Lyman O. Littlefield’s sentiment was similar to those JS and other church members expressed during this period. William Smith, editor of the Nauvoo publication Wasp, frequently commented on Sharp’s editorial attacks on the Latter-day Saints in the pages of the Warsaw Signal. In an April 1842 issue of the Wasp, Smith noted that following Sharp’s visit to Nauvoo a year earlier, he “commenced a most unwarrantable attack upon us and treated our kindness with mockery and has continued a continual tirade of abuse ever since.” (“The Turkey,” Wasp, 23 Apr. 1842, [2].)

The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.

The notice, published in the 15 February 1842 issue of the Times and Seasons, read: “Married—In this city on the 6th inst. by the Rev. Erastus H. Derby, Mr. Gilbert H. Rolfe, to Miss Eliza Jane Bates, all of this city. On receipt of the above notice, we were favored with a rich and delightful loaf of cake—by no means below the medium size; which makes us anxious that all their acts through life may be justified; and when life wanes and they find a peaceful abode in the ‘narrow house,’ may the many outs and ins they have made, leave to the world an abundant posterity to celebrate their glorious example.” (“Married,” Times and Seasons, 15 Feb. 1842, 3:701, emphasis in original.)

This quotation derives from a popular lullaby poem written by English clergyman Isaac Watts and published in 1715 in Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children, which was later frequently republished as Divine and Moral Songs for Children. The wording of the poem’s first line, which varies from one publication to another, often reads: “Hush, my babe, lie still and slumber; Holy angels guard thy bed.” (Divine and Moral Songs, for the Use of Children, 61; New London Reading Made Easy and Spelling-Book, [31].)

Divine and Moral Songs, for the Use of Children. By Isaac Watts, D.D. A New Edition. . . . London: William Darton and Son, no date.

The New London Reading Made Easy and Spelling-Book; Being an Introduction to Reading the Holy Bible . . . for the Instruction of Children. London: J. Bailey, no date.

The phrase “worked off” refers to “any forme or sheet printed off.” (Jacobi, Printer’s Vocabulary, 157.)

Jacobi, Charles Thomas. The Printers’ Vocabulary: A Collection of Some 2500 Technical Terms, Phrases, Abbreviations and Other Expressions Mostly Relating to Letterpress Printing, Many of Which Have Been in Use since the Time of Caxton. London: Chiswick Press, 1888.

In the 15 March issue of the Times and Seasons, Ebenezer Robinson asserted that “on the 7th this marriage took place, and the notice was written by one of the hands in the office, and put in type by one of the boys, without, undoubtedly, any expectation of its being printed. At this time it was not fully decided whether President Smith should take the responsibility of editor, or not, therefore that paper went to press without his personal inspection.” (Ebenezer Robinson, “To the Public,” Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1842, 3:729.)