Letter to William W. Phelps, 22 July 1840
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Source Note
JS, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to , [, Montgomery Co., OH], 22 July 1840. Featured version copied [ca. 22 July 1840] in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 157–158; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 2.
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Historical Introduction
On 22 July 1840, JS wrote a letter to , who was then living in , Ohio. Phelps had been a prominent leader in the but was excommunicated in March 1839 after he testified against JS and other church leaders in a November 1838 hearing in . In June 1840, Phelps sent a letter to JS requesting forgiveness for his past actions and asking to be readmitted into the church. Phelps’s letter was accompanied by a letter from and , two members of the , who were preaching in Dayton. Hyde and Page supported Phelps’s attempt to regain fellowship within the church, stating that Phelps was “willing to make any sacrifice” to become a member of the church again. Phelps’s letter was read before the Saints on Sunday, 19 July 1840, and the congregation voted “with one voice and uplifted hands” to restore him to fellowship. JS wrote this letter three days later to inform Phelps of the decision and to express his personal joy at Phelps’s repentance.The original letter is not extant. copied it into JS Letterbook 2 before the letter was sent.
Footnotes
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1
Phelps was also excommunicated in March 1838 but apparently was reinstated later that year. (Minute Book 2, 10 Mar. 1838; Revelation, 8 July 1838–B.)
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2
Letter from William W. Phelps, with Appended Letter from Orson Hyde and John E. Page, 29 June 1840.
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3
Editorial, Times and Seasons, 1 Feb. 1841, 2:304.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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4
Thompson recorded this letter and Phelps’s June 1840 letter to JS immediately following a note dated 4 July 1840. (Note, 4 July 1840, in JS Letterbook 2, p. 154.)
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1
Document Transcript
Footnotes
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1
Letter from William W. Phelps, with Appended Letter from Orson Hyde and John E. Page, 29 June 1840.
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2
Although Phelps’s letter was addressed only to JS, the appended letter from Orson Hyde and John E. Page was addressed to the whole First Presidency. In his letter to JS, Phelps related a dream that had given him the courage to ask for forgiveness. In that dream, he saw JS and Hyrum Smith preparing a meal to which Phelps was invited. JS told him there was plenty for him to eat and smiled at him. Phelps then took Sidney Rigdon by the hand “and cried for Joy.” (Letter from William W. Phelps, with Appended Letter from Orson Hyde and John E. Page, 29 June 1840.)
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3
Phelps had written, “I want to be saved if my friends will help me,” and Hyde and Page had added that the First Presidency were “workmen in the art of saving souls.” (Letter from William W. Phelps, with Appended Letter from Orson Hyde and John E. Page, 29 June 1840.)
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4
Among other things, Phelps testified before Missouri’s fifth judicial circuit court that JS and Rigdon had declared any sheriff approaching them with writs should be killed and that Rigdon had stated the church should set up its own independent government. Based on Phelps’s testimony and the testimony of others, JS, Rigdon, and other church leaders were incarcerated in the Clay County jailhouse at Liberty, Missouri, in December 1838 to await trial. (William W. Phelps, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, pp. [84], [88], State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Treason and Other Crimes [Mo. 5th Jud. Cir. 1838], in State of Missouri, “Evidence”; “A History, of the Persecution,” Times and Seasons, Sept. 1840, 1:164.)
Missouri, State of. “Evidence.” Hearing Record, Richmond, MO, 12–29 Nov. 1838, State of Missouri v. Joseph Smith et al. for Treason and Other Crimes (Mo. 5th Cir. Ct. 1838). Eugene Morrow Violette Collection, 1806–1921, Western Historical Manuscript Collection. University of Missouri and State Historical Society of Missouri, Ellis Library, University of Missouri, Columbia.
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5
See Psalm 55:14.
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6
In July 1834, Phelps was appointed as a member of the church presidency in Missouri. In 1835 and 1836, he spent nearly a year in Kirtland, Ohio, where he frequently participated in councils with JS. He also helped prepare for the solemn assembly that occurred in the Kirtland House of the Lord, during which participants washed each other’s feet and partook of the sacrament. (Minutes and Discourse, ca. 7 July 1834; Minutes, 10 Aug. 1835; Minutes, 26 Sept. 1835; JS, Journal, 29 Mar. 1836.)
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7
See Psalm 55:12–13.
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8
See Obadiah 1:11–12.
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9
See Luke 22:42.
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10
In April 1839, a grand jury in Daviess County, Missouri, indicted JS and other church leaders for treason, riot, arson, burglary, and receiving stolen goods. On their way to Boone County, Missouri, where the trial was set to occur, the prisoners escaped. On 22 April 1839, they crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois, where they rejoined the main body of the Saints. (JS, “Extract, from the Private Journal of Joseph Smith Jr.,” Times and Seasons, July 1839, 1:7; JS, Journal, 22–23 Apr. 1839.)
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11
See Daniel 7:18, 22, 25, 27; Revelation, ca. 7 Mar. 1831 [D&C 45:66]; Revelation, 26 Apr. 1832 [D&C 82:13]; and Letter to William W. Phelps, 27 Nov. 1832 [D&C 85:11].
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12
See 2 Corinthians 6:6; 1 Peter 1:22; and Letter to Edward Partridge and the Church, ca. 22 Mar. 1839 [D&C 121:41].
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13
See Luke 15:11–32. Phelps had opened his letter to JS by stating, “I am as the prodigal Son,” and Hyde and Page had referred to Phelps as “a returning prodigal” in their postscript. (Letter from William W. Phelps, with Appended Letter from Orson Hyde and John E. Page, 29 June 1840.)
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14
JS paraphrased a poem written by Methodist poet and hymnist Charles Wesley titled “An Epistle to the Reverend Mr. George Whitefield”: “Come on, my Whitefield! (since the strife is past, / And friends at first are friends again at last.)” (Charles Wesley, “An Epistle to the Reverend Mr. George Whitefield,” in Osborn, Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, 67, emphasis in original.)
Osborn, G. The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley: Reprinted from the Originals, with the Last Corrections of the Authors; together with the Poems of Charles Wesley Not before Published. Vol. 6. London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870.