Footnotes
This serialized history drew on the journals herein beginning with the 4 July 1855 issue of the Deseret News and with the 3 January 1857 issue of the LDS Millennial Star.
The labels on the spines of the four volumes read respectively as follows: “Joseph Smith’s Journal—1842–3 by Willard Richards” (book 1); “Joseph Smith’s Journal by W. Richards 1843” (book 2); “Joseph Smith’s Journal by W. Richards 1843–4” (book 3); and “W. Richards’ Journal 1844 Vol. 4” (book 4). Richards kept JS’s journal in the front of book 4, and after JS’s death Richards kept his own journal in the back of the volume.
“Schedule of Church Records, Nauvoo 1846,” [1], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
“Inventory. Historian’s Office. 4th April 1855,” [1]; “Contents of the Historian and Recorder’s Office G. S. L. City July 1858,” 2; “Index of Records and Journals in the Historian’s Office 1878,” [11]–[12], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL; Johnson, Register of the Joseph Smith Collection, 7.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
Johnson, Jeffery O. Register of the Joseph Smith Collection in the Church Archives, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1973.
Footnotes
Historical Introduction to JS, Journal, Dec. 1841–Dec. 1842.
Source Note to JS, Journal, 1835–1836; Source Note to JS, Journal, Mar.–Sept. 1838.
See Appendix 3.
Illinois state law prohibited marriage between any “person of color, negro, or mulatto, of either sex” and “any white person, male or female.” Such marriages contracted in Illinois were declared null and void, and the offending parties were subject to a fine, a whipping “not exceeding thirty-nine lashes,” and at least a year’s imprisonment. Additionally, any clerk convicted of knowingly issuing a marriage license for an interracial marriage and anyone convicted of solemnizing such a marriage was to be fined “in a sum not less than two hundred dollars” and was thereafter ineligible for any state office. JS may have imposed a more lenient fine here because the men were trying to marry the women but evidently had not actually done so. (An Act Respecting Free Negroes and Mulattoes, Servants, and Slaves [17 Jan. 1829], Laws of the State of Illinois [1834–1847], pp. 507–508; Marriages, 8 Feb. 1844 [3 Mar. 1845], Revised Statutes of the State of Illinois, p. 353, sec. 2.)
Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at Their First Session, Commencing December 1, 1834, and Ending February 13, 1835. Vandalia, IL: J. Y. Sawyer, 1835.
Revised Statutes of the State of Illinois, Adopted by the General Assembly of Said State, at Its Regular Session, Held in the Years, A. D., 1844–’5. Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1845.
JS’s Views on the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States, which outlined the platform for his 1844 presidential campaign, detailed JS’s ideas on political and social issues. In his speech, according to Wilford Woodruff, JS explained that the only reason he was “permitting his name to go forth as a Candidate for the Presidency of the United States” was that the Latter-day Saints had not been allowed to enjoy their constitutional rights. “Persecution has rolled upon our heads from time to time from portions of the United States like peels of thunder because of our religion,” JS said, “& no portion of the government as yet has step[p]ed forward for our relief & under view of these things I feel it to be my right & privilege to obtain what influence & power I can lawfully in the United States for the protection of injured innocence.” (JS, Journal, 5 Feb. 1844; Woodruff, Journal, 8 Feb. 1844.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.