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Letter from Lyman O. Littlefield, 14 March 1842

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Letter from Lyman O. Littlefield, 14 March 1842

Source Note

, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to JS, [, Hancock Co., IL], 14 Mar. 1842. Featured version published in “For the Times and Seasons,” Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1842, vol. 3, no. 10, 729. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.

Historical Introduction

In March 1842 the Times and Seasons published a letter written to JS by member and printing office employee in which he assumed responsibility for a marriage notice printed in the 15 February issue of the Times and Seasons. From August 1841 to February 1842, the Times and Seasons was owned and edited by . The paper was staffed by assistant editor , apprentice printer Gilbert Rolfe, and typesetter Lyman O. Littlefield. Before Littlefield was hired sometime in early 1841, he worked in the printing offices of the Missouri Enquirer and Illinois Republican. On 4 February 1842 JS purchased the printing establishment from Robinson and assumed editorship of the Times and Seasons shortly thereafter.
Although he was listed as editor of the newspaper’s 15 February 1842 issue, JS later asserted that he was not responsible for either the “publication, or arrangement of the former paper” because much of it was already in type at the time of the purchase. Among the material published in that issue was a notice of the marriage of Gilbert Rolfe and Eliza Jane Bates. Following the formal marriage notice was a paragraph of congratulation, authored by , that was laced with printers’ puns and sexually suggestive language that later classified as “inappropriate for a religious paper.” Whereas the other staff of the Times and Seasons either overlooked or countenanced Littlefield’s addition to the marriage announcement, the paragraph did not escape the attention and disparagement of , the editor of the Warsaw Signal and an avid critic of JS and the church. Sharp expressed his disapproval in an editorial published in the 23 February issue of the Warsaw Signal. “The Scamp!” Sharp began. “An editor away off somewhere, says he estimates the happiness of a newly married couple, by the size of the cake they send him. Awful!”
In response to ’s criticism of the February marriage notice, composed a letter to JS on 14 March 1842. The original letter is not extant, but a copy was published in the 15 March issue of the Times and Seasons, following an explanation, written by , that JS had not reviewed the 15 February issue before it was published.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    “Married,” Times and Seasons, 15 Feb. 1842, 3:701.

  2. [2]

    Agreement with Ebenezer Robinson, 4 Feb. 1842; Littlefield, Reminiscences of Latter-day Saints, 32, 107, 132; Gustavus Hills, “Salutatory,” Times and Seasons, 15 Jan. 1842, 3:663; Ebenezer Robinson, “Items of Personal History of the Editor,” Return, Oct. 1890, 347.

    Littlefield, Lyman Omer. Reminiscences of Latter-day Saints: Giving an Account of Much Individual Suffering Endured for Religious Conscience. Logan, UT: Utah Journal Co., 1888.

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

    The Return. Davis City, IA, 1889–1891; Richmond, MO, 1892–1893; Davis City, 1895–1896; Denver, 1898; Independence, MO, 1899–1900.

  3. [3]

    Agreement with Ebenezer Robinson, 4 Feb. 1842.

  4. [4]

    Masthead, Times and Seasons, 15 Feb. 1842, 3:702; JS, “To Subscribers,” Times and Seasons, 1 Mar. 1842, 3:710; Editorial, ca. 1 Mar. 1842, Draft; Ebenezer Robinson, “To the Public,” Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1842, 3:729. In addition to the permanent staff, two members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles reportedly assisted JS in the printing office around this time. According to an entry in Wilford Woodruff’s journal, John Taylor assisted JS “in writing,” while Woodruff took “charge of the Business part of the esstablishment.” (Woodruff, Journal, 3 and 19 Feb. 1842.)

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

  5. [5]

    “Married,” Times and Seasons, 15 Feb. 1842, 3:701; Ebenezer Robinson, “Items of Personal History of the Editor,” Return, Oct. 1890, 347.

    The Return. Davis City, IA, 1889–1891; Richmond, MO, 1892–1893; Davis City, 1895–1896; Denver, 1898; Independence, MO, 1899–1900.

  6. [6]

    For more information on the animosity between Sharp and the Latter-day Saints, see Letter to Thomas Sharp, 26 May 1841.

  7. [7]

    [Thomas Sharp], “The Scamp,” Warsaw (IL) Signal, 23 Feb. 1842, [1].

    Warsaw Signal. Warsaw, IL. 1841–1853.

  8. [8]

    Ebenezer Robinson, “To the Public,” Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1842, 3:729.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Letter from Lyman O. Littlefield, 14 March 1842
Times and Seasons, 15 March 1842

Page 729

For the Times and Seasons.
, March 14, 1842.
Joseph Smith:—
Dear Sir: I see, in the last ‘Warsaw Signal,’ a very wanton and ungentlemanly attack upon yourself, made by the of that paper. The editor’s article, however, is in perfect keeping with his fell and natural spirit for calumniating the innocent and oppressed. I have, for some time past, been a constant reader of that paper, and feel myself perfectly safe in saying, that scarcely a single number of it has ever been issued, that was not surcharged with epithets of the foulest and basest character, perpetrated against a high-minded and intelligent portion of community, and fabricated by himself—or some individual equally as corrupt—to answer his own wicked and nefarious purposes.
What I allude to, more particularly, is his remarks relative to a marriage notice which appeared in a former number of the Times and Seasons, charging you with being its author. I should have remained silent upon this subject, had he made the attack upon any individual but yourself. But justice to your character renders it an imperious duty for me to speak and exonerate you from the false imputations of the . Therefore, be it known to that gentleman—if his heart is not wholly impervious to declarations of truth—that the little notice that has so much ruffled his very chaste and moral feelings, emenated from the pen of no individual other than—myself (!) “Urekah! Urekah!!” Then I would say to the sagacious of the Signal—
“Hush, babe, lay still and slumber!”
I speak knowingly when I say, that notice went in the Times and Seasons entirely without your sanction, and you knew nothing of its existence until that edition had been ‘worked off’ and circulated—the proof sheet not being examined by you.
After this declaration, I hope the of the Signal will do you the justice to exculpate you from the wholesale charges which I have been, in some degree, the means of calling upon your head; and, if he must blame any person for the notice, let his anathemas, like an avalanche, flow upon me—I will bear the burthen of my own foibles.
With sentiments of respect,
I remain, Sir, your ob’t serv’t,
. [p. 729]
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Source Note

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Page 729

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Lyman O. Littlefield, 14 March 1842
ID #
788
Total Pages
1
Print Volume Location
JSP, D9:248–251
Handwriting on This Page
  • Printed text

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Lyman O. Littlefield’s sentiment was similar to those JS and other church members expressed during this period. William Smith, editor of the Nauvoo publication Wasp, frequently commented on Sharp’s editorial attacks on the Latter-day Saints in the pages of the Warsaw Signal. In an April 1842 issue of the Wasp, Smith noted that following Sharp’s visit to Nauvoo a year earlier, he “commenced a most unwarrantable attack upon us and treated our kindness with mockery and has continued a continual tirade of abuse ever since.” (“The Turkey,” Wasp, 23 Apr. 1842, [2].)

    The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.

  2. [2]

    The notice, published in the 15 February 1842 issue of the Times and Seasons, read: “Married—In this city on the 6th inst. by the Rev. Erastus H. Derby, Mr. Gilbert H. Rolfe, to Miss Eliza Jane Bates, all of this city. On receipt of the above notice, we were favored with a rich and delightful loaf of cake—by no means below the medium size; which makes us anxious that all their acts through life may be justified; and when life wanes and they find a peaceful abode in the ‘narrow house,’ may the many outs and ins they have made, leave to the world an abundant posterity to celebrate their glorious example.” (“Married,” Times and Seasons, 15 Feb. 1842, 3:701, emphasis in original.)

  3. [3]

    This quotation derives from a popular lullaby poem written by English clergyman Isaac Watts and published in 1715 in Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children, which was later frequently republished as Divine and Moral Songs for Children. The wording of the poem’s first line, which varies from one publication to another, often reads: “Hush, my babe, lie still and slumber; Holy angels guard thy bed.” (Divine and Moral Songs, for the Use of Children, 61; New London Reading Made Easy and Spelling-Book, [31].)

    Divine and Moral Songs, for the Use of Children. By Isaac Watts, D.D. A New Edition. . . . London: William Darton and Son, no date.

    The New London Reading Made Easy and Spelling-Book; Being an Introduction to Reading the Holy Bible . . . for the Instruction of Children. London: J. Bailey, no date.

  4. [4]

    The phrase “worked off” refers to “any forme or sheet printed off.” (Jacobi, Printer’s Vocabulary, 157.)

    Jacobi, Charles Thomas. The Printers’ Vocabulary: A Collection of Some 2500 Technical Terms, Phrases, Abbreviations and Other Expressions Mostly Relating to Letterpress Printing, Many of Which Have Been in Use since the Time of Caxton. London: Chiswick Press, 1888.

  5. [5]

    In the 15 March issue of the Times and Seasons, Ebenezer Robinson asserted that “on the 7th this marriage took place, and the notice was written by one of the hands in the office, and put in type by one of the boys, without, undoubtedly, any expectation of its being printed. At this time it was not fully decided whether President Smith should take the responsibility of editor, or not, therefore that paper went to press without his personal inspection.” (Ebenezer Robinson, “To the Public,” Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1842, 3:729.)