The longstanding practice of extinguishing Indian land claims in the eastern United States and compelling Indian tribes to move to newly granted lands in the West had been codified with the Indian Removal Act of 1830. (An Act to Provide for an Exchange of Lands with the Indians Residing in Any of the States or Territories, and for Their Removal West of the River Mississippi [28 May 1830], Public Statutes at Large, 21st Cong., 1st Sess., chap. 148, pp. 411–412.)

The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, from the Organization of the Government in 1789, to March 3, 1845. . . . Edited by Richard Peters. 8 vols. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1846–1867.

JS was committed to building the Nauvoo temple and the Nauvoo House as commanded in a January 1841 revelation. Nevertheless, he and other church leaders were frustrated by the lack of progress on the two buildings, both of which were hampered by chronic shortages of capital and supplies. Lyman Wight later stated that he interpreted a declaration JS made in 1841 that “there shall be no more baptisms for the dead, until the ordinance can be attended to in the font of the Lord’s House” to mean that “the time for building the temple had passed by, and both we and our dead were rejected together.” To exacerbate the problem, the Nauvoo House Association and the temple committee frequently disagreed on how best to use the available resources. After accompanying a raft of lumber to Nauvoo in 1843, Miller discovered that lumber the Wisconsin Saints had earlier supplied for the temple and the Nauvoo House was instead being used to construct houses for the workmen. JS counseled patience to Miller and others and often insisted that work go forward on both structures. In February 1843, he stated, “The building of N[auvoo] House is just as sacred in my view as the Temple. . . . When men have done what they can or will for the temple. let them do what they can for the Nauvoo House.” Yet by March 1844, just days before Miller arrived with the letters from the pinery, JS had decided to temporarily halt construction on the Nauvoo House so that supplies and manpower could be concentrated on completing the temple. (Revelation, 19 Jan. 1841 [D&C 124:55]; “Minutes of a Conference,” Times and Seasons, 15 Oct. 1841, 2:578; History of the Reorganized Church, 2:790; George Miller, St. James, MI, to “Dear Brother,” 27 June 1855, in Northern Islander, 23 Aug. 1855, [1]–[2]; JS, Journal, 19 Apr. 1843; JS, Journal, 4 Mar. 1844; see also JS, Journal, 21 Feb. and 6 Apr. 1843.)

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

The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 8 vols. Independence, MO: Herald Publishing House, 1896–1976.

Northern Islander. St. James, MI. 1850–1856.

Both George Miller and Lyman Wight were aware of the success of recent Latter-day Saint proselytizing efforts in the southern United States. In early 1842, Wight spent nearly three months on a mission in southern Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. When he came back to Nauvoo, he was accompanied by almost one hundred converts from Mississippi. Two months later, Wight returned to Tennessee and Kentucky with Amasa Lyman, where they preached until early August. On 27 October 1843, just a few months before these letters were written, JS conversed with Miller and Peter Haws, “who have just retur[ne]d from the south.” Though no record clarifies Miller’s assignment, Haws and other missionaries in Alabama and Mississippi had recently converted many southerners. (Lyman Wight, Mountain Valley, TX, to Wilford Woodruff, [Salt Lake City, Utah Territory], 24 Aug. 1857, p. 11, Historian’s Office, Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861, CHL; “Emigration,” Wasp, 16 Apr. 1842, [2]; Lyman, Journal, 11 May–24 June 1842; JS, Journal, 27 Oct. 1843; Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 27 Oct. 1843; Brown, Reminiscences and Journal, bk. A, 9–27.)

Historian’s Office. Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861. CHL. CR 100 93.

The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.

Lyman, Amasa. Journals, 1832–1877. Amasa Lyman Collection, 1832–1877. CHL. MS 829, boxes 1–3.

Brown, John. Reminiscences and Journals, 1843–1896. CHL. MS 1636.

Possibly the expansive elevated flatlands bounded by the Pecos River and the Colorado River of Texas that were named the Edwards Plateau later in the century. In the first of the two letters from the Saints in Wisconsin, Lyman Wight designated the Colorado River as the site for their contemplated resettlement. Later, when Wight independently carried out the Texas migration plan, he briefly settled on the Colorado River near Austin and then moved to a site on the Pedernales River—a tributary of the Colorado that reaches into the Edwards Plateau. (E. H. Johnson, “Edwards Plateau,” in New Handbook of Texas, 2:802–803; Letter from Lyman Wight and Others, 15 Feb. 1844–A; Hill, “Notes on the Texas-New Mexican Region,” 90; Johnson, Polygamy on the Pedernales, 59–60, 65–67; Huser, Rivers of Texas, 63.)

The New Handbook of Texas. Edited by Ron Tyler, Douglas E. Barnett, Roy R. Barkley, Penelope C. Anderson, and Mark F. Odintz. 6 vols. Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1996.

Hill, Robert T. “Notes on the Texas-New Mexican Region.” Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 3 (1892): 85–100.

Johnson, Melvin C. Polygamy on the Pedernales: Lyman Wight’s Mormon Villages in Antebellum Texas, 1845–1858. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2006.

Huser, Verne. Rivers of Texas. Louise Lindsey Merrick Natural Environment Series 32. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2000.

Miller was aware that some recent Latter-day Saint converts from the South were slaveholders. (See McQuilkin, “Journey of Faith,” 24–34.)

McQuilkin, Carol Ann. “Journey of Faith: Mid-Nineteenth Century Migration of Mississippi Mormons and Slaves.” Master’s thesis, California State University, Fullerton, 1995.

The committee initially chose Young to carry the letters to Nauvoo, but it was later decided that Miller would bear them. (George Miller, St. James, MI, to “Dear Brother,” 27 June 1855, in Northern Islander, 23 Aug. 1855, [2].)

Northern Islander. St. James, MI. 1850–1856.

See 2 Corinthians 12:15.