TEXT: Written vertically in left margin. In early December, the Nauvoo Neighbor published both Bennet’s letter and JS’s reply. An individual writing under the pseudonym “Viator” apparently furnished copies of the letters to the Nauvoo Neighbor. Richards and William W. Phelps used the pseudonym earlier that year while writing a series of letters to the editor of the Boston Bee. On 15 December 1843, Richards claimed that Bennet’s letter and JS’s reply were copied or stolen without his knowledge and indicated that JS reprimanded him for “being careless with his papers.” Bennet later assured Richards that the letter’s publication did not give him the “smallest pain.” (“For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 6 Dec. 1843, [3]; Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to James Arlington Bennet, Arlington House, Long Island, NY, 15 Dec. 1843, copy; James Arlington Bennet, Arlington House, Long Island, NY, to Willard Richards, [Nauvoo, IL], 1 Feb. 1844, Willard Richards, Journals and Papers, CHL; see also “Truthiana,” 1843, drafts, CHL.)

Richards, Willard. Journals and Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490.

“Truthiana,” 1843. Draft. CHL. MS 15537.

Arlington House was the name of Bennet’s one-hundred-acre estate in New Utrecht, a town located on the western end of Long Island, New York. (See “The Arlington Academy,” New-York Daily Tribune [New York City], 22 June 1843, [1]; and Bufford, Arlington House, lithograph print, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington DC.)

New-York Daily Tribune. New York City. 1841–1924.

Bufford, John H. Arlington House. Lithograph. New York: James Arlington Bennet, 1839. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington DC.

Bennet here referred to the Nauvoo Mansion, a two-story frame house located on the northeast corner of Main and Water streets in Nauvoo. The building functioned as a boardinghouse for travelers and included quarters for JS and his family. The family moved into the house in late August 1843. Bennet previously procured copies of the Nauvoo newspaper the Wasp and possibly learned about the Nauvoo Mansion’s opening through the Nauvoo Neighbor, the newspaper that replaced the Wasp. (JS, Journal, 3 May 1843; 31 Aug. 1843; 15 Sept. 1843; 3 Oct. 1843; see also “Pleasure Party, and Dinner at ‘Nauvoo Mansion,’” Nauvoo Neighbor, 4 Oct. 1843, [3]; and Letter from James Arlington Bennet, 16 Aug. 1842.)

Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

Willard Richards described his impressions of James Arlington Bennet in an August 1842 letter to JS, informing him that Bennet “belongs to no sect or party, & were he to Join any would as soon Join the mormons as any other but does not conceive it would make him a better man to Join any.” (Letter from Willard Richards, 9 Aug. 1842.)

In nineteenth-century parlance, the word divine often referred to a clergyman or minister; during this period, people used the phrase philosophical divine to describe a person who attempted to bridge the gap between philosophy and theology, or, in other words, a religious philosopher. In a September 1842 letter, Bennet referred to himself as a “philosophical Christian.” (“Divine” [noun], in American Dictionary [1841], 1:531; Letter from James Arlington Bennet, 1 Sept. 1842; see also “Theology,” in Encyclopaedia Britannica [1842], 21:211; Schaff, Germany; Its Universities, Theology, and Religion, 92; and Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature, 314.)

An American Dictionary of the English Language; First Edition in Octavo, Containing the Whole Vocabulary of the Quarto, with Corrections, Improvements and Several Thousand Additional Words. . . . Edited by Noah Webster. 2nd ed. 2 vols. New Haven: By the author, 1841.

Schaff, Philip. Germany; Its Universities, Theology, and Religion. . . . Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston; New York: Sheldon, Blakeman, 1857.

Allibone, S. Austin. A Critical Dictionary of English Literature, and British and American Authors, Living and Deceased, from the Earliest Accounts to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century. Containing Thirty Thousand Biographies and Literary Notices, with Forty Indexes of Subjects. Vol. 1. Philadelphia: Childs and Peterson, 1859.

Moses was known as the great lawgiver. (See Gardiner, Practical Exposition of the Latter Part of Our Saviour’s Sermon on the Mount, 31.)

Gardiner, James. A Practical Exposition of the Latter Part of Our Saviour’s Sermon on the Mount, from the Beatitudes, to the End of the Sermon. London: Bernard Lintott, 1715.

This possibly referred to Abu Bakr (573–634 CE), a close friend of and adviser to the ancient prophet Muhammad. Reportedly the first person outside Muhammad’s family to convert to Islam, Bakr was the father of Muhammad’s third wife, Aisha, and was Muhammad’s successor. (Campo, Encyclopedia of Islam, 9–10; Abbott, Aishah: The Beloved of Mohammed, viii, 4.)

Campo, Juan E. Encyclopedia of Islam. New York: Facts on File, 2009.

Abbott, Nabia. Aishah: The Beloved of Mohammed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1942.