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Minutes and Discourses, 6–8 April 1844, as Reported by William Clayton

Source Note

General conference of the church, Minutes, and JS, Discourses, Nauvoo, Hancock Co., IL, 6–8 Apr. 1844. Version inscribed in William Clayton, Minutes, Nauvoo, Hancock Col, IL, 6–8 Apr. 1844; handwriting of
William Clayton

17 July 1814–4 Dec. 1879. Bookkeeper, clerk. Born at Charnock Moss, Penwortham, Lancashire, England. Son of Thomas Clayton and Ann Critchley. Married Ruth Moon, 9 Oct. 1836, at Penwortham. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Heber...

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; thirty-eight pages; Historian’s Office, General Church Minutes, CHL. Includes dockets, use marks, and notation.
Nineteen loose leaves measuring 12⅜ × 7⅝ × ⅛ inches (31 × 19 × 0.3 cm). Each page is ruled with either thirty-four or thirty-five blue lines. Some leaves are embossed in the top left corner or bottom right corner of the recto with the inscription “D & J. AMES”, the insignia of a Springfield, Massachusetts, paper mill firm established by brothers David and John Ames in 1828.
1

Whiting, “Paper-Making in New England,” 309; Gravell et al., American Watermarks, 235.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Whiting, William. “Paper-Making in New England.” In The New England States: Their Constitutional, Judicial, Educational, Commercial, Professional and Industrial History, edited by William T. Davis, vol. 1, pp. 303–333. Boston: D. H. Hurd, 1897.

At some point, the leaves were unevenly cut by hand. After
William Clayton

17 July 1814–4 Dec. 1879. Bookkeeper, clerk. Born at Charnock Moss, Penwortham, Lancashire, England. Son of Thomas Clayton and Ann Critchley. Married Ruth Moon, 9 Oct. 1836, at Penwortham. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Heber...

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inscribed the minutes, the document was folded for filing. There are holes from staples (now removed) at various places on the top and bottom of each leaf.
The minutes were docketed by Robert L. Campbell, who served as a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office (now CHL) from 1854 to 1874.
2

Historian’s Office, Journal, 20 Nov. 1854 and 11 Apr. 1874.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.

They were also docketed by Jonathan Grimshaw, who served as a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office from 1853 to 1856.
3

Historian’s Office, Journal, 7 June 1853; Wilford Woodruff, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to George A. Smith, 30 Aug. 1856, in Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 1, p. 364.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.

Historian’s Office. Letterpress Copybooks, 1854–1879, 1885–1886. CHL. CR 100 38.

In the mid-twentieth century, the document was included in a miscellaneous minutes collection that was a vestige of a genre-based filing method used by the Church Historian’s Office in the first half of the twentieth century. This document genre collection contained many documents that subsequently formed the basis for the General Church Minutes collection that was cataloged in 1994.
4

See the full bibliographic entry for Historian’s Office, General Church Minutes, 1839–1877, in the CHL catalog.


The document’s early dockets and its inclusion within the General Church Minutes collection suggest continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Whiting, “Paper-Making in New England,” 309; Gravell et al., American Watermarks, 235.

    Whiting, William. “Paper-Making in New England.” In The New England States: Their Constitutional, Judicial, Educational, Commercial, Professional and Industrial History, edited by William T. Davis, vol. 1, pp. 303–333. Boston: D. H. Hurd, 1897.

  2. [2]

    Historian’s Office, Journal, 20 Nov. 1854 and 11 Apr. 1874.

    Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.

  3. [3]

    Historian’s Office, Journal, 7 June 1853; Wilford Woodruff, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to George A. Smith, 30 Aug. 1856, in Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 1, p. 364.

    Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.

    Historian’s Office. Letterpress Copybooks, 1854–1879, 1885–1886. CHL. CR 100 38.

  4. [4]

    See the full bibliographic entry for Historian’s Office, General Church Minutes, 1839–1877, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

See Historical Introduction to Minutes and Discourses, 6–8 Apr. 1844, as Reported by Thomas Bullock; see also Historical Introductions to Discourse, 6 Apr. 1844; Discourse, 7 Apr. 1844; and Discourse, 8 Apr. 1844.
Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. Minutes and Discourses, 6–8 April 1844, as Reported by Thomas Bullock Minutes and Discourses, 6–8 April 1844, as Reported by William Clayton Minutes and Discourses, 6–7 April 1844, as Published in Times and Seasons History, 1838–1856, volume E-1 [1 July 1843–30 April 1844] “History of Joseph Smith” “History of Joseph Smith” “History of Joseph Smith”

Page 10

You have either got to sustain them or go to hell. If you cant bear the doctrine clap your hands. You are got old enough to choose for yourselves— choose life or death which ever you choose. You may choose refuse— receive or reject and no body has a word to say. If they kill these men they will only damn themselves and save them. They are such characters because God has spoken to them— he has revealed himself to them— he has talked to them as a father to his child, You have men that you can scare nor turn out of the way— their face is set right before them and if you undertake to turn them out of their course they may kick you out of the way. The wicked have only one way to rid themselves and that is to kill them for you cant court favors of them. If the world love or hate them they do it voluntarly— they never gave them any cause for eithe[r] You have got a man that dont want to forsake God and if he did he could not— he could not turn away from God if he were to try. He dont say what will this man or that man say but what does my father say. Some of you say we could put up with these men if we could see them repent you may as well look for hell to repent. I hope you will never forget this point of the history of the church He would resume his subject of the kingdom. and if any one would hang him for treason he hoped they now get their— gallows and rope ready for he would tell his story.
He referred to the complaints of office seekers because there men are in their road— Great men are afraid they are going to be ruined because God said he would build a kingdom. God intends to keep them fretting and howling all the time. God raises his kingdom far above all human law. His people are bound by the laws of heaven which are far more strict that human laws We are above the laws all the while and that is the reason why they never could reach us— We are ready to support them, pay our taxes &c— [p. 10]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Minutes and Discourses, 6–8 April 1844, as Reported by William Clayton
ID #
13269
Total Pages
38
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • William Clayton

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