Footnotes

1. [1]

   Part of the discontent may have been related to the new immigrants’ difficulty in purchasing land due to the lack of wage-labor jobs in the city. In June 1842, JS and other church leaders held a meeting in Nauvoo to discuss the shortage of such employment for the large numbers of church members immigrating to the city from England. As a result, JS and Hyrum Smith wrote to Parley P. Pratt in England advising him to discourage the practice of one family member moving to Nauvoo from England with the plan of earning enough money to bring the rest of the family to the city at a later date. Writing nearly a year after JS delivered the featured discourse, Sally Randall wrote that upon arriving in Nauvoo, her first impression of the city was that “it is a hard place for poor people that have no money to get a living.” She added that “there is so many poor that depend on thare work for a liveing that they can hardley get enoughf to be comfortable.” (Letter to Parley P. Pratt and Others, 12 June 1842; Sally Randall, Nauvoo, IL, to “Dear Friends,” 6 Oct. 1843, typescript, Sally Randall, Letters, CHL.)

   Randall, Sally. Letters, 1843–1852. Typescript. CHL.

2. [2]

   For example, Thomas Margretts left England for Nauvoo in February 1841. He and his family struggled financially in the weeks after their arrival and became critical of JS for the way land was sold to new arrivals. They left the church and returned to England by September 1841. Margretts reported to a newspaper there that “the legal title of the apostle [JS] to the land he was vending to his followers was very questionable” and that “they expected his right to the possession of Nauvoo would soon be disputed.” In a letter to church members in North America published in October 1841, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles clarified the nature of the church’s land dealings in and around Nauvoo and refuted claims that JS was enriching himself through the land dealings he conducted as sole trustee-in-trust. (U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Quarterly Abstracts of Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New Orleans, reel 2, 16 Apr. 1842, entry for “Ship Echo”; “The ‘Latter-day Saint’ Swindle,” Preston [England] Chronicle and Lancashire Advertiser, 18 Sept. 1841, [4], italics in original; Brigham Young et al., “An Epistle of the Twelve,” Times and Seasons, 15 Oct. 1841, 2:567–570.)

   U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Quarterly Abstracts of Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New Orleans, 1820–1875. 17 rolls. Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC.

   Preston Chronicle and Lancashire Advertiser. Preston, England. 1831–1893.

   Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

3. [3]

   In May 1841, the Warsaw Signal reported that “great dissatisfaction exists at Nauvoo, amongst those who have lately arrived from England,” and that “some have left both the City and the Church—not believing, on the one hand, in the mission of the Prophet, and on the other, dissatisfied with the temporal government which is exercised over them.” In June 1841, the Times and Seasons responded to this report: “There may be individuals who feel dissatisfied, but it is far from being general. Those who have come expecting to find gold in our streets, and all the luxuries of an old country, will find themselves disappointed, but those who have maturely considered the advantages and disadvantages, are perfectly satisfied and contented, and cheerfully engage in cultivating the beautiful and wide spread prairie of the County.” (“The Mormons,” Warsaw [IL] Signal, 19 May 1841, [2]; “The Warsaw Signal,” Times and Seasons, 1 June 1841, 2:432.)

   Warsaw Signal. Warsaw, IL. 1841–1853.

   Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

4. [4]

   JS, Journal, 29 Oct. 1842.

5. [5]

   For more on the established process for purchasing land in Nauvoo, see Land Transaction with Jane Miller, 6 Mar. 1840.