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Discourse, 10 June 1844

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Discourse, 10 June 1844

Source Note

JS, Discourse, [, Hancock Co., IL, 10 June 1844]. Featured version inscribed [ca. 10 June 1844] in JS, Journal, 1842–1844, bk. 4, p. [151]; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. Includes use mark. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS, Journal, 1842–1844.

Historical Introduction

On the evening of 10 June 1844, JS delivered a short discourse in , Illinois, to a group of those who had just destroyed the Nauvoo Expositor press. Earlier that day, JS, as mayor, had ordered city marshal to destroy the press, pie the type, and burn any libelous papers found in the printing office. That evening, Greene led a posse that fulfilled JS’s order. Afterward, sometime around or after eight o’clock, approximately one hundred members of the posse gathered at the . There, outside his home, JS briefly addressed them, emphasizing that the posse was right to destroy the press.
The address was enthusiastically received. reported in JS’s journal that “the speech was loudly greeted by 3 cheers— 3. times.” The posse then disbanded and dispersed in an orderly fashion.
The only known account of JS’s remarks is that which wrote in JS’s journal entry for 10 June.

Footnotes

  1. Mayor’s Order to Nauvoo City Marshal, 10 June 1844.

  2. Historical Introduction to Mayor’s Order to Nauvoo City Marshal, 10 June 1844; Historical Introduction to Military Order to Jonathan Dunham, 10 June 1844.

  3. JS, Journal, 10 June 1844. At around eight o’clock, Greene endorsed the mayor’s order, writing that the “press & type is destroyed and pied.” (Mayor’s Order to Nauvoo City Marshal, 10 June 1844.)

  4. JS, Journal, 10 June 1844.

  5. JS, Journal, 10 June 1844.

  6. Richards used different methods to record entries in JS’s journal. (See Willard Richards, Draft Notes of JS’s Activities, 1842, 1844; Historical Introduction to Journal, Dec. 1842–June 1844; and Historical Introduction to Discourse, 4 July 1843.)

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Discourse, 10 June 1844
Journal, December 1842–June 1844; Book 4, 1 March–22 June 1844

Page [151]

told them they had done right. that they had executed my orders— requi[re]d of me by the city council that if I would never submit to have another Libellous publication in establishd in the.— . that I cared not how ma[n]y pape[r]s there were in the city if they would pr[i]nt the truth. but would submit to no Libe[l]s— or slanders from them.—— [p. [151]]
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Source Note

Document Transcript

Page [151]

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Discourse, 10 June 1844
ID #
4056
Total Pages
1
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • Willard Richards

Footnotes

  1. On 10 June the Nauvoo City Council ordered the mayor, JS, “to cause said printing establishment and papers to be removed without delay.” (Resolution, 10 June 1844.)

  2. On 8 June, during a meeting of the Nauvoo City Council, JS, as mayor, recommended that the council “pass an ordinanc[e] to prevent misrepresentation & Libellous publicati[o]n.” Two days later the city council passed an ordinance penalizing libel and slander. (Minutes, 8 June 1844; Ordinance, 10 June 1844.)