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Discourse, 13 August 1843–A, as Reported by Willard Richards

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Discourse, 13 August 1843–A, as Reported by Willard Richards

Source Note

JS, Discourse, [, Hancock Co., IL], 13 Aug. 1843. Featured version copied [ca. 13 Aug. 1843] in JS, Journal, 1842–1844, bk. 3, pp. [44]–[50]; handwriting of Willard Richards; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS, Journal, 1842–1844.

Historical Introduction

On 13 August 1843, JS delivered a discourse prompted by the death of member . Higbee had held a number of prominent ecclesiastical and civic offices over the course of his life, including member, church historian, judge, and captain general of the society during the mid- to late 1830s. In 1839, Higbee accompanied JS and to , where he played a key role in petitioning the federal government for redress and restitution on behalf of the Latter-day Saints whose lives and property were lost in the previous winter. He was appointed a member of the building committee in October 1840. In early June 1843, Higbee contracted cholera and died five days later, on 8 June. He was interred in the Nauvoo cemetery on 12 June.
JS delivered the funeral discourse on the morning of 13 August before a group of Latter-day Saints gathered for Sunday worship services at the preaching near the construction site. Drawing from passages of biblical scripture—including 2 Peter 3, Hebrews 12, Malachi 4, and Revelation 7—JS discussed the state of human relationships after death, including the idea that parents could be forever linked, or “,” to their children through the “.” The discourse ended when JS became “much exhau[s]ted,” after which and spoke. JS delivered another discourse on a variety of topics later that afternoon.
Church members , , and , as well as or Martha Jane Knowlton Coray, were likely in the audience that day, and each of them produced handwritten manuscripts that captured elements of JS’s discourse. Richards likely recorded rough notes of the discourse on loose paper or in a notebook before inscribing a more polished account in JS’s journal. The polished nature of Clayton’s and Franklin D. Richards’s versions suggest that they also reconstructed them from notes or memory. Martha and Howard Coray recorded several of JS’s discourses in the early 1840s, and one of them likely took nonextant notes of JS’s discourse. Martha Coray later copied them into a notebook sometime after 1853. All four versions are featured here in their entirety. Annotation that appears in Willard Richards’s version of the discourse is not repeated in corresponding locations in the versions by Coray, Clayton, or Franklin Richards.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Minute Book 2, 6 Jan. 1836 and 6 Apr. 1838, 67, 114; “Higbee, Elias,” in Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:253; Reed Peck, Quincy, IL, to “Dear Friends,” 18 Sept. 1839, pp. 47–48, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA; Historical Introduction to Letter to Elias Higbee, 16 Apr. 1839; Swartzell, Mormonism Exposed, 17–18; Baugh, “Call to Arms,” 95–96.

    Jenson, Andrew. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901–1936.

    Peck, Reed. Letter, Quincy, IL, to “Dear Friends,” 18 Sept. 1839. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

    Swartzell, William. Mormonism Exposed, Being a Journal of a Residence in Missouri from the 28th of May to the 20th of August, 1838, Together with an Appendix, Containing the Revelation concerning the Golden Bible, with Numerous Extracts from the ‘Book of Covenants,’ &c., &c. Pekin, OH: By the author, 1840.

    Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).

  2. [2]

    Minutes and Discourses, 5–7 Oct. 1839; Letter to Hyrum Smith and Nauvoo High Council, 5 Dec. 1839.

  3. [3]

    JS, Journal, 8 June 1843.

  4. [4]

    Huntington, Cemetery Records, [5].

  5. [5]

    JS, Journal, 13 Aug. 1843.

  6. [6]

    Discourse, 13 Aug. 1843–B.

  7. [7]

    See Historical Introduction to Appendix 3: Willard Richards, Draft Notes of JS’s Activities, 1842, 1844.

  8. [8]

    Martha Coray recounted that “from the age of thirteen years,” she had been “much in the habit of noting down evrything, I heard and read which possessed any peculiar interest to me, in order to preserve facts.” According to one account, Coray “took in common hand every di[s]course that she heard him [JS] preach, and has carefully preserved them.” Coray’s daughter noted that “it was ever her [Coray’s] custom when going to meeting to take pencil and note paper; she thus preserved notes of sermons that would otherwise have been lost to the Church.” (Martha Jane Knowlton Coray, Provo, Utah Territory, to Brigham Young, 13 June 1865, Brigham Young Office Files, CHL; “Obituaries,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Feb. 1882, 10:133; Lewis, “Martha Jane Knowlton Coray,” 440.)

    Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1.

    Woman’s Exponent. Salt Lake City. 1872–1914.

    Lewis, Martha J. C. “Martha Jane Knowlton Coray.” Improvement Era 5, no. 6 (Apr. 1902): 439–440.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Discourse, 13 August 1843–A, as Reported by Willard Richards
Journal, December 1842–June 1844; Book 3, 15 July 1843–29 February 1844 *Discourse, 13 August 1843–A, as Reported by William Clayton *Discourse, 13 August 1843–A, as Reported by Franklin D. Richards *Discourse, 13 August 1843–A, as Reported by Martha Jane Knowlton Coray History, 1838–1856, volume E-1 [1 July 1843–30 April 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”

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2.d Peter 3.d C[hapter]. 11 10. 11. v—— Text said he was not like other men his mind was continually occ[u]pied with the business of the day. and he had to depend entirely upon the living god for evrey thing he said on such occasions.
The great thing for us to know is to comprehe[n]d what. God did institute before the fou[n]dation of the world.—— Who knows it?
It is the constitutional disposition of mankind to set up stakes & set bou[n]ds [p. [44]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Discourse, 13 August 1843–A, as Reported by Willard Richards
ID #
1134
Total Pages
7
Print Volume Location
JSP, D13:33–36
Handwriting on This Page
  • Willard Richards
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