Footnotes
JS, Journal, 13 Dec. 1841 and 21 Dec. 1842; Orson Spencer, “Death of Our Beloved Brother Willard Richards,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 16 Mar. 1854, [2].
Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.
Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 456, 458; Woodruff, Journal, 22 Jan. 1865.
Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
“Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [3], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.
Footnotes
Letter from James Arlington Bennet, 24 Oct. 1843, underlining in original.
JS, Journal, 9 and 13 Nov. 1843. In a December letter to Bennet, Willard Richards stated that “the Generals reply was dictated.” (Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to James Arlington Bennet, Arlington House, Long Island, NY, 15 Dec. 1843, copy, Willard Richards, Journals and Papers, CHL.)
Richards, Willard. Journals and Papers, 1821–1854. CHL.
Willard Richards, Nauvoo, IL, to James Arlington Bennet, Arlington House, Long Island, NY, 15 Dec. 1843, copy, Willard Richards, Journals and Papers, CHL; see also James Arlington Bennet, Arlington House, Long Island, NY, to Willard Richards, [Nauvoo, IL], 1 Feb. 1844, Willard Richards, Journals and Papers, CHL.
Richards, Willard. Journals and Papers, 1821–1854. CHL.
JS and his associates, including Phelps, had demonstrated an enduring interest in ancient languages for well over a decade. About a week after this letter was mailed, JS and Phelps collaborated on a pamphlet addressed to Vermont’s Green Mountain Boys that also included a variety of phrases in foreign languages with corresponding translations. (“Part 1: 2 October–1 December 1835”; “Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts”; General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys, ca. 21 Nov.–3 Dec. 1843.)
“Letter from Joe Smith,” New-York Commercial Advertiser (New York City), 7 Dec. 1843, [2]. When the newspaper printed JS’s 13 November 1843 response, the editor informed readers that the printers were instructed to “‘follow copy’ in every particular—to make no change, even of a letter or a comma.” The editor’s preface to the letter mocked, “The prophet’s missive is a strange specimen of mingled shrewdness, ignorance, impudence and folly—the latter quality being chiefly manifested in the fact that the letter has been written. It is not cunning of Joe to lay himself out on paper; for surely a man of his divine pretensions should be able to spell and to write grammatically.”
New-York Commercial Advertiser. New York City. 1831–1889.
“For the Times and Seasons,” Times and Seasons, 1 Nov. 1843, 4:371–375; “Singular Mormon Movements,” New York Herald (New York City), 10 Jan. 1844, [1]; “Letter from Joe Smith,” New-York Spectator (New York City), 9 Dec. 1843, [1]; “The Mormons,” Niles’ National Register (Baltimore), 3 Feb. 1844, 355–356. The Times and Seasons published its November 1843 issue around late December 1843.
New-York Spectator. New York City. 1804–1867.
Niles’ National Register. Washington DC, 1837–1839; Baltimore, 1839–1848; Philadelphia, 1848–1849.
In December 1841, JS publicly endorsed Adam W. Snyder and John Moore, the Illinois Democratic Party’s candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, and encouraged church members to vote for candidates who supported the Latter-day Saints. In 1843, Hyrum Smith’s endorsement of state congressional candidate Joseph P. Hoge, as well as JS’s support of Hyrum’s declaration, swayed church members to vote for the Democrats. Both endorsements exacerbated ongoing fears regarding the Latter-day Saints’ political power in Hancock County, Illinois, and led to increased tensions between church members and neighboring communities. (See Historical Introduction to Letter to Friends in Illinois, 20 Dec. 1841; Historical Introduction to Discourse, 6 Aug. 1843; and Ford, History of Illinois, 318–319.)
Ford, Thomas. A History of Illinois, from Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847. Containing a Full Account of the Black Hawk War, the Rise, Progress, and Fall of Mormonism, the Alton and Lovejoy Riots, and Other Important and Interesting Events. Chicago: S. C. Griggs; New York: Ivison and Phinney, 1854.
See Judges 16:15–20.
See Matthew 7:6.
In February 1832, JS and Sidney Rigdon experienced a vision in which they were shown three levels of postmortal glory inherited by the righteous as well as the “eternal sufferings” endured by those found guilty of “denying of the truth and the defying of [God’s] power.” (Vision, 16 Feb. 1832 [D&C 76].)
Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’s twelve apostles, betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver. (See Matthew 26:14–15, 47–50.)
A cat’s paw is a “person used as a tool by another to accomplish a purpose.” The term derives from Jean de La Fontaine’s fable “The Monkey and the Cat.” (“Cat’s paw,” in Oxford English Dictionary, 2:189; Shapiro, Complete Fables of Jean de La Fontaine, 254–255.)
Oxford English Dictionary. Compact ed. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.
Shapiro, Norman R., trans. The Complete Fables of Jean de La Fontaine. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007.
This might refer to the Rock of Gibraltar, a steep promontory located on the western edge of the Mediterranean Sea that formed one of two “Pillars of Herakles” in Greek mythology. (Hard, Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology, 265.)
Hard, Robin. The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H. J. Rose’s Handbookof Greek Mythology. New York: Routledge, 2004.
TEXT: Insertion written vertically in left margin.
In Greek mythology, the Gordian knot was an intricate knot fashioned by King Gordius (Midas’s father) to tie his wagon to a yoke. An oracle later declared that any man who could defeat the series of knots should by right rule Asia. After conquering Gordium in 333 BC, Alexander the Great allegedly solved the puzzle of the knot by simply cutting through it with a sword. The term Gordian knot came to symbolize a difficult or unsolvable problem. (Roller, “Midas and the Gordian Knot,” 256–261; “Gordian knot,” in Oxford English Dictionary, 4:302.)
Roller, Lynn E. “Midas and the Gordian Knot.” Classical Antiquity 3, no. 2 (Oct. 1984): 256–271.
Oxford English Dictionary. Compact ed. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.
TEXT: Triple underlined.