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Minutes and Discourses, 6–7 April 1843, as Reported by William Clayton

Source Note

Special conference of the church, Minutes, and JS, Discourses, [, Hancock Co., IL, 6–7 Apr. 1843]; handwriting of ; ten pages; Historian’s Office, General Church Minutes, CHL. Includes redactions and dockets.
One leaf and two bifolia measuring 10 × 8 inches (25 × 20 cm) and ruled with twenty-six horizontal gray lines per page. On the recto of the first leaf, the bottom three lines were marked by light brush strokes of yellow, green, and red paint, which precluded inscription of the minutes on that portion of the page. Between and around the strokes, wrote names and numerical calculations that appear to be unrelated to the minutes. After Clayton inscribed the minutes, the document was folded for filing. When the conference minutes were edited for publication in April and early May 1843, redactions and partial pagination were added.
The minutes were docketed by , who served as scribe to JS from 1842 to 1844 and as temple recorder from 1842 to 1846. At a later time, an unidentified clerk added to Clayton’s docket. The docket was further expanded by , who served as JS’s scribe from 1843 to 1844 and as clerk to the church historian and recorder from 1845 to 1865. Clayton’s docket was expanded again by Jonathan Grimshaw, who served as a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office (now CHL) from 1853 to 1856. In the mid-twentieth century, the document was included in a miscellaneous minutes collection that was a vestige of a genre-based filing method used by the Church Historian’s Office in the first half of the twentieth century. This document genre collection contained many documents that subsequently formed the basis for the General Church Minutes collection that was cataloged in 1994. The document’s dockets and its inclusion within the General Church Minutes collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 29 June 1842; “Clayton, William,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:718; Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 18, 30–31. Clayton’s docket reads simply “April.”

    Jenson, Andrew. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901–1936.

    Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, ca. 1845. CHL. MS 3365.

  2. [2]

    Following Clayton’s docket identifying the month, “April,” the unidentified scribe added the year “1844” and then corrected it to “1843.”

  3. [3]

    Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 456, 458; Woodruff, Journal, 22 Jan. 1865. Beneath Clayton’s docket identifying the month and the unidentified scribe’s addition identifying the year, Bullock inserted “Minutes of a Meeting in Nauvoo.”

    Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  4. [4]

    Historian’s Office, Journal, 7 June 1853; Wilford Woodruff, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to George A. Smith, 30 Aug. 1856, in Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 1, p. 364. Between Clayton’s docket identifying the month and the unidentified scribe’s addition identifying the year, Grimshaw inserted “Conference.”

    Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.

    Historian’s Office. Letterpress Copybooks, 1854–1879, 1885–1886. CHL. CR 100 38.

  5. [5]

    See the full bibliographic entry for Historian’s Office, General Church Minutes, 1839–1877, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

From 6 through 9 April 1843 in , Illinois, JS presided at a special of the . Latter-day Saints considered the conference a “Jubilee” because the occasion marked the thirteenth anniversary of the church’s founding on 6 April 1830 and the beginning of its fourteenth year; they were apparently referring to and adapting the biblical seven-year sabbatical cycle. The four-day event was held on the “platform of the ,” a temporary floor that was installed on the main level in October 1842 for worship services. The speakers at the conference delivered their discourses from a portable stand, while listeners were arrayed in chairs across the floor.
On 6 April 1843, , president of the , opened the initial, midday meeting of the conference at 11:30 a.m. because JS was detained in the mayor’s court. When the meeting began, listeners covered about three-fourths of the floor. After the choir sang a hymn and offered a prayer, delivered a discourse on the concept of resurrection until 12:00 p.m. JS had arrived at 11:50 a.m., and he took the stand after Pratt finished his discourse. JS announced an agenda for the business portion of the conference, which took place during the midday and afternoon sessions on 6 April and the morning session on 7 April. First, he planned to present the “for trial,” as he termed it, asking for a sustaining vote for him and his counselors, and . Next, he intended to address the inefficient process of and missionaries collecting donations for the and the , an uncontrolled system that resulted in many donations not being deposited with JS as the church’s trustee-in-trust nor with his clerk . Finally, JS stated that the agenda would include an opportunity for missionaries to appeal the decisions of ecclesiastical trials held outside of .
The meeting proceeded as outlined, beginning with a sustaining vote for members of the First Presidency. During the remainder of the midday session, JS gave extended comments on the second item of business, proposing that the system of gathering funds for the and be amended so that members of the be designated as the only agents authorized to collect donations. After JS finished his comments, the conference voted to accept the proposal, and conference attendees discussed implementation of the plan. The choir then sang from 1:30 to 2:00 p.m., and closed the meeting with a prayer, after which attendees were dismissed for an hour break.
Since JS was again detained for unspecified reasons, opened the afternoon meeting at 3:00 with a statement on the problem of stealing among some church members who claimed to have the First Presidency’s tacit approval for their activities. JS then gave his second discourse. After continuing the subject of stealing in and condemning the thieves, he instructed church members not to settle in and encouraged those currently living there to relocate to . He also spoke on the signs preceding the second coming of Jesus Christ. At 5:50 p.m., the choir sang, and ended the session with prayer.
The following morning at 10:00, the conference reopened with a hymn by the choir and a prayer by . JS was “rather hoarse from Speaking so long yesterday” and said that “he would use the boys lungs to day.” With presiding, the conference gave permission to missionaries to appeal decisions from ecclesiastical trials, and then Young appointed to preside over church in various cities. For the remainder of the meeting, JS’s clerk conducted a public investigation of the ’s management of church funds. JS then “statd that the business of the confernce had closed. & the rem[ai]nder of the confernce would be devoted to instruction.” At 12:30 p.m., the choir sang again, and Young adjourned the meeting with prayer.
was appointed clerk of the conference and took the minutes featured here of the business deliberations and discourses on 6 and 7 April 1843. Clayton apparently endeavored to take notes while the discourses were being given; his hasty, on-the-spot note-taking is evidenced by incomplete sentences and a lack of contextual information about who was speaking or transitions between meetings. Another of JS’s scribes, , also recorded accounts of JS’s two 6 April discourses; these two accounts are also featured here as Discourse, 6 April 1843–A and Discourse, 6 April 1843–B. Richards presumably kept rough notes that he later copied, with minimal polishing in the process, into JS’s journal. In addition, an unknown Latter-day Saint made an account of JS’s doctrinal comments on the second coming of Jesus Christ. The polished nature of this account indicates that the unknown scribe reconstructed JS’s words after the fact from notes or from memory or both. Although the original source for his account is not known, church member copied the text into his notebook sometime after his arrival in in mid-April 1843. This account is also featured here under Discourse, 6 April 1843–B. Annotation that appears in Clayton’s version of the minutes is not repeated in corresponding locations in the other featured versions.
JS requested that the minutes of the 6 April 1843 business meetings be circulated as broadly as possible so that church members outside would understand that the apostles were the only agents authorized to collect donations for the and the . In the weeks after the meeting, JS’s scribes expanded ’s official minutes and accounts of discourses. The revised minutes and discourses appeared in the 1 May 1843 issue of the Times and Seasons and are featured separately in this volume.
During the remainder of the conference, ’s minute-taking became more sporadic; he focused primarily on recording doctrinal comments made by apostle and JS during the 7 April afternoon and the 8 April morning sessions. Because Clayton recorded these minutes and discourses on sheets of paper separate from the 6–7 April minutes, they are featured separately herein. He apparently did not take minutes during the 8 April afternoon session or the concluding 9 April morning session, presumably because JS did not participate in those meetings.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    It was called a “special conference” rather than a “general conference” because in October 1841, JS announced that the church would “not hold another general conference” until the temple was completed. (JS, Journal, 6–9 Apr. 1843; Minutes and Discourse, 1–5 Oct. 1841.)

  2. [2]

    JS, Journal, 6 Apr. 1843; Leviticus 25:1–17; see also JS, Journal, 30 Mar. 1836. Wilford Woodruff noted that the 1843 conference represented “the commenc[e]ment of the fourteenth year of the church.” (Woodruff, Journal, 6 Apr. 1843.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  3. [3]

    JS, Journal, 23 and 28 Oct. 1842; 6 and 8 Apr. 1843; George Alley, Nauvoo, IL, to Joseph Alley, Lynn, MA, 13 Apr. 1843, George Alley, Letters, microfilm, CHL; see also McBride, House for the Most High, 115–117. By April 1843, construction on the temple walls had progressed to between four and twelve feet from the floor. (JS, Journal, 6 Apr. 1843.)

    Alley, George. Letters, 1842–1859. Microfilm. CHL.

    McBride, Matthew. A House for the Most High: The Story of the Original Nauvoo Temple. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2007.

  4. [4]

    See Historical Introduction to M. F. Thompson v. F. Dixon and E. Dixon.

  5. [5]

    JS, Journal, 6 Apr. 1843.

  6. [6]

    JS, Journal, 6 Apr. 1843.

  7. [7]

    JS, Journal, 6 Apr. 1843.

  8. [8]

    JS, Journal, 7 Apr. 1843.

  9. [9]

    JS, Journal, 7 Apr. 1843.

  10. [10]

    JS, Journal, 7 Apr. 1843.

  11. [11]

    Clayton, Journal, 6 Apr. 1843. Willard Richards made a more complete account of the conference proceedings in JS’s journal. (JS, Journal, 6–9 Apr. 1843.)

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

  12. [12]

    For more information on Willard Richards’s note-taking methods, see Historical Introduction to Discourse, 4 July 1843.

  13. [13]

    Burgess arrived in Nauvoo on 12 April 1843 with many other English immigrants. JS delivered a discourse welcoming the new arrivals the following day, which Burgess mentioned in his journal. (Burgess, Journal and Notebook, [64]–[65]; Discourse, 13 Apr. 1843.)

    Burgess, James. Journal, 1841–1848. CHL. MS 1858.

  14. [14]

    See Revised Minutes and Discourses, 23 Apr.–ca. 8 May 1843.

  15. [15]

    See Minutes, 7 Apr. 1843; and Discourse, 8 Apr. 1843.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Discourse, 6 April 1843–B, as Reported by William Clayton Minutes and Discourses, 6–7 April 1843, as Reported by William Clayton *Discourse, 6 April 1843–B, as Reported by Willard Richards Journal, December 1842–June 1844; Book 2, 10 March 1843–14 July 1843 Discourse, 6 April 1843–B, as Reported by Franklin D. Richards *Discourse, 6 April 1843–B, as Reported by James Burgess Revised Minutes and Discourses, 23 April–circa 8 May 1843, James Sloan and John Taylor Draft Revised Minutes and Discourses, 23 April–circa 8 May 1843, First Printed Draft Revised Minutes and Discourses, 23 April-circa 8 May 1843, Willard Richards Draft *Discourse, 6 April 1843–B, as Published in Times and Seasons Revised Minutes and Discourses, 23 April–circa 8 May 1843 History Draft [1 March–31 December 1843] History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843] *Discourse, 6 April 1843–A, as Reported by William Clayton Minutes and Discourses, 6–7 April 1843, as Reported by William Clayton *Discourse, 6 April 1843–A, as Reported by Willard Richards Journal, December 1842–June 1844; Book 2, 10 March 1843–14 July 1843 Revised Minutes and Discourses, 23 April–circa 8 May 1843, James Sloan and John Taylor Draft Revised Minutes and Discourses, 23 April-circa 8 May 1843, Willard Richards Draft *Discourse, 6 April 1843–A, as Published in Times and Seasons Revised Minutes and Discourses, 23 April–circa 8 May 1843 History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843]
*Minutes and Discourses, 6–7 April 1843, as Reported by William Clayton
Minutes and Discourses, 6–7 April 1843, as Reported by Willard Richards Journal, December 1842–June 1844; Book 2, 10 March 1843–14 July 1843 Revised Minutes and Discourses, 23 April–circa 8 May 1843, William Clayton Draft Revised Minutes and Discourses, 23 April–circa 8 May 1843, James Sloan and John Taylor Draft Revised Minutes and Discourses, 23 April–circa 8 May 1843, First Printed Draft Revised Minutes and Discourses, 23 April-circa 8 May 1843, Second Printed Draft Revised Minutes and Discourses, 23 April-circa 8 May 1843, Willard Richards Draft Revised Minutes and Discourses, 23 April–circa 8 May 1843, Third Printed Draft *Revised Minutes and Discourses, 23 April–circa 8 May 1843 History Draft [1 March–31 December 1843] History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843] “History of Joseph Smith” “History of Joseph Smith” “History of Joseph Smith”

Page [1]

[6 April 1843, midday session]
read, 2 Epistle Peter 3rd. chapter. been a long time out of practice, fear & trembling, <​solicited​> the second coming of Christ or the resurrection, shall not confine myself these sub[jects] if there are others present themselves shall not limit, subject of importance, mankind had discovered that they were in a lost & fallen, were in a fallen appointed unto death. God showed that there was an hereafter, that they were not always to sleep in the grave They would call upon the Lord, revelations were given, taught to look forward unto the great & glorious day, when the redeemer should make his second advent, then they should receive their bodies again, this caused them to rejoice, bear persecution, sing songs of joy, Job says— though he in the depths of misery & sorrow, yet he looked forward with hope though worms should destroy his body &c, should have bodies of flesh & bones, many say the systems are constantly changing.
We admit that flesh and blood united will not inherit the , We have no evidence that flesh & bones will not referred to Ezekial ch 37— I dont say that they will be confined on this earth after the resurrection.——
Prs J. we all ought to be thankful for the privilege 1st. to ascertain the standing
prejudice against building the . The are required to give stress to the . This is the most important matter for the time being. There is no place in this town where respicteble men can go to respose themselves [p. [1]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Minutes and Discourses, 6–7 April 1843, as Reported by William Clayton
ID #
2688
Total Pages
10
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:154–168
Handwriting on This Page
  • William Clayton

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Information about dates, times, and speakers has been supplied from Willard Richards’s record of the conference in JS’s journal. (See JS, Journal, 6 Apr. 1843.)

  2. [2]

    In summer 1842, Pratt became disaffected in the wake of conflicting reports regarding his wife, Sarah Marinda Bates Pratt—JS alleged that she had engaged in illicit sexual relations with John C. Bennett, while Bennett alleged that JS had sought to marry her as a plural wife. On 20 August 1842, Orson Pratt was excommunicated from the church. The following January, after reconciling with JS, Orson and Sarah Pratt were rebaptized. The April 1843 conference was evidently Pratt’s first opportunity to preach following his reinstatement. (See JS, Journal, 15 July 1842; and Historical Introduction to Minutes, 20 Jan. 1843.)

  3. [3]

    See Job 19:26.

  4. [4]

    JS previously taught that resurrected bodies were composed of flesh and bones. (Discourse, 27 June 1839; Accounts of Meeting and Discourse, 5 Jan. 1841; Instruction, 9 Feb. 1843 [D&C 129:1–2]; see also Luke 24:39.)

  5. [5]

    See 1 Corinthians 15:50.

  6. [6]

    Ezekiel chapter 37 contains Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones, which the Lord clothed with sinews, flesh, and skin, “and they [the bones] lived.” (See Ezekiel 37:1–10.)

  7. [7]

    JS’s first item of business was “to ascertain the stanig [standing] of the first presidency” by presenting himself and his counselors, Sidney Rigdon and William Law, to the conference for a sustaining vote. Due to ongoing suspicion that Rigdon was conspiring with John C. Bennett against JS, in late March 1843 JS considered withdrawing fellowship from Rigdon and removing him from the First Presidency at the April conference. (JS, Journal, 6 Apr. 1843; Letter to Sidney Rigdon, 27 Mar. 1843.)

  8. [8]

    On 19 January 1841, JS dictated a revelation that commanded the Saints to build a temple and a boardinghouse called the Nauvoo House. Over the next two years, construction on both buildings progressed unevenly. On 21 February 1843, JS explained that he viewed the Nauvoo House as being “just as sacred” as the temple. The 1841 revelation distinguished the Nauvoo House theologically as a place where “the weary traveller may find health and safety, while he shall contemplate the word of the Lord, and the corner stone I have appointed for Zion.” (Revelation, 19 Jan. 1841 [D&C 124:22–23, 31, 62]; Discourse, 21 Feb. 1843; see also Smith, “Symbol of Mormonism,” 109–136.)

    Smith, Alex D. “Symbol of Mormonism: The Nauvoo Boarding House.” John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 35, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2015): 109–136.

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