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Minutes and Discourse, 4 April 1844

Source Note

Council of Fifty, Minutes, and JS, Discourse, [, Hancock Co., IL, 4 Apr. 1844]. Featured version inscribed [between ca. Aug. 1844 and ca. Feb. 1845] in Council of Fifty, “Record,” pp. [74]–[82]; handwriting of ; CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for Council of Fifty, Minutes, 1844–1846.

Historical Introduction

On 4 April 1844, JS attended two meetings of the , one in the morning and one in the afternoon, in , Illinois, to discuss the drafting of a constitution for the council and other matters. The council was founded in mid-March 1844 by JS and other leading men in Nauvoo in part to explore possible settlement sites for the outside of the territorial boundaries of the . The council also saw itself as the beginnings of the political kingdom of God on earth and aspired to create a new constitution that would improve upon the Constitution. In an 11 March meeting, the council tasked a committee made up of , , , and with drafting a constitution, “which should be perfect, and embrace those principles which the constitution of the United States lacked.”
In the morning meeting on 4 April, held from nine o’clock to noon, the council accepted two new members, and ; discussed public reaction to JS’s presidential campaign platform; and reviewed a letter from representative . While was addressing various topics, a delegation of Potawatomi Indians arrived at the meeting. Potawatomi delegations had sought an audience with JS in on at least three occasions during spring and summer 1843. On 18 April 1843, Potawatomi chief Paicouchaiby, along with two other chiefs, met with JS in Nauvoo. They told JS that they were “dissatisfied with the white people bordering on their lands,” complained that they had suffered from the theft of cattle and horses, and stated that they wanted JS’s advice because they had heard that he could talk to the “G[reat] Spirit.” Another small Potawatomi delegation—reportedly including Paicouchaiby and the same chiefs who had visited in April, as well as a half-white, half-Indian interpreter from their tribe—met with JS on 2 July 1843. The chiefs told him that they “as a people have long been distressed and oppressd— we have been driven from our lands many times . . . the white man has hated us & shed our blood untill it has appeared as though their would be no Indian Left.” Later that summer, an additional Potawatomi delegation arrived in Nauvoo with a letter for JS.
In their brief meeting with the council on 4 April, the Potawatomi shared their friendly intentions with the Latter-day Saints and stated that they did not want to be coerced into selling any more of their land to a government that was oppressing them. JS told the Potawatomi that the Saints were doing all that they could in the tribe’s behalf and that peace among Native American peoples would be pleasing to God. After the Potawatomi left, the council discussed politics relating to and before adjourning until the afternoon. During the afternoon meeting, held from one o’clock to four o’clock, members of the committee assigned to draft the constitution reported their lack of progress. After several council members remarked on the need for a constitution during the afternoon meeting, JS gave a discourse that clerk summarized in the meeting minutes on why organizations struggle to produce governing rules.
recorded notes at these meetings and later copied them into a small bound volume that he titled “Record of the Council of Fifty or Kingdom of God.” These minutes are included in this volume as a representative sample of JS’s involvement with the .

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Council of Fifty, “Record,” 10–11 and 19 Mar. 1844.

  2. [2]

    Henry King, Keokuk, Iowa Territory, to John Chambers, Burlington, Iowa Territory, 14 July 1843, in Territorial Papers of the United States, the Territory of Iowa, reel 56; “Interview between Joseph Smith & the Pottowatomie Chiefs,” ca. 1856, in Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, July 1843; Dunham, Journal, 14 July–26 Aug. 1843; JS, Journal, 26 Aug. 1843; Clayton, Journal, 28 Aug. 1843; Letter to Paicouchaiby and Other Potawatomi, 28 Aug. 1843.

    Carter, Clarence Edward, and John Porter Bloom, comps. Territorial Papers of the United States. 28 vols. Washington DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1934–1975.

    Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Draft Notes, ca. 1839–1856. CHL. CR 100 92.

    Dunham, Jonathan. Journals, 1837–1846. Jonathan Dunham, Papers, 1825–1846. CHL. MS 1387, fds. 1–4.

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

  3. [3]

    Letter from Paicouchaiby and Other Potawatomi, ca. 14 Aug. 1843.

  4. [4]

    JS, Journal, 4 Apr. 1844.

  5. [5]

    Clayton, Journal, 4 Apr. 1844; 3 July 1844; 18 Aug. 1844. Clayton likely made some adjustments to the text when he wrote the fair copy of the minutes and discourse from this meeting, as he had done with other portions of the council records from the Nauvoo era. (Historical Introduction to Council of Fifty, “Record.”)

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

  6. [6]

    For a full record of the Council of Fifty under JS, see “Part 1: March–June 1844.”

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Minutes and Discourse, 4 April 1844 *Council of Fifty, Minutes, March 1844–January 1846; Volume 1, 10 March 1844–1 March 1845

Page [75]

On motion, read a communication from the Washington Globe on the subject of General Joseph Smiths views of the powers & policy of the government of the
A letter by representative was also read by the chairman
arose to make a few remarks on general subjects. He referred largely to the anticipations of the Ancients respecting the glories of the days in which we live, showing that the Angels had joy in heaven when before the creation they looked down and saw the privileges we enjoy in this organization.
During the time was speaking eleven of the Potawottamie [p. [75]]
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Source Note

Document Transcript

Page [75]

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Minutes and Discourse, 4 April 1844
ID #
13218
Total Pages
9
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • William Clayton

Footnotes

  1. [5]

    On 14 March 1844, Francis P. Blair, editor of the Democratic paper the Globe, published a lengthy commentary of JS’s Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States. Blair criticized JS’s proposal for a national bank, arguing that while he found JS’s ideas “more sound, his views more honest, and his scheme more feasible” than the Whigs’ plan for a national bank, JS was nevertheless “thoroughly imbued with the whig financial doctrines.” Blair facetiously proposed that JS be made president of the national bank and that “the mother bank be established at Nauvoo, with branches over all creation”; he also derided JS’s proposal to release convicts from penitentiaries. (“A New Advocate for a National Bank,” Daily Globe [Washington DC], 14 Mar. 1844, 251; “The Globe and Joe Smith,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 17 Apr. 1844, [1]; JS, “The Globe,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 17 Apr. 1844, [2]; Council of Fifty, “Record,” 18 Apr. 1844; see also General Smith’s Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States, ca. 26 Jan.–7 Feb. 1844; and Letter to Editor, 15 Apr. 1844.)

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

  2. [6]

    This sentence may be a reference to a nonextant letter from Illinois representative John J. Hardin to JS. Alternatively, JS may have read one of the public letters Hardin wrote in February and March 1844 refuting allegations made by the Globe of a British conspiracy centering on a proposed Illinois canal and former Massachusetts governor John Davis. One of Hardin’s letters described the “just indignation, which has been felt throughout Illinois” at the Globe’s statements regarding the “local interests and character of our State.” (“The Globe and Governor Davis,” Daily National Intelligencer [Washington DC], 2 Feb. 1844, [2]; “Mr. Hardin,” Sangamo Journal [Springfield, IL], 21 Mar. 1844, [2].)

    Daily National Intelligencer. Washington DC. 1800–1869.

    Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.

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