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Letter to Quorum of the Twelve, 4 August 1835

Source Note

Council of presidencies and others (including JS), Letter, , Geauga Co., OH, to , [, York Co., ME], 4 Aug. 1835. Retained copy, [ca. 4 Aug. 1835], in JS Letterbook 1, pp. 90–93; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 1.

Historical Introduction

On 4 August 1835, a council consisting of members of the , the presidency of the , “and others” composed a letter to the , who were holding in the eastern and . In the letter, the council chastised the Twelve for not discussing in their conferences the need for church members to donate funds for the construction of the in , Ohio; for the redemption of church members’ lands in , Missouri; and for the printing of the Doctrine and Covenants. The council also reprimanded and for making disparaging remarks about the Kirtland school that was conducting and then reproved the Twelve for complaining about the conditions of their families and for allegedly setting themselves up in the conferences as “an independant counsel subject to no authority of the church.”
By the time this letter was written, the Twelve, as they had planned in a March 1835 council, had conducted conferences in six locations: , , Lyonstown, and Pillar Point, New York; West Loughborough, Upper Canada; and St. Johnsbury, Vermont. The Twelve’s records of their conferences and other meetings shed little light on what they did to cause church leaders to issue such a strong reprimand. For instance, reports of four of their conferences were published in the May and July 1835 issues of the Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate, but none of these provide information to suggest how the Twelve Apostles might have been acting as “an independant counsel.” The minutes of the Twelve’s meetings also provide little basis for ascertaining whether or to what extent they had acted improperly.
According to this 4 August letter, at least three letters from the eastern prompted the reprimand. In the first letter, , the presiding authority of the , New York, , told church leaders that the Twelve had not instructed church members at a conference in Freedom about the need to donate funds for the construction of the . Leaders were also upset by a letter wrote to his wife, Emeline Miller McLellin, which implied that he and had no confidence in the way was conducting a school in . This school, described by as “a Grammar school,” opened in December 1834, with McLellin and as teachers. While he was teaching there, McLellin promoted the school as teaching “the sciences of penmanship, arithmetic, English grammar and geography” and as “a place where strict attention is paid to good morals as well as to the sciences.” When McLellin left Kirtland with the Twelve, Rigdon apparently began teaching in his place. In June 1835, Hyde made a brief trip to Kirtland and then gave a disparaging report to McLellin about the school, prompting McLellin to comment about it in the letter to his wife. His comment caused the members of the council to withdraw their fellowship from McLellin and Hyde. Finally, , one of the Twelve Apostles, sent a letter that to church leaders gave undue credit to McLellin and for their “able preaching.”
In late August 1835, the Twelve received this 4 August letter while conducting conferences in . The minutes for those meetings specify that the Twelve talked on “the redemption [of ], the Building of the in , and the printing of the word of God to the nations”—the three subjects that the 4 August letter chastised them for not discussing. In response to the letter, the Twelve agreed to finish their work in the eastern and meet in , New York, on 24 September 1835. From there, they planned to travel together to Kirtland. Immediately after reaching Kirtland on 26 September 1835, the Twelve met with JS, , , , , , and to discuss the charges in the letter. and “frankly confessed” their errors “and were forgiven,” and the Twelve convinced JS and others that the complaints against them “originated in the minds of persons whose minds were dark[e]ned in consequence of covetousness or some other cause other than the spirit of truth.”
The Twelve also “prefered a charge” against “for his unchristian conduct,” presumably in making accusations against them. On 5 March 1836, Warren Cowdery “confessed his mistake” in a meeting with the Twelve, JS, , and and stated his willingness to publish a statement that the Twelve had “delivered those instructions which he supposed they had not.” This statement appeared in the Messenger and Advocate, declaring that although Cowdery was “actuated by the purest motives at the time he wrote,” he had since become convinced that the Twelve had delivered the necessary instructions.
The original version of this 4 August 1835 letter is not extant. served as clerk of the council and presumably served as scribe for the letter; JS signed it as moderator and also added a postscript to his brother . copied the letter into JS’s letterbook, likely before the letter was sent.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Minutes, 12 Mar. 1835; Record of the Twelve, 17–19 July 1835.

  2. [2]

    Minutes, LDS Messenger and Advocate, May 1835, 1:115–116; Editorial, LDS Messenger and Advocate, July 1835, 1:153.

    Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.

  3. [3]

    Record of the Twelve, 4–9, 10–11, and 22–23 May 1835; 19–22 and 29 June 1835; 17–19 July 1835.

  4. [4]

    Kimball, “Journal and Record,” 51; McLellin, Journal, 22 Dec. 1834.

    Kimball, Heber C. “The Journal and Record of Heber Chase Kimball an Apostle of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,” ca. 1842–1858. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 1.

    McLellin, William E. Journal, July 1834–Apr. 1835. William E. McLellin, Papers, 1831–1836, 1877–1878. CHL. MS 13538, box 1, fd. 4. Also available as Jan Shipps and John W. Welch, eds., The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831–1836 (Provo, UT: BYU Studies; Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994).

  5. [5]

    William E. McLellin, Notice, 27 Feb. 1835, LDS Messenger and Advocate, Feb. 1835, 1:80.

    Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.

  6. [6]

    Record of the Twelve, 5 June 1835.

  7. [7]

    Editorial, LDS Messenger and Advocate, July 1835, 1:153, underlining in original.

    Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.

  8. [8]

    JS, Journal, 16 Jan. 1836; Record of the Twelve, 21–23 and 28 Aug. 1835.

  9. [9]

    Record of the Twelve, 21 Aug. 1835.

  10. [10]

    Esplin and Nielsen, “Record of the Twelve,” 48.

    Esplin, Ronald K., and Sharon E. Nielsen. “The Record of the Twelve, 1835: The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles’ Call and 1835 Mission.” BYU Studies 51, no. 1 (2012): 4–52.

  11. [11]

    JS, Journal, 26 Sept. 1835; Minutes, 26 Sept. 1835.

  12. [12]

    Minutes, 26 Sept. 1835.

  13. [13]

    JS, Journal, 16 Jan. 1836.

  14. [14]

    Cowdery, Diary, 5 Mar. 1836.

    Cowdery, Oliver. Diary, Jan.–Mar. 1836. CHL. MS 3429. Also available as Leonard J. Arrington, “Oliver Cowdery’s Kirtland, Ohio, ‘Sketch Book,’” BYU Studies 12 (Summer 1972): 410–426.

  15. [15]

    “Notice,” 7 Mar. 1836, in LDS Messenger and Advocate, Feb. 1836, 2:263.

    Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Letter to Quorum of the Twelve, 4 August 1835 Letterbook 1 History, 1838–1856, volume B-1 [1 September 1834–2 November 1838] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page 92

will if presisted in, bring down the wrath and indignation upon your heads. The other ten are directed to procceed on and finish the , and the two may act their own Judgment, whether to proceed or return.
J. Smith Jr. read to th[e] a letter from , which was approved, and filled our hearts with Joy.
A letter from Elder was presented— The council refer him to the which requires non[e] to leave or bring their families without revelation, or decision of the — Were they to come, they would not be with him as much as they will to tarry. ’ family is not coming.
We discover an error in ’s letter— He says, “To the able preaching of Elders & .” We conclude that if it had been the preaching of the Lord, as it should have been, he would have had the honor, and not these men.
To close, we add, that unless this epistle is heeded, in all its parts, in its full forcce, those who rebell against it shall be dealt with by the Lord accordingly, for we ask, being agreed as touching this thing.
We wish you to understand, that your duty requires you to seek first the kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness, that is— attend to the first things first, and then all things will be added, and that complaint about your families will be less frequent— Dont preach yourselves crucified for your wives sake, but remembr that Christ was crucified, and you are sent out to be special witnesses of this thing. Men do not wish to hear these little things, for there is no salvation in them, but there is in the other.
Let the hands of the ten be strengthened, and let them go forth in the name of the Lord, in the power of their mission, giving diligent heed to the direction [p. 92]
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Page 92

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter to Quorum of the Twelve, 4 August 1835
ID #
1621
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D4:371–378
Handwriting on This Page
  • John Whitmer

Footnotes

  1. [15]

    A copy of the letter in a later JS history inserts “of heaven” here. (JS History, vol. B-1, 598.)

    JS History / Smith, Joseph, et al. History, 1838–1856. Vols. A-1–F-1 (original), A-2–E-2 (fair copy). Historian’s Office, History of the Church, 1839–ca. 1882. CHL. CR 100 102, boxes 1–7. The history for the period after 5 Aug. 1838 was composed after the death of Joseph Smith.

  2. [16]

    The Twelve held the last of their conferences in Farmington, Maine, on 28 August 1835, with all the apostles except Orson Pratt in attendance. They then traveled to Buffalo, New York, where they took a steamer to Fairport, Ohio, and from there traveled by wagon to Kirtland. JS reported in his journal that the Twelve reached Kirtland on the morning of 26 September 1835. (Record of the Twelve, 28 Aug. 1835; Esplin and Nielsen, “Record of the Twelve,” 49–50; JS, Journal, 26 Sept. 1835.)

    Esplin, Ronald K., and Sharon E. Nielsen. “The Record of the Twelve, 1835: The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles’ Call and 1835 Mission.” BYU Studies 51, no. 1 (2012): 4–52.

  3. [17]

    This letter has not been located.

  4. [18]

    This letter has not been located.

  5. [19]

    It is unclear what revelation or revelations the council was referring to.

  6. [20]

    In a June 1834 council, Marsh was designated to travel to Kirtland, Ohio, to receive an endowment of power. A July 1834 meeting of the Missouri high council, of which Marsh was a member, instructed William W. Phelps to leave his family in Missouri when he went to Kirtland to help in the printing establishment. That same council also directed David Whitmer to travel “to the East” to “assist in the great work of the gathering” and “be his own Judge, as to leaving his family or taking them with him.” Marsh, who had left Missouri in January 1835 and was appointed as one of the Twelve Apostles in February 1835, was apparently wondering whether or not to bring his family to Kirtland. (Minutes, 23 June 1834; Minutes and Discourse, ca. 7 July 1834; Partridge, Diary, 28 Jan. 1835; Minutes, Discourse, and Blessings, 14–15 Feb. 1835.)

    Partridge, Edward. Diaries, 1818 and 1835–1836. Edward Partridge, Papers, 1818–1839. CHL. MS 892, box 1, fds. 1–2.

  7. [21]

    See Matthew 6:33; and Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 483 [3 Nephi 13:33].

  8. [22]

    Orson Hyde explained in a later letter that he and other members of the Twelve “straind every nerve to obtain a little something for [their] familys” while on their missions. (JS, Journal, 17 Dec. 1835.)

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