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Discourse, 7 March 1844–A, as Reported by Willard Richards

Source Note

JS, Discourse, [, Hancock Co., IL, 7 Mar. 1844]. Featured version inscribed [ca. 7 Mar. 1844] in JS, Journal, 1842–1844, bk. 4, pp. [10]–[15]; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS, Journal, 1842–1844.

Historical Introduction

On 7 March 1844, at the site where the was being built in , Illinois, JS delivered a discourse about recent challenges to the temple’s progress and city’s development. Three days earlier, JS had called the meeting, which noted was attended by “six or eight thousand saints.” JS gave two discourses, separated by sermons by several other members.
In JS’s first discourse of the meeting, he presented three specific examples of recent conflict caused by citizens. He briefly referenced , who had allegedly accused of having multiple “spiritual wives” and had claimed that many of Nauvoo’s females lived as prostitutes. JS then spoke of and , who were longtime landowners in the area and whose intervention in collecting wharfage from steamboat operators had occupied the city council two days earlier. He concluded by accusing local physician of writing an antagonistic, anonymous letter that had appeared in the New-York Daily Tribune at the end of January 1844.
, who was JS’s “private se[c]retary & historian,” recorded the discourse in JS’s journal, which he was keeping for JS. recorded the discourse in his own journal. Woodruff inadvertently duplicated a few phrases, which suggests that he was copying the text from another source, presumably rough notes that he made while at the meeting. In addition to the accounts by Richards and Woodruff, one of the principal targets of JS’s criticism——made an account. On 12 April 1844, Foster wrote a letter to , editor of the Warsaw Signal, in which he acerbically summarized the meeting. All three accounts of the discourse are featured here.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 4 Mar. 1844; Woodruff, Journal, 7 Mar. 1844.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  2. [2]

    JS, Journal, 7 Mar. 1844; see also Discourse, 7 Mar. 1844–B.

  3. [3]

    John Scott, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 26 Feb. 1844, City of Nauvoo v. Bostwick (Nauvoo Mayor’s Ct. 1844), Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL. The previous month, the Nauvoo mayor’s court fined Bostwick for slander. Following the trial, Bostwick’s attorney, Francis M. Higbee, said he would appeal the decision to the municipal court and, if necessary, to the circuit court—a move JS interpreted as an attempt to stir up a mob against Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo. Although the case was later brought before the circuit court, it was dismissed in May at Bostwick’s request, for unspecified reasons. (JS, Journal, 26 Feb. 1844; Notice, 9 Apr. 1844.)

  4. [4]

    See Resolution, 5 Mar. 1844.

  5. [5]

    “The Mormons and Their Prophet—Legislation at Nauvoo—The Temple,” New-York Daily Tribune (New York City), 27 Jan. 1844, [1].

    New-York Daily Tribune. New York City. 1841–1924.

  6. [6]

    JS, Journal, 21 Dec. 1842; Historical Introduction to JS, Journal, Dec. 1842–June 1844.

  7. [7]

    “Important from Nauvoo,” Warsaw (IL) Signal, 25 Apr. 1844, [3].

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Discourse, 7 March 1844–A, as Reported by Willard Richards Journal, December 1842–June 1844; Book 4, 1 March–22 June 1844 *Discourse, 7 March 1844–A, as Reported by Wilford Woodruff *Discourse, 7 March 1844–A, as Reported by Charles A. Foster History, 1838–1856, volume E-1 [1 July 1843–30 April 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page [11]

name is are —— when the had passd an ordnanc [ordinance] to tax steam boats. He goes and tells th[e] captains of the steam boats that he owned the landing. and they need need not to pax [pay] tax— and I am determnd to use up such men if they will not stop their oppositi[o]n If this is not true. Let him come forward & throw of[f] the inputation [imputation].— when they people appeal to I will appeal to this people— the highest court— I despise the La[w]yers who ha[n]g on these law suits.—
. & say they own the wharfs. but the own the wharrf—— 64 ft— fr[o]m high water mark from to the no[r]thern limits of the .— [p. [11]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Discourse, 7 March 1844–A, as Reported by Willard Richards
ID #
1288
Total Pages
6
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • Willard Richards

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    In December 1843, the city council passed an ordinance “concerning the Landing of Steam Boats” within the city limits. The ordinance required captains of all steamboats loading or unloading passengers or freight to pay a wharfage of one dollar to the city’s wharfmaster. (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 16 Dec. 1843, 196–197.)

  2. [2]

    JS had confronted Kimball on this issue two days earlier, after which the city council met to discuss it. Kimball and Arthur Morrison, both of whom owned property in the northwest part of the city, argued that the riverfront land belonged to them. The city council responded that it was the city’s land, on the basis that the Nauvoo shoreline had been platted as a city street (Water Street). (JS, Journal, 5 Mar. 1844; Resolution, 5 Mar. 1844.)

  3. [3]

    “64 ft” is a reference to the width assigned to Water Street, which ran along the shoreline of the river. (Hills, Map of the City of Nauvoo, 1842.)

    Hills, Gustavus. Map of the City of Nauvoo. New York: J. Child, 1842. CHL.

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