Footnotes
Revelation, 11 Sept. 1831 [D&C 64:6, 9].
Revelation, 1 Mar. 1832 [D&C 78:9].
According to the letter featured below, Sidney Gilbert brought Corrill’s letter with him to Ohio and arrived there before JS. When JS arrived in Ohio, he reunited with his wife Emma and adopted daughter, Julia, who were staying in Kirtland, before apparently moving them back to the John and Alice (Elsa) Jacobs Johnson home in Hiram, Ohio. Gilbert may have given Corrill’s letter to JS when JS was in Kirtland, or he may have brought it to JS in Hiram. (JS History, vol. A-1, 215–216.)
Letter to Edward Partridge and Others, 14 Jan. 1833. Corrill’s letter is not extant.
Phelps’s letter is not extant.
Other 1832 letters from Missouri leaders to JS were sent to Whitney, including a January 1832 letter from Oliver Cowdery. These letters were addressed to Whitney at the Kirtland Mills post office, which was in Whitney’s store. JS apparently received correspondence from the Missouri leaders through the Kirtland Mills post office. (Letter from Oliver Cowdery, 28 Jan. 1832; Berrett, Sacred Places, 3:11–12.)
Berrett, LaMar C., ed. Sacred Places: A Comprehensive Guide to Early LDS Historical Sites. 6 vols. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1999–2007.
On 28 July, Hyrum Smith wrote in his journal that “Brother Sidney was ordaind to the hight preisthood the second time.” Rigdon was probably reinstated in Kirtland; Hyrum and Rigdon both resided there, and Rigdon had been removed from his office in Kirtland. (Hyrum Smith, Diary and Account Book, 28 July 1832.)
Smith, Hyrum. Diary and Account Book, Nov. 1831–Feb. 1835. Hyrum Smith, Papers, ca. 1832–1844. BYU.
JS may have been aware of an incident later reported by Oliver Cowdery, John Whitmer, and Edward Partridge. According to Whitmer, in March 1832 “enem[i]es held a counsel” in Independence to decide “how they might destroy the saints.” Partridge reported that this meeting was broken up by Indian agent Marston Clark, but “still the hostile spirit of individuals was no less abated.” (Whitmer, History, 38; “A History, of the Persecution, of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints in Missouri,” Times and Seasons, 17 Dec. 1839, 1:17; “The Outrage in Jackson County, Missouri,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Jan. 1834, 122.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
In a January 1833 letter, Hyrum Smith and Orson Hyde wrote that Phelps and others provided “answers” to letters from church leaders in Ohio that referred to these leadership issues. It is probable that this 31 July letter is one of the letters to which Smith and Hyde referred. Any response that Phelps made to this letter is not extant. (Letter to Edward Partridge and Others, 14 Jan. 1833.)
In his 28 January 1832 letter to JS, Oliver Cowdery included a statement from Partridge that “we are not in a situation to buy much more land & procure a stock of provisions & cows for those who are coming here this spring.” John Corrill later recalled that, around this time, “the church got crazy to go up to Zion, as it was then called. The rich were afraid to send up their money to purchase lands, and the poor crowded up in numbers, without having any places provided, contrary to the advice of the bishop and others.” (Letter from Oliver Cowdery, 28 Jan. 1832; Corrill, Brief History, 18–19.)
See Acts 5:1–10.
See Romans 10:2.
JS’s rebuke suggests that speculative predictions by individual Saints involving Book of Mormon prophecies fueled antagonism among their neighbors, endangering church members. The Book of Mormon echoes the prophecies of Micah about a time when the “remnant of Jacob”—whom church members identified as the American Indians—would tread down their Gentile adversaries.a The Book of Mormon also speaks of converted Gentiles—understood by early Mormons to be themselves—assisting the “remnant” of Book of Mormon people to build a New Jerusalem.b However, there is no evidence of significant Mormon contact with American Indians after a brief period of proselytizing among the Delaware and Shawnee Indians west of Missouri’s borders in early 1831.c
(aBook of Mormon, 1830 ed., 488, 497, 500 [3 Nephi 16:15; 20:16–17; 21:12]; Micah 5:8–9. bBook of Mormon, 1830 ed., 501 [3 Nephi 21:23]. cJennings, “First Mormon Mission to the Indians,” 288–299.)Jennings, Warren A. “The First Mormon Mission to the Indians,” Kansas Historical Quarterly 38 (Autumn 1971): 288–299.
That is, the account of JS and Rigdon’s February 1832 vision of the afterlife. JS sent John Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery to Independence in November 1831 with Revelation Book 1, a book containing manuscript copies of JS’s revelations. Although JS may have brought copies of revelations written after that time to Missouri in spring 1832, William W. Phelps did not yet have at least some of them, including the account of the February 1832 vision. (Vision, 16 Feb. 1832 [D&C 76]; Whitmer, History, 37–38; see also Revelation Book 1, pp. 128–148.)
See Revelation 22:18–19. It was recognized in a council held the previous November that there were spelling and grammar errors in the revelations.a William W. Phelps, Oliver Cowdery, and John Whitmer were assigned in the 30 April 1832 meeting of the Literary Firm to make corrections in the revelations as they prepared them for publication.b Such revisions, however, had limits. In 1830, JS expressed consternation when Oliver Cowdery commanded him to “erase” words in a revelation. “I asked him,” JS later recalled, “by what authority he took upon him to command me to alter, or erase, to add or diminish to or from a revelation or commandment from Almighty God.”c
(aMinutes, 8 Nov. 1831. bMinutes, 30 Apr. 1832. cJS History, vol. A-1, 51.)That is, JS’s revision of the Bible, on which he continued to work at this time.
Frederick G. Williams had apparently been performing some scribal duties since February or March 1832. When Rigdon was reprimanded and for a time removed from his official roles, Williams was given the assignment to write for JS in Rigdon’s stead, as this letter explains. (See Frederick G. Williams, Statement, no date, Frederick G. Williams, Papers, CHL; see also JS History, ca. Summer 1832; and Scribal Directory, in JSP, MRB:684.)
Williams, Frederick G. Papers, 1834–1842. CHL. MS 782.
That is, the Old Testament.
See John 5:4.