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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 [14]

another man. will not call his nam[e]. has been writing to th[e] Tribu[n]e some of the greatest most disgraceful— things possible to name.— he ha[s] statd in th[a]t article that there are a gr[e]at ma[n]y approp[r]iations— to the . appli[e]d some where else to.— to stigmatize th[e] Trustee & And tu[r]n prejudice agint [against] us abroad.— if any man who has appointed any thing.— old harness horses. waggon— &c <​let him come f[or]ward​> the fi[r]st farthing and we can[n]ot show where it has been appropiatd [appropriated]. I will give him my head for a foot ball.—
he also states that the cannot be build it costs so [p. [14]]
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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. [9]

    The letter, whose author has not been identified, appeared in the 27 January issue of the New-York Daily Tribune. The bulk of the letter berated JS and his “uneducated and vicious” followers and lamented that the Latter-day Saint presence in western Illinois dampened the prosperity of the region. In the last paragraph of the letter, the author asserted that building the Nauvoo temple would require twenty years and “a sum of money not far short of half a million of dollars” and concluded by claiming “good grounds for the opinion” that large sums of money donated for building the temple “never have been, or will be, expended on that splendid monument of folly and wickedness.” (“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.

  2. [10]

    JS was elected as trustee-in-trust for the church on 30 January 1841. (Appointment as Trustee, 2 Feb. 1841.)

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