The next morning, after breakfast, we paid a visit to the prophet. We were received in a common sitting room, very plainly furnished, where the prophet and the older members of the family had just been breakfasting, and his numerous children and dependants were then sitting at the table. He received us in quite a good humored, friendly manner, asked us to sit down, and said he hoped for a better acquaintance. On the gentleman who accompanied me asking him how he prospered, he replied, “None can get ahead of me, and few can keep behind me.” He seemed to think he had said something very witty, for he laughed very heartily. We spent about an hour conversing on various subjects, the prophet himself, with amazing volubility, occupying the most of the time, and his whole theme was himself. Let us give what turn we would to the conversation, he would adroitly bring it back to himself. The gentleman who accompanied me is a strong Whig, and as the Mormon vote had been given at the recent election to the Locofoco candidate for Congress, thereby defeating , Esq., Whig, who had defended “Joe” in several law suits with the Missourians, the conversation took a political turn at first. “Joe” professed to be a great friend to , and said he had voted for him, but would not interfere with his people in the matter. He said he had never asked the Lord any thing about politics; if he had done so, the Lord would have told him what to do. “The Lord,” said he, “has promised to give us wisdom, and when I lack wisdom I ask the Lord, and he tells me, and if he didn’t tell me, I would say he was a liar; that’s the way I feel. But I never asked him any thing about politics. I am a Whig, and I am a man. I am made of , and I am tending to , and I am going to vote for ; that's the way I feel. (A laugh.) But I won’t interfere with my people, religiously, to affect their votes, though I might to elect , for he ought to be President. I have sworn by the eternal gods—it’s no harm to swear by the gods, because there is none: if there is only one God, there can’t be gods, and it’s no harm to swear by nothing, (a laugh)—I have sworn by the eternal gods that I never will vote for a democrat again; and I intend to swear my children, putting their hands under the thigh, as Abraham swore Isaac, that they will never vote a democratic ticket in all their generations. It is the meanest, lowest party in all creation. There is five-sixths of my people so led away by the euphoneous term “democrat,” that they will vote the Locofoco ticket. I am a democrat myself. I am a Washington democrat, a Jefferson democrat, a Jackson democrat, and I voted for Harrison, and I am going to vote for . The Locofocos are no democrats, but the meanest, lowest most tyrannical beings in the world. They opposed me in , and took me prisoner, and were going to shoot me for treason, and I never had committed any treason whatever. I never had any thing bigger than a jack-knife about me, and they took me prisoner of war, and had twenty men to guard me. I had nothing to do with fighting. Our men, six hundred strong, were in arms, under . When the Missourians came marching up, ordered us to retreat, when I lifted up my hand, and said ‘Boys, I think we won’t go yet; we’ll stand our ground,’ and they stood firm, but run like the devil. For doing this, they charged me with treason.”

In this manner the prophet ran on, talking incessantly. Speaking of revelations, he stated that when he was in a “quandary,” he asked the Lord for a revelation, and when he could not get it, he “followed the dictates of his own judgment, which were as good as a revelation to him; but he never gave anything to his people as revelation, unless it was a revelation, and the Lord did reveal himself to him.” Running on in his volluble style, he said: “The world persecutes me, it has always persecuted me. The people at , in a public meeting lately, said, ‘as for Joe, he’s a fool, but he’s got some smart men about him.’ I’m glad they give me so much credit. It is not every fool that has sense enough to get smart men about him. The Lord does reveal himself to me. I know it. He revealed himself to me first when I was about fourteen years old, a mere boy. I will tell you about it. There was a reformation among the different religious denominations in the neighborhood where I lived, and I became serious, and was desirous to know what Church to join. While thinking of this matter, I opened the Testament promiscuously on these words, in James, ‘Ask of the Lord who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not.’ I just determined I’d ask him. I immediately went out into the woods where my had a clearing, and went to the stump where I had stuck my axe when I had quit work, and I kneeled down, and prayed, saying, ‘O Lord, what Church shall I join.’ Directly I saw a light, and then a glorious personage in the light, then another personage, and the first personage said to the second, “Behold my beloved Son, hear him.” I then, addressed this second person, saying, “O Lord, what Church shall I join.” He replied, “don’t join any of them, they are all corrupt.” The vision then vanished, and when I come to myself, I was sprawling on my back; and it was sometime before my strength returned. When I went home and told the people that I had a revelation, and that all the churches were corrupt, they persecuted me, and they have persecuted me ever since. They thought to put me down, but they hav’nt succeeded, and they can’t do it. When I have proved that I am right, and get all the world subdued under me, I think I shall deserve something. My revelations have proved to be true, because they have been delivered before they came to pass, and they came to pass exactly. I had a revelation in which was fulfilled to the letter. The Missourians had got us all prisoners, and were threatening to kill us. The principal men of us were lying under a log, with a guard standing around us in the night. I fell into a trance. I call it a trance. I heard a voice which said, ‘Joseph, fear not, you and all your friends shall be delivered without harm, and shall yet stand upon the hills of .’ When I awoke out of the trance, I aroused , who was by the side of me, and said, I have a revelation, we shall all escape. shouted, and told it to the next one, and in the morning it was told to my family and all our friends, and they all rejoiced. That revelation came to pass, although they were holding a council at the time I had the trance, and had resolved to kill me. They can’t harm me. I told my family lately, before I left home for , that if I was taken up the Lord would deliver me, did’nt I —(appealing to his , who was standing behind his chair, playing with his hair, and who answered in the affirmative)—and when they took me I was passive in their hands, and the Lord compelled them to bring me right to . They could’nt help themselves, although they gnashed their teeth with rage.”

Speaking of the , which he is erecting, he said, “I don’t know how the world will like it, it suits me; I have no book learning; I’m not capaciated to build according to the world, I know nothing of architecture, and all that, but it pleases me; that’s the way I feel.” [p. [3]]