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Memorial to Nauvoo High Council, 18 June 1840

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Memorial to Nauvoo High Council, 18 June 1840

Source Note

JS, Memorial, to Nauvoo high council, , Hancock Co., IL, 18 June 1840; handwriting of ; three pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes address, docket, redaction, and archival marking.
Bifolium measuring 12¼ × 8 inches (31 × 20 cm). The document was trifolded in letter style. It was later refolded for filing and docketed. Some of the folds are weakened and partially separated. The top three lines of writing on the second leaf were cut off at some point; remnants of words remain on the surviving leaf, indicating that writing existed on at least a portion of the excised part.
After being considered by the on 20 June 1840, the document may have been returned to JS. A docket in the handwriting of , an employee in the Church Historian’s Office in the 1850s, indicates that the document remained in the church’s custody after the Saints moved to the Salt Lake Valley. The document was included in the Historian’s Office inventory circa 1904, and it was cataloged in the JS Collection in 1973 by Church Historical Department staff. The docket and later church records indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    “Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [1], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL; Johnson, Register of the Joseph Smith Collection, 8; see also the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection in the CHL catalog.

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

    Johnson, Jeffery O. Register of the Joseph Smith Collection in the Church Archives, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1973.

Historical Introduction

On 18 June 1840, JS composed a memorial addressed to the requesting he be relieved from his duties pertaining to the development of Nauvoo, Illinois. In spring and summer 1839, the bought land where the Saints could gather, but the purchases left JS and his counselors in the over $150,000 in debt. To obtain the money to pay off these debts, JS and church leaders focused on selling land to church members. In 1839 approximately one thousand acres were divided into town lots. The Nauvoo high council appointed to oversee the sale of lots and instructed him to bring matters to the attention of JS and when necessary. The high council also appointed JS as the treasurer of sales and as clerk for land contracts. However, Mulholland died in early November 1839, and JS apparently spent a considerable amount of time on land sales and related business thereafter.
Believing that these practical considerations took away from the time he could devote to spiritual matters, JS requested in this memorial that the high council assign as clerk over land sales, which would free up some of JS’s time. JS also asked that the high council appoint someone to ensure that his and his family’s monetary needs were met. , who served as JS’s scribe for the memorial, presented it to the high council on 20 June 1840. The high council also discussed the memorial on 27 June and 3 July 1840.
Two copies of the memorial exist. Both were apparently made around the same time and are in ’s handwriting. Some of the language in the two copies differs, suggesting that one may have been a draft for the other. The version featured here appears to be the finished copy, in part because it contains an address block to the high council. Significant differences between the two copies are noted in the annotation herein.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. 12-G, p. 247, 30 Apr. 1839, microfilm 954,195; Hancock Co., IL, Bonds and Mortgages, 1840–1904, vol. 1, pp. 31–32, 30 Apr. 1839, microfilm 954,776, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Agreement with George W. Robinson, 30 Apr. 1839; Lee Co., IA, Land Records, 1836–1961, Deeds (South, Keokuk), vol. 1, pp. 507–509, microfilm 959,238; vol. 2, pp. 3–6, 13–16, microfilm 959,239, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Cook, “Isaac Galland,” 270–275; Leonard, Nauvoo, 58; Bonds from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–A and B.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

    Cook, Lyndon W. “Isaac Galland—Mormon Benefactor.” BYU Studies 19 (Spring 1979): 261–284.

    Leonard, Glen M. Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, a People of Promise. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2002.

  2. [2]

    See, for example, Letter to Father Bigler, 27 May 1839; and Minutes and Discourse, 6–8 Apr. 1840.

  3. [3]

    Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 21 Oct. 1839, 25–26; “Obituary,” Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:32. JS was also responsible for ensuring that town plot rails—lengths of wood used in constructing fences—were apportioned properly and that anyone who took the rails without authorization either returned the rails or paid for them. Meanwhile, in March 1840, the Nauvoo high council designated JS and his counselors in the First Presidency as the proper body “to Superintend the affairs of the Ferry” over the Mississippi River. (Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 15 Mar. and 2 May 1840, 50, 58.)

    Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. CHL. LR 3102 22.

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

  4. [4]

    Minutes, 20 June 1840; Minutes, 27 June 1840; Minutes, 3 July 1840.

  5. [5]

    Thompson made a third copy of the memorial, which closely follows the copy featured here, in JS Letterbook 2 sometime before he died in August 1841. (JS, Memorial, 18 June 1840, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 148–149; “Death of Col. Robert B. Thompson,” Times and Seasons, 1 Sept. 1841, 2:519.)

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

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Memorial to Nauvoo High Council, 18 June 1840
Memorial to Nauvoo High Council, 18 June 1840, Copy Letterbook 2 History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page [1]

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To the Honorable the of the
The memorial of Joseph Smith Jr. respectfully represents.
That after the Church of Jesus Christ had been inhumanly as well as unconstitutionally expelled from their homes which they had secured to themselves in the State of , and having <​they​> found a resting place in the State of altho very much scattered and at considerable distances from each other.
That after the escape of your Memorialist from his enemies, he, (under the direction of the Authorities of the Church) took such Steps as has secured to the church the present Locations viz the Town plat of and lands in the
That in order to secure said locations your Memorialist had to become responsible for the payments of the same and had to use considerable exertion in order to commence a settlement and a place of gathering for the Saints, but knowing that from the genius of the constitution of the church and for the well being of the saints that it was necessary so that the Constituted Authorities of the Church might assemble together to act as to legislate for the good of the whole society and that the saints might enjoy those priviledges which they could not by being scattered so wide apart, induced your Memorialist, to exert himself to the utmost, in order to bring about an object so necessary and so desireable to the Saints at large
That under the then existing circumstances Your Memorialist had necessarily to engage in the temporalities of the Church— [p. [1]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Memorial to Nauvoo High Council, 18 June 1840
ID #
545
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D7:293–298
Handwriting on This Page
  • Robert B. Thompson

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    The other Thompson copy inserts “of Latter Day Saints” here. (JS, Memorial, [18] June 1840, JS Collection, CHL.)

    Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

  2. [2]

    Instead of “found a resting place,” the other Thompson copy has “settled chiefly.” (JS, Memorial, [18] June 1840, JS Collection, CHL.)

    Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

  3. [3]

    The other Thompson copy does not include the phrase “and at considerable distances from each other.” Many church members forced from Missouri moved to Quincy, Illinois. Others moved elsewhere in Illinois and across the Mississippi River to Iowa Territory. (JS, Memorial, [18] June 1840, JS Collection, CHL; Leonard, Nauvoo, 33–34; Alanson Ripley, “Keokuk,” Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:24; [Elizabeth Ann Smith Whitney], “A Leaf from an Autobiography,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 Nov. 1878, 7:91; JS, Journal, 15–17 June 1839.)

    Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

    Leonard, Glen M. Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, a People of Promise. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2002.

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

    Woman’s Exponent. Salt Lake City. 1872–1914.

  4. [4]

    In April 1839, JS and his fellow prisoners in Missouri escaped while traveling to Boone County, Missouri, for trial. (Hyrum Smith, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1843, pp. 25–26; Lyman Wight, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1843, pp. 31–32, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL; JS, “Extract, from the Private Journal of Joseph Smith Jr.,” Times and Seasons, July 1839, 1:7.)

    Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.

  5. [5]

    This paragraph in the other Thompson copy reads: “That after the release of your memorialist from prison he immediately took such steps by direction of the Conference as has secured to the church the present Locations viz the Town plat of Nauvoo and lands in the Iowa.” Two conferences of the church in spring 1839 dealt with land purchases. At the 24 April 1839 conference, for example, JS was appointed as part of a committee to “visit the Iaway Territory immediately” to investigate purchasing property. According to JS’s journal, after this appointment he “went to Ioway made purchases & returned.” On 30 April 1839, the church also purchased from Isaac Galland and Hugh White around 177 acres, which was part of what would later constitute Nauvoo, in the Commerce, Illinois, area. In May and June 1839, the church acquired nearly 18,000 acres of land within what was known as the Half-Breed Tract in Iowa Territory. In August 1839, JS and his counselors in the First Presidency bought land at Commerce from Horace Hotchkiss, John Gillet, and Smith Tuttle. (JS, Memorial, [18] June 1840, JS Collection, CHL; Minutes, 24 Apr. 1839; Minutes, 4–5 May 1839; JS, Journal, 24 Apr.–3 May 1839; Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. 12-G, p. 247, 30 Apr. 1839, microfilm 954,195; Hancock Co., IL, Bonds and Mortgages, 1840–1904, vol. 1, pp. 31–32, 30 Apr. 1839, microfilm 954,776; Lee Co., IA, Land Records, 1836–1961, Deeds [South, Keokuk], vol. 1, pp. 507–509, microfilm 959,238; vol. 2, pp. 3–6, 13–16, microfilm 959,239, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; JS History, vol. C-1, 931–932; Leonard, Nauvoo, 58; Bonds from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–A and B.)

    Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

    Leonard, Glen M. Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, a People of Promise. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2002.

  6. [6]

    Bonds from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–A and B.

  7. [7]

    At a 24 April 1839 meeting, the council resolved that church members should gather to Commerce “as soon as they possibly can.” A general conference of the church in October 1839 unanimously voted that Commerce “should be appointed a stake and a place of gathering for the saints.” (Minutes, 24 Apr. 1839; Minutes and Discourses, 5–7 Oct. 1839.)

  8. [8]

    This paragraph in the other Thompson copy reads: “That in order to secure said lands your Memorialist had to become responsible for the payment of the purchase money and had to use considerable exertion in order to commence a Settlement of the Saints and a place of gathering, knowing that from the Constitution and laws of the Church it was absolutely necessary to have a place for the gathering: the well being of the Church called for it, so that the constituted authorities could meet together to settle differences and legislate for the good of the whole society.” (JS, Memorial, [18] June 1840, JS Collection, CHL; Alanson Ripley, “Nauvoo,” Times and Seasons, June 1840, 1:123.)

    Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

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

  9. [9]

    “Necessarily” is not in the other Thompson copy. (JS, Memorial, [18] June 1840, JS Collection, CHL.)

    Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

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