Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson County, Missouri, 21 April 1833
Source Note
JS, Letter, , Geauga Co., OH, to “Brethren in Zion,” [, MO], 21 Apr. 1833. Retained copy, [ca. 21 Apr. 1833], in JS Letterbook 1, pp. 32–36; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 1.
Historical Introduction
Beginning in the summer of 1831, when a JS revelation placed the location of in , tensions arose between church leaders in Missouri and those approximately one thousand miles to the northeast, in , Ohio. The process of establishing Zion, which included actions ranging from deciding matters of ecclesiastical governance to resolving temporal concerns about the allocation of land and money, occasionally resulted in conflict among leaders in the two areas.
In the spring of 1832, JS visited with , , and “to comfort the Saints and Setle som[e] little dificulties, and regulate the church and affairs concerning it.” According to , the Missouri members “had a pleasant visit with them and they returned again in peace.” However, if the relationship between church leaders in and those in Missouri seemed peaceful at the time of parting, it soon deteriorated once again. A series of letters exchanged by Kirtland and Missouri leaders between June 1832 and March 1833 reveal the discord: After JS returned to Kirtland in June 1832, he received a letter from , a counselor to Missouri . JS described the letter as an indictment of him for purportedly seeking after “Monarchal power and authority.” JS stated that Corrill’s letter demonstrated “that the devel had set to work” among the church leaders in Missouri “by stirring up [their] hearts . . . by raking up evry fault, which those eyes that are filled with beams could see in looking for motes.” , the church’s agent in Missouri, penned another missive on 10 December 1832, which, according to Kirtland church leaders, also charged JS with seeking “Kingly power.” A January 1833 found these accusations to be “low, dark, & blind,” and the conference directed and to write a response to the Missouri leaders. In their letter, Hyde and Smith encouraged Gilbert to “do his business in the spirit of the Lord,” to repent, and to do the work of him. Kirtland church leaders sent the letter in mid-January 1833 along with a letter from JS to and a copy of a recent revelation known as the “olive leaf.” According to the letter featured below, these materials produced the “desired effect.”
, , and had been embroiled off and on in tensions with JS and church leaders for more than a year and a half when, on 26 February 1833, they called a “special council of ” in to resolve the conflict. The previous December, Partridge had “appointed a in all the , which was to be held as a day of confession, and repentance.” Partridge and other leaders “went from branch to branch exorting, until he had gone through them all.” At this February 1833 session of high priests, Partridge “laid before the council the effect of the proceedings of the Solemn assemblies as held throughout Zion.” Satisfied with the results of those solemn assemblies and in order “to effect a perfect harmony between” them and their “brethren in ,” the Missouri high priests appointed a committee, which comprised , , and John Corrill, to write an epistle reporting the widespread repentance in Missouri and confessing their previous error of challenging and criticizing JS and other Ohio leaders. The three men wrote the letter, asking for forgiveness and seeking unity with the church in Kirtland, that same day. The council accepted it, and the letter was dispatched immediately to church leaders in Ohio. In the letter featured here, written on behalf of the Kirtland leadership, JS accepted the sentiments expressed in that February missive.
Aside from acknowledging the resolution of conflict among church leaders, the document is typical of many letters that JS sent to church leaders in . It responds to specific questions, communicates the contents of a recently dictated revelation, describes developments in , and offers general counsel. In this and subsequent letters, JS continued to advise and implore church leaders and members in Missouri to repent and to be obedient and humble. How the Missouri leaders reacted to this letter is unknown; the only extant record that mentions the letter, briefly and without commentary, is the June 1833 issue of The Evening and the Morning Star.
Letter to Edward Partridge et al., 14 Jan. 1833. In his January 1833 letter to Phelps, JS stated, “Let me say to you, seek to purefy yourselves, & also all the inhabitants of Zion lest the Lords anger be kindled to fierceness, repent, repent, is the voice of God, to Zion.” JS called the revelation that accompanied the January letter to Phelps the “Olieve leaf which we have plucked from the tree of Paradise” and “the Lords message of peace to us” because he saw it as a way to heal ongoing difficulties with Missouri church leaders. (Letter to William W. Phelps, 11 Jan. 1833; Revelation, 27–28 Dec. 1832 [D&C 88:1–126].)
The Evening and the Morning Star mentioned the letter only to refer to Sidney Rigdon’s proselytizing efforts in Medina County, Ohio, which are discussed near the end of the missive. ([William W. Phelps], “The Progress of the Church of Christ,” The Evening and the Morning Star, June 1833, 100.)
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
conviction that he wrote it in all cencerity of his heart and were pleased with the stile and composition but upon mature reflection and inquiry at the hand of the Lord we find some things that are unreconcilable especially to some I mean with respect to hints given that are not clearly explained, as evry letter that comes from must go the rounds of the Brethren for inspection it is necessary that there should be no disgise in them but that evry subject writen from brethren should be plain to the understanding of all, that no jealousy may be raised and when we rebuke do it in all meekness, and the letter writen the 24 Feby was not writen in that contrition of heart which it should have been for it appeared to be writen in too much of a spirit of justification, but the letter to of the 20 of March was writen to our entire satisfaction now I would say to that I do not write this by way of chastisement but to show him the absolute necessity of having all his communications writen plain to and understanding by, we are well aware of the great care upon his mind in consequence of much business but he must put his trust in god and he may rest assured that he hear[s] our prayers day and night that he may have strength to overcome evry difficulty we have learned of the Lord that it is his duty to assist all the poor brethren that are pure in heart and that he has done rong in with holding credit from them as they must have [p. 34]
Neither letter mentioned here has been located. The 24 February letter was written by Sidney Gilbert two days before the high priests’ council in Independence, Missouri, that sent the reconciliatory epistle to church leaders in Ohio. (See Minute Book 2, 26 Feb. 1833.)
A letter from Kirtland written three months earlier expressed similar sentiments concerning Sidney Gilbert: “We are aware that Bro Gs is doing much, and a multitude of business on hand but let him purge out all the old leaven and do his business in the spirit of the Lord. and then the Lord will bless him otherwise the frown of the Lord will remain upon him— There is ma[n]ifestly an uneassness in Bro G, and a fearfulness that God will not provide for his saints in their last days and these fears lead him on to covitousness, This ought not so to be, but let him do just as the Lord has commanded him and then the Lord will open his coffers, and his wants will be liberally supplied.” In a revelation dictated by JS just a month earlier, Gilbert was exhorted to repent of “many things.” (Letter to Edward Partridge et al., 14 Jan. 1833; Revelation, 8 Mar. 1833 [D&C 90:35].)