Robert McCorkle, Letter, Yorkville, Dyer Co., Tennessee, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 10 May 1844; handwriting presumably of Robert McCorkle; dockets in handwriting of and unidentified scribe; one page; JS Collection, CHL.
Page [1]
<May the 10th. 1844>
To Joseph Smith I’ll
Respected Sir—
Having in vain saught an interview with you during your Conferance, being repulsed by a throng of business which bore weightily on you at that time— I was under the necessity of returning home without receiving that satisfaction that I desired, and which I promised myself before I left for —
As to the teachings exhibeted from the stand at the conferance in the mien [main], as far as I understood, I believ’d— of course the mode of adress being so far different from any thing with which I had ever be acustomed, I was not a little surprised, but considerably amused— [blank] Passing these things by, I want to come to a point, & that is your prophetic power, if I rem[em]ber correctly, you stated in your adress, (the only public one you made while I was <there>) That you would be able to show, and prove to the satisfaction of the audience, that you had not become so far a fallen prophet as some would have it you were,— I of course was an entire stranger to whome, or what, you alluded— My expectations were raised, thinking to hear you prophecy, but if you made any; I have no recolletion of it— I claim to be honest, I believe God never owned any people as <his> people or church, without having prophets among them; when I say prophets, I mean one, who by the power of God, can, and does foresee, & foretell events in the future, which will come to pass litteraly at the time and place, as by the prophet seen— none other than a litteral fulfilment will do me—
I dont want you to think hard of me, when I tell you that I as yet, have not been m[a]de acquainted with any prophecy that you have made; which has, or has not been fulfiled, hence I am left without any ground on which to predicate a belief wheather or not, you are a prophet, (true or false) If any you have ever made, I have an honest desire to see them if it be not contrary to wisdom— a private communication on that subject would be of considerable satisfaction, or if a public exhibit would be less objectionable I would just as soon—
I went to with strong desires to familiarize myself <with> what is call’d Mormonism,— but through timidity I was baffled [p. [1]]