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Account of Meeting and Discourse, 8 February 1844

Source Note

Account of Meeting, and JS, Discourse, [, Hancock Co., IL, 8 Feb. 1844]. Featured version inscribed [ca. 8 Feb. 1844] in Wilford Woodruff, Journal, vol. 5, 1 Jan. 1843–31 Dec. 1844, pp. [192]–[193]; handwriting of ; Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for Discourse, 17 Jan. 1843, as Reported by Wilford Woodruff.

Historical Introduction

On 8 February 1844, JS attended a political meeting of some of the citizens of , Illinois, and spoke on his candidacy for president of the . He had agreed to run for president ten days earlier, on 29 January, in a meeting of the and other leaders. Since that meeting, JS had worked with his scribe to compose a pamphlet, General Smith’s Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States, that set forth his political positions.
The 8 February 1844 meeting occurred in a room above JS’s , almost certainly in the main upstairs room, which often accommodated larger meetings. After opened the meeting by reading the pamphlet, JS addressed the audience. He explained his reasons for running for president, insisting that it was necessary because he and his fellow Latter-day Saints in the repeatedly had been denied their rights as American citizens. Accordingly, his campaign was part of a larger effort to pursue any legal avenue that might result in the protection of the church and its members. Following JS’s discourse, apostles and each spoke. Those at the meeting then unanimously indicated their approval of General Smith’s Views.
Scribe briefly summarized the meeting in JS’s journal but did not describe what any of the speakers, including JS, said in their respective discourses. However, recorded JS’s discourse and other details of the meeting in his journal. Woodruff’s account provides a mixture of content summary, written in the third person, and quotations of JS’s remarks, written in the first person as if spoken by JS himself. A brief account of the meeting also appeared in the Times and Seasons and the Nauvoo Neighbor. Woodruff’s account—which is the most complete—is the version featured here.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 29 Jan. 1844; Minutes and Discourse, 29 Jan. 1844; Clayton, Journal, 29 Jan. 1844.

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

  2. [2]

    See General Smith’s Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States, ca. 26 Jan.–7 Feb. 1844.

  3. [3]

    See, for example, Ordinance, 8 Dec. 1843; Ordinance, 21 Dec. 1843; and Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 24–26 Mar. 1844.

  4. [4]

    JS, Journal, 8 Feb. 1844.

  5. [5]

    See “Public Meeting,” Times and Seasons, 15 Feb. 1844, 5:441; and “Public Meeting,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 14 Feb. 1844, [2].

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

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Account of Meeting and Discourse, 8 February 1844
History, 1838–1856, volume E-1 [1 July 1843–30 April 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page [192]

I met with a congregation of the Citizens in the room over Joseph[’s] for the purpose of hearing the views of General Joseph Smith given concerning the affairs of Government— his views were written & were read by & were in the highest degree interesting. Gen Smith gave his reasons for permitting his name to go forth as a candidate for the Presidency of the , which were as follows I would not have suffered my name to have been used by my friends on anywise as president of the or candidate for that office If I & my friends could have had the privilege of enjoying our religious & civel rights as American Citizen even those rights which the Constitution guarantee unto all her Citizens alike but this we as a people have been denied from the beginning Persecution has rolled upon our heads from time to time from portions of the like peels of thunder because of our religion & no portion of the government as yet has steped forward for our relief & under view of these things I feel it to be my right & privilege to obtain what influence & power I can lawfully in the for the protection of injured innocence & If I loose my life in a good Cause I am willing to be sacrificed on the alter of virtue rightousness & truth, in maintaining the laws & constitution [p. [192]]
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Source Note

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Page [192]

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Account of Meeting and Discourse, 8 February 1844
ID #
14393
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • Wilford Woodruff

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    The Saints were driven out of Missouri in winter 1838–1839. JS and other church leaders made numerous appeals to the governments of Missouri, Illinois, and the United States for reparations for lost property as well as the protection of the Saints’ civil rights. (See, for example, Benjamin Kendrick et al., De Witt, MO, to Lilburn W. Boggs, Petition, 22 Sept. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City; Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840; and JS et al., Memorial to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 28 Nov. 1843, Record Group 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives, Washington DC.)

    Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.

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