Documents, Volume 10, Part 3 Introduction: July 1842
Part 3: July 1842
In July 1842, JS continued the daily work of
filling his various civic and ecclesiastical roles. He heard legal
cases as a justice of the peace and conducted business as
trustee-in-trust of the , mayor of , Illinois, and
a member of Nauvoo’s city council. He sought to
procure funds for building the Nauvoo and
continued to receive news from missionaries and other church
members. He also corresponded
with citizens about legal and political issues.
In this period, the Latter-day Saints in and the
eastern began to feel
the effects of the rift between and
JS. Meanwhile, rumors of Latter-day
Saint involvement in the attempted assassination of former governor —rumors Bennett helped to spread—had legal ramifications;
in late July,
Missouri and authorities made plans to arrest and
extradite JS. These immediate concerns shaped the creation of many
of the documents featured in part 3.
During this month, JS continued as
editor of the Times and Seasons, which published
correspondence describing ’s poor
character and illicit conduct. At the same time, in a
series of letters published in the Sangamo Journal,
Bennett offered a counternarrative accusing JS of immoral behavior,
including allegations that he had proposed marriage to ’s daughter and to ’s wife, . JS denied the accusations regarding Sarah Pratt at a public meeting
in , which brought
into the open the difficulties between Orson Pratt and JS.
Meanwhile, JS continued to provide instructions on plural marriage
to a small group of select individuals and dictated a revelation instructing his friend on how to
his daughter to
JS as a plural wife, which Whitney did on 27 July.
Even before ’s threats
fueled the Saints’ fear that JS would be
extradited to , ’s city council had anticipated that possibility and,
on 5 July, passed a new
ordinance, which granted the Nauvoo Municipal Court
authority to review legal charges brought against its citizens.
A week later, Latter-day Saints and left Nauvoo with plans
to discuss JS’s potential extradition with governor and governor . Within a few days,
the Sangamo Journal published Bennett’s second and
third letters to the editor, which included Bennett’s accusation
that JS had orchestrated the assassination attempt on . Then, on 20 July, Boggs signed an affidavit
accusing JS of being an accessory before the fact; in response,
Reynolds issued a requisition to the state of Illinois to
have JS arrested and extradited to Missouri.
Soon after, Nauvoo citizens sent petitions to Carlin urging him not
to turn JS over to Missouri officials. The threat of extradition and fears that
Bennett was planning a mob attack on Nauvoo informed JS’s late July
correspondence with Carlin. Along with the
activities of ’s Anti-Mormon
Party, these issues influenced the Saints’ approach to the upcoming
state election in August and
contributed to the way that political candidates and other outsiders
interacted with the Saints.
This part of the volume features documents that provide
insight into everyday life in
during a time when the Saints faced both internal and external
pressures. It includes correspondence, editorials, minutes of public
meetings, municipal and legal documents, financial receipts and
notices, a petition for habeas corpus, and a revelation on plural
marriage.