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Interview, 29 August 1843

Source Note

[], Interview with JS, [, Hancock Co., IL, 29 Aug. 1843]. Featured version published in “The Prairies, Nauvoo, Joe Smith, the Temple, the Mormons, &c.,” Alexandria (DC) Gazette and Virginia Advertiser (Alexandria, DC), 19 Sept. 1843, vol. 43, no. 221, [2]; edited by Edgar Snowden. Transcription from digital images obtained from Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress, in 2019.
’s interview with JS for the Pittsburgh Gazette was republished in the Alexandria Gazette and Virginia Advertiser, a daily newspaper printed in Alexandria, District of Columbia (later in ), from 1834 to 1974. Each issue of the forty-third volume consists of four pages with six columns each. The volume used for transcription is held at the Library of Virginia in Richmond.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA, “About Alexandria Gazette.”

    Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA. “About Alexandria Gazette. (Alexandria, DC) 1834–1974.” Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress. Accessed 15 May 2020. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85025007/.

Historical Introduction

On 29 August 1843, , senior editor of the Pittsburgh Gazette, interviewed JS in , Illinois, about JS’s political views and prophetic experiences. White had personal and familial ties to western and generally. His brother-in-law Daniel Witter owned a steam mill in , Hancock County. Three years earlier, Witter convinced White to relocate there and publish a newspaper to promote the Whigs during the 1840 presidential election. White began publishing the Western World in May 1840 and continued as its editor until November of that year, when he sold the printing establishment to . White then moved to , where he purchased the Pittsburgh Gazette printing office and commenced editing that newspaper by January 1841.
Sometime in summer 1843, visited the region he previously called home. As he traveled up the , he sent descriptions of the region back to to be published in his newspaper. He became sick when he arrived in , but he recovered sufficiently to visit with an unidentified friend on 28 August. After traveling most of the day along the prairie road, White and his companion arrived in Nauvoo and lodged at a tavern near the Mississippi River. The next morning, 29 August 1843, White and his companion called on JS at his home and visited with him for about an hour. White claimed that the interview was occasionally interrupted by seeking to conduct business with JS. After they finished speaking, White toured the city, paying particular attention to the unfinished , before returning to Warsaw the same day.
After returning to , wrote a lengthy letter, dated 30 August, to his newspaper in describing , the surrounding region, and JS. White evidently took detailed notes of his observations of the city and his interview with JS. Details that appear in the published letter, such as White’s description of the unfinished , were generally accurate, and some of JS’s remarks, as reported by White, correspond with language JS used in discourses around this time. White’s account of JS’s dialogue contains a number of details concerning JS’s first vision of Deity and his experiences in that were not widely known. White’s account of the interview emphasized JS’s remarks on politics and revelation, including a discussion on the latest congressional election, JS’s frustrations with the Democratic Party, and JS’s experiences receiving revelation. Some of the interview is narrated, while much of it is presented as JS’s exact words.
Although praised the industry of the residents of and the surrounding area, he left the interview with an extremely negative view of JS and the . After their conversation, White wrote that JS was “a man of small capacity, smaller acquirements, and a dupe to his own impostures. His language is rude and vulgar, and his conduct is light and trifling. He is fond of his own jokes, and low wit, and laughs immoderately when he thinks he has said a good thing.” White also dismissed Nauvoo as a place of “vain and unhappy delusions.”
’s article was apparently first published in the 14 September 1843 issue of Pittsburgh Daily Gazette and then republished the next day in the newspaper’s weekly edition. Original issues of the Pittsburgh Daily Gazette and the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette are extremely rare, and the staff of the Joseph Smith Papers was unable to access any original, microfilm, or digital copies of the daily or weekly editions of Pittsburgh Gazette suitable for transcription. Dozens of newspapers around the country republished White’s article in its entirety or in part over the next several months. One of the earliest newspapers to reprint the article was the Alexandria Gazette and Virginia Advertiser, which included the piece in its 19 September 1843 issue. The interview as found in the Alexandria Gazette’s reprint of White’s letter is featured here. In comparing an unsourced photocopy of the 14 September issue of the Pittsburgh Gazette with the featured text, it appears that there are minor textual variations between the Pittsburgh Gazette and Alexandria Gazette versions. Most notably, some of the poor grammar that White attributed to JS in the Pittsburgh Gazette version was corrected in the Alexandria Gazette reprint. Such changes are not noted.
The wide reprinting of ’s interview and his negative impressions of JS did not go unnoticed in . In December 1843, the Nauvoo Neighbor published an anonymous letter from an individual using the moniker “Not The Prophet,” or “N.T.P.” for short, that condemned White’s account as a “diarrhaea of words” and denied that JS ever spoke with the “perfect looseness of words and wind” presented in White’s description. This anonymous author saw White’s interview as part of a broader pattern of misrepresentation, in which the Saints were “praised to our faces, and slandered behind our backs.” “N.T.P.” concluded by declaring that newspaper publishers who reproduced “fabrications” like the Pittsburgh Gazette interview were doing “more to corrupt the morals, and spoil the hearts of the people than intemperance and infidelity combined.”

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Gregg, History of Hancock County, Illinois, 390.

    Gregg, Thomas. History of Hancock County, Illinois, Together with an Outline History of the State, and a Digest of State Laws. Chicago: Charles C. Chapman, 1880.

  2. [2]

    “Salutatory,” Western World (Warsaw, IL), 13 May 1840, [2]; “Validictory,” Western World, 4 Nov. 1840, [2].

    Western World. Warsaw, IL. 1840–1841.

  3. [3]

    Alexander Ingram Jr., “To the Patrons of the Gazette,” Daily Pittsburgh Gazette, 1 Jan. 1841, [2]; [David Nye White], Notice, Daily Pittsburgh Gazette, 1 Jan. 1841, [2].

    Daily Pittsburgh Gazette. Pittsburgh. 1833–1841.

  4. [4]

    David Nye White, “The Prairies, Nauvoo, Joe Smith, the Temple, the Mormons, &c.,” Pittsburgh Daily Gazette, 14 Sept. 1843, [3].

    Daily Pittsburgh Gazette. Pittsburgh. 1833–1841.

  5. [5]

    In spring 1842, JS published a brief narrative history of the church and began serializing a larger ongoing history project that he and his scribes started working on in 1838. Both histories appeared in the church newspaper Times and Seasons, which JS edited at the time. Although each of the histories contained accounts of JS’s first vision, national newspapers did not widely report or circulate their publication or details from the accounts. There is also no indication that White had access to these newspaper issues during his brief visit to Nauvoo, nearly a year and a half after their publication. The serialized history sections covering the 1838–1839 Missouri persecutions were not published until 1853 and 1854. (“Church History,” 1 Mar. 1842; “History of Joseph Smith,” Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1842, 3:726–728; “History of Joseph Smith,” Times and Seasons, 1 Apr. 1842, 3:748–749; see also Corresponding Dates in Versions of the Manuscript History, vols. B-1 and C-1.)

  6. [6]

    David Nye White, “The Prairies, Nauvoo, Joe Smith, the Temple, the Mormons, &c.,” Pittsburgh Daily Gazette, 14 Sept. 1843, [3].

    Daily Pittsburgh Gazette. Pittsburgh. 1833–1841.

  7. [7]

    In 1987, historian Noel Barton accessed a copy of the 15 September 1843 issue of the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh. Historian Dean Jessee published transcriptions of this copy in 1989. In 2011, the Joseph Smith Papers obtained, from an unknown source, a photocopy of a page from the 14 September 1843 issue of the Pittsburgh Daily Gazette that contained the interview. However, attempts to obtain copies of these issues in 2019 were unsuccessful. (Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Reference Services to Jeffrey Mahas, Email, 29 Oct. 2019, copy in editors’ possession; Jessee, Papers of Joseph Smith, 1:440–444; David Nye White, “The Prairies, Nauvoo, Joe Smith, the Temple, the Mormons, &c.,” Pittsburgh Daily Gazette, 14 Sept. 1843, [3], photocopy in editors’ possession; Pamela Barton to Sharalyn Howcroft, Email, 1 Aug. 2019, copy in editors’ possession.)

    Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Reference Services. Email, to Jeffrey Mahas, 29 Oct. 2019. Copy in editors’ possession.

    Jessee, Dean C., ed. The Papers of Joseph Smith. 2 vols. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989–1992.

    Daily Pittsburgh Gazette. Pittsburgh. 1833–1841.

    Barton, Pamela. Email, to Sharalyn Howcroft, 1 Aug. 2019. Copy in editors’ possession.

  8. [8]

    See, for example, “The Prairies, Nauvoo, Joe Smith, the Temple, the Mormons, &c.,” Buffalo (NY) Commercial Advertiser, 20 Sept. 1843, [2]; “The Prairies, Nauvoo, Joe Smith, the Temple, the Mormons,” Cleveland (OH) Daily Herald, 23 Sept. 1843, [3]; “The Mormon Prophet,” Manufacturers and Farmers Journal and Providence and Pawtucket Advertiser (Providence, RI), 25 Sept. 1843, [4]; “The Mormon Prophet, Joe Smith,” Brooklyn (NY) Evening Star, 26 Sept. 1843, [2]; “The Prairies, Nauvoo, Joe Smith, the Temple, the Mormons,” Cleveland (OH) Herald, 27 Sept. 1843, [2]–[3]; “The Prairies, Nauvoo, Joe Smith, the Temple, the Mormons, &c.,” New York Evening Express (New York City), 23 Sept. 1843, [1]; “The Prairies, Nauvoo, Joe Smith, the Temple, the Mormons, &c.,” Massachusetts Spy (Worcester), 4 Oct. 1843, [1]; “The Prairies, Nauvoo, Joe Smith, the Temple, the Mormons, &c.,” Weekly Ohio State Journal (Columbus), 11 Oct. 1843, [1]; “The Mormon Prophet,” Salem (MA) Register, 12 Oct. 1843, [1]; “Nauvoo and the Mormons,” Democratic Standard (Georgetown, OH), 31 Oct. 1843, [1]; and “The Mormon Prophet,” Quincy (IL) Whig, 1 Nov. 1843, [1]–[2].

    Buffalo Commercial Advertiser. Buffalo, NY. 184?–1890.

    Cleveland Herald. Cleveland. 1843–1853.

    Manufacturers and Farmers Journal and Providence and Pawtucket Advertiser. Providence, RI. 1820–1848.

    Brooklyn Evening Star. Brooklyn, NY. 1841–1863.

    New York Evening Express. New York City. 1839–1881.

    Massachusetts Spy. Worcester, MA. 1831–1858.

    Weekly Ohio State Journal. Columbus, OH. 1841–1849.

    Salem Register. Salem, MA. 1841–1903.

    Democratic Standard. Georgetown, OH. 1837–1850.

    Quincy Whig. Quincy, IL. 1838–1856.

  9. [9]

    Like many national newspapers, the Alexandria Gazette frequently reprinted sensational news about the Latter-day Saints. Three years earlier, the newspaper even printed its own interview with JS in the form of a letter to the editor. (“A Glance at the Mormons,” Alexandria [DC] Gazette and Virginia Advertiser, 11 July 1840, [2].)

    Alexandria Gazette. Alexandria, VA. 1834–1877.

  10. [10]

    “Not the Prophet,” or “N. T. P.,” Nauvoo, IL, 25 Dec. 1843, Letter to the Editor, Nauvoo Neighbor, 27 Dec. 1843, [3], italics in original.

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

Page [2]

The next morning, after breakfast, we paid a visit to the prophet. We were received in a common sitting room, very plainly furnished, where the prophet and the older members of the family had just been breakfasting, and his numerous children and dependants were then sitting at the table. He received us in quite a good humored, friendly manner, asked us to sit down, and said he hoped for a better acquaintance. On the gentleman who accompanied me asking him how he prospered, he replied, “None can get ahead of me, and few can keep behind me.” He seemed to think he had said something very witty, for he laughed very heartily. We spent about an hour conversing on various subjects, the prophet himself, with amazing volubility, occupying the most of the time, and his whole theme was himself. Let us give what turn we would to the conversation, he would adroitly bring it back to himself. The gentleman who accompanied me is a strong Whig, and as the Mormon vote had been given at the recent election to the Locofoco candidate for Congress, thereby defeating , Esq[.], Whig, who had defended “Joe” in several law suits with the Missourians, the conversation took a political turn at first. “Joe” professed to be a great friend to , and said he had voted for him, but would not interfere with his people in the matter. He said he had never asked the Lord any thing about politics; if he had done so, the Lord would have told him what to do. “The Lord,” said he, “has promised to give us wisdom, and when I lack wisdom I ask the Lord, and he tells me, and if he didn’t tell me, I would say he was a liar; that’s the way I feel. But I never asked him any thing about politics. I am a Whig, and I am a man. I am made of , and I am tending to , and I am going to vote for ; that’s the way I feel. (A laugh.) But I won’t interfere with my people, religiously, to affect their votes, though I might to elect , for he ought to be President. I have sworn by the eternal gods—it’s no harm to swear by the gods, because there are none, if there is only one God, there can’t be gods, and it’s no harm to swear by nothing, (a laugh)—I have sworn by the eternal gods that I never will vote for a democrat again; and I intend to swear my children, putting their hands under the thigh as Abraham swore Isaac, that they will never vote a democratic ticket in all their generations. It is the meanest, lowest party in all creation.— There is five-sixths of my people so led away by the euphoneous term “democrat,” that they will vote the Locofoco ticket. I am a democrat myself. I am a Washington democrat, a Jefferson democrat, a Jackson democrat, and I voted for Harrison, and I am going to vote for . The Locofocos are no democrats, but the meanest, lowest, most tyrannical beings in the world.— They opposed me in , and took me prisoner, and were going to shoot me for treason, and I never had committed any treason whatever.— I never had any thing bigger than a jack-knife about me, and they took me a prisoner of war, and twenty men to guard me. I had nothing to do with fighting. Our men, six hundred strong, were in arms, under . When the Missourians came marching up, ordered us to retreat, when I lifted up my hand, and said, “Boys I think we won’t go yet; we’ll stand our ground,” and they stood firm, but run like the devil. For doing this, they charged me with treason.”
In this manner the prophet ran on, talking incessantly. Speaking of revelations, he stated that when he was in a “quandary,” he asked the Lord for a revelation, and when he could not get it, he “followed the dictates of his own judgment, which was as good as a revelation to him; but he never gave anything to his people as revelation, unless it was a revelation, and the Lord did reveal himself to him.” Running on in his voluble style, he said: “The world persecutes me, it has always persecuted me. The people of , in a public meeting lately, said, ‘as for Joe, he’s a fool, but he’s got some smart men about him.” I’m glad they give me so much credit. It is not every fool that has sense enough to get smart men about him. The Lord does reveal himself to me. I know it. He revealed himself to me first when I was about fourteen years old, a mere boy. I will tell you about it. There was a reformation among the different religious denominations in the neighborhood where I lived, and I became serious, and was desirous to know what Church to join. While thinking of this matter, I opened the Testament promiscuously on these words, in James, ‘Ask of the Lord who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not.’ I just determined I’d ask him.— I immediately went out into the woods where my had a clearing, and went to the stump where I had stuck my axe when I had quit work, and I kneeled down, and prayed, saying, ‘O Lord, what Church shall I join?’— Directly I saw a light, and then a glorious personage in the light, and then another personage, and the first personage said to the second, “Behold my beloved Son, hear him.” I then, addressed this second person, saying, “O Lord, what Church shall I join?” He replied, “don’t join any of them, they are all corrupt.” The vision then vanished, and when I came to myself, I was sprawling on my back; and it was sometime before my strength returned[.] When I went home and told the people that I had a revelation, and that all the churches were corrupt, they persecuted me, and they have persecuted me ever since. They thought to put me down, but they hav’nt succeeded, and they can’t do it. When I have proved that I am right, and get all the world subdued under me, I think I shall deserve something. My revelations have proved to be true, because they have been delivered before they came to pass, and they came to pass exactly. I had a revelation in which was fulfilled to the letter. The Missourians had got us all prisoners, and were threatening to kill us. The principal men of us were lying under a log, with a guard standing around us in the night. I fell into a trance. I call it a trance. I heard a voice which said, ‘Joseph, fear not, you and all your friends shall be delivered without harm, and shall yet stand upon the hills of Zion.’ When I awoke out of the trance, I aroused , who was by the side of me, and said, I have a revelation, we shall all escape. shouted, and told it to the next one, and in the morning it was told to my family and all our friends, and they all rejoiced. That revelation came to pass, although they were holding a council at the time I had the trance, and had resolved to kill me. They can’t harm me. I told my family lately, before I left home for , that if I was taken up the Lord would deliver me, did’nt I — (appealing to his wife, who was standing behind his chair, playing with his hair, and who answered in the affirmative)— and when they took me I was passive in their hands, and the Lord compelled them to bring me right to . They could’nt help themselves, although they gnashed their teeth with rage.”
Speaking of the , which he is erecting, he said, “I don’t know how the world will like it; it suits me; I have no book learning; I’m not capacitated to build according to the world; I know nothing about architecture, and all that, but it pleases me; that’s the way I feel.” [p. [2]]
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Interview, 29 August 1843
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15880
Total Pages
1
Print Volume Location
JSP, D13:84–92
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Footnotes

  1. [1]

    The author of a letter to the editor of Nauvoo Neighbor objected to this description of JS’s household, stating that “as to the prophet’s numerous children, they consist of three sons and one adopted daughter, and his dependants are either orphans or honorable men and women.” (“Not the Prophet,” or “N. T. P.,” Nauvoo, IL, 25 Dec. 1843, Letter to the Editor, Nauvoo Neighbor, 27 Dec. 1843, [3], italics in original.)

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

  2. [2]

    The name Locofoco originated with a New York faction of the Democratic Party that used self-igniting matches—popularly known as locofocos—to light its inaugural meeting. However, it soon became a derogatory term that Whigs applied to all Democrats. (Howe, What Hath God Wrought, 546; Holt, Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party, 109.)

    Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848. The Oxford History of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

    Holt, Michael F. The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

  3. [3]

    TEXT: Although no period is visible after “Esq”, the space between “Esq” and the comma indicates that one was almost certainly present in the type.

  4. [4]

    On 7 August 1843, the Saints voted for Joseph P. Hoge, the Democratic candidate, over Cyrus Walker, the Whig candidate, in an election for Illinois’s sixth congressional district, after Hyrum Smith announced he had received a revelation directing the Saints to do so. (Historical Introduction to Discourse, 6 Aug. 1843; Pease, Illinois Election Returns, 1818–1848, 140.)

    Pease, Theodore Calvin, ed. Illinois Election Returns, 1818–1848. Springfield, Illinois: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923.

  5. [5]

    Walker served as one of JS’s attorneys when Missouri officials attempted to extradite JS in 1841 and 1843. (Statement of Expenses to Thomas King, 30 Sept. 1841; Statement of Account, June 1843, copy, Emma Hale Smith Bidamon Financial Papers, 1843–1852, Bidamon Family Papers, CHL.)

  6. [6]

    See James 1:5.

  7. [7]

    Here JS echoed earlier remarks regarding Walker and the 1843 congressional election. (Discourse, 6 Aug. 1843.)

  8. [8]

    In a discourse delivered two days earlier, JS described a member of the order of Melchizedek as someone who “holds the pr[i]esthood by right from the Eternal Gods.” Beginning in the 1830s, JS referred to a plurality of gods when discussing both a premortal “councyl of the eternal God [and] of all other Gods before this world was” as well as in reference to the deification of exalted individuals. (Discourse, 27 Aug. 1843; Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 Mar. 1839; Vision, 16 Feb. 1832 [D&C 76:58]; Discourse, 30 Jan. 1842; Book of Abraham and Facsimiles, 1 Mar.–16 May 1842 [Book of Abraham chaps. 4–5].)

  9. [9]

    In a public discourse delivered approximately two weeks earlier, JS explained that all of the Saints’ “wrongs have arisen under the power and authority of democra[c]y and I have swron [sworn] that this arm shall fall from my shoulder and. this tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. before I will vote for them. unless they make me satisfacti[o]n & I feel it sensibly.” (Discourse, 13 Aug. 1843–B.)

  10. [10]

    According to Genesis 24, when Abraham charged his servant to find a wife for his son Isaac, he instructed the servant to place his hand under his thigh and swear that he would look for a wife among Abraham’s kin and not among the Canaanites. (Genesis 24:2–9.)

  11. [11]

    In the 1840 election, Hancock County residents, including JS, voted overwhelmingly for William Henry Harrison, the Whig presidential candidate, over Democrat Martin Van Buren, who spurned JS’s requests for assistance in 1839. (Letter to Friends in Illinois, 20 Dec. 1841; Pease, Illinois Election Returns, 1818–1848, 117; Letter to Hyrum Smith and Nauvoo High Council, 5 Dec. 1839.)

    Pease, Theodore Calvin, ed. Illinois Election Returns, 1818–1848. Springfield, Illinois: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923.

  12. [12]

    JS previously denied that the Democratic Party played any special role in the persecution of the Saints in Missouri. Nevertheless, JS’s associate Lyman Wight publicly blamed the Saints’ difficulties on the “Loco-Foco Administration” of Missouri, noting that Lilburn W. Boggs was “as firm a Loco-Foco man as ever filled the gubernatorial chair” and that most of the militia leaders or local officials who persecuted the Saints were likewise Democrats. (Letter to the Editors, 17 May 1839; Lyman Wight, Quincy, IL, 1 May 1839, Letter to the Editors, Quincy [IL] Whig, 4 May 1839, [2]; Lyman Wight, Quincy, IL, 30 May 1839, Letter to the Editors, Quincy Whig, 1 June 1839, [2].)

    Quincy Whig. Quincy, IL. 1838–1856.

  13. [13]

    In October 1838, Missouri militiamen captured JS during the Saints’ extended conflict with other Missourians that year. Following JS’s arrest, Major General Samuel D. Lucas reportedly held an ad hoc court-martial, in which JS and six other Latter-day Saint prisoners were sentenced to death. Only the protest of Brigadier General Alexander Doniphan stopped the executions. (Lyman Wight, Journal, 30–31 Oct. 1838, in History of the Reorganized Church, 2:260–261; Eliza R. Snow, Caldwell Co., MO, to Isaac Streator, Streetsborough, OH, 22 Feb. 1839, photocopy, CHL; Hyrum Smith, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1843, pp. 12–14, 23–24, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL; see also Baugh, “Call to Arms,” 336–339.)

    The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 8 vols. Independence, MO: Herald Publishing House, 1896–1976.

    Snow, Eliza R. Letter, Caldwell Co., MO, to Isaac Streator, Streetsborough, OH, 22 Feb. 1839. Photocopy. CHL. MS 9108.

    Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).

  14. [14]

    Hyrum Smith similarly recalled that after their arrest on 31 October 1838, JS and the other prisoners were “placed under a strong guard of 30 men.” (Hyrum Smith, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1843, p. 13, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.)

  15. [15]

    Hinkle was colonel of the fifty-ninth regiment of the state militia, which encompassed Caldwell County, Missouri, the county set aside for the Saints. He also served as the commanding colonel of an extralegal armed force of Latter-day Saints in the county. When the Saints surrendered, General Samuel D. Lucas estimated that Hinkle commanded about six hundred armed men. Edward Partridge and other church leaders similarly recorded that the Saints surrendered 630 rifles and muskets to Lucas’s forces. (History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, Missouri, 139; Sampson Avard, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, p. [8]; George Walter, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, p. [37]; George M. Hinkle, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, pp. [40]–[41], State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Treason and Other Crimes [Mo. 5th Jud. Cir. 1838], in State of Missouri, “Evidence”; Samuel D. Lucas, “near Far West,” MO, to Lilburn W. Boggs, 2 Nov. 1838, p. [7], copy, Mormon War Papers, Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City; Edward Partridge et al., “Copy of a Memorial to the Legislature of Missouri,” 10 Dec. 1838, in Greene, Facts Relative to the Expulsion, 15; see also Rockwood, Journal, 22 Oct. 1838, [11]–[12].)

    History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, Missouri, Written and Compiled from the Most Authentic Official and Private Sources. . . . St. Louis: National Historical Co., 1886.

    Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.

    Greene, John P. Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons or Latter Day Saints, from the State of Missouri, under the “Exterminating Order.” By John P. Greene, an Authorized Representative of the Mormons. Cincinnati: R. P. Brooks, 1839.

    Rockwood, Albert Perry. Journal Entries, Oct. 1838–Jan. 1839. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2606.

  16. [16]

    In December 1842, JS similarly told attorney Justin Butterfield, “Hinckle orderd a retreat I rode through & orderd them to stand.” (JS, Journal, 30 Dec. 1842.)

  17. [17]

    In his July 1843 testimony, JS made similar statements attacking the validity of Missouri officials’ treason indictment. While in Missouri, JS claimed exemption from militia service due to his ordination as a minister. He was therefore not part of the Caldwell County regiment of the Missouri state militia, and he held no military position in the Danite society, a private militia composed of Latter-day Saint men in Missouri. Although JS was aware of the Danites, he was not briefed in all of their plans and activities. During church members’ October 1838 military operations in Daviess County, JS apparently did not have direct command in the field, although witnesses testified at the November 1838 hearing that he directed the expeditions from Adam-ondi-Ahman, the church’s primary settlement in the county. (Affidavit, 7 July 1843; Missouri Constitution of 1820, art. 13, sec. 18; Petition to George Tompkins, between 9 and 15 Mar. 1839; Historical Introduction to Constitution of the Society of the Daughter of Zion, ca. Late June 1838; Sampson Avard, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, p. [7]; George M. Hinkle, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, p. [39]; John Cleminson, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, pp. [52], [54]; Reed Peck, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, pp. [59]–[60]; William W. Phelps, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, pp. [90]–[91], State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Treason and Other Crimes [Mo. 5th Jud. Cir. 1838], in State of Missouri, “Evidence”; Historical Introduction to State of Missouri v. Gates et al. for Treason.)

    Missouri Constitution, 1820. Record Group 5, Office of the Secretary of State. MSA.

  18. [18]

    The Anti-Mormon political party held a large public meeting on 19 August 1843 in Carthage, Illinois. Speakers included Valentine Wilson, Walter Bagby, and Hiram Boyle. The extant minutes do not include any specific remarks. (JS, Journal, 19 Aug. 1843; “Great Meeting of Anti-Mormons!,” Warsaw [IL] Message, 13 Sept. 1843, [1].)

    Warsaw Message. Warsaw, IL. 1843–1844.

  19. [19]

    Although an insertion by Frederick G. Williams in JS’s 1832 history states that this vision occurred when JS was fifteen, JS’s other primary accounts of his vision state or indicate that he was fourteen or “about 14” at the time. (History, ca. Summer 1832; Conversations with Robert Matthews, 9–11 Nov. 1835; JS History, vol. A-1, 2–4; JS History, ca. 1841, draft, 2–4; “Church History,” 1 Mar. 1842; JS, “Latter Day Saints,” in Rupp, He Pasa Ekklesia, 404–405.)

  20. [20]

    Known as bibliomancy, this practice of randomly opening books such as the Bible for divine guidance was a common form of Christian divination dating back to antiquity. (Perry, Bible Culture and Authority, 46–47.)

    Perry, Seth. Bible Culture and Authority in the Early United States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018.

  21. [21]

    See James 1:5.

  22. [22]

    TEXT: Although no period is visible after “returned”, the space between “returned” and “When”, as well as the clear end of the sentence, indicates that one was almost certainly present in the type.

  23. [23]

    In his history begun in 1838, JS similarly stated, “I soon found however that my telling the story had excited a great deal of prejudice against me among professors of religion and was the cause of great persecution which continued to increase.” (JS History, vol. A-1, 3–4.)

  24. [24]

    JS, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, Parley P. Pratt, and George W. Robinson. Hyrum Smith and Amasa Lyman were also captured and joined the prisoners the next day. (“Part 3: 4 November 1838–16 April 1839.”)

  25. [25]

    In his 1839 narrative of the events in Missouri, JS’s fellow prisoner Parley P. Pratt recorded that despite their poor treatment and the outrages committed against the Saints, the prisoners “felt a calmness indescribable, and a secret whispering, portending that our work was not yet done, and therefore our enemies would be restrained from taking our lives.” In his later autobiography, Pratt repeated this claim and stated that on 3 November 1838, the day after the prisoners left Far West, JS told them, “Be of good cheer, brethren; the word of the Lord came to me last night that our lives should be given us, and that whatever we may suffer during this captivity, not one of our lives should be taken.” It is unclear how widely such a prophecy circulated. (Pratt, History of the Late Persecution, 41; Pratt, Autobiography, 210.)

    Pratt, Parley P. History of the Late Persecution Inflicted by the State of Missouri Upon the Mormons, In Which Ten Thousand American Citizens were Robbed, Plundered, and Driven From the State, and Many Others Imprisoned, Martyred, &c. For Their Religion, and All This by Military Force, by Order of the Executive. By P. P. Pratt, Minister of the Gospel. Written During Eight Months Imprisonment in that State. Detroit: Dawson and Bates, 1839.

    Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.

  26. [26]

    JS and his family left for Dixon, Illinois, on 13 June 1843. (JS, Journal, 13 June 1843.)

  27. [27]

    Following his 23 June 1843 arrest, JS obtained a writ of habeas corpus and left with a party including his captors, his attorneys, the Lee County sheriff, and a few others to travel south toward Quincy, Illinois, to find a court authorized to hear the writ. However, rather than going to Quincy, JS and his attorneys decided that Nauvoo’s municipal court was authorized to hear writs of habeas corpus, so the party instead traveled to Nauvoo, where JS obtained a new writ of habeas corpus and was discharged. (Historical Introduction to Affidavit, 24 June 1843; Historical Introduction to Petition to Nauvoo Municipal Court, 30 June 1843.)

  28. [28]

    Many visitors to Nauvoo commented on the unique design of the Nauvoo temple. The editor of the Burlington Gazette, for example, stated that “its style of architecture is entirely original—unlike any thing in the world, or in the history of the world—but it is at the same time chaste and elegant.” In contrast, a correspondent with the New York Journal of Commerce acknowledged that the temple would be “an edifice externally of grandeur and magnificence” but complained that the interior—particularly the baptismal font—was “a most perfect piece of ginger bread workmanship and wasteful gimcrack.” The correspondent continued, stating that the Saints were “a peculiar people, and in that respect, its absurdity and singularity may be pardoned—but what can excuse their wanton violation of all taste.” (“The Mormon City,” New-York Daily Tribune [New York City], 10 Aug. 1843, [1]; “Correspondence of the Journal of Commerce,” New York Journal of Commerce [New York City], 2 Aug. 1843, [2].)

    New-York Daily Tribune. New York City. 1841–1924.

    New York Journal of Commerce. New York City. 1827–1893.

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