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Times and Seasons, 15 April 1842

Source Note

Times and Seasons (, Hancock Co., IL), 15 Apr. 1842, vol. 3, no. 12, pp. 751–766; edited by JS. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.

Historical Introduction

The 15 April 1842 issue of the ’s , Illinois, newspaper, Times and Seasons, was the fifth issue to identify JS as editor. The issue contained three editorial passages, each of which is featured below with an accompanying introduction. Two other JS texts printed in this issue—a discourse and minutes of the April 1842 special in Nauvoo—are featured as stand-alone documents elsewhere in this volume.
Note that only the editorial content created specifically for this issue of the Times and Seasons is annotated here. Articles reprinted from other papers, letters, conference minutes, and notices, are reproduced here but not annotated. Items that are stand-alone JS documents are annotated elsewhere; links are provided to these stand-alone documents.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    While JS likely authored many of the paper’s editorial passages, John Taylor reportedly assisted him in writing content. No matter who wrote individual editorial pieces, JS assumed editorial responsibility for all installments naming him as editor except the 15 February issue. (Woodruff, Journal, 19 Feb. 1842; Times and Seasons, 1 Mar. 1842.)

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

  2. [2]

    See Discourse, 20 Mar. 1842; and Minutes and Discourses, 6–8 Apr. 1842.

  3. [3]

    See “Editorial Method”.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Times and Seasons, 15 April 1842
*Times and Seasons, 15 April 1842
*Times and Seasons, 15 April 1842 *Minutes and Discourses, 6–8 April 1842 *Discourse, 7 April 1842–A *Discourse, 7 April 1842–C *Discourse, 7 April 1842–B *Discourse, 20 March 1842, as Reported by Wilford Woodruff

Page 758

SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
——
earthquakes.
From the Preston Pilot.
Up to 10th of November a series of storms and earthquakes have desolated parts of the Two Sicilies and Calabria, a region of volcanic fires. The people are in a state of great alarm; and from the mischief already done, it is frightful to apprehend what ravages may follow. The meteorological phenomena throughout the larger portion of Europe for the last two or three months have been of an uncommon and unsettled character, and the weather generally severe. On the 25th of September extraordinary perturbations occurred in magnetic observations at ’Greenwich and elsewhere.
——
destructive earthquakes in central america.
From the Albion, Dec. 13th
By a letter received from Central America by the last Jamaca packet, it appears that the entire city of Cartago, containing a population of 10,000 persons, was destroyed by an earthquake early in the morning of September 2nd, though, as nearly all the inhabitants had previously risen, but few (not more than forty or fifty persons) were killed or wounded. This earthquake occurred without previous warning, and was connected with an eruption of the well known volcano about three leagues distant. A smart shock of the same earthquake was at the same time felt in the town of San Jose, not far distant, at which place the earth trembled for several days subsequent, but not much damage done there.
——
atmospheric phenomenon.
A luminious and electric ball was seen in the sky over Windermere on the 25th ult. In the course of three minutes it assumed the shapes of a pyramid, a flame, a spiral serpent, the figure of the letter Z, very brilliant at its angles, and lastly, of a compressed cresent, when it disapeared.
——
A well known corespondent of the Albion, signing himself “R.” of Prescott, on metorological subjects, writes thus in that paper of the 6th inst: God will not be mocked in his designs on earth, but the forms of light and the clouds may yet instruct them of their deficiencies. Never before did I see such funereal, such lugubrious and portentious visions of sky for evil as for two months have hovered over us. Never within the memory of man did such clouds produce such successions of thunder storms, inundations, and hurricanes. The locust, the horse-resembling, the cruical, the palmated, the sheaf-reared ensign of Ceres, the funereal meshlike, the serpentine, the snake rod-like: these have never failed to be the sequents of forms of light more terrible than they, and which seem to have been prepared to exhaust over our land a magazine of evil, of which none of us can yet proclaim the end, and of which, it is more than probable, we have only seen the beginning. Be warned, ye great ones of the land, for God’s wrath is on the wheel of nature, working it towards a nation’s destruction. Once more I say, be warned!”
 
————
Editorial Note
The second editorial passage in the 15 April 1842 issue of the Times and Seasons reproduced and commented on references to the in other presses. The editorial passage specifically praised two editors that JS considered fair in their treatment of Latter-day Saints: of the New York Herald and of the Chicago Democrat.
From the Western Reserve Cabinet and Family Visitor.
, of the New York Herald, has been found guilty in two indictments for Libels against Judges [Mordecai] Noah and [James] Lynch, and has been sentenced to pay a fine of some two or three hundred dollars. Notwithstanding this mishap, the noted editor of the Herald is certainly rising in the world, for the city council of the famous City of have taken him under their special protection and patronage. They have passed a solemn resolution, in city council convened, to the effect that is “rayther” the greatest editor and his Herald a little the tallest paper that this planet can produce. At this rate will be able to out-live any number of indictments.
Thus saith the sectarian editor of the “Western Reserve Cabinet and Family Visitor” of March 1st, 1842. Now is one of the most able editors, and his Herald one of the best conducted papers this world ever saw. He is a more moral man, a greater benefactor of the human race, and a better Christian, than any sectarian editor on this continent; and the Herald diffuses more useful knowledge, and correct information, than all their illiberal, bigoted, prejudiced, narrow contracted papers combined. The Herald will “rise in the world” either with or without the Mormon support—so do not trouble yourself Mr. [Lyman W.] Hall. [p. 758]
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Source Note

Document Transcript

Page 758

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Times and Seasons, 15 April 1842
ID #
8146
Total Pages
16
Print Volume Location
JSP, D9:372–380
Handwriting on This Page
  • Printed text

Footnotes

  1. [2]

    Noah was appointed a judge of the New York County Court of General Sessions by William H. Seward. (Wolf, Mordecai Manuel Noah, 17.)

    Wolf, Simon. Mordecai Manuel Noah: A Biographical Sketch. Philadelphia: Levytype, 1897.

  2. [3]

    Lynch served as a judge of the New York County Court of General Sessions, beginning 20 May 1840. (Morris v. People, 3 Denio 382 [N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1846].)

    Denio / Denio, Hiram. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court and in the Court for the Correction of Errors of the State of New-York. 5 vols. Albany: Gould, Banks and Gould, 1846–1850.

  3. [4]

    According to a report of the trial, “the libels were of a tenor tending to throw the greatest contempt upon the officers and proceedings of that court [the Court of General Sessions of New York County], and to make their administration of criminal justice a laughing-stock, and a subject for general derision. They were not mere single separate attacks . . . but they had been preceded by a long series of abusive and contemptuous articles.” The sentence was a fine of $350. (“Trial of William L. Stone, for Libel,” 146.)

    “Trial of William L. Stone, for Libel.” The Law Reporter 5, no. 4 (Aug. 1842): 145–155.

  4. [5]

    The Western Reserve Cabinet and Family Visitor here ridiculed a statement made by John C. Bennett to the city council and two resolutions commending James Gordon Bennett and recommending the New York Weekly Herald. (“New York Weekly Herald—James Gordon Bennett,” Times and Seasons, 1 Jan. 1842, 3:652–653.)

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  5. [6]

    Lyman Hall was the founder and editor of the Western Reserve Cabinet and Family Visitor in Ravenna, Ohio. (History of Portage County, Ohio, 364.)

    History of Portage County, Ohio. Containing a History of the County, Its Townships, Towns, Villages, Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc. . . . Chicago: Warner, Beers, 1885.

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