During the final months of 1842, the threat of arrest and
extradition that loomed over JS affected the number
and nature of the documents he created. Because JS went into hiding to
avoid capture, he was absent from several meetings as well as from meetings of the , Illinois, city
government. Accordingly, the rate and number of official documents that
JS had a hand in creating decreased during September and October 1842.
In addition, JS’s circumstances and his plans to legally counter the
ongoing extradition efforts characterize the substance of many of the
documents created during the first four months covered by this
volume.
Letters,
accounts of JS discourses, land and legal records,
and newspaper editorials compose the majority of this volume’s
documents. In many instances, the original sent copies of letters
survive and are featured in the volume. In other instances, the
originals do not exist, but drafts or retained copies of letters—or
copies published in newspapers—are extant and are featured herein. Of
the letters featured in this volume that JS sent to others, only three
are transcribed from the original letters.
Of the featured letters that he received from others, the majority are
transcribed from the original documents. JS delivered his public
discourses extemporaneously, so the only surviving records of the texts
of his discourses come from journals and notebooks of men and women who
heard him speak as well as from official minutes kept by clerks for some
of the meetings in which he spoke.
This volume
also includes a representative sample of documents related to land
purchases in , including deeds and promissory notes.
Legal documents were created by or for various courts, including the
mayor’s court and
the Circuit Court for
the District of Illinois. As for newspaper sources, this volume features
editorial materials that appeared in the September and October issues of
the Times and Seasons, for which JS served as editor, as well as other JS documents published
in subsequent issues, including notices, poems, and letters. Other
notices and articles that appeared in the newspaper, while not featured
in this volume, provide important context to events in JS’s life in and
around Nauvoo.
The volume also features minutes of certain civic and
ecclesiastical organizations such as the , the
, and the Nauvoo City Council. recorded the minutes for the Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles, recorded the minutes for the high
council, and kept the minute book for the city
council. The volume also includes ordinances passed by the city
council.
Throughout
this period, JS continued to employ clerks and
scribes to write for him. The majority of JS’s financial and property
records are in ’s handwriting, as are
several drafts and retained copies of letters JS sent to others. Many of
the documents JS created that related to city business were written by
, who served as the
city recorder and clerk of the municipal court. , another prominent scribe, was absent from
Nauvoo during the early part of the period covered by this volume.
However, in mid-December, shortly after Richards returned to the city,
JS appointed him to “act as his private se[c]retary &
historian.”
Thereafter, Richards served as a clerk for JS’s church business and kept
JS’s
daily journal.
The journals that JS’s clerks and scribes
kept for him during the months covered by this volume are the most
significant sources for the introductions and annotation included
herein, and several of the featured documents were recorded or copied
into JS’s journal. From September to mid-December 1842, JS’s
journal was kept by , who received
some help from and . Of these three scribes, Clayton was the most
active.
Various other contemporaneous records—including journals,
diaries, correspondence, and newspapers—help contextualize the featured
texts. Indispensable journals and diaries include those kept by , , , and . Autobiographies and
reminiscences, such as those published by and , are important sources as well and offer the
perspectives of church members and those outside of the church alike.
The correspondence between Richards and offers
important insights into developments in as well as into
the church’s efforts to counter the public criticism leveled at JS and the church. In addition to
the two Nauvoo newspapers—the Wasp and the Times
and Seasons—several newspapers throughout the provided reports
and commentary on events related to JS and the church during
this period. In , these newspapers include the
Sangamo Journal (published in ), the
Register and North-Western Gazetteer (published in
), the Alton
Telegraph, the Quincy Whig, and the
Warsaw Signal. Beyond Illinois, several newspapers, such as the Daily Missouri
Republican (published in ), provide valuable context. In the eastern United
States, the New York Herald,
’s
Daily Atlas, and Hartford’s
Connecticut Courant, among others, published articles
and commentary on the activities of Latter-day Saint missionaries as
well as reports and editorials on the growth of the church in
Illinois.
Finally, JS’s multivolume manuscript history—in which JS’s scribes incorporated JS’s
reminiscences, institutional documents, and private papers and
collections into a documentary history of JS and the church—supplies
invaluable information, as do the history’s draft notes.
The history for the months covered by this volume was completed in fall
and winter 1845–1846. For more information on those historical
manuscripts, see the Histories series of The Joseph Smith
Papers.