Only a few months removed from the violence that drove them from the state of , members of the gathered in the , Illinois, area on 5 October 1839 for a general conference. There they unanimously agreed that Commerce would be the new center of gathering for the Latter-day Saints. The conference’s action highlights the overarching theme of this volume of The Joseph Smith Papers: the practical and spiritual establishment of the city that became known as .

From September 1839 through January 1841, Joseph Smith and other church leaders laid the foundation of the city of (situated in , Illinois) as another attempt to establish a community. Beginning in 1831 with efforts to build the city of Zion in , Missouri, Smith worked to establish a unified community of Saints that would construct a temple in preparation for Jesus Christ’s return. The efforts there ended in 1833 when the Saints were driven from the county, but Joseph Smith continued his attempts in , Ohio, and , Missouri. Although church members dedicated a in Kirtland in 1836, opposition and violence drove them from that city, from Far West, and from the entire state of . Still reeling from their experiences in Missouri, Smith and the church commenced their Zion-building efforts again in Nauvoo, working to make it a “corner stone of Zion.”

This volume’s documents, 129 in total, chronicle both the practical and spiritual aspects of building another community where the Saints could gather. The documents detail initial land sales in the area and depict the heavy financial burden Joseph Smith and other church leaders carried because of land purchases at Commerce and across the in . In addition, the documents reveal the Saints’ struggles with disease but also illustrate Joseph Smith’s nearly unwavering optimism as he envisioned the future of and the construction of a there. They provide a glimpse into some of Smith’s theological teachings in early Nauvoo, including the doctrine of baptism for the dead (referenced by Paul in the New Testament), and highlight the international expansion of the church through the proselytizing efforts of the in . The volume also shows that Joseph Smith made efforts to develop Nauvoo and provide spiritual leadership while he was spending considerable time and energy trying to obtain redress and reparations for the Saints’ expulsion from and while he was attempting to resolve various issues with the small group of church members who remained in , Ohio.

However, this volume does not just illuminate aspects of Joseph Smith’s life or of the church he led. It also provides a glimpse into the political and religious culture in which Smith was again attempting to create a Zion community for the gathering of the Saints. The impact of vigilantism and violence in the on minority religious groups is starkly revealed throughout this volume. Many documents depict the poverty the Saints experienced after being driven from as well as their shock and disbelief that their civil rights could be disregarded in a nation governed by the United States Constitution. The doctrine of states’ rights had a tenacious hold on influential American politicians in the late 1830s and early 1840s, a fact illustrated by the documents pertaining to Joseph Smith’s meeting with President and to the hearings held on the Saints’ memorial for redress before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. The volume also demonstrates, however, that when Mormon votes were a desired political commodity, church leaders could procure benefits for their community, which is precisely what occurred with the passage of the bill to incorporate the city of —a bill that granted the city expansive powers.

In April 1839, and , acting on behalf of the church, purchased approximately 180 acres in the area from and , two early Commerce settlers. In May and June 1839, church agents and purchased from Galland nearly 18,000 acres in what was known as the in the far southeastern corner of . Church leaders supplemented these purchases in August 1839 when they bought nearly 500 more acres in the Commerce area from , , and , who were land speculators from . After the surveying and platting of the Commerce-area lands were complete, Joseph Smith and other church leaders filed the plat of the city of with the Hancock County courthouse on 2 September 1839.

Church leaders then turned their attention to land sales in the area. Although Joseph Smith and his counselors in the had ultimate supervision over sales, in October 1839 the designated as a representative in land transactions. Many of these transactions involved deferred payment. This type of agreement generated three major kinds of documents: bonds promising the purchaser a deed to the land once the purchaser met the scheduled payments, promissory notes indicating when and in what amounts payments would be made, and town lot orders specifying the land conveyed and the terms of the transaction. Hundreds of these kinds of documents, samples of which are included in this volume, were generated as the Saints gathered to the Commerce area and purchased land on credit.

Settlement proceeded differently across the around the town of , Iowa Territory. Located in , Montrose had been surveyed and platted in 1837, although it would not be incorporated for another two decades. Three miles south of Montrose, the Saints began preparing a new plat for the town of , Iowa Territory, which was recorded in 1841. Fewer Saints moved to the Montrose area than to , and the method church members used for purchasing land in is not clear from surviving documents. Lee County records contain a few deeds for land sold in 1840 and 1841 by , a in Nauvoo, but the scarcity of such records suggests either that deeds were filed only haphazardly or that other arrangements not requiring deeds were made with individuals who desired land. Joseph Smith and the First Presidency were apparently less involved with Iowa land sales; these transactions seem to have been conducted under the purview of local church authorities.

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Although he was not a major participant in land sales, Joseph Smith oversaw settlement of the area—the new gathering place for the church. He and other church leaders owed more than $150,000 for the land there, but the lack of monetary resources in made payment difficult.

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Church responsible for buying and selling land in Nauvoo issued a report, probably in January 1841, noting that church leaders had made payments totaling $21,000 to , , and . The report also stated, however, that the leaders immediately owed and Hugh White an additional $6,000. If the $6,000 was not paid, the report continued, “the Church may suffer loss.”

With such debts looming, Joseph Smith became so deeply entangled in land transactions that he believed his leadership of the Saints in spiritual matters suffered. This concern was exacerbated by the death of , the clerk for land sales, in November 1839. In June 1840, Smith petitioned the high council to appoint another person to manage the sale of town lots in Nauvoo, which would allow him “to give his attention more particularly to those things connected with the Spiritual welfare of the Saints.” The high council appointed as the land clerk but retained Smith as the treasurer of sales, thereby leaving Smith responsible for overseeing the church’s land transactions.

For individuals who moved to the - area in 1839 and 1840, one of the challenges they faced was disease. Located in a swampy area on the flats along the , Commerce was, as noted in a manuscript for ’s history, “so unhea[l]thy very few could live there.” Although the Saints did not know it at the time, “the ague” that afflicted scores of individuals in the summers of 1839 and 1840 was mosquito-borne malaria. According to resident , the area became “a great deel more healthy” after the Saints drained much of the land. Although the ague was still prevalent in summer 1840, the number of deaths per capita decreased from the previous year. Indeed, in March 1840, Joseph Smith informed one church member of his amazement regarding the region’s development in winter 1839–1840. “It is almost incredible to see what amt. of labor has been performed here during the winter,” he declared. “There is now every prospect of our haveing a good society, a peaceable habitation and a desirable residence here.”

As the population in grew, the area gradually became known as , the name designated on the city plat, though some residents continued to use the names Commerce and Nauvoo interchangeably. On 21 April 1840, the name of the post office was changed from Commerce to Nauvoo. In December 1840, the legislature incorporated the city under the Nauvoo name. Because of these complexities with nomenclature, the annotation in this volume refers to this region as “Commerce” and “Commerce area” for documents produced before 21 April 1840 and as “Nauvoo” for documents produced after that date.

A key component in ’s development was its incorporation as a city. Concerted efforts were made to incorporate Nauvoo after , the quartermaster general of the militia, moved to Nauvoo and joined the church in September 1840. After his arrival, Bennett was appointed, along with Joseph Smith and , to draft a bill for the city’s incorporation. A general conference of the church also assigned Bennett to lobby the Illinois legislature for the bill’s passage. According to one source, Bennett “flattered both sides [political parties] with the hope of Mormon favor; and both sides expected to receive their [the Saints’] votes” in return. The bill received strong support in the legislature, and on 16 December 1840 Governor signed it into law.

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The act incorporating —often called the Nauvoo charter—delineated the city’s boundaries, outlined the powers and responsibilities of the city’s administrative bodies, and established voting requirements for citizens. The law also authorized the city council to organize a militia called the and to found a city university. According to , the act’s provisions were “very broad and liberal, conferring the most plenary powers on the corporators.” Although all of the powers granted to Nauvoo had been previously granted to other chartered cities, the act later attracted much attention and criticism, especially its provisions authorizing the Nauvoo Legion and granting to the municipal court the authority to issue writs of habeas corpus.

Joseph Smith, , and others sought such “broad and liberal” city powers in their new gathering place in order to protect themselves from the violence that resulted in their expulsion from . Indeed, Smith and the Saints were still haunted by the specter of the violence and persecution they experienced in winter 1838–1839 at the hands of non-Mormons and disaffected church members. After his escape from Missouri state custody in April 1839, Smith began preparing for a trip to and the eastern with and to petition the federal government for redress and restitution. Church leaders had started making plans to seek redress in early 1839, complying with instruction given in an 1833 revelation that discussed church members’ expulsion from , Missouri. That revelation directed the Saints to work through the legal system for redress and then to petition the governor of Missouri if they obtained no relief. If the governor rejected them, they were to petition the president of the United States. Should the president rebuff them as well, the revelation promised, “then will the Lord arise and come forth out of his hiding place & in his fury vex the nation.”

was originally appointed to go to at a general conference of the church in May 1839. Sometime thereafter, Joseph Smith was designated to join him, and an October 1839 general conference assigned to accompany Smith and Rigdon. On 29 October, they commenced their trip from the area to the nation’s capital, joined by and . The group stopped in , Illinois, and received a recommendation from the of the church there. They then proceeded to , where , a prominent citizen, provided them with a letter of introduction to the president of the United States. After departing Springfield, the group traveled to , Ohio, leaving Rigdon there to recover from illness. Rockwell and Foster remained behind to care for Rigdon, with instructions to continue to Washington as soon as Rigdon was well enough to travel.

Joseph Smith and arrived in on 28 November 1839. The following day, congressman introduced them to President . It is uncertain what assistance Smith and Higbee requested from the president. Executive orders were rare in this era of American politics, and Van Buren was known for being particularly hesitant to intrude on states’ rights. Therefore, Smith and Higbee may have simply asked Van Buren to use his influence with Democrats in Congress to gather support for the petition, or memorial, the church delegation planned to submit to Congress when the legislature convened the following week. A few lines of support from Van Buren in his annual address to Congress (then delivered in writing rather than as a speech) might have helped generate congressional approval for redress and monetary reparations for church members’ losses in .

After reading the letters of introduction that Joseph Smith and carried, reportedly declared, “I can do nothing for you,— if I do any thing, I shall come in contact with the whole State of .” Smith and Higbee requested that the president not dismiss their plea for help so readily, and Van Buren told the men that he would consider the matter further. After leaving the President’s House (a contemporary term for the White House), Smith and Higbee turned their attention to garnering congressional support for their cause, but they still awaited publication of Van Buren’s annual address to Congress, which they hoped would mention their situation. When Van Buren delivered the message to Congress on 14 December 1839, however, it did not refer to the Mormons.

Joseph Smith and other church leaders had spent months strategizing their petitioning efforts. Their core complaint was that the expulsion of the Saints from and the subsequent loss of property had all occurred under the threat of state-sanctioned extermination. However, their challenge was finding the constitutional arguments most likely to elicit federal intervention in their behalf. At one point, suggested that they “impeach the State of Missouri” using the Guarantee Clause of the United States Constitution (article 4, section 4), which requires each state to maintain a republican form of government. After arriving in the nation’s capital, Joseph Smith proposed a case based on Missouri’s violation of the Third Amendment because of the quartering of state militia troops in the Saints’ homes without their permission. Ultimately, the church delegation founded their case on the willful abridgement of the Saints’ property rights that occurred as a result of religious prejudice, but they did not explicitly cite a particular constitutional article or amendment in the process.

Joseph Smith, , and apparently began drafting their memorial to Congress before they left for . This memorial—the centerpiece of the church’s petitioning efforts—described the violence perpetrated by vigilantes against church members, which ultimately forced the Saints to flee Missouri. The memorial stated that the church wanted $2 million for reparations and asserted that Congress was the proper body to authorize this amount. After Smith and Higbee reached Washington DC, the congressional delegation helped them finalize the memorial and advised them on navigating congressional procedures. On 28 January 1840, Illinois senator introduced the memorial to the Senate. A few days later, the Senate sent the memorial to its Committee on the Judiciary, apparently instructing the committee to determine whether Congress had jurisdiction over the church’s case.

While preparing the memorial and then awaiting the Senate committee’s report, Smith and continued to gather documentation in support of the church’s claims, particularly affidavits that described the persecutions individual church members experienced and that itemized their property losses. The process of obtaining affidavits commenced in early 1839, when Joseph Smith instructed church members to document the “suffering and abuses put upon them by the people of this state [] and also of all the property and amount of damages which they have sustained both of character and personal Injuries as will [well] as real property.” Smith, , and Higbee carried several of these affidavits with them when they departed for , and church leaders in and sent them additional affidavits by mail after the delegation left. On 17 February 1840, submitted hundreds of these affidavits to accompany the memorial.

Joseph Smith took time while in the eastern to visit Latter-day Saint congregations in and . He traveled to in December 1839 and January 1840, forming a branch among the growing number of Saints there. He also obtained a reading from noted Philadelphia phrenologist and wrote a letter to the editor of the Register and Examiner, a newspaper in West Chester, Pennsylvania, to counteract “many false rumors” about him and the church. By the end of January 1840, he was back in , where he preached several times, though the report of only one of those discourses is extant.

The Senate Committee on the Judiciary was still considering the church’s memorial when Joseph Smith decided to return to , leaving to act as liaison to the committee. On 4 March 1840, the committee returned the memorial to the Senate. It reported its position that the federal government had no jurisdiction over the case and that “the petitioners must seek relief in the courts of judicature of the State of , or of the .” Despite church leaders’ efforts to explain the violation of the Saints’ constitutional rights, the memorial was dismissed on a basis of jurisdiction that prevented a full investigation of the Saints’ claims. The committee recommended it be discharged from considering the memorial any further, and on 23 March 1840 the Senate passed the recommendation as a resolution, ending the church’s hopes of obtaining federal redress at that time.

By 29 February 1840, Joseph Smith was back in the area, where he eventually received ’s reports of the Senate’s action. Smith expressed in several sermons his frustration with the federal government, calling “a huckstering politician, who would sacrifice any and every thing to promote his re-election” and declaring that if the Saints pleaded their case for eight years, they would “find no favor in any of the courts of this government.” Other church members expressed anger and disappointment as well. An April 1840 general conference of the church established a committee that prepared several resolutions in response to the decision of the Senate, including one declaring the Senate’s position “unconstitutional” and “subversive of the rights of a free people.” Another resolution framed the Senate’s direction to seek redress in courts as insulting, noting that Missouri governor ’s 1838 extermination order meant church members could only enter that state “at the risk of our lives.” The committee resolved that Joseph Smith and other church leaders should “continue to use their endeavors to obtain redress for a suffering people” and thanked the congressional delegation for its assistance in preparing and submitting the memorial.

In arguing about the injustice of the state of ’s treatment of the Latter-day Saints, the memorial contended that even Missouri officials were embarrassed by the state’s actions and therefore allowed Joseph Smith and his colleagues to escape from jail in April 1839. To support this assertion, the memorial pointed out that had not requested Smith be extradited back to Missouri as a fugitive from justice. In September 1840, however, Boggs made a requisition to governor for Smith’s extradition, and Carlin subsequently issued an arrest warrant. According to the church newspaper, Times and Seasons, when the sheriff attempted to serve the warrant, “through the tender mercies of a kind Providence,” Smith and others named in the warrant “were not to be found; as the Lord would have it, they were gone from home.” bishop later remembered Joseph Smith taking two trips on a church-owned steamboat “to keep out of the way of the officers of the law.” The warrant was not served on Smith until the following year, but its issuance indicated that he still faced problems as a result of the 1838–1839 conflict in Missouri.

Joseph Smith devoted considerable time and energy to petitioning the federal government for redress, especially from October 1839 through April 1840—a period during which Smith declared that the redress effort “was the only thing that ought to interest the saints at present.” Yet he was still able to address the spiritual development of the church and its members. Throughout the period covered in this volume, he frequently spoke to the Saints and, especially during his trip to , to non-Mormons. Some of these discourses focused on the Saints’ efforts to obtain redress from the federal government, but others explicated theological topics. For example, at the October 1840 general conference, read a statement Joseph Smith prepared on the and orders of the , a subject Smith had periodically addressed in the past. This instruction, however, contained ideas Smith had not yet discussed publicly, including his explanation of the doctrine of translation—a power allowing humans to live in a transformed state until Jesus Christ’s second coming.

In a July 1840 discourse, Smith provided more information about , stating that it was wherever the Saints gathered and encompassed all of North and South America. In January 1841, he gave an address on the eternal nature of matter, asserting that God did not create the earth out of nothing but rather formed it from existing materials such as fire, water, and air, all of which were “eternal existant principles,” as were the spirits of humankind. That same month, he told a gathering that God gave bodies to spirits in order to arm them against Satan’s power.

In August 1840, Joseph Smith taught publicly for the first time that church members could be on behalf of deceased relatives. He discussed this concept in a funeral sermon for (who had served on the ) and elaborated on the teaching during the October 1840 general conference. According to church member , Smith explained that the Saints could be “baptised for all their kinsfolks that have died before this Gospel came forth; even back to their great Grandfather and Mother if they have ben personally acquainted with them.” Church members began performing baptisms for the dead in the as early as September; baptisms continued during the October conference, with at times at least ten baptizing Saints for their deceased family members.

In addition to instructing the Saints, Joseph Smith solidified the church’s administrative foundation during this period. The October 1839 general conference designated the area as “a and a place of gathering for the saints” and then approved the appointment of as of the stake and twelve men as the high council. Three were designated for the Commerce area: one for an upper ward, one for a middle ward, and one for a lower ward. The conference also established a church across the in , complete with a president, a high council, and a bishop. In 1840 other stakes were created in , including one at , about thirty miles southeast of Nauvoo.

By spring 1840, church leaders had decided to construct a in .

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Throughout that year, Joseph Smith referenced plans to build the temple, and in January 1841, a revelation declared that a temple was necessary for performing baptisms for the dead and other . “How shall your washings be acceptable unto me [God],” it stated, “except, ye perform them in a house which you have built to my name?” In addition, the revelation declared that the temple would be a place “for the Most High to dwell” and that God would there restore “the fullness of the Priesthood.” The revelation also instructed the Saints to construct a “house for boarding,” referred to as the , where “the weary traveller” could find “health and safety” while in Nauvoo. Four trustees were designated to oversee the building’s construction, and several men were directed to purchase stock in the Nauvoo House to fund the project.

The January 1841 revelation also elaborated on the church’s leadership structure and designated individuals to fill positions left vacant by death or disaffection. , the first bishop in the church, and , the church’s , had both died in recent months; , who was designated the second elder of the church in 1830 and became an assistant president of the church in 1834, had been excommunicated in 1838. To replace these officers, the revelation appointed as a bishop and both as patriarch and as the one who would receive “the bishoprick and blessing and glory, and honor and priesthood and gifts of the priesthood” that once belonged to Cowdery. would then replace Hyrum as a counselor in the . The revelation also listed the members of the , affirming that was now president, and listed the members of the high council and the seven presidents over the Quorums of the . In addition, it designated individuals to preside in Nauvoo over the , the quorum, the , and the .

The January 1841 revelation also instructed Joseph Smith, , and “to make a solemn proclamation of my gospel” to “all the Kings of the world, to the four corners thereof; to the Honorable President Elect, and the high minded Governors” both in the and in “all the nations of the earth.” The proclamation was to bear testimony to those officials, warn them to heed the instructions of the Lord’s servants, and invite them to bring their gold and silver to to help God’s people. The call for such a proclamation showed that Joseph Smith and the church continued to emphasize preaching and gathering converts before Jesus Christ’s second coming, especially because they believed they were building a city that would be a light to the world and a refuge from the disasters that would precede Christ’s second advent.

The importance of proselytizing and gathering converts to was also highlighted by the mission of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to —an undertaking that was ongoing during the period this volume covers. When the Twelve Apostles were originally appointed in 1835, Joseph Smith informed them that they were “to unlock the door of the kingdom of heaven unto all nations and preach the Gospel unto every creation.” In 1837 Smith assigned apostles and to proselytize in England with several other men. By the time they returned from England the following year, the men had baptized more than fifteen hundred people and had established several congregations. A July 1838 revelation directed all of the apostles to depart from , Missouri, to commence a mission “over the great waters” the following spring. Despite the Saints’ expulsion from in winter 1838–1839 and the subsequent challenges of resettling refugee Saints in and , the apostles were determined to fulfill this commandment. On 26 April 1839, several members of the quorum met at the location designated for a in , held a council in which they and as apostles, and “fulfilled the revelation & Commandment,” according to Woodruff. When the apostles returned from Far West to and , however, they paused to further settle their families and prepare for the mission before pressing on to the East. Between August and September 1839, seven of the apostles left the Commerce area with other missionaries, departing in four companies.

Arriving in in 1840, the apostles went to work preaching, baptizing converts, and expanding church membership. By October 1840, the total number of church members in England exceeded thirty-five hundred, and missionaries were preaching in Scotland, Ireland, Australia, and the East Indies under the apostles’ direction. The apostles also started a monthly periodical—the Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star—published a hymnal, and began efforts to republish the 1837 edition of the Book of Mormon. As these efforts proceeded, some of the apostles, including and , wrote to Joseph Smith to get his advice and approval as well as to update him on proselytizing and to share their observations on England’s social conditions. Smith responded to these letters in December 1840, telling the apostles, “amidst the general movements which are now in progress, none is of more importance than the glorious work in which you are now engaged.”

Two other apostles were assigned to a different mission in April 1840. At the church’s general conference held that month, stated that “he had recently been moved upon by the spirit of the Lord” to go to the Jews in , , , Constantinople, and Palestine and to “gather up all the information he could from them respecting their movements, [and] expectations.” The conference then appointed Hyde to this mission. Later in the conference, after Joseph Smith assigned to accompany Hyde, Smith and prepared the necessary credentials for the two apostles, who departed soon thereafter. For most of the period covered in this volume, the two preached mainly in and in locations in the eastern , trying to raise funds for their mission abroad; they had not actually left the country by the end of January 1841. Like the apostles in , Hyde and Page periodically reported to Joseph Smith on their progress and received instruction back from him.

Meanwhile, church leaders examined the possibility of printing new editions of church publications in the . In November 1839, , who was in , noted that “the Book of Mormon is not to be had in this part of the vineyard for love or money, hundreds are wanting in various parts here abouts.” As the person who had been responsible for the 1837 reprint of the Book of Mormon, Pratt proposed printing a new edition in New York. responded that although there was “truly a famine throughout the Union” of the Book of Mormon “and another large Edition is certainly required,” it was better to publish it in under the direction of the First Presidency. On 29 December 1839, the Nauvoo high council passed a resolution to print ten thousand new hymnals and to reprint the Book of Mormon “under the inspection of the First Presidency, as soon as money can be raised to defray the expences.”

Efforts to reprint the Book of Mormon began in earnest in summer 1840. In June, Joseph Smith helped —who, along with , was publishing the church periodical Times and Seasons in —compare the 1837 edition of the Book of Mormon with the 1830 edition. Robinson then took the marked-up 1837 copy to to have it stereotyped and printed. Joseph Smith and the Nauvoo high council later commissioned high counselors and to raise money for the publication as well as for the printing of the new hymnal. Robinson returned to Nauvoo in September 1840, bringing with him two thousand copies of the Book of Mormon and stereotyped plates for printing copies in the future. He and Don Carlos Smith then transferred ownership of the plates to Joseph Smith in exchange for the rights to print an additional twenty-five hundred copies of the book.

The hymnal took more time to produce but was also greatly needed. Recognizing a dearth of hymnbooks, , a church member in , had produced in 1838 his own unauthorized edition of the church’s 1835 hymnal. His hymnal was rejected by a general conference, and he faced disciplinary action for its production. After the high council resolved in December 1839 that a new hymnbook should be published, began plans to compile this book and announced at the October 1840 general conference that he had made arrangements to print it. A notice the following month in the Times and Seasons asked all those with “a poetical genius” to “immediately forward all choice, newly composed, or revised hymns” to Robinson for inclusion. The hymnal was ready for sale in March 1841.

In addition to overseeing these publications, Joseph Smith continued to provide guidance to church members living in , Ohio. Although the majority of Saints had departed Kirtland in 1838 after Smith and moved to , Missouri, a small contingent remained. A May 1839 conference appointed (who had spent time in Kirtland in 1838 trying to resolve the debts of Smith and other church leaders) as the presiding authority over the church there, but Granger did not actually get to Kirtland until a year later. After his arrival, he wrote to Joseph Smith that , a member of the Seventy, was making disparaging remarks there about Smith and other church leaders. The high council heard the charges in September, and Babbitt was cleared of the accusations. The following month, Babbitt was appointed as the presiding authority in Kirtland, though Joseph Smith asked Granger to work with Babbitt in that calling. Granger was also supposed to continue his efforts to resolve outstanding debts Smith held in .

Additional controversy arose in when , a missionary for the church, arrived there in summer 1840 and preached doctrines unfamiliar to some members. This situation prompted , a church leader in Kirtland, to ask Joseph Smith whether Dunham was authorized to make his pronouncements. Although no reply from Smith is extant, he was clearly concerned with the beliefs and attitudes of the Kirtland Saints in general. In an October 1840 letter, Joseph and counseled church members in Kirtland to “put away . . . all evil speaking, backbiting & unge[ne]rous thoughts and feelings” so that they could “see good and glorious days.”

Like these letters to and from , the majority of documents in this volume consist of correspondence either directed to or received by Joseph Smith. Much of this communication occurred while he was traveling in the eastern , although some letters were sent to or from him while he was living in . Some of the letters still exist in their original form, but for many the only extant copies were made in Joseph Smith’s Letterbook 2 by one of his scribes or were versions published in the Times and Seasons. The volume also contains minutes of several church meetings in which Smith participated. Most of these minutes come from the Nauvoo high council minute book, which was the official record book of the high council kept by and . In addition, the volume contains land documents, licenses, recommendations, accounts of discourses, and the January 1841 revelation designating Nauvoo as a stake and a “corner stone of Zion.”

These documents help illuminate this difficult period in Joseph Smith’s life—a time when he was trying to regroup church members after their forced expulsion from and attempting to establish a new gathering place for the Saints. The documents reveal a church leader striving to unify his people and extend the church’s reach through missionary work, especially through the efforts of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. They show a man concerned for the health and well-being of his followers—and a man striving to obtain redress for the wrongs they suffered in Missouri. These documents are critical to understanding Joseph Smith as a person, as a husband and father, and as a prophet to his people; to comprehending the foundations of the Mormon experience in ; and to grasping the larger context of events in the and elsewhere that influenced Smith and the church from 1839 to 1841.

Joseph Smith Documents from September 1839 through January 1841

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