December 1841 through April 1842 was a time rich in
documentary output by JS and his fellow church and community
members. With the turbulent years behind the Saints
and with a steady influx of converts arriving in their new gathering
place of , Illinois, written
accounts grew ever more numerous. The brief five months in this volume
witnessed the creation of new organizations like the and a local Freemason’s lodge. JS and the took over ownership and
management of the church’s printing establishment, and JS opened a new
for business. All of these and JS’s other personal activities generated
a tremendous body of written sources. This volume contains
correspondence to and from JS, revelations, accounts of sermons and
discourses, minutes of meetings, newly published scripture, land
transaction records, and other financial and legal documents. The majority of these documents are owned by The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, and access to others was generously
provided by the Community of Christ, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential
Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, and other repositories and
private collectors.
As with the majority of the previous volumes in this
Documents series, the most common type of document featured within this
volume is letters to or from JS. These texts give
insight into JS’s personal activities and are frequently the best
sources of information regarding the church’s growth nationally and
internationally. Letters from missionaries in Great
Britain or branches of the church in were filled with administrative queries and
requests for direction from JS and other church leaders. In some cases
this dialogue includes both sides of the conversation, but even in
situations where only one part of an exchange is extant, letters to
other correspondents and other contemporaneous JS documents dealing with
the same topics often provide the context necessary to understand these
exchanges. Internal cross-references between documents featured within
this volume are among the most frequent annotations herein.
Fortunately, after a gap of two years, JS’s personal journal resumed concurrently with the start of
this volume. This journal, kept for JS at the time by apostle
, provides an invaluable
narrative framework for understanding the events referenced in the
letters, minutes, and other documents featured herein. Journals of other
Latter-day Saints are similarly helpful for understanding this period,
in particular those kept by , , , , Willard Richards, , and .
Many of the documents featured in this book, including some
of the letters, were published in newspapers, most notably in the
church’s official organ, the Times and Seasons.
JS became the editor of the paper during the months covered
in this volume, and consequently the issues that were printed over his
name fall into the project’s definition of JS documents and have
selections featured herein. In addition to letters and editorials, two
scriptural texts were drawn from this newspaper: the “Book of
Abraham” and statements of belief later canonized as the
church’s “Articles of Faith.” Other papers from which featured texts
were taken were the Wasp,
’s secular
newspaper, and the Sangamo Journal, published in , the
capital of . Other newspapers printed in Illinois or , such as ’s vociferously antagonistic Warsaw
Signal, the Alton Telegraph, the
Burlington Hawkeye, the Quincy Whig,
and the Peoria Register, provide needed perspectives of
the Saints’ neighbors.
Church and civic organizations with which JS was involved also produced documents featured in this
book. Minutes of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo and the Nauvoo
Lodge under Dispensation describe the creation of those bodies during
the period covered in this volume. Minutes of courts-martial and meetings of the City Council,
Nauvoo high council, and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were also
reproduced herein or used for contextual annotation.
Business and legal activities continued to occupy JS’s time in the winter of 1841–1842, as reflected in bonds,
lease agreements, and land deeds featured in this volume. During this
period JS also became one of dozens of men living in to take advantage
of the new federal bankruptcy act that for the first time allowed for
voluntary individual bankruptcy. County and state government records are
invaluable for understanding these proceedings and JS’s other business
dealings. Among other such records referenced and excerpted herein are
, Illinois, bonds
and mortgages volumes as well as plat and deed books. Published journals
of the Senate and various editions of Illinois statutes
also are important for understanding Nauvoo and Latter-day Saint history
for this period.
Reminiscences, autobiographies, and histories must be used
with caution, but they often provide useful context and augment
contemporaneous sources. Some of these were produced in close temporal
proximity to the events, such as ’s circa
1845 “History of the Nauvoo Temple” and governor ’s A
History of Illinois, published posthumously in 1854. Others
were written much later but still provide necessary information. For
example, ’s 1890 serialized
history from his newspaper, the Return, illuminates his
sale of the Times and Seasons newspaper and printing
establishment to JS and other church leaders; bishop ’s 1855 letters written for publication in the
Northern Islander (published on Beaver
Island, Lake Michigan) describe the economic conditions
in Nauvoo and challenges in providing employment for immigrating
converts; and Joseph F. Smith’s
late-nineteenth-century collection of affidavits about JS’s plural
marriages—created by contemporaneous participants or witnesses— aids in
understanding the practice of polygamy in Nauvoo. A series of county
histories produced in the late 1870s and early 1880s describe the
region. Those for , Iowa,
as well as Cass, Pike, and
counties in , among others, are referenced in this volume. Of
particular importance is newspaper editor Thomas
Gregg’s 1880 History of Hancock County,
Illinois.
Although the account of the events of these months was
drafted in JS’s manuscript history years after his
death, the compilers of that account were, in general, intimately
familiar with the events they were describing, and the record remains an
important source for understanding this period of JS’s life. And
finally, as would be expected, many of the themes, issues, and
conversations permeating the five months included in this book were
continued from previous months and years. Consequently, some of the most
oft-cited sources herein are JS documents published in prior
Joseph Smith Papers volumes.