volumes A-1–E-1 were numbered consecutively.) Bullock continued work on the record, drawing upon ’s draft notes, until 3 February 1846—the day before D-1 and the other volumes were packed up in preparation for the Latter-day Saints’ exodus from Nauvoo. At that point he had reached page 1485 with the entry for 28 February 1843. Subsequently, apparently after the collection had arrived in Utah, Bullock added a brief comment beneath that entry: “end of W. Richard’s compiling[.] the books packed Feby. 4— 1846 in Nauvoo[.] Miles Romney— present. The records carried by T Bullock from Winter Quarters to G S L [Great Salt Lake] City in 1848.”
A notation at the top of page 1486 reports that “the books were unpacked in G. S. L. City by and . June 7. 1853. J[onathan] Grimshaw & Miles Romney present.” Vertically, in the margin, is a poignant epitaph: “Decr. 1 1853 Dr. Willard Richards wrote one line of History—being sick at the time—and was never able to do any more.” With Richards’s death on 11 March 1854, JS’s cousin was called to the office of church historian. The notation on the top of page 1486 acknowledges this change in officers, noting, “commencement of George A. Smith’s compiling as Historian. April 13. 1854[.] [C]ommenced copying July 1. 1854.” From mid-April to the end of June 1854, George A. Smith, in collaboration with Thomas Bullock, worked on the draft notes for the history before a new scribe, , resumed writing in D-1 on 1 July 1854, beginning with the entry for 1 March 1843.
continued transcribing intermittently into the late fall of 1854, when he was assigned other duties in the Historian’s Office. He had reached page 1546 with the entry for 5 May 1843. Work resumed in February 1855 in the hand of Robert L. Campbell, recently returned from a mission. He concluded volume D-1 on the morning of 2 May 1855 and began writing in E-1 that afternoon.
The 274 pages of volume D-1 contain a record of much that is significant in the life of JS and the development of the church he founded. Among these events are
• JS’s 6 August 1842 prophecy that the Saints would become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains.
•JS’s 8 August 1842 arrest on a warrant for being “an accessory before the fact” to an attack on former governor .
• ’s 17 August 1842 letter to governor , pleading for the humane treatment of her husband and family.
•JS’s 1 and 6 September 1842 instructions regarding the proper procedures for performing baptisms for the dead.
• JS’s 15 November 1842 “Valedictory” as he stepped down as editor of the Times and Seasons.
• The 26 December 1842 arrest of JS on a “proclamation” by former governor , and subsequent hearing in , Illinois.
• The 7 February 1843 recovery of a volume of patriarchal blessings given by , which had been stolen in , Missouri.
• JS’s 21 February 1843 remarks regarding the and .
• JS’s 2 April 1843 instruction at , Illinois, on the nature of God and other subjects.
• JS’s 16 May 1843 remarks at , Illinois, on the everlasting covenant and eternal marriage.
• The account of JS’s 23 June 1843 arrest and his hearing the following week at .
<October 20> proceed upon the ground that the Governor of a State has no jurisdiction over the body of a citizen to arrest and surrender him up to a foreign state unless he is a fugitive from that State, unless he has fled from that State to evade “justice” or in other words to evade being tried for the offence with which he is charged. In a despotic form of Government the sovereign power is the will of the Monarch who can act in every instance as may suit his pleasure; but can the Governor of one of our States, of his own mere will, without any authority from the Constitution, or the Legislative power of the State, arrest and deliver up to a Foreign Government any person whatever? If he can do this, then is the liberty of the Citizen wholly at his disposal. The Writ of is a suit which every person imprisoned or unlawfully detained has a right to prosecute for the recovery of his liberty, and if he is in custody by process from a competent power he is entitled to his discharge when the jurisdiction has been executed. The Government of this has no power or jurisdiction over the person of a citizen of this to arrest and cause him to be delivered up and transported to another State, except the power expressly given to him by the Constitution of the , and what is that power? It only authorizes the Governor of one State to surrender up a fugitive from justice to return him back to the State from whence he has fled. First, The person to be surrendered up, must be a fugitive from the State to which it is attempted to surrender him. Second he must be a fugitive from justice; in other words he must have been in the State when and where the crime was committed, and have fled from that State to evade being apprehended and tried for that crime. Third unless he is in fact such a fugitive from justice, the Governor has no power, by the laws or Constitution, to deliver him up. Fourth, If he is charged with being a fugitive from justice and the Governor cause him to be apprehended on that charge; he has a right to sue out a Habeas Corpus and when brought up on that writ he has the undoubted right of showing that the—— Governor has no Constitutional power to deliver him up to another State; that he has not “fled from [HC 5:175] justice into this state” and is not such a person as the Constitution authorizes the Governor to deliver up, and that it would be an excess of jurisdiction on the part of the Governor to deliver him up. The question to be examined into upon the return of the Habeas Corpus, would be a mere question of locality, the question, would be, was Smith in this or not at the time the crime was committed in ? If he was in this at that time, then he could not be a fugitive from Justice, from , in the sense of the Constitution, and the Governor would have no power to deliver him up. The argument that because has made affidavit that Smith has fled from justice, his Affidavit is to be taken as conclusive on that point, and that upon the return of a Habeas Corpus, Smith would be precluded from controverting or showing the falsity of that Affidavit, is too absurd to require a serious answer.
The liberties of the citizens of this are not held on quite so feeble a tenure, nor does the Constitution authorize the Governor to transport the Citizens of this upon a mere “charge” made by a Citizen of another State; such is not the reading of the Constitution; that instrument only authorizes the delivery up of such persons “who shall flee”, upon the demand of the Executive authority of the State from [p. 1410]