Introduction to Documents, Volume 10: May–August 1842
Joseph Smith Documents from May through August 1842
The period from May through August 1842 was one of
significant change and increasing tension for Joseph Smith. In May, he introduced new religious rituals, directed
missionary work, and struggled to organize resources to provide for the
hundreds of converts from the and
who continued to to , Illinois. While
he was engaged in these and other endeavors, two events occurred that
dramatically affected his life and those of his followers over the next
four months. The first was the excommunication of , due to sexual misconduct, and Bennett’s
departure from Nauvoo. Bennett shifted from being Smith’s supporter and
ally to his vehement opponent, undertaking a campaign of slander and
libel against Smith in print and in public lectures. The second defining
event of these months, also occurring in May, was an assassination
attempt on former governor by an unknown assailant. Rumors began to
circulate that the assassin had been sent by Joseph Smith, which
prompted another attempt to have him extradited to Missouri for
prosecution. Amid these
larger concerns, Smith shouldered a staggering workload of civic and
ecclesiastical responsibilities.
wrote in a letter to
fellow
that he had “never
seen Joseph as full of business as of late,”
noting that “he hardly gets time to sign his name.” As a result of Smith’s
many responsibilities, the summer of 1842 was a period of intense
document production for him. Joseph Smith’s documentary record from May through August 1842 includes nearly
400 documents, not including the sometimes multiple copies of
correspondence and civic records. This volume of The Joseph Smith
Papers features 105 documents focusing on the core of Joseph
Smith’s documentary output—correspondence, discourses, and
revelations—and is selective, rather than comprehensive, with other genres of records.
More unusual documents featured in the volume include -issued currency,
called Nauvoo city scrip; reflections
and blessings dictated by Smith in August 1842 while in hiding to avoid arrest and extradition
to ; a poem written by , addressed to Smith; and an authorization granting Latter-day Saint Thomas R. King access to the baptismal font of the Nauvoo
.
The increase in document production in the summer of 1842 and the preservation of these
records resulted in part from the increased stability and
professionalization of Smith's office and staff beginning in
1841. As his various responsibilities expanded, he employed
several clerks and scribes, some with professional training. He had
previously relied on individual scribes with little or no training to
maintain his journal, correspondence, and church records. Over the
years, he had lost several scribes to illness, death, or disaffection,
leading at times to the loss of the records they had kept. In , by contrast,
Smith’s office expanded beyond a single individual, and by summer 1842 scribes and were both
working to create a professional and organized for
Smith’s correspondence and other records. Additionally, Clayton served
as clerk and recorder to assist Smith in his role as the Nauvoo
registrar. Smith also worked closely with , the Nauvoo city recorder and clerk for the Nauvoo
Municipal Court, who also inscribed the docket book for the Nauvoo
mayor’s court on Smith’s behalf.
Joseph Smith’s increased document
production was also a product of his myriad administrative duties. He
continued to lead the and direct missionary work as
prophet and church president, while at the same time overseeing
financial matters for the church as trustee-in-trust. These roles
generated substantial correspondence, as well as ecclesiastical,
administrative, and financial documents. As
prophet and church president, Smith led meetings and spoke often in . In March 1842, he drew on an initiative by the women of the
church to organize a charitable society and established the , an organization for Latter-day Saint women intended to
promote charitable actions, encourage moral reform, and strengthen
female spirituality. Smith saw the establishment of the Relief
Society as a central element in completing the organization of the
church and a precursor for including women in temple rituals. During the
summer of 1842, he met
several times with the Relief Society, providing instruction and seeking
their support, particularly in his ongoing conflict with .
Smith was also involved in civic
responsibilities in 1842. These duties included acting as
lieutenant general of the , a local unit
of the state militia, and serving as registrar of , making him
responsible for recording and certifying local land transactions. In
addition to these responsibilities, Smith took on a new role on 19 May, when the city council elected him mayor to replace
, who had resigned two
days earlier.
This established Smith as both the religious and civic leader of the
Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo. In his new mayoral role, Smith generated a
wide variety of records as he assumed the associated administrative,
financial, and legal responsibilities. He directed the city council,
heard residents’ petitions, and authorized ordinances enacted by the
council; oversaw the city treasury and directed payment for municipal
expenditures; and directed other organizations, such as the city watch.
As part of Smith’s mayoral responsibilities, he was commissioned as a
justice of the peace, and he presided over both the mayor’s court and
municipal court in Nauvoo. He also signed hundreds of one-dollar notes of
a local currency, called Nauvoo city scrip, in a continued effort to
aid the desperately cash-poor Nauvoo economy.
Beyond these diverse duties, Joseph Smith continued as editor of the church’s semimonthly
newspaper, the Times and Seasons. He had purchased the
and newspaper from in
February 1842.
Although he was identified as editor in the 15 February 1842 issue of the paper, Smith’s editorial
oversight began the following month, starting with the 1 March issue. His
involvement as editor fluctuated over the next eight months; some issues of the newspaper included
editorials he likely wrote, while others were produced when he was
absent from . Apostles and oversaw the daily
operations of the office, but until October 1842 the newspaper bore Smith’s name, which implied
that he took editorial responsibility and thus endorsed all published
content. This volume of The Joseph Smith
Papers features selections of editorial content from the
eight issues produced from May through August 1842.
Even when he was not focused on ecclesiastical, civic, or
editorial matters, Smith had significant demands on his
time. He devoted time to his personal obligations as a husband and
father. He directed various financial endeavors, including a he had opened in early 1842. And during this period he also
had some involvement with Freemasonry, having joined the Masons in March 1842.
Joseph Smith’s leadership in came at a time of
continuing financial difficulty. The financial panics of 1837 and 1839 had significantly weakened the economy of the , leading to a
devastating recession that lasted into the 1840s. As a result of economic instability and
mounting debts, in April 1841 the U.S. Congress, led by
members of the Whig Party, introduced new legislation that allowed
individual debtors to apply for voluntary bankruptcy. This was a
dramatic departure from earlier legislation, in which bankruptcy was
involuntary and creditors were required to take the debtor to court. The
new bankruptcy act of 1841 took effect in February 1842, only to be repealed by Congress in March 1843. The act caused chaos in
the judicial system as justices, struggling to interpret the
legislation, provided inconsistent rulings. Yet it also gained
widespread popularity, as tens of thousands of debtors across the nation
applied to have their debts forgiven. In , more than fifteen hundred applications were filed
in the one-year time frame. The new act
required that an individual’s intention to apply for bankruptcy be
printed as a public notice in local newspapers. Due to the high volume
of notices, the Sangamo Journal, a ,
Illinois, newspaper, was forced to print extra editions for several of
its summer issues, featuring hundreds of bankruptcy applications.
Although it is unclear when Joseph Smith first learned about the new act, he began the
process of applying for bankruptcy in April 1842 with the help of , Illinois, attorney
of the law firm
Ralston, Warren & Wheat. On
18 April, Smith filed his application
in , Illinois, the
seat of ; shortly
thereafter, notice of his bankruptcy application circulated in local
newspapers. His
initial hearing in June appears to have met with no
complications, and by mid-June another notice appeared in local
newspapers, announcing that his final hearing was set for 1 October 1842.
Several weeks after filing his bankruptcy application, Smith wrote to his largest creditor, , explaining his
decision. In August 1839, Smith had partnered with his
brother and , both members of the church’s , to purchase several hundred acres of land
in from Hotchkiss and his partners, and , for
$110,000. In
his May 1842
letter, Smith informed Hotchkiss that applying for bankruptcy was
a last resort, clarifying that he and other church leaders had been
compelled to petition for bankruptcy because of the pressure of unpaid
debts from their time in , Ohio; the economic losses that accompanied being
driven from ; and the “disadvantagious circumstances”
of purchasing land on credit in Illinois and for the refugee
Saints in 1839.
Hotchkiss was dismayed when he learned of Joseph Smith’s bankruptcy
application. Although the church leaders still owed him a significant
debt and had been unable to make several payments, Hotchkiss urged Smith
not to abandon their original contract. In his letters, Hotchkiss
further warned Smith against including the land the church president had
arranged to purchase from him, which Smith did not yet own, among his
assets when petitioning for bankruptcy. Hotchkiss’s caution came
too late, however, as Smith or his lawyer had already itemized the land
in question as part of Smith’s assets.
This was not the only misstep in Smith’s bankruptcy application. In creating the schedules
enumerating his assets and debts, Smith or his attorney conflated his
personal debts with those he had assumed on behalf of the church as trustee-in-trust. While the
1841 bankruptcy act allowed for the resolution of personal
debts, it did not address fiduciary debts, or those connected with
trustees. Smith’s conflation of
his debts, accusations of fraud by disaffected church members, and a
significant debt he owed to the
government for the purchase of a steamboat in September 1840 stalled Smith’s bankruptcy proceedings in the
winter of 1842, and a
decision was not rendered on his petition for bankruptcy before his
death.
Joseph Smith faced additional
uncertainty in itemizing his debts because of the management of his
business affairs by
. While Smith had authorized several
individuals to act as his agents over the years, Granger’s role as
Smith’s agent in , Ohio, was more prominent than most and entailed
repaying outstanding debts in northeastern as
well as .
Granger’s untimely death in August 1841 caused Smith much consternation and financial
unease, since it left him unaware of many of the payments and other
arrangements Granger had made on his behalf. Smith also confronted the financial
consequences experienced by Latter-day Saints who had aided Granger as a
church agent. In the summer of 1842, Smith helped resolve
lingering questions of repayment and property ownership for and Jonathan Harrington,
who had provided Granger with needed resources.
During that same summer, the population
continued to increase rapidly, with converts arriving from the eastern
and . The nation’s unsettled financial condition,
coupled with the economic condition of those migrating to Nauvoo, meant
that the city’s burgeoning population far exceeded its economic growth.
While some areas of the United States were beginning to revive after the financial panics of the
late 1830s, and other western states
were not. With the continuing recession, closure of banks, and
depreciation of banknotes, the community of Nauvoo had little currency
available and relied primarily on promissory notes and bartering. This situation was particularly difficult for the
hundreds of converts coming from England who had expended their
resources to immigrate and were often reliant on the church to provide
housing, food, and work.
later described the challenging circumstances,
noting how the immigrating poor “had to be cared for, and labor
created.”
also complained that some wealthy
church members feigned poverty, unwilling to provide aid to the poor or
donate to the church’s construction efforts. In an effort to combat such reluctance,
Smith and his clerks placed notices in
the local newspaper, the Wasp, in June and July 1842 urging the Saints to
remember their promised and donations for the construction of the
and . These notices, as
well as a letter from the appealing
to Saints throughout the nation to donate all that they could, suggest
that the funds the church leaders were desperately relying on to finance
their construction projects were in short supply.
Despite these financial concerns, Joseph Smith urged the Saints to consider the lasting
significance of the
and the
blessings that would be gained therein. In an early May
discourse, he promised the elders that when the temple was
completed he would reveal certain that would allow them to detect
false spirits and to be with power. A few days later,
on 4 May, in the upper room of his Nauvoo
, Smith provided instructions on the and introduced a small group of trusted men to new
ceremonies that became known as the endowment and that were eventually
performed in the Nauvoo temple.
, Smith’s scribe, was present and noted that the church
president offered instructions “in the principles and order of the
priesthood, attending to ,
endowments, and the communications of keys.” Richards further recorded
that within this group Smith had “institutd the Ancient order of things
for the first time in these last days.” Richards concluded that the same
ritual given to that small group of men would be extended to all Saints
“so soon as they are prepared to receive, and a proper place is prepared
to communicate them, even to the weakest of the saints; therefore let
the saints be diligent in building the Temple and all houses which they
have been or shall hereafter be commanded of God to build.” A
May 1842
editorial, likely written by Smith, encouraged the Saints to
reflect on the eternal rewards associated with completing the temple.
The editorial lauded the Saints for their sacrifices, declaring in
revelatory language that the blessings of the temple and the Zion the
Saints created as a result of their faith and unity would help usher in
the second coming of Jesus Christ and millennial prosperity.
During these months, Joseph Smith also
expanded his involvement in the practice of plural marriage. Latter-day
Saints referred to these unions as “,” indicating their belief
that marriages solemnized by the proper authority would be recognized
and efficacious in heaven. Smith
and his coreligionists understood plural marriage as part of a broader
restoration of such Old Testament ideas as temple worship and orders of
the priesthood—all of which tied into the belief that they were living
in the last dispensation of the earth’s history.
, who was sealed to Smith in June 1842, later wrote, “When I reflected that I was living in the
Dispensation of the fulness of times, embracing all other Dispensations,
surely Plural Marriage must necessarily be included.” In a February 1842 letter to his wife, , alluded to the connection of plural marriage
with biblical practices, writing, “There are many things recorded of the
old patriarchs and prophets which have seemed bad to us, which if we
knew the reasons thereof and the order of God would appear right.”
The extant sources concerning plural marriage preclude a
thorough understanding of the practice during this period, making it
difficult to unravel its complexities, its prevalence, and the
experiences of the women and men involved in these relationships. The small group of men and
women introduced to plural marriage in
pledged to keep their involvement confidential. The few contemporary
documents that describe Smith’s plural marriage
sealings only specify a doctrine that marital relationships, performed
by priesthood authority, could endure beyond death and through eternity.
Reminiscent accounts suggest that Smith’s plural marriage sealings can
be placed in three categories: sealings for the couple’s mortal
lifetime, sealings for eternity, or sealings for both this lifetime and
eternity. Plural marriages intended for time and eternity
likely included the possibility of conjugal relations and hope for
posterity, but such relations were not part of eternity-only plural
marriages. While
some of the women who were sealed to Smith later identified the intended
duration of their sealing, limited contemporary and reminiscent
documents from Smith and his plural wives make it difficult to determine
which of these sealings was for the couple’s lifetime and eternity,
their lifetime only, or eternity only.
As the 1843
revelation on plural marriage makes evident, Smith’s understanding of this practice was irrevocably
intertwined with doctrines of eternal salvation and exaltation, and in their reminiscent
accounts, Smith’s plural wives emphasized their spiritual motivations
for entering into plural marriages. In Latter-day Saint theology, a
sealing to a righteous, believing spouse was considered a prerequisite
for exaltation. Thus, Smith may have been sealed to a single woman or a
woman whose husband was not a Latter-day Saint in order to help her
obtain exaltation. In addition,
blessings for plural marriage sealings may have reached beyond the
couple to the woman’s extended family, including them in the promise of
salvation. A further benefit for the
extended family was the formation of kinship ties with Smith, connecting
the two families in the eternities. The desire to be eternally connected
to those dear to him was apparently not unique to Smith but shared by
many of his close friends. The sisters and
daughters of several apostles and other church leaders agreed to plural
marriages with Smith, thereby creating the desired eternal
connection.
Although most sources related to plural marriage are
reminiscent, two documents featured in this volume provide a rare
contemporary glimpse into plural marriage as practiced by Joseph Smith. On 27 July 1842, Smith dictated a revelation that provided Bishop the language he
should use in sealing his seventeen-year-old daughter, , to Smith as a plural wife. ,
Newel’s wife, was also named in the revelation and participated in
the sealing as a witness. The instructions in this revelation are
unique, being the only known instance of an extant document dictated by
Joseph Smith giving directions for plural marriage sealings. The
revelation emphasizes that the sealing offered eternal salvation—not
just to Sarah Ann but to her whole family—and created eternal ties with
Smith.
The second document is a letter
Smith wrote to the Whitneys in mid-August 1842, shortly after the
sealing took place. In this letter, he asked and her
parents to meet him while he was in hiding to avoid extradition to so he could visit with them and provide them with
previously promised blessings. No extant documentation
captures Sarah Ann Whitney’s thoughts about her marriage to Smith, which
was arranged through her parents. A later account written by her friend
and sister-in-law, , noted that
although Sarah Ann consented to the union, it created social distance
for the popular Sarah Ann, isolating her from friends, possible suitors,
and siblings who were unaware of the practice of plural marriage.
Joseph Smith’s sealing to
was part of a more concerted effort on his part to practice plural
marriage in the early 1840s. He appears to have
been sealed to his first plural wife in the mid-1830s, but he did not resume the practice
until April 1841, when he was sealed to . According to evidence from Smith’s plural wives
or their families, between 1841 and spring 1842
Smith was sealed to approximately six women and began to teach the
practice to a small group of trusted associates. Sources indicate
that from June to August 1842, he was sealed to an
additional four women: , Sarah Ann
Whitney, , and . There are
few details about Smith’s sealings to Knight and Sherman, both of whom
were apparently widows when sealed to Smith. Sherman’s brother later wrote that
her sealing occurred before Johnson’s return to from a mission in
early July
1842. According to her obituary,
Knight was sealed to Joseph Smith in August 1842, shortly after the death of her husband, , Smith’s close friend and a bishop in
Nauvoo.
More information exists about ’s marriage to Joseph Smith on 29 June 1842. As an
accomplished poet and independent woman in her late thirties, Snow’s
marriage to Smith probably differed markedly from that of ’s. Unlike Whitney, whose sealing was arranged and who
continued to live with her parents after the sealing, Snow married Smith
without her family’s knowledge or approval. Snow’s journal and
contemporary poems suggest that she greatly admired Smith and was deeply
concerned for his welfare.
Years later, she related that when she was introduced to the practice of
plural marriage, she found the idea repugnant, but with time she
accepted and revered it: “As I increased in knowledge concerning the
principle and design of Plural Marriage, I grew in love with it, and
today esteem it a precious, sacred principle.” Snow further noted that
her marriage to Joseph Smith was “one of the most important
circumstances of my life, I never have had cause to regret.”
By summer 1842, Joseph Smith had shared the practice of plural marriage with
only a few trusted friends and associates, a group that apparently did
not include his brother or his wife . Although it is unclear what Emma knew or
suspected about plural marriage in 1842, documents in this volume suggest that she was unaware
of at least some of her husband’s sealings. Smith’s sealing to , for example, occurred when Emma was absent from
. In his August
letter
to the Whitneys, Smith asked that they avoid visiting him in exile if
Emma was present, a request likely meant to ensure that she remained
unaware of the marriage.
Despite the secrecy with which Joseph Smith approached plural marriage, some knowledge of
the practice appears to have circulated as rumor in . In March 1842, Clarissa Marvel was
disciplined by the for spreading rumors about Smith having a relationship
with his widowed sister-in-law, , to whom he had likely been sealed in January 1842. The most invested
and aggressive critic, however, was , who
may have had some knowledge of plural marriage or used circulating
rumors for his own ends.
had been a rising star in both
the church and since his move to
the city in September 1840 and his subsequent . He was
instrumental in ushering the act incorporating the city of Nauvoo through
the legislature, and he became the mayor of Nauvoo once
that act was signed into law. Upon the creation of the , Bennett was elected major general and inspector
general, second in command only to Joseph Smith.
Bennett actively participated in the church’s , and in April 1841 he was “presented with the as assistant president” because was suffering at the time from ill health. An 1841
revelation declared that God would “crown” Bennett “with
blessings and great glory” if he listened to counsel and remained
faithful.
Even as received these positions and
accolades, however, Joseph Smith began to hear troubling
reports about him. When Bennett arrived in he had presented
himself as a single man, but Smith received information indicating he
was married to of and
was the father of two children. Smith became more disturbed when Bennett
began courting a woman in Nauvoo
and talked to her about marriage. According to Smith, he confronted
Bennett about his behavior, and Bennett promised to end the
relationship. However, Smith later stated, Bennett then began telling
women in Nauvoo “that promiscous intercourse between the sexes, was a
doctrine believed in by the Latter-Day Saints, and that there was no
harm in it.” Smith further claimed that Bennett had even told some of
the women that Smith himself “not only sanctioned, but practiced the
same wicked acts,” thereby enabling Bennett to seduce other women in
Nauvoo.
Joseph Smith again confronted , who again promised to reform. Perhaps doubting his
sincerity, Smith commenced an investigation, which included sending to to inquire into the rumors about
Bennett’s past. Miller and others confirmed that Bennett had a wife and
children there and that he had reportedly committed adultery in the
past. When Bennett persisted in the same adulterous conduct in , Smith’s patience
wore thin and he warned Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo about such
behavior. Although not mentioning
Bennett by name, Smith wrote a letter
in March 1842 to his wife , in her role as president of the Female Relief Society
of Nauvoo, warning the women about unprincipled men who claimed
authority from Smith and the First Presidency and who “with a lie in
their mouth deceive & debauch the innocent under the assumption that
they are authorized from these sources!” Smith also
preached against adultery at a 10 April 1842 church meeting. On 11 May, he and other leaders of the church prepared a notice
stating that they were withdrawing fellowship from Bennett.
In late May, the
began investigating sexual misconduct by several men
who had apparently followed ’s lead in
seducing women in Nauvoo on the premise that church leaders, including
Smith, sanctioned such illicit
behavior. Several women provided affidavits detailing their encounters
and identifying the men involved. Those accused before the Nauvoo high
council included , George
Thatcher, ,
, and . The high council’s investigation of charges
of unvirtuous conduct
included several of these men as well as Catherine Fuller
Warren, one of the women they had seduced. Ultimately, only three of the men were
disfellowshipped. These investigations
fostered a heightened concern about morality among church leaders in
Nauvoo as well as concern over individuals with ties to Bennett.
After his excommunication, ’s influence in
both the church and the city unraveled. He resigned as mayor of on 17 May, Joseph Smith publicly preached against
him on 18 June, the Nauvoo Masonic Lodge held
hearings in June about Bennett’s conduct, and, probably sometime toward the end of June,
Bennett was cashiered from the .
Disgraced, he left Nauvoo on 21 June, threatening to write a book exposing Joseph Smith
as a fraud and impostor. Perhaps to forestall any
accusations Bennett might make, on 23 June Smith composed a letter
to church members “and to all the honorable part of community” outlining
Bennett’s actions while in Nauvoo and the steps Smith had taken to get
him to reform. Smith wrote a similar
letter the following day to governor . Further, Smith sent to meet with , a member
of the
elite upon whom John C. Bennett had bestowed several Nauvoo honors.
In late June, a few
days after Joseph Smith wrote his letters of
warning, released a series of
his own letters, which were published in summer 1842 in the Sangamo
Journal and reprinted in several other newspapers. These
letters painted a lurid picture of Smith, depicting him as an adulterer
who had proposed marriage to several women in , including , the daughter of First
Presidency counselor , and , the wife of
apostle . Bennett also claimed that Joseph
Smith had a band of “”—similar to those who had sworn to defend the church
in in 1838—who would kill anyone who opposed his measures. Bennett
often claimed that his own life was in danger. Other allegations in the
letters included that Smith was involved in fraudulent land dealings and
that he had ordered the assassination of , former governor of Missouri and a primary
antagonist of Smith and the Saints.
These allegations—which said could be
corroborated by several people, including , Rigdon’s son-in-law , , and —quickly spread through the eastern , causing a
firestorm of controversy and negative opinion. Apostle , who was preaching in ,
pleaded with Joseph Smith in August “to put down the slanders of Bennett” and the others
because the accusations had “done much to injure the cause of the
kingdom.” At the end of August, Smith met with the and made plans to send
missionaries throughout the United States to combat Bennett’s
allegations “with a flood of truth.”
Amid the difficulties caused by , Smith and his followers also faced
political opposition in the August 1842 state election. Fearing mob attacks and Smith’s
possible extradition to , church members in hoped to elect
sympathetic candidates in the coming election. Since the Saints’ arrival
in , both the Democrats and Whigs had attempted to win
their votes. In December 1841, Smith denied partisanship but publicly
supported , the Democratic candidate for
governor, fueling fears of religious bloc voting. Even after Snyder’s sudden death in
mid-May, Smith
continued to voice political neutrality. He
announced in a 26 May meeting in Nauvoo that he would not support either
party. Nauvoo
citizens proceeded to nominate a separate ticket of candidates for
county and state offices, including some candidates who were not
Latter-day Saints. In response, the Anti-Mormon Party, established in
1841 to counter Latter-day Saint political influence in the
county, held a convention in
on 29 May. In early July, Smith published a letter
calling for independent candidates who, if they met certain
qualifications, would receive the Saints’ political support. During the next few
weeks, Smith received several letters about the election; some were
lobbying for candidates, while others were from Saints seeking guidance
on voting. In the August election, the Saints overwhelmingly voted for
Democrats, who won the election.
, the editor of the
Warsaw Signal and an avowed opponent of Smith and the
church who helped form the Anti-Mormon Party, lamented that the
Democratic ticket, which he described as the “Mormon ticket,” had been
elected. Meanwhile, the Saints
hoped that when Governor took office at
the end of the year, he would prove more willing to protect them from
outside forces and less willing to comply with Missouri officials’
attempts to extradite Smith than his predecessor, , had been.
Fears of a new effort to extradite Joseph Smith from to escalated after the attempted assassination of
Missouri’s former governor . On 6 May 1842, an assailant shot Boggs through the window of
his home in , Missouri,
severely wounding him. Newspapers immediately began reporting his
demise, although he eventually recovered from the injury.
By mid-May, reports reached that Boggs had
died. A few days later, in a Nauvoo
City Council meeting—the same meeting in which Smith was elected to
replace as mayor—Smith “spoke at some
length concerning the evil reports which were abroad in the city
concerning himself— & the nec[e]ssity of counteracting the designs
of our enemies. establishing a night watch &c.” The
city council proceeded to establish a new city watch, which received its
orders from Smith the next day. During the next few weeks,
rumors circulated that Latter-day Saints had been involved in the
attempted assassination of Boggs and that the city council had created
the night watch to protect Smith from possible retaliation.
The Saints’ fears for Joseph Smith’s safety
took more concrete form in June, when rumors reached Smith that Missourians were
planning to send a mob to to
kidnap him. On 24 June, Smith notified Governor that might be
conspiring to help the Missourians and solicited advice on how to
respond if a mob reached Nauvoo.
Smith’s concerns about an attack on Nauvoo went hand in hand with his
fear of a forced return to , his memories of his
earlier imprisonment there, and the Saints’ past conflicts with Missouri
mobs. Carlin responded reassuringly on 30 June that there was no real threat of a mob attack, but
he also indicated that he would be compelled to comply if Missouri’s
governor initiated extradition procedures. Anticipating both
events, four days before Carlin’s response Joseph Smith and other church
leaders had “united in Solemn prayer that God . . . would deliver his
anointed, his people. from all the evil designs of . & the powers of the state of Missouri,
& of Governor Carlin. & the authorities of . . . . and. of .
& all mobs.”
As the Saints’ anxieties about these possibilities increased,
they prepared countermeasures, turning to the militia, city council, and
government officials for
assurance and protection. In
early July, ’s city council
passed an ordinance bolstering the right of in order to protect its citizens from being
“subjected to illegal Process by their Enemies.”
Concerned about Smith’s potential extradition, and traveled to
to meet with . After this the men intended to travel to
,
Missouri, to meet with governor . Their interactions in Quincy convinced them
that Smith had little to fear. But on 15 July the Sangamo Journal published ’s second and third letters, wherein he alleged that
Smith had foretold ’s death and had sent to fulfill
the prophecy. A few days later, Boggs signed
an affidavit accusing Rockwell of the shooting and a second affidavit charging Smith with being an “accessary before the
fact of the intended murder.” Reynolds responded by issuing requisitions demanding that officials apprehend and
extradite the two men from Illinois to Missouri. Before the
requisition reached Governor Carlin, though, he received a letter from
Joseph Smith, as well as petitions from Nauvoo’s citizens, urging Carlin
not to surrender Smith to Missouri authorities. In his letter, Smith again expressed
concerns about an attack on Nauvoo’s citizens, and again Carlin
attempted to calm his fears.
However, on 8 August, after had received ’s requisitions, he signed a warrant
for the arrest of Smith and , and three officers
arrived in and detained them.
Smith and Rockwell immediately petitioned Nauvoo’s municipal court for
writs of habeas corpus. Smith applied for the writ with the
understanding that the Constitution and
law characterized fugitives from justice as those who committed a crime in
one state and fled to another state. In his petition, Smith expressed his intent to prove he was not a
fugitive from justice, a charge that Reynolds had made based on ’s affidavit, though Boggs had simply stated that Smith
was a citizen of Illinois. The municipal
court granted Smith and Rockwell their requests for writs of habeas
corpus and demanded that the officers deliver them to the court for
investigation. Uncertain about the court’s
authority to make such a demand, the arresting officers left Smith and
Rockwell in the hands of Nauvoo’s marshal, , and returned to
, Illinois, to
receive clarification from Carlin.
At this point, released
Smith and , and Smith went into
hiding, first across the in , Iowa Territory, and then in and around , where church
members and sympathetic neighbors sheltered him.
Despite his exile, Smith continued to meet with church leaders and close
associates about how to address the threat of extradition. He also
corresponded frequently with his wife and with , major general of the . He asked for
their opinion on whether he should temporarily leave to ensure the safety of the Saints and his family;
he even considered relocating to , where the church had established a lumber
operation.
The weeks he spent in hiding appear to have been an
introspective time for Joseph Smith, as he remembered past
kindnesses and further refined instructions for the practice of proxy
for deceased friends and family. Smith’s absence
from was keenly felt
among the Saints. noted that Smith’s exile deprived
the Saints of his “society and governingwisdom.” Expressing similar sentiments, composed two poems in August, each lamenting the injustice Smith had
suffered and the sadness occasioned by his absence.
Upon his return from hiding in late August, Smith announced that he had successfully escaped from his
enemies, whom he defined broadly as and government officials, , and others like , ,
and , all of whom had sided with Bennett. Smith’s late August discourses resounded with his
victorious enthusiasm. But his celebration was short lived. Days later,
in early September,
legal authorities returned to ,
and Smith went back into hiding.
The four months documented in this volume, May to August 1842, were a time of dramatic
change and increasing anxiety for Joseph Smith and the
community of . The specter of
looms large over the
documentary record of these four months. His misconduct and his
separation from the church and city he participated in building placed
significant strain on Smith as he assumed Bennett’s role as mayor and as
the church investigated Bennett’s illicit affairs. Accusations by the
former church leader created division and doubt at a time when Smith’s
practice of plural marriage was expanding, and Bennett’s threats of
collaboration with mobs induced anxiety in Smith and his
followers. The threat of extradition reemerged with the May
assassination attempt on and was amplified
into a terrifyingly real possibility in early August. Assured that extradition to
Missouri would mean another difficult imprisonment and potentially
death, Smith abandoned legal recourse and went into hiding. Although he
returned triumphant to Nauvoo at the end of August, the threat of this
extradition attempt persisted and would not be resolved until January 1843. The
documents in this volume—consisting of correspondence, accounts of
discourses, minutes of meetings, and financial and legal
records—illuminate and contextualize this tumultuous season in Joseph
Smith’s life, which brought difficulties that would only increase with
the passage of time.