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Discourse, 15 October 1843

Source Note

JS, Discourse, [
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
, Hancock Co., IL, 15 Oct. 1843]. Featured version copied [ca. 15 Oct. 1843] in JS, Journal, bk. 3, 1842–1844, pp. [128]–[135]; handwriting of
Willard Richards

24 June 1804–11 Mar. 1854. Teacher, lecturer, doctor, clerk, printer, editor, postmaster. Born at Hopkinton, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts. Son of Joseph Richards and Rhoda Howe. Moved to Richmond, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts, 1813; to Chatham, Columbia Co...

View Full Bio
; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS, Journal, 1842–1844.

Historical Introduction

On 15 October 1843, in
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
, Illinois, JS delivered a Sabbath-day discourse focused primarily on the economy of Nauvoo and the temporal welfare of its citizens.
1

Willard Richards succinctly summarized the topic of JS’s discourse as “economy of Nauvoo.” (Richards, Journal, 15 Oct. 1843.)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Richards, Franklin D. Journals, 1844–1899. Richards Family Collection, 1837–1961. CHL. MS 1215, boxes 1–5.

Because of Nauvoo’s proximity to the
Mississippi River

Principal U.S. river running southward from Itasca Lake, Minnesota, to Gulf of Mexico. Covered 3,160-mile course, 1839 (now about 2,350 miles). Drains about 1,100,000 square miles. Steamboat travel on Mississippi very important in 1830s and 1840s for shipping...

More Info
’s Des Moines rapids, some
Latter-day Saints

The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...

View Glossary
—including JS—believed the city had tremendous industrial potential.
2

Alanson Ripley, “Nauvoo,” Times and Seasons, June 1840, 1:122.


Comprehensive Works Cited

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

In a December 1840 letter to the
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Members of a governing body in the church, with special administrative and proselytizing responsibilities. A June 1829 revelation commanded Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer to call twelve disciples, similar to the twelve apostles in the New Testament and ...

View Glossary
, JS had instructed missionaries in
England

Island nation consisting of southern portion of Great Britain and surrounding smaller islands. Bounded on north by Scotland and on west by Wales. Became province of Roman Empire, first century. Ruled by Romans, through 447. Ruled by Picts, Scots, and Saxons...

More Info
to encourage converts “accustomed to making machinery and those who can command a capital” to immigrate to Nauvoo to help build an industrial infrastructure for other British converts who were predominantly impoverished factory workers. “This place has advantages for a manufacturing and commercial purposes which but very few can boast of,” he continued, “and by establishing Cotton Factories, Founderies, Potteries &c &c would be the means of bringing in wealth and raising it to a very important elevation.”
3

Letter to Quorum of the Twelve, 15 Dec. 1840.


A January 1841 church proclamation encouraged British converts to relocate to Nauvoo and assured them that “the waters of the Mississippi can be successfully used for manufactoring purposes, to an almost unlimited extent.”
4

Proclamation, 15 Jan. 1841.


In February 1841, the
Illinois

Became part of Northwest Territory of U.S., 1787. Admitted as state, 1818. Population in 1840 about 480,000. Population in 1845 about 660,000. Plentiful, inexpensive land attracted settlers from northern and southern states. Following expulsion from Missouri...

More Info
General Assembly passed an act establishing the
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
Agricultural and Manufacturing Association in order to promote “agriculture and husbandry in all its branches, and for the manufacture of flour, lumber and such other useful articles as are necessary for the ordinary purposes of life.”
5

An Act to Incorporate the Nauvoo Agricultural and Manufacturing Association, in the County of Hancock [27 Feb. 1841], Laws of the State of Illinois [1840–1841], p. 139, sec. 2.


Comprehensive Works Cited

General Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Eighteenth General Assembly, Convened January 3, 1853. Springfield: Lanphier and Walker, 1853.

Although the association launched an effort to build a pottery, some residents grew impatient with the city’s lack of industrial jobs.
6

Sidney Rigdon, “To the Editor of the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 21 June 1843, [3].


Comprehensive Works Cited

Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

A May 1843 Nauvoo Neighbor editorial asserted that no pursuit was “of more importance to the interest and prosperity of the citizens of Nauvoo” than manufacturing and bemoaned the fact that so many Nauvoo residents’ industrial skills were not being used.
7

The editorial further argued that workers were “not employed at what they ought to be. Men that have been accustomed to manufacturing cotton goods are making ditches on the prairie, woolen manufacturers are carrying the hod, and working at day labor, and silk weaver’s are mixing clay at the brickyard, iron smelters are turned farmers, and potters have got metamorphised into builders and wood choppers. . . . The prosperity of this place depends in a great measure upon the encouragement of home manufacture.” (“Home Manufacture,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 31 May 1843, [2].)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

Though community members appealed to the church and each other for capital to induce various manufacturing projects, by October 1843 little progress had been made in industrializing the city.
8

Lydia Knight, “Manufacturing Straw,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 10 May 1843, [3]; “Important to Weavers,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 17 May 1843, [2]; Sidney Rigdon, “To the Editor of the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 21 June 1843, [3]; James Spratley et al., “A Word from the Suffering Boot and Shoe Makers,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 13 Sept. 1843, [3]; Letter from Jared Carter, 14 Oct. 1843. Hoping to facilitate the construction of mills, the city granted JS a charter to build a wing dam on the Mississippi River in early December 1843. (JS, Journal, 23 Nov. 1843; “An Ordinance to Erect a Dam in the Mississippi River, and for Other Purposes,” 8 Dec. 1843, JS Office Papers, CHL; see also Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 8 Dec. 1843, 192–193.)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

At eleven o’clock in the morning on 15 October, JS addressed a group of Latter-day Saints gathered at the
grove

Before partial completion of Nauvoo temple, all large meetings were held outdoors in groves located near east and west sides of temple site. Had portable stands for speakers. JS referred to area as “temple stand” due to its location on brow of hill.

More Info
east of the
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
temple

Located in portion of Nauvoo known as the bluff. JS revelation dated Jan. 1841 commanded Saints to build temple and hotel (Nauvoo House). Cornerstone laid, 6 Apr. 1841. Saints volunteered labor, money, and other resources for temple construction. Construction...

More Info
construction site for approximately three hours.
9

Richards, Journal, 15 Oct. 1843.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Richards, Franklin D. Journals, 1844–1899. Richards Family Collection, 1837–1961. CHL. MS 1215, boxes 1–5.

In addition to discussing his aspirations for Nauvoo’s economy and the temporal welfare of its citizens, JS addressed a variety of other subjects, including liberty of conscience, religious creeds, the original intent of biblical authors, and his distrust of doctors and lawyers.
Willard Richards

24 June 1804–11 Mar. 1854. Teacher, lecturer, doctor, clerk, printer, editor, postmaster. Born at Hopkinton, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts. Son of Joseph Richards and Rhoda Howe. Moved to Richmond, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts, 1813; to Chatham, Columbia Co...

View Full Bio
, JS’s private secretary and the general church recorder, was in the audience and produced a handwritten manuscript capturing elements of JS’s discourse. Richards likely recorded rough notes of the discourse on loose paper or in a notebook before inscribing a slightly more polished account in JS’s journal.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Willard Richards succinctly summarized the topic of JS’s discourse as “economy of Nauvoo.” (Richards, Journal, 15 Oct. 1843.)

    Richards, Franklin D. Journals, 1844–1899. Richards Family Collection, 1837–1961. CHL. MS 1215, boxes 1–5.

  2. [2]

    Alanson Ripley, “Nauvoo,” Times and Seasons, June 1840, 1:122.

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

  3. [3]

    Letter to Quorum of the Twelve, 15 Dec. 1840.

  4. [4]

    Proclamation, 15 Jan. 1841.

  5. [5]

    An Act to Incorporate the Nauvoo Agricultural and Manufacturing Association, in the County of Hancock [27 Feb. 1841], Laws of the State of Illinois [1840–1841], p. 139, sec. 2.

    General Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Eighteenth General Assembly, Convened January 3, 1853. Springfield: Lanphier and Walker, 1853.

  6. [6]

    Sidney Rigdon, “To the Editor of the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 21 June 1843, [3].

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

  7. [7]

    The editorial further argued that workers were “not employed at what they ought to be. Men that have been accustomed to manufacturing cotton goods are making ditches on the prairie, woolen manufacturers are carrying the hod, and working at day labor, and silk weaver’s are mixing clay at the brickyard, iron smelters are turned farmers, and potters have got metamorphised into builders and wood choppers. . . . The prosperity of this place depends in a great measure upon the encouragement of home manufacture.” (“Home Manufacture,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 31 May 1843, [2].)

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

  8. [8]

    Lydia Knight, “Manufacturing Straw,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 10 May 1843, [3]; “Important to Weavers,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 17 May 1843, [2]; Sidney Rigdon, “To the Editor of the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 21 June 1843, [3]; James Spratley et al., “A Word from the Suffering Boot and Shoe Makers,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 13 Sept. 1843, [3]; Letter from Jared Carter, 14 Oct. 1843. Hoping to facilitate the construction of mills, the city granted JS a charter to build a wing dam on the Mississippi River in early December 1843. (JS, Journal, 23 Nov. 1843; “An Ordinance to Erect a Dam in the Mississippi River, and for Other Purposes,” 8 Dec. 1843, JS Office Papers, CHL; see also Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 8 Dec. 1843, 192–193.)

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

  9. [9]

    Richards, Journal, 15 Oct. 1843.

    Richards, Franklin D. Journals, 1844–1899. Richards Family Collection, 1837–1961. CHL. MS 1215, boxes 1–5.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Discourse, 15 October 1843
Journal, December 1842–June 1844; Book 3, 15 July 1843–29 February 1844 History, 1838–1856, volume E-1 [1 July 1843–30 April 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page [128]

It is one of the first principles of my life. & one that I have cultivated from my childhood. having been taught it of my
father

12 July 1771–14 Sept. 1840. Cooper, farmer, teacher, merchant. Born at Topsfield, Essex Co., Massachusetts. Son of Asael Smith and Mary Duty. Nominal member of Congregationalist church at Topsfield. Married to Lucy Mack by Seth Austin, 24 Jan. 1796, at Tunbridge...

View Full Bio
. to allow eve[r]y one the libe[r]ty of conscience.
1

Many people in prerevolutionary and antebellum America embraced the principle of liberty of conscience. Puritan minister Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635 for having “broached and divulged divers new and dangerous opinions” and made liberty of conscience the ideological core of the colony he founded in Rhode Island in 1636. In 1789, United States president George Washington told the United Baptist Churches of Virginia that every man “being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.” In 1842, JS published thirteen statements that encapsulated some Latter-day Saint beliefs. One of these statements affirmed, “We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty God according to the dictates of our conscience, and allow all men the same privilege let them worship how, where, or what they may.” (Felt, Annals of Salem, 81; Williams, Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience Discussed, 1–2; Knowles, Memoir of Roger Williams, 320–325, 363–372, 413; George Washington, New York City, to the United Baptist Churches of Virginia, May 1789, in Twohig, Papers of George Washington, 423–425; “Church History,” 1 Mar. 1842.)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Felt, Joseph B. The Annals of Salem, from Its First Settlement. Salem, MA: W. and S. B. Ives, 1827.

Williams, Roger. The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience Discussed: And Mr. Cotton's Letter Examined and Answered. Edited by Edward Bean Underhill. London: J. Haddon, 1848.

Knowles, James D. Memoir of Roger Williams, the Founder of the State of Rhode-Island. Boston: Lincoln, Edmands and Co., 1834.

Twohig, Dorothy, ed. The Papers of George Washington. Vol. 2, 1 April 1789–15 June 1789. Presidential Series. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987.

I am the greatest advocate of the C[onstitution] of
U.S.

North American constitutional republic. Constitution ratified, 17 Sept. 1787. Population in 1805 about 6,000,000; in 1830 about 13,000,000; and in 1844 about 20,000,000. Louisiana Purchase, 1803, doubled size of U.S. Consisted of seventeen states at time ...

More Info
there is there on the earth. in my feeling <​the​> only fault I can find with it is it is not broad enough to cover the whole ground.
2

One of the reasons that JS believed the Constitution was flawed was that it did not compel the executive or legislative branches to use federal power to defend minority rights—a subject he mentioned on several occasions. (See Letter to John C. Calhoun, 4 Nov. 1843; General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys, 21 Nov.–ca. 3 Dec. 1843; Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 16 Dec. 1843–12 Feb. 1844; and “Correspondence of Gen. Joseph Smith and Hon. J. C. Calhoun,” Times and Seasons, 1 Jan. 1844, 5:394.)


Comprehensive Works Cited

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

I cannot beleive in any of the creeds of the diffe[re]nt denominati[o]n. because they all have some things in th[e]m I cannot subscribe to though all of them have some thuth [truth]. but I want to come up into the [p. [128]]
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Source Note

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Page [128]

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Discourse, 15 October 1843
ID #
1184
Total Pages
8
Print Volume Location
JSP, D13:185–190
Handwriting on This Page
  • Willard Richards

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Many people in prerevolutionary and antebellum America embraced the principle of liberty of conscience. Puritan minister Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635 for having “broached and divulged divers new and dangerous opinions” and made liberty of conscience the ideological core of the colony he founded in Rhode Island in 1636. In 1789, United States president George Washington told the United Baptist Churches of Virginia that every man “being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.” In 1842, JS published thirteen statements that encapsulated some Latter-day Saint beliefs. One of these statements affirmed, “We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty God according to the dictates of our conscience, and allow all men the same privilege let them worship how, where, or what they may.” (Felt, Annals of Salem, 81; Williams, Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience Discussed, 1–2; Knowles, Memoir of Roger Williams, 320–325, 363–372, 413; George Washington, New York City, to the United Baptist Churches of Virginia, May 1789, in Twohig, Papers of George Washington, 423–425; “Church History,” 1 Mar. 1842.)

    Felt, Joseph B. The Annals of Salem, from Its First Settlement. Salem, MA: W. and S. B. Ives, 1827.

    Williams, Roger. The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience Discussed: And Mr. Cotton's Letter Examined and Answered. Edited by Edward Bean Underhill. London: J. Haddon, 1848.

    Knowles, James D. Memoir of Roger Williams, the Founder of the State of Rhode-Island. Boston: Lincoln, Edmands and Co., 1834.

    Twohig, Dorothy, ed. The Papers of George Washington. Vol. 2, 1 April 1789–15 June 1789. Presidential Series. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987.

  2. [2]

    One of the reasons that JS believed the Constitution was flawed was that it did not compel the executive or legislative branches to use federal power to defend minority rights—a subject he mentioned on several occasions. (See Letter to John C. Calhoun, 4 Nov. 1843; General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys, 21 Nov.–ca. 3 Dec. 1843; Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 16 Dec. 1843–12 Feb. 1844; and “Correspondence of Gen. Joseph Smith and Hon. J. C. Calhoun,” Times and Seasons, 1 Jan. 1844, 5:394.)

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

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