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Appendix: Orson Pratt, A[n] Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, 1840

Source Note

, A Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records; 1–31 pp.; Edinburgh, Scotland: Ballantyne and Hughes, 1840. The copy used for transcription is held at CHL.

Historical Introduction

was twenty-three years old when he was appointed to the newly organized Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1835, and along with others of the Twelve, he served as a proselytizing missionary to the British Isles from 1840 to 1841. While traveling to his mission, he stopped for a number of weeks in the eastern and spent time in the company of JS, who was in the East petitioning the federal government for redress for the Latter-day Saints’ losses. Pratt attended speeches that JS delivered during his stay in the area and accompanied him on a journey from , Pennsylvania, to , New Jersey, in December 1839. He likely heard JS recount his early visions, a subject JS publicly addressed while in the eastern states. As a member of one of the Latter-day Saints’ governing bodies, Pratt had earlier opportunities to hear JS speak of his early visionary experiences, but JS’s lectures on the East Coast may have left those visions fresh in Pratt’s mind as he journeyed across the Atlantic. The next year he published the pamphlet A[n] Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records, which focused on JS’s personal history and included the earliest printed account of his first vision of Deity. Pratt published the pamphlet in Edinburgh, Scotland, in late September 1840, and he informed fellow apostle , “I shall be at conference [in , England] on the 6th of Oct. if the Lord will. I shall bring about 2000 pamphlets with me which are now in the press.”
began his thirty-one-page pamphlet by describing JS’s first vision of Deity and the later visit JS received from “the angel of the Lord.” In relating how JS obtained the gold plates of the Book of Mormon, Pratt quoted extensively from the historical letters by printed in the Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate in , Ohio, in 1834–1835. He summarized the contents of the Book of Mormon, reprinted the statements of two groups of witnesses who saw the gold plates, and concluded with a fifteen-point “sketch of the faith and doctrine of this Church.”
In his description of the Book of Mormon, superimposed his understanding of Book of Mormon geography onto the Western Hemisphere by placing the Nephites in South America and the Jaredites in North America. Pratt’s association of Book of Mormon peoples with the history of all of North and South America matched common understanding of early Latter-day Saints. Shortly thereafter, when John Lloyd Stephens’s Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan became available in in about 1842, JS greeted it enthusiastically and church members used it to map Book of Mormon sites in a Central American setting.
’s Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions proved to be one of the more influential Mormon tracts to come out of this period. The first American edition was printed in in 1841, and reprints appeared in Europe, Australia, and the . Pratt’s work was a principal source for ’s German-language pamphlet Ein Ruf aus der Wüste [A cry out of the wilderness], the earliest church publication in a language other than English, and for the first French-language pamphlet, ’s Aux amis de la vérité religieuse [To friends of religious truth]. Pratt’s pamphlet was later translated into Danish, Swedish, and Dutch.
Interesting Account is not a JS document, because JS did not write it, assign it, or supervise its creation. However, two JS documents in this volume, “Church History” and “Latter Day Saints” (a later version of “Church History”), quote extensively from ’s pamphlet. These documents made use of Pratt’s language to describe JS’s early visionary experiences and built on Pratt’s summary of the church’s “faith and doctrine” for the thirteen-point statement of church beliefs that came to be known as the Articles of Faith. (The summary of beliefs in Interesting Account was in turn based on an earlier statement composed by Orson Pratt’s brother, .) Interesting Account is therefore included as an appendix to allow convenient comparison with JS’s histories. Gray highlighting in the text indicates passages that later provided wording or content for “Church History” and for “Latter Day Saints.” Passages highlighted in Pratt’s concluding statement of beliefs show parallels to JS’s own list of beliefs in “Church History.”

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Orson Pratt, New York City, NY, to Sarah Bates Pratt, Nauvoo, IL, 6 Jan. 1840, Times and Seasons, Feb. 1840, 1:61.

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

  2. [2]

    See Benjamin Winchester, Philadelphia, PA, to “Dear Brother in the Lord,” 10 Feb. 1840, Times and Seasons, May 1840, 1:104; and Pratt, Autobiography, 330.

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

    Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.

  3. [3]

    Similarity of phrasing, especially in describing JS’s rudimentary education, suggests that Pratt may have had access to JS’s unpublished circa summer 1832 history.

  4. [4]

    Orson Pratt, Edinburgh, Scotland, to George A. Smith, London, England, 24 Sept. 1840, George Albert Smith, Papers, CHL.

    Smith, George Albert. Papers, 1834–1877. CHL. MS 1322.

  5. [5]

    Cowdery’s letters were copied into JS History, 1834–1836, 46–103.

    JS History, 1834–1836 / Smith, Joseph, et al. History, 1834–1836. In Joseph Smith et al., History, 1838–1856, vol. A-1, back of book (earliest numbering), 9–20, 46–187. Historian's Office, History of the Church, 1839–ca. 1882. CHL. CR 100 102, box 1, vol. 1.

  6. [6]

    John L. Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, 2 vols. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1841); see also “Facts Are Stubborn Things,” Times and Seasons, 15 Sept. 1842, 3:921–922; “Zarahemla,” Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1842, 3:927–928; JS, Nauvoo, IL, to John Bernhisel, New York City, NY, 16 Nov. 1841, JS Collection, CHL; and Givens, By the Hand of Mormon, chaps. 4–5.

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

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

    Givens, Terryl L. By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture That Launched a New World Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

  7. [7]

    Orson Pratt, An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records, 1st American ed. (New York: Joseph W. Harrison, 1841); Orson Pratt, Remarkable Visions (Liverpool: R. James, [1848]); Orson Pratt, An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records (Sydney: Albert Mason, 1851); Orson Pratt, An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records, 2nd American ed. (New York: Joseph W. Harrison, 1841); see also Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:160–161; 2:63–64, 262–265.

    Pratt, Orson. Remarkable Visions. By Orson Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Liverpool: R. James, 1848.

    Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.

  8. [8]

    Orson Hyde, Ein Ruf aus der Wüste, eine Stimme aus dem Schoose der Erde (Frankfurt: Im Selbstverlage des Verfassers [by the author], 1842); John Taylor, Aux amis de la vérité religieuse. Récit abrégé du commencement, des progrès, de l’établissement, des persécutions, de la foi et de la doctrine de l’Église de Jésus-Christ des Saints des Derniers Jours (Paris: Marc Ducloux et Compagnie, 1850); see also Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:205–208; 2:166–167.

    Hyde, Orson. Ein Ruf aus der Wüste, eine Stimme aus dem Schoose der Erde: Kurzer Ueberblick des Ursprungs und der Lehre der Kirche “Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” in Amerika, gekannt von Manchen unter der Benennung: “Die Mormonen.” Frankfurt: Im Selbstverlage des Verfassers, 1842. Also available with English translation in Dean C. Jessee, ed., The Papers of Joseph Smith, vol. 1, Autobiographical and Historical Writings (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989), 402–425.

    Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.

  9. [9]

    Orson Pratt, Mærkværdige syner (Copenhagen: F. E. Bording, 1851); Orson Pratt, Märkwärdiga syner (Copenhagen: F. E. Bording, 1860); Orson Pratt, Merkwaardige verschijningen (Amsterdam?, [ca. 1865]); see also Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 2:240.

    Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.

  10. [10]

    See Pratt and Higbee, An Address . . . to the Citizens of Washington; compare Pratt, Late Persecution of the Church, iii–xiii.

    Pratt, Parley P., and Elias Higbee. An Address by Judge Higbee and Parley P. Pratt, Ministers of the Gospel, of the Church of Jesus Christ of “Latter-day Saints,” to the Citizens of Washington, and to the Public in General. N.p., 1840.

    Pratt, Parley P. Late Persecution of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints. Ten Thousand American Citizens Robbed, Plundered, and Banished; Others Imprisoned, and Others Martyred for Their Religion. With a Sketch of Their Rise, Progress and Doctrine. By P. P. Pratt, Minister of the Gospel, Written in Prison. New York: J. W. Harrison, 1840.

Page 12

hands. Then will persecution rage more and more; for the iniquities of men shall be revealed, and those who are not built upon the Rock will seek to overthrow the church; but it will increase the more opposed, and spread farther and farther, increasing in knowledge till they shall be sanctified, and receive an inheritance where the glory of God will rest upon them; and when this takes place, and all things are prepared, the ten tribes of Israel will be revealed in the north country, whither they have been for a long season; and when this is fulfilled will be brought to pass that saying of the prophet,—‘And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.’ But, notwithstanding the workers of iniquity shall seek your destruction, the arm of the Lord will be extended, and you will be borne off conqueror if you keep all his commandments. Your name shall be known among the nations, for the work which the Lord will perform by your hands shall cause the righteous to rejoice and the wicked to rage; with the one it shall be had in honour, and with the other in reproach; yet, with these it shall be a terror, because of the great and marvellous work which shall follow the coming forth of this fulness of the gospel. Now, go thy way, remembering what the Lord has done for thee, and be diligent in keeping his commandments, and he will deliver thee from temptations and all the arts and devices of the wicked one. Forget not to pray, that thy mind may become strong, that when he shall manifest unto thee, thou mayest have power to escape the evil, and obtain these precious things.”
We here remark, that the above quotation is an extract from a letter written by Elder , which was published in one of the numbers of the “Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate.”
Although many more instructions were given by the mouth of the angel to Mr Smith, which we do not write in this book, yet the most important items are contained in the foregoing relation. During the period of the four following years, he frequently received instruction from the mouth of the heavenly messenger. And on the morning of the 22d of September, a. d. 1827, the angel of the Lord delivered the records into his hands.
These records were engraved on plates, which had the [p. 12]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Appendix: Orson Pratt, A[n] Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, 1840
ID #
6554
Total Pages
32
Print Volume Location
JSP, H1:517–546
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Footnotes

  1. [8]

    See Isaiah 59:20.

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