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.
“An Extra Ordinance for the extra case of Joseph Smith and others,” passed by the Nauvoo City Council on 8 December 1843, stated that anyone attempting to arrest JS or others for their activities in Missouri in the 1830s would be subject to arrest and, if convicted, sentenced to life imprisonment. (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 8 Dec. 1843, 191–192; JS, Journal, 8 Dec. 1843.)
An ordinance to prevent unlawful search and seizure of persons or property, passed by the Nauvoo City Council on 21 December 1843, required that all warrants originating outside Nauvoo be signed by Nauvoo’s mayor before they could be served in the city. The ordinance was amended on 10 January 1844 after residents of Carthage charged that the ordinance was passed “to hinder the execution of the Statutes in the City.” (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 21 Dec. 1843, 197–198; 10 Jan. 1844, 199–200; JS, Journal, 21 Dec. 1843 and 10 Jan. 1844.)
An ordinance passed by the Nauvoo City Council on 4 March 1843 stated that gold and silver were the only lawful tender for the payment of city taxes, debts, and city fines and that city scrip would no longer be issued as “moneyed Currency.” (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 4 Mar. 1843, 167–168.)
The ordinance repealing the ordinances dealing with “the extra case of Joseph Smith” and “unlawful Search and Seizure” justified itself on the grounds that the ordinances had “had their desired effect in preserving the peace, happiness, persons and property of the Citizens of Nauvoo.” This new ordinance, however, still declared that “nothing in . . . this Ordinance shall be so construed as to give license or liberty to any foreign officer or other person or persons to illegally disturb the peace happiness or quiet of any citizen of said city.” A separate ordinance repealed the ordinance regulating currency in Nauvoo. (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 12 Feb. 1844, 203, 204.)
The memorial proposed that Nauvoo be granted all the powers belonging to territories of the United States until the state of Missouri provided redress for the losses that the Saints sustained there in the 1830s. It also asked that the mayor of Nauvoo be authorized to call upon federal troops, when necessary, to help the Nauvoo Legion protect the citizens of Nauvoo from violence. (JS, Journal, 21 Dec. 1843.)
JS told Pratt to urge the congressional representatives from Illinois to support the memorial and also to enlist the help of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, “and other prominet men.” Pratt left for Washington DC in March 1844, and on 5 April 1844, James Semple, senator from Illinois, presented the memorial, along with the memorial John Frierson had written, to the Senate. The Senate referred both memorials to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which did not take action on either. (Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 12 Feb. 1844, 2; JS, Journal, 28 Nov. 1843; JS, Letter of Recommendation for Orson Pratt, 12 Mar. 1844, copy, JS Collection, CHL; Congressional Globe, 28th Cong., 1st Sess., 5 Apr. 1844, p. 482; Orson Pratt, Washington DC, to Hon. John Berrien, Washington DC, 11 May 1844, in Pratt, Prophetic Almanac for 1845, 18–19.)
The Congressional Globe, Containing Sketches of the Debates and Proceedings of the Third Session of the Twenty-Seventh Congress. Vol. 12. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1843.
Pratt, Orson. Prophetic Almanac for 1845. Being the First after Bissextile or Leap Year. Calculated for the Eastern, Middle and Western States and Territories, the Northern Portions of the Slave States, and British Provinces. New York: Prophet Office, 1845.
Eighty-two city notes valued at one dollar each were burned on this date at JS’s instruction. No ordinance providing for the burning of city scrip has been located. JS was probably burning redeemed, old, or mutilated scrip that was no longer fit for circulation—a common practice of the era. (Account of Scrip Destroyed, 12 Feb. 1844, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL; for examples of the practice of burning scrip, see Acts Passed at the Eleventh Session of the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas, 78–79; and Proceedings of the Common Council, of the City of St. Paul, 87.)
Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.
Acts Passed at the Eleventh Session of the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas. . . . Little Rock, AR: Johnson and Yerkes, 1857.
Proceedings of the Common Council, of the City of St. Paul, for the Year Ending April 15th, 1862. St. Paul, MN: Pioneer Printing, 1862.