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Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Footnotes
See Minutes, 24 Feb. 1834; Revelation, 24 Feb. 1834 [D&C 103]; and JS, Journal, 26 Feb.–28 Mar. 1834.
Revelation, 16–17 Dec. 1833 [D&C 101:6].
JS, Journal, 9–10 Apr. 1834. This 9 April notation in JS’s journal is the first known documentary evidence that JS had decided to go with the Camp of Israel.
See, for example, “The Outrage in Jackson County, Missouri,” The Evening and the Morning Star, May 1834, 160; and “The Outrage in Jackson County, Missouri,” The Evening and the Morning Star, June 1834, 168.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
See Luke 2:7.
According to the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, published in the latter half of the nineteenth century, Democritus, a Greek philosopher who lived from 460–357 BC, was known as the “laughing philosopher” because he “viewed with supreme contempt the feeble powers of man.” A more contemporary periodical article likewise called Democritus the “laughing philosopher.” The phrase “laughing philosophers” was also used more generally to connote jest, sarcasm, or humor. (Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 733; “Humble Station No Obstacle to the Acquisition of Knowledge,” Friend, 28 Aug. 1830, 361; see also, for example, The Galaxy of Wit: or Laughing Philosopher Being a Collection of Choice Anecdotes . . . , 2 vols. [Boston: J. Reed, 1830].)
Brewer, E. Cobham. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Giving the Derivation, Source, or Origin of Common Phrases, Allusions, and Words That Have a Tale to Tell. Rev. ed. 2 vols. London: Cassell, 1895.
Friend: A Religious and Literary Journal. Philadelphia. 1827–1955.
Oliver Cowdery traveled to New York in October 1833 to purchase new printing equipment. He informed Ambrose Palmer on 30 October that “I purchased a Press & Types, all of which had arrived at Buffalo when I left that place: when they will arrive here is uncertain to us, as that depends upon the providences of our Heavenly Father. If however his providences are favorable, they will arrive in a few days undoubtedly.” Cowdery paid $190.60 for the printing press and $360.21 for type. (Oliver Cowdery, Kirtland Mills, OH, to Ambrose Palmer, New Portage, OH, 30 Oct. 1833, in Cowdery, Letterbook, 8; F. G. Williams and Company, Account Book, 1.)
Cowdery, Oliver. Letterbook, 1833–1838. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
F. G. Williams & Co. Account Book, 1833–1835. CHL. In Patience Cowdery, Diary, 1849–1851. CHL. MS 3493.
See Historical Introduction to Prayer, 11 Jan. 1834.
By mid-January 1834, the printing office in Kirtland had printed the 16–17 December 1833 revelation, which explained why the Mormons had been expelled from Jackson County and relayed a parable indicating how Zion was to be redeemed. The church intended to send copies of the revelation to the governor of Missouri and to the president of the United States. The church also distributed copies among its branches, presumably to help recruit people and raise money for the expedition to Missouri. The Painesville Telegraph stated that the revelation was “privately circulated among the deluded followers of the impostor, Smith,” while Mormonism Unvailed declared that it “was taken up by all their priests and carried to all their congregations.” (“A Scrap of Mormonism,” Painesville [OH] Telegraph, 24 Jan. 1834, [1]; Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 155.)
Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1822–1986.
Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion, from Its Rise to the Present Time. With Sketches of the Characters of Its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in Which the Famous Golden Bible Was Brought before the World. To Which Are Added, Inquiries into the Probability That the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written by One Solomon Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.