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Recommendation for George J. Adams, 7 June 1844

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Recommendation for George J. Adams, 7 June 1844

Source Note

JS and , Recommendation, for , , Hancock Co., IL, 7 June 1844. Featured version published in Voree Herald (Voree, Wisconsin Territory), Oct. 1846, vol. 1, no. 10, [2].
This recommendation was printed in the October 1846 issue of the Voree Herald. The issue was printed as a bifolium; the original size of each leaf is unclear, as the leaves have been damaged, eliminating part of each leaf on the top and right edges. The leaves now measure 11¼ × 8¼ inches (29 × 21 cm). Each page is composed of three columns.
The Voree Herald was a monthly newspaper edited by . It was published from January through October 1846. The copy used for transcription is held at Brigham Young University.

Footnotes

  1. The name of the paper then changed to Zion’s Reveille, and it was published under that name for the next twenty-eight issues, after which it was renamed the Gospel Herald. (Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:341, 351, 440.)

    Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.

Historical Introduction

On 7 June 1844 in , Illinois, JS and issued a recommendation for , one of the’s missionaries, stating they had Adams to be a special witness to countries throughout the world, especially Russia. Before the issuance of this recommendation, Adams had experienced a tumultuous few years in the church after his February 1840 . Although he was an effective and charismatic preacher in the eastern and from early 1840 to early 1843, church leaders recalled Adams from in March 1843 because of allegations that he had engaged in adultery. JS took Adams’s ’s in May, leaving him to act as a —a lesser office in the church—but also declared that Adams had made “perfect satisfaction” to him for his conduct and had “started anew.” In June, JS assigned Adams to preach with in Russia, stating that Adams would “be one of the messengers to introduce the fulness of the glorious gospel of the Son of God” there. The Nauvoo tried Adams on additional charges of adultery, among other improprieties, in September but ultimately dropped the charges. In November, JS and Hyrum Smith reiterated Adams’s appointment as a missionary to Russia, asking church members to donate funds so the mission could go forward. An editorial in the 1 January 1844 issue of the Times and Seasons stated that Hyde and Adams would depart in the spring. Although Hyde and Adams did not leave that spring, in August 1844 Adams told apostles and that both JS and Hyrum Smith had—before their deaths in late June—still wanted the mission “carried out.”
The 7 June 1844 recommendation declares that was ordained an , which apparently referred to Adams’s role as a missionary and special witness and not to the formal administrative office of apostle in the church hierarchy. Adams referred to himself as “the great Apostle to the as Paul Even the 13th Apostle,” reflecting some of the language in this recommendation, in October 1844, but there was no formal recognition of him as an apostle by the church or church leaders. Instead, , a member of the , sarcastically referred to Adams in December 1844 as “such a great Apostle to the gentiles that he is head & sholdiers above all others,” indicating his disdain for Adams calling himself an apostle.
The only extant version of the 7 June 1844 recommendation appeared in the Voree Herald in 1846. The Herald was a newspaper published by , who claimed to be JS’s successor as prophet and leader of the church after JS's death in June 1844. The recommendation appeared in the newspaper after a general conference of Strang’s church appointed Adams one of Strang’s counselors in the church’s First Presidency and declared that its members “fully, freely, and cordially receive[d] and sustain[ed] brother in all the offices to which he was appointed by Joseph Smith.” Adams never went to Russia to preach while a member of that church or of any other church.

Footnotes

  1. Holmes, Dreamers of Zion, 74–78; Historical Introduction to Resolutions of the Boston Conference, 12 Mar. 1843.

    Holmes, Reed M. Dreamers of Zion: Joseph Smith and George J. Adams, Conviction, Leadership and Israel’s Renewal. Portland, OR: Sussex Academic Press, 2003.

  2. Minutes and Discourse, 27 May 1843.

  3. Authorization for George J. Adams, ca. 1 June 1843.

  4. “A Cowles V. S. G. J Adams,” [Aug.] 1843, Nauvoo Stake High Council Papers, CHL; Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 1 Sept. 1843; JS, Journal, 1 Sept. 1843; William Marks, “To Whom It May Concern,” 2 Sept. 1843, Times and Seasons, 15 Aug. 1843, 4:303.

    Nauvoo Stake High Council Papers, 1839–1844. CHL.

    Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, ca. 1839–ca. 1843. Fair copy. In Oliver Cowdery, Diary, Jan.–Mar. 1836. CHL.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  5. Authorization for George J. Adams, ca. 10 Nov. 1843.

  6. “Editorial Address,” Times and Seasons, 1 Jan. 1844, 5:392; George J. Adams, New Bedford, MA, to Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, Nauvoo, IL, Aug. 1844, [3], Brigham Young Office Files, CHL.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

    Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1.

  7. Before the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was organized in 1835, an 1829 revelation told Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer—who were never part of the quorum, even after its formation—that they were “called even with that same calling” to which Paul, God’s apostle, was called. An 1832 revelation also referred to “Gods High priests” generally as apostles because of their missionary responsibilities. (Minutes, Discourse, and Blessings, 14–15 Feb. 1835; Revelation, June 1829–B [D&C 18:9]; Revelation, 22–23 Sept. 1832 [D&C 84:63–64].)

  8. Wilford Woodruff, Boston, MA, to Brigham Young, Nauvoo, IL, 9 and 14 Oct. 1844, [3], Brigham Young Office Files, CHL.

    Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1.

  9. Wilford Woodruff, Philadelphia, PA, to Brigham Young, Nauvoo, IL, 3–4 Dec. 1844, [3], Brigham Young Office Files, CHL.

    Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1.

  10. Unlike two previous authorizations pertaining to Adams’s role in Russia, this June 1844 recommendation was never published in the Times and Seasons, though that may have been because JS was killed less than three weeks after 7 June. (See Authorization for George J. Adams, ca. 1 June 1843; and Authorization for George J. Adams, ca. 10 Nov. 1843.)

  11. Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:341.

    Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.

  12. “Conference Minutes,” and Notice, Voree Herald, Oct. 1846, 1:[1], [3].

    Voree Herald. Voree, WI. Jan. 1846–Oct. 1846.

Page [2]

To whom it may concern;
Greeting:—
Know all men by these presents, before whom this may come, that we have this day , consecrated, and set apart, our worthy and faithful brother, , by the authority of the holy , by the imposition of our hands, to be an and a special witness to the nations of the earth, (and especially to the empire of Russia,) of the of the fulness of times, to stand in this age to the as Paul stood in the primitive church, having full power to regulate the church among all nations where he may travel, (in the absence of the ) and we cheerfully recommend him as a faithful minister of the , to the confidence, liberality, and fellowship of the saints and honourable men in all the world.
JOSEPH SMITH,
,
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
, June 7th, 1844. [p. [2]]
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Editorial Title
Recommendation for George J. Adams, 7 June 1844
ID #
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Footnotes

  1. An 1835 instruction on priesthood stated that the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were “special witnesses of the name of Christ, in all the world.” Orson Hyde and Adams were assigned to preach in Russia when church leaders were considering extending missionary efforts beyond the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, where proselytizing was already occurring. At a meeting of the Twelve in April 1843, for example, JS instructed the apostles to call various individuals to Germany, Arabia, Italy, France, India, and Central America. This desire to preach in additional countries likely stemmed from the directive to proselytize in “all nations” so that descendants of the biblical House of Israel could be gathered in preparation for Jesus Christ’s second coming. (Instruction on Priesthood, between ca. 1 Mar. and ca. 4 May 1835 [D&C 107:23]; Ellsworth, “History of Mormon Missions in the United States and Canada,” chap. 10; Allen et al., Men with a Mission, 171; Minutes, 19 Apr. 1843; Revelation, 3 Nov. 1831 [D&C 133:8]; Proclamation, 15 Jan. 1841.)

    Ellsworth, Samuel George. “A History of Mormon Missions in the United States and Canada, 1830–1860.” PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1951.

    Allen, James B., Ronald K. Esplin, and David J. Whittaker. Men with a Mission, 1837–1841: The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the British Isles. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1992.

  2. See Acts 13:46–47.

  3. When the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were called in 1835, they were told “to build up the church, and regulate all the affairs of the same, in all nations: first unto the Gentiles, and secondly unto the Jews.” (Instruction on Priesthood, between ca. 1 Mar. and ca. 4 May 1835 [D&C 107:33].)