JS, History, 1838–1856, vol. F-1, created 9 Apr.–7 June 1856 and 20 Aug. 1856–6 Nov. 1856; handwriting of and Jonathan Grimshaw; 304 pages, plus 10 pages of addenda; CHL. This is the final volume of a six-volume manuscript history of the church. This sixth volume covers the period from 1 May to 8 Aug. 1844; the remaining five volumes, labeled A-1 through E-1, go through 30 Apr. 1844.
Historical Introduction
History, 1838-1856, volume F-1, constitutes the last 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 May 1844 to the events following his 27 June 1844 death, and it was compiled in Utah Territory in 1856.
The material recorded in volume F-1 was initially compiled under the direction of church historian , who was JS’s cousin, and also assistant church historian . Smith collaborated with in collecting material for the volume and creating a set of draft notes, which Smith dictated to Bullock and other clerks. Woodruff gathered additional material concerning the death of Joseph Smith as a supplement to George A. Smith’s work recording that event. Jonathan Grimshaw and , members of the Historian’s Office staff, transcribed the draft notes into the volume along with the text of designated documents.
According to the Historian’s Office journal, Jonathan Grimshaw initiated work on the text of volume F-1 on 9 April 1856, soon after Robert L. Campbell had completed work on volume E-1. (Historian’s Office, Journal, 5 and 9 Apr. 1856.) Grimshaw’s scribal work begins with an entry for 1 May 1844. Unlike previous volumes in which the numbering had run consecutively to page 2028, Grimshaw began anew with page 1. He transcribed 150 pages by June 1856, and his last entry was for 23 June 1844. Though more of his writing does not appear in the volume, he continued to work in the office until 2 August, before leaving for the East that same month. (Historian’s Office, Journal, 2 and 10 Aug. 1856.)
assumed the role of scribe on 20 August 1856. (Historian’s Office, Journal, 20 Aug. 1856.) He incorporated ’s draft notes for the period 24–29 June 1844 on pages 151–189, providing an account of JS’s death and its immediate aftermath. He next transcribed a related extract from ’s 1854 History of Illinois on pages 190–204. Pages 205–227 were left blank.
provided the notes for the final portion of the text. This account begins with an entry for 22 June 1844 and continues the record through 8 August 1844, ending on page 304. (The volume also included ten pages of addenda.) The last specific entry in the Historian’s Office journal that captures at work on the history is for 6 November 1856. A 2 February 1857 Wilford Woodruff letter to indicates that on 30 January 1857, the “presidency sat and heard the history read up to the organization of the church in , 8th. day of August 1844.” (Historian’s Office, Journal, 6 Nov. 1856; Wilford Woodruff, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to George A. Smith, 2 Feb. 1857, Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 1, p. 410; see also Wilford Woodruff, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to Amasa Lyman and Charles C. Rich, 28 Feb. 1857, Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 1, pp. 430–431.)
The pages of volume F-1 contain a record of the final weeks of JS’s life and the events of the ensuing days. The narrative commences with and arriving at , Illinois, on 1 May 1844 from their lumber-harvesting mission in the “” of Wisconsin Territory. As the late spring and summer of 1844 unfold, events intensify, especially those surrounding the suppression of the Nauvoo Expositor in mid-June. Legal action over the Expositor leads to a charge of riot, and subsequently JS is charged with treason and is incarcerated at the jail in , Illinois. The narrative of volume F-1 concludes with an account of the special church conference convened on 8 August 1844 to consider who should assume the leadership of the church.
<June 22> in relation to writs of habeas under your charter. I know that you have been told by lawyers for the purpose of gaining your favor, that you have this power to any extent. In this they have deceived you for their own base purposes. Your charter supposes that you may pass ordinances, a breach of which will result in the imprisonment of the offender. For the purpose of ensuring more speedy relief to such persons authority was given to the Municipal Court to issue writs of Habeas Corpus in all cases arising under the ordinances of the . It was never supposed by the Legislature, nor can the language of your charter be tortured to mean, that a jurisdicion was intended to be conferred, which would apply to all cases of imprisonment under the general laws of the or of the as well as the city ordinances.
“It has also been reserved to you to make the discovery that a newspaper charged to be scurrilous and libelous may be legally abated or removed as a nuisance. In no other State, County, City, Town, or Ter[HC 6:535]ritory in the , has ever such a thing been thought of before. Such an act at this day would not be tolerated even in . Just such another act in 1830 hurled the King of France from his throne, and caused the imprisonment of four of his principal ministers for life. No civilized country can tolerate such conduct, much less can it be tolerated in this free country of the .
“The result of my deliberations on this subject is, that I will have to require you and all persons in accused or sued, to submit in all cases implicitly to the process of the Courts, and to interpose no obstacles to an arrest either by writ of habeas corpus, or otherwise; and that all of the people of the City of shall make and continue the most complete submission to the laws of the , and the process of the Courts and Justices of the Peace.
“In the particular case now under consideration, I require any and all of you who are or shall be accused, to submit yourselves to be arrested by the same , by virtue of the same warrant, and be tried before the same whose authority has heretofore been resisted. Nothing short of this can vindicate the dignity of violated law, and allay the just excitement of the people.
“I am anxious to preserve the peace. A small indiscretion may bring on a war. The whole country is now up in arms, and a vast number of people are ready to take the matter into their own hands. Such a state of things might force me to call out the Militia to prevent a civil war. And such is the excitement of the country that I fear that the Militia when assembled would be beyond legal control. You are wrong in the first instance, and I can call out no portion of the Militia for your defence until you submit to the law. You have made it necessary that a posse should be assembled to execute legal process, and that posse as fast as it assembles is in danger of being imbued with the Mobocratic spirit. If you by refusing to submit, shall make it necessary to call out the Militia, I have great fears that your city will be destroyed, and your people many of them exterminated.
“You know the excitement of the public mind; do not tempt it too far. A very little matter may do a very great injury, and if you are disposed to continue the causes of excitement, and render a force necessary to coerce submission, I would say that your was built, as it were, upon kegs of powder, which a very little spark may explode.
“It is my intention to do all I can to preserve the peace, and even if obliged to call the Militia, to prosecute the war so as not to involve the innocent, and comprehend all in the same punishment. But excitement is a matter which grows very fast upon men when assembled; the [HC 6:536] affair I much fear may assume a revolutionary character, and the men may disregard the authority of their officers. [p. 142]