Times and Seasons, 15 March 1842
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Source Note
Times and Seasons (, Hancock Co., IL), 15 Mar. 1842, vol. 3, no. 10, pp. 719–734; edited by JS. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
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Historical Introduction
The 15 March 1842 issue of the ’s , Illinois, newspaper, Times and Seasons, was the third issue that identified JS as editor. This issue contained four editorial passages, each of which is featured here with accompanying introductions. Several other JS texts printed in this issue, including an excerpt from the Book of Abraham and several pieces of correspondence, are featured as stand-alone documents elsewhere in this volume.Note that only the editorial content created specifically for this issue of the Times and Seasons is annotated here. Articles reprinted from other papers, letters, conference minutes, and notices, are reproduced here but not annotated. Items that are stand-alone JS documents are annotated elsewhere; links are provided to these stand-alone documents.
Footnotes
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1
While JS likely authored many of the paper’s editorial passages, John Taylor reportedly assisted him in writing content. No matter who wrote individual editorial pieces, JS assumed editorial responsibility for all installments naming him as editor except the 15 February issue. (Woodruff, Journal, 19 Feb. 1842; Historical Introduction to Times and Seasons, 1 Mar. 1842.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
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2
See Book of Abraham Excerpt and Facsimile 2, 15 Mar. 1842 [Abraham 2:19–5:21]; Letter to John C. Bennett, 7 Mar. 1842; Letter from John C. Bennett, 8 Mar. 1842; Letter from Lyman O. Littlefield, 14 Mar. 1842; and Letter from Richard Savary, 2 Feb. 1842.
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3
See “Editorial Method”.
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1
Document Transcript
Footnotes
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1
Articles related to the Jewish people were culled from a variety of sources and previously appeared in the March, May–July, and October 1841 and 15 February 1842 issues of the Times and Seasons. The series continued in subsequent issues.
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2
The article has not been located, but it was likely published in an issue of Jewish Intelligence (often referred to as the Jewish Intelligencer), the official newsletter of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews. (Gidney, History of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, 33–34, 144–145; “Persecution of the Jews in the East,” Standard [London], 4 Aug. 1840, [1].)
Gidney, W. T. The History of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, from 1809 to 1908. London: London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, 1908.
Standard. London. 1827–1857.
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3
Hirsch, Horeb, clv, 427–428, 430; Ayerst, Jews of the Nineteenth Century, 143, 145, 147–148.
Hirsch, Samson Raphael. Horeb: A Philosophy of Jewish Laws and Observances. Vol. 1, translated and annotated by Isidor Grunfeld. 3rd ed. London: Soncino, 1972.
Ayerst, W. The Jews of the Nineteenth Century: A Collection of Essays, Reviews, and Historical Notices Originally Published in the “Jewish Intelligence.” London: B. Wertheim, 1848.
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4
Efron et al., Jews: A History, 288–289; Isidor Grunfeld, “Introduction: The Historical and Intellectual Background of the Horeb,” in Hirsch, Horeb, xxv–xxxii.
Efron, John, Steven Weitzman, Matthias Lehmann, and Joshua Holo. The Jews: A History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; Prentice Hall, 2009.
Hirsch, Samson Raphael. Horeb: A Philosophy of Jewish Laws and Observances. Vol. 1, translated and annotated by Isidor Grunfeld. 3rd ed. London: Soncino, 1972.
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6
JS History, vol. A-1, 1–3,; Pearl of Great Price, 1882 ed., 56–58; “Fiftieth Semi-annual Conference,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 13 Oct. 1880, 588.
The Pearl of Great Price: Being a Choice Selection from the Revelations, Translations, and Narrations of Joseph Smith, First Prophet, Seer, and Revelator to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Liverpool: Albert Carrington, 1882.
Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.
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7
JS used the word journal to describe several different documents of a historical nature. This extract appeared in his manuscript history rather than in his journal. (See “Joseph Smith’s Journals”; and “Joseph Smith’s Historical Enterprise,” and Historical Introduction to History Drafts, 1838–ca. 1841.)
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8
In the six years following the Panic of 1837, many banks in the western United States struggled to remain solvent. A variety of factors contributed to the State Bank of Illinois suspending its operations in February 1842, including declining specie reserves and mounting debt. The bank suspended specie payments in 1838 and did so again by December 1839. (Ford, History of Illinois, 223–225; Dowrie, Development of Banking in Illinois, 98–109; Garnett, State Banks of Issue in Illinois, 28–38; see also Letter to Horace Hotchkiss, 10 Mar. 1842; and Horace Hotchkiss, Fair Haven, CT, to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 9 May 1842, JS Collection, CHL.)
Ford, Thomas. A History of Illinois, from Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847. Containing a Full Account of the Black Hawk War, the Rise, Progress, and Fall of Mormonism, the Alton and Lovejoy Riots, and Other Important and Interesting Events. Chicago: S. C. Griggs; New York: Ivison and Phinney, 1854.
Dowrie , George William. The Development of Banking in Illinois, 1817–1863. University of Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, vol. 11, no. 4. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1913.
Garnett, Charles Hunter. State Banks of Issue in Illinois. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1898.
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9
Discussing a recommendation to introduce platinum coins into the national currency, a newspaper editorial noted, “In its value it is intermediate between gold and silver, being about one-third as valuable as gold, and five times as much so as silver.” The editor asserted that platinum “would form a most suitable material for coins of the different denominations, from one to five dollars.” (“Platinum,” Daily Ohio Statesman [Columbus], 3 Oct. 1837, [2].)
Daily Ohio Statesman. Columbus. 1837–1857.
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10
See Mark 11:15; Matthew 21:12; and Revelation, 8 July 1838–E [D&C 117:16]. Shave was nineteenth-century slang meaning “to strip; to oppress by extortion; to fleece.” The term shaver was often applied to money brokers who “purchase [bank]notes at more than legal interest.” (“Shave,” in American Dictionary [1828]; “Shaver,” in Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, 295.)
An American Dictionary of the English Language: Intended to Exhibit, I. the Origin, Affinities and Primary Signification of English Words, as far as They Have Been Ascertained. . . . Edited by Noah Webster. New York: S. Converse, 1828.
Bartlett, John Russell. Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases, Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States. New York: Bartlett and Welford, 1848.
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11
In the wake of the Panic of 1837, American political parties engaged in a particularly heated debate over the nation’s monetary system. Democrats argued that financial transactions should be conducted largely in hard money (that is, gold and silver specie) rather than through banknotes or paper currency, which they claimed had led to irresponsible financial speculation and economic instability. During the long financial recession of the late 1830s and early 1840s, banks across the nation—including the State Bank of Illinois—were forced to call in debts and occasionally suspend specie payments to prevent patrons from depleting the institutions’ reserves (rendering those with banknotes temporarily unable to access hard money). By the time the State Bank of Illinois suspended its operations in February 1842, the value of its notes had significantly depreciated (by April the notes had lost nearly 50 percent of their face value). It was likely for these reasons that JS and other church members concluded that gold and silver specie was “the only safe money a man can keep these times.” (Holt, Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party, 66–67; Dowrie, Development of Banking in Illinois, 103; Letter to Edward Hunter, 9 and 11 Mar. 1842.)
Holt, Michael F. The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Dowrie , George William. The Development of Banking in Illinois, 1817–1863. University of Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, vol. 11, no. 4. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1913.
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12
In February 1831 the Daily National Intelligencer published a letter in which former president and then–Massachusetts congressman John Quincy Adams asserted that platinum should be utilized to mint an “intermediate coin of proportional value between gold and silver.” (John Quincy Adams, Letter, Washington DC, 7 Feb. 1841, in Daily National Intelligencer [Washington DC], 9 Feb. 1831, [3].)
Daily National Intelligencer. Washington DC. 1800–1869.
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13
Responding to a flood of antislavery petitions mailed to members of Congress in the mid-1830s, the United States House of Representatives instituted a procedural “gag rule” in May 1836 that tabled all antislavery petitions without discussion. John Quincy Adams argued that the gag rule violated the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to “petition the government for a redress of grievances,” and campaigned vigorously to have the rule repealed. (Adams, Letters from John Quincy Adams to His Constituents, 5–9; Hoffer, John Quincy Adams and the Gag Rule, chap. 2.)
Adams, John. Letters from John Quincy Adams to His Constituents of the Twelfth Congres- sional District in Massachusetts. To Which Is Added His Speech in Congress, Delivered February 9, 1837. Edited by John Greenleaf Whittier. Boston: Isaac Knapp, 1837.
Hoffer, Peter Charles. John Quincy Adams and the Gag Rule, 1835–1850. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017.
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15
Faith, repentance, baptism, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost were enumerated as the church’s first principles and rites in the summation of church beliefs given in a narrative published in the previous issue. (“Church History,” 1 Mar. 1842 [Articles of Faith 1:4].)
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16
This may be a reference to the revelations contained in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants generally or may refer more specifically to two prominent revelatory texts often referred to, respectively, as the “Articles and Covenants of the Church of Christ” and the “Laws of the Church of Christ.” (Doctrine and Covenants 2 and 13, 1835 ed. [D&C 20 and 42].)
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17
In February 1831 JS dictated a revelation that commanded members of the church to “cons[e]crate all [their] properties” to the church in order to help “administer to him who hath not.” Though church members in Missouri observed elements of this law of consecration during the early 1830s, the practice was largely abandoned years before the Saints gathered in Nauvoo, Illinois. In March 1840 JS told members of the Iowa high council that the law of consecration “could not be kept here, & that it was the will of the Lord that we should desist from trying to keep it.” (Revelation, 9 Feb. 1831 [D&C 42:30, 33]; Letter from Oliver Cowdery, 28 Jan. 1832; Levi Jackman, Deeds of Consecration and Stewardship, ca. 1833, CHL; Revelation, 8 July 1838–C [D&C 119]; Revelation, 8 July 1838–D [D&C 120]; Minutes and Discourse, 6 Mar. 1840.)
Jackman, Levi. Deeds of Consecration and Stewardship, ca. 1833. CHL. MS 3103.
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18
See Isaiah 58:7; Matthew 25:35–36; James 1:27; and Book of Mormon, 1840 ed., 124 [Jacob 2:19].
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19
In the previous issue of the Times and Seasons, JS stated: “We believe all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, and we believe that he will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” (“Church History,” 1 Mar. 1842 [Articles of Faith 1:9].)
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20
In the previous issue of the Times and Seasons, JS stated that the Latter-day Saints believed in “doing good to all men.” (“Church History,” 1 Mar. 1842 [Articles of Faith 1:13], italics in original.)
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21
A correction to this notice was published in the 15 July 1842 issue of Times and Seasons. (“Notice,” Times and Seasons, 15 July 1842, 3:861.)