JS, History, 1838–1856, vol. F-1, created 9 Apr.–7 June 1856 and 20 Aug. 1856–6 Nov. 1856; handwriting of and Jonathan Grimshaw; 304 pages, plus 10 pages of addenda; CHL. This is the final volume of a six-volume manuscript history of the church. This sixth volume covers the period from 1 May to 8 Aug. 1844; the remaining five volumes, labeled A-1 through E-1, go through 30 Apr. 1844.
Historical Introduction
History, 1838-1856, volume F-1, constitutes the last of six volumes documenting the life of Joseph Smith and the early years of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The series is also known as the Manuscript History of the Church and was originally published serially from 1842 to 1846 and 1851 to 1858 as the “History of Joseph Smith” in the Times and Seasons and Deseret News. This volume contains JS’s history from 1 May 1844 to the events following his 27 June 1844 death, and it was compiled in Utah Territory in 1856.
The material recorded in volume F-1 was initially compiled under the direction of church historian , who was JS’s cousin, and also assistant church historian . Smith collaborated with in collecting material for the volume and creating a set of draft notes, which Smith dictated to Bullock and other clerks. Woodruff gathered additional material concerning the death of Joseph Smith as a supplement to George A. Smith’s work recording that event. Jonathan Grimshaw and , members of the Historian’s Office staff, transcribed the draft notes into the volume along with the text of designated documents.
According to the Historian’s Office journal, Jonathan Grimshaw initiated work on the text of volume F-1 on 9 April 1856, soon after Robert L. Campbell had completed work on volume E-1. (Historian’s Office, Journal, 5 and 9 Apr. 1856.) Grimshaw’s scribal work begins with an entry for 1 May 1844. Unlike previous volumes in which the numbering had run consecutively to page 2028, Grimshaw began anew with page 1. He transcribed 150 pages by June 1856, and his last entry was for 23 June 1844. Though more of his writing does not appear in the volume, he continued to work in the office until 2 August, before leaving for the East that same month. (Historian’s Office, Journal, 2 and 10 Aug. 1856.)
assumed the role of scribe on 20 August 1856. (Historian’s Office, Journal, 20 Aug. 1856.) He incorporated ’s draft notes for the period 24–29 June 1844 on pages 151–189, providing an account of JS’s death and its immediate aftermath. He next transcribed a related extract from ’s 1854 History of Illinois on pages 190–204. Pages 205–227 were left blank.
provided the notes for the final portion of the text. This account begins with an entry for 22 June 1844 and continues the record through 8 August 1844, ending on page 304. (The volume also included ten pages of addenda.) The last specific entry in the Historian’s Office journal that captures at work on the history is for 6 November 1856. A 2 February 1857 Wilford Woodruff letter to indicates that on 30 January 1857, the “presidency sat and heard the history read up to the organization of the church in , 8th. day of August 1844.” (Historian’s Office, Journal, 6 Nov. 1856; Wilford Woodruff, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to George A. Smith, 2 Feb. 1857, Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 1, p. 410; see also Wilford Woodruff, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to Amasa Lyman and Charles C. Rich, 28 Feb. 1857, Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 1, pp. 430–431.)
The pages of volume F-1 contain a record of the final weeks of JS’s life and the events of the ensuing days. The narrative commences with and arriving at , Illinois, on 1 May 1844 from their lumber-harvesting mission in the “” of Wisconsin Territory. As the late spring and summer of 1844 unfold, events intensify, especially those surrounding the suppression of the Nauvoo Expositor in mid-June. Legal action over the Expositor leads to a charge of riot, and subsequently JS is charged with treason and is incarcerated at the jail in , Illinois. The narrative of volume F-1 concludes with an account of the special church conference convened on 8 August 1844 to consider who should assume the leadership of the church.
Whereas Joseph Smith and of the aforesaid have been arrested upon the oath of and , for the crime of treason, and has <have> been brought before me as [HC 6:569] a Justice of the Peace in and for said , for trial at the seat of Justice thereof, which trial has been necessarily postponed by reason of the absence of material witnesses, to wit: and others; Therefore I command you in the name of the people to receive the said Joseph Smith and into your custody in the jail of the aforesaid, there to remain until discharged by due course of law.
Given under my hand and seal, this 25th day of June A. D. 1844.
L. S.
(Signed)
R. F. Smith, J. P.
Joseph remonstrated against such barefaced, illegal, and tyrannical proceedings, but the still insisted that they should go to jail. requested the to wait until he could see , and was told by that he would only wait five minutes. Joseph and again remonstrated, and the waited until about 9 o’clock, when they heard by that the did not think it with within the sphere of his duty to interfere, as they were in the hands of the civil law, and therefore he had not the power to stay process, or the due course of law, and that he could not interrupt a civil officer in the discharge of his duty. knew this was illegal (for he had formerly been an associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the ) and when he was appealed to by Captain Robert F. Smith to know what he must do, as he had found his mittimus as a magistrate was illegal, and therefore that it was a false committal. replied “You have the Carthage Greys at your command.” Captain Smith therefore commanded his “Greys” to execute and carry into effect his illegal mittimus as a Magistrate; thus practically blending the civil and military in the same person, at the same time, and the prisoners were violently and illegally dragged to jail without any examination whatever, while his was in the adjoining room to that from which they [HC 6:570] were thus taken. So much for his professions that the law must be executed.
Thus a justice of the peace, acting as a Military Officer also, by virtue of his commission as such, orders his command to appear under arms, and to incarcerate the prisoners whom he had just before ordered the to commit to jail by mittimus without having them brought before him for examination; and the , having been himself at one time a judge upon the bench, knew and well understood the illegality of the above proceedings. He also well knew that military power and authority had been used by one and the same person; and yet he, acting at that time as Commander in Chief, which gave him the supervision over all his officers, and in fact made him responsible for all their acts and movements, refused to interfere when requested by the prisoners to interpose his authority on their behalf against an illegal civil process, and also refused to countermand the illegal, oppressive, and unofficer-like order of one of his Captains. Moreover, having taken the oath of office, as Governor of the State of , he was by virtue of that oath bound to see the laws faithfully executed, and not, as in this instance, see them violated and trodden under foot, and even prompt one of his officers in his lawless course. Thus he violated his solemn pledges and oath of office.