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Letter from Udney H. Jacob, 6 January 1844

Source Note

, Letter, [likely Pilot Grove Township, Hancock Co., IL], to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 6 Jan. 1844; handwriting presumably of ; three pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address, notations, and docket.
Bifolium measuring 12¼ × 7⅝ inches (31 × 19 cm). The pages are ruled with thirty-six horizontal lines printed in blue ink, now faded. The document was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, and sealed with a red adhesive wafer, the remnants of which are present on the verso of the second leaf. The letter was later refolded for filing.
The document was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from 1843 to 1844 and as clerk to the church historian and recorder from 1845 to 1865. The document was listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office (later Church Historical Department) circa 1904. By 1973 the letter had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early docket, its listing in a circa 1904 inventory, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 456, 458; Woodruff, Journal, 22 Jan. 1865.

    Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.

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

  2. [2]

    “Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [3], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  3. [3]

    See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 6 January 1844, member wrote a letter to JS in , Illinois, expressing his concerns about certain passages in the Book of Mormon and asking for an explanation. Jacob, who had joined the church in 1843, apparently had never met JS. Prior to his , Jacob was hostile to the Latter-day Saints. In March 1840, he sent church member an excerpt on baptism from a book manuscript he had written, encouraging him to forward it “to your Printer, & to Joseph Smith, and to , and let them refute it if they can.” Later that month, Jacob wrote a letter to president in which he called the Saints “a deluded and dangerous set of fanatics.” Udney Jacob’s son Norton subsequently joined the church on 15 March 1841, and Norton reported that his father had violently opposed his decision, saying that “he had rather heard I was dead than that I was a Mormon.” In 1842, however, Udney Jacob employed the church’s , which JS owned, to publish a pamphlet endorsing polygamy called An Extract, from a Manuscript Entitled The Peace Maker. Jacob claimed in his pamphlet that he had used the Nauvoo printing office because “it was the most convenient.” JS, however, subsequently denounced Jacob’s pamphlet in the 1 December 1842 issue of the Times and Seasons, explaining that the pamphlet had been printed without his knowledge and that he would not have printed it otherwise. JS concluded by calling Jacob’s work “an unmeaning rigmarole of nonsence, folly, and trash.” Although Udney Jacob was baptized in 1843, Norton Jacob later reported that his father “did not know [this work] to be true” at the time and that he fell away from the church sometime before November 1845. It is unknown whether Udney Jacob was disaffected from the church at the time he wrote this letter.
In his 6 January letter to JS, wondered at the occurrences of the terms crucify and infinite atonement in an ancient book written by prophets who lived before the time of Jesus Christ. Jacob also argued that the word atonement could not be qualified and questioned the doctrine of unrepentant sinners suffering endless torment. He explained that he asked these questions in a sincere effort to find the truth.
likely wrote this letter in Pilot Grove Township, Illinois, where he resided. The letter bears no evidence of postal delivery, indicating that Jacob probably sent it to JS by courier. This possibility is further supported by the fact that Jacob intended to have a friend pick up JS’s response. It is unknown when JS received this letter, but it was likely in early January, shortly after Jacob composed it. There is no known response.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Jacob, Reminiscence and Journal, 22.

    Jacob, Norton. Reminiscence and Journal, May 1844–Jan. 1852. CHL. MS 9111.

  2. [2]

    Udney H. Jacob to Oliver Granger, Commerce, IL, 3 Mar. 1840, copy, CHL.

    Jacob, Udney H. Letter, to Oliver Granger, Commerce, IL, 3 Mar. 1840. Copy. CHL.

  3. [3]

    Udney H. Jacob, La Harpe, IL, to Martin Van Buren, Washington DC, 19 Mar. 1840, microfilm, Illinois State Historical Society, Papers, CHL.

    Illinois State Historical Society, Papers, 1840–1845. CHL. Microfilm. MS 8180.

  4. [4]

    Jacob, Reminiscence and Journal, 1, 3.

    Jacob, Norton. Reminiscence and Journal, May 1844–Jan. 1852. CHL. MS 9111.

  5. [5]

    See Historical Introduction to Notice, ca. 1 Dec. 1842.

  6. [6]

    Jacob, Extract, [2].

    Jacob, Udney Hay. An Extract, from a Manuscript Entitled The Peace Maker, or the Doctrines of the Millennium: Being a Treatise on Religion and Jurisprudence. . . . Nauvoo, IL: J. Smith, 1842.

  7. [7]

    Notice, ca. 1 Dec. 1842.

  8. [8]

    Jacob, Reminiscence and Journal, 22, underlining in original.

    Jacob, Norton. Reminiscence and Journal, May 1844–Jan. 1852. CHL. MS 9111.

  9. [9]

    Jacob, Reminiscence and Journal, 3, 22.

    Jacob, Norton. Reminiscence and Journal, May 1844–Jan. 1852. CHL. MS 9111.

Page [1]

Jany 6th 1844
To Gen Joseph Smith
Dear sir I hope you will not consider this letter an intrusion— I have not to be sure the pleasure of a personal acquaintanse with you, nor do I know that I am worthy of that favour; yet I believe that I am worth saveing— The reason why I adress this letter to you is because my enquiries relate to the Book of Mormon, and you who profess to be the translator, and author of that Book; must be I suppose on that account the best able to solve them of any living man— And to make my enquiries as inteligible as I can, I will nomber them under general heads— Query 1st. If you should read in a Book professedly antient, of two, or three thousand years standing a foretelling of our manner of warfare, and that we should fight with Guns, Bayonets, and Pistols; could you believe that the invention of Gunpowder was then forestalled by Prophecy? Or should you read in a Book said to have been written in the days of Nebudchadnezar that hundreds of persons should be destroyed on the by the explosion of the boilers of Steem-Boats; would you believe that the invention of Steem boats was thus forestalled by Prophecy? And if you did admit the books to be Genuine; would you not rather conclude that the above mentioned sentences were interpolations inserted by somebody who lived after <​since​> the invention of Gunpowder and Steem boats? For is it not evident that those antient people, to whom the books were first adressed, would be incapable of <​forming​> any idea whatever of the meaning of such words? Guns, Bayonets, Pistols, Steem boats, and Steem boat boilers would certainly be wholly uninteligible to them. And furthermore such language must naturally have created an enquiry, which must have terminated in an explanation of those things, which would have compleatly forestalled the invention of Gunpowder and Steem boats. What then must I say or think when I find the word Crucify; put into the mouth of Nephi so many ye[ar]s before the idea of executeing criminals by Crucifixtion was ever thought of, or the method invented by the Romans? And what rational idea could the Nephites have formed from such expressions? would <​not​> similar enquires [inquiries] & similar results have been the consequences as above alluded to? Query 2d. I find in the mouth of Nephi the following words— “Infinite Attonement”— Here is a word and an idea not found in the Holy Bible, nor in any other antient book with which I am acquainted— It does not appear ever to have entered the mind of Moses, the Prophets, or Appostles; and it is strange [p. [1]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Udney H. Jacob, 6 January 1844
ID #
1242
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • Udney H. Jacob

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS is identified as the “author and proprietor” of the Book of Mormon on the title page of the 1830 edition. In the 1837 and 1840 editions, he is listed as the “translator.” (Title Page of Book of Mormon, ca. Early June 1829; Book of Mormon, 1837 ed., [iii]; Book of Mormon, 1840 ed., [iii].)

  2. [2]

    Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon who captured Jerusalem and carried away many of the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah into captivity. (See 2 Kings 25:1–7, 21; and 2 Chronicles 36:17–20.)

  3. [3]

    Exploding boilers were a chronic danger for steamboat passengers in the United States. From 1841 to 1848, such accidents killed some 625 people nationwide. The fear of such calamities is evident in steamboat advertisements, which often touted safety features meant to prevent boiler explosions. (Burke, “Bursting Boilers and the Federal Power,” 18; see also “Osprey,” and “Regular Packet,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 28 Feb. 1844, [3].)

    Burke, John G. “Bursting Boilers and the Federal Power.” Technology and Culture 7, no. 1 (Winter 1966): 1–23.

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

  4. [4]

    See Book of Mormon, 1840 ed., 51–52, 102 [1 Nephi 19:10, 13; 2 Nephi 25:13]. Jacob’s position on the origins of crucifixion was not universally held. Methodist theologian Adam Clarke asserted in his commentary on Matthew 27:35 that “the punishment of the cross was inflicted among the ancient Hindoos from time immemorial . . . and was common among the Syrians, Egyptians, Persians, Africans, Greeks, and Romans.” He concluded that “it was probably the Romans who introduced it among the Jews.” (Clarke, New Testament, 1:255.)

    Clarke, Adam. The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Text Carefully Printed from the Most Correct Copies of the Present Authorised Version, Including the Marginal Readings and Parallel Texts. . . . Vol. 1. New York: J. Emory and B. Waugh, 1831.

  5. [5]

    In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Jacob, not Nephi, uses the phrase “infinite atonement.” The location of this phrase in the book of 2 Nephi, however, probably led Udney Jacob to attribute it to Nephi. (See Book of Mormon, 1840 ed., 78 [2 Nephi 9:7].)

  6. [6]

    The phrase “infinite atonement” appears twice in the Book of Mormon but not in the King James Version of the Bible. (See Book of Mormon, 1840 ed., 78, 311 [2 Nephi 9:7; Alma 34:12].)

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