Joseph receives a letter from Orson Hyde in Washington and discusses it in general council. Orson Hyde writes that Joseph's proposal that he be empowered to raise 100,000 volunteers will probably not be passed. However, Orson Hyde does have several discussions with prominent legislators who give him good advice about the possibility of moving to Oregon or Texas, or even California. Unfortunately, however, since many Missourians are moving to Oregon, Hyde says that the move, if it is to be made, must be made at once. Hyde also describes his meeting with President Tyler, whom he describes as a "very plain, home spun, familiar, farmer-like man." Stephen A. Douglas recommends Oregon and says "he would resign his seat in Congress if he could command the force that Mr. Smith could, and would be on the march to the country in a month." Elder Hyde also hints of the probable coming war with Mexico, if Texas is admitted into the Union, and says that Orson Pratt and Elder Hyde himselfsubmitted a bill asking for $2 million in relief for the sufferings in Missouri. )
[Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]
175 years ago today - May 13, 1844
William Law, former counselor to Joseph Smith, writes in his diary: "[Joseph] ha[s] lately endeavored to seduce my wife, and ha[s] found her a virtuous woman." Law also notes in his journal his response to Sidney Rigdon concerning the terms he would need to forgo publishing the NAUVOO EXPOSITOR: "if they wanted peace they could have it on the following conditions. That Joseph Smith would acknowledge publicly that he had taught and practised the doctrine of plurality of wives, that he brought a revelation supporting the doctrine, and that he should own the whole system (revelation and all) to be from Hell."
65 years ago today - May 12, 1954
Appointment of A. Sherman Christenson as first active Mormon to be federal judge (U.S. District Court for Utah).
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com, based on Michael Quinn's Mormon Hierarchy vols 1 & 2]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com, based on Michael Quinn's Mormon Hierarchy vols 1 & 2]
125 years ago today - May 12, 1894 (Saturday)
General Carter's "Industrials" captured a Union Pacific train at Lehi and proceeded as far as Provo, where the engine was ditched. Gov. West called out the militia, and deputy marshals arrested 27 of the "Industrials," including General Carter, and took them to the Penitentiary.
The Utah militia returned to Salt Lake City from Provo, and the "Industrial army" broke up.
[Wilford Woodruff writes: "12 J. F. Smith & myself went to the D. & R G to go to Manti to Attend the Conference. The marching Army under Carter had Stolen Carrs at Lehi & the Governor had gone Down to arange the Matter & after we waited two hours we got word that the train Could not Connect with the Manti train & we returned home."]
[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
The Utah militia returned to Salt Lake City from Provo, and the "Industrial army" broke up.
[Wilford Woodruff writes: "12 J. F. Smith & myself went to the D. & R G to go to Manti to Attend the Conference. The marching Army under Carter had Stolen Carrs at Lehi & the Governor had gone Down to arange the Matter & after we waited two hours we got word that the train Could not Connect with the Manti train & we returned home."]
[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
175 years ago today - May 12, 1844
Joseph Smith teaches: "is not only necessary that you should be baptized for your dead, but you will have to go thro' all the ordinances for them, same as you have gone through, to save yourselves... I never told you I was perfect - but there is no error in the revelations which I had taught.
[Hales, Brian C., Joseph Smith's Polygamy: History and Theology, 3 vols., Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2013 (www.JosephSmithsPolygamy.com)]
[Hales, Brian C., Joseph Smith's Polygamy: History and Theology, 3 vols., Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2013 (www.JosephSmithsPolygamy.com)]
175 years ago today - 1844 12 May.
[Joseph Smith]
"about three hundred" people attend a meeting of William Law's Reformed Church in Nauvoo and listen to sermons against "the Spiritual wife doctrine" and "Smith's plan of uniting Church and State."
[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 7: Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power]
"about three hundred" people attend a meeting of William Law's Reformed Church in Nauvoo and listen to sermons against "the Spiritual wife doctrine" and "Smith's plan of uniting Church and State."
[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 7: Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power]
175 years ago today - May 12, 1844
Sunday. Joseph preaches on various topics, then says, "The Savior has the words of eternal life. Nothing else can profit us. . . . My enemies say that I have been a true prophet. Why, I had rather be a fallen true prophet than a false prophet. . . . False prophets always arise to oppose the true prophets and they will prophesy so very near the truth but they will deceive almost the very chosen ones. . . . I calculate to be one of the instruments of setting up the kingdom of Daniel by the word of the Lord, and I intend to lay a foundation that will revolutionize the whole world. . . . It will not be by sword or gun that this kingdom will roll on; . . . it may be that the Saints will have to beat their ploughs into swords, for it will not do for men to sit down patiently and see their children destroyed."
[Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]
[Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]
195 years ago today - May 12, 1824
[Joseph Smith]
Local interest in fortune telling is sufficiently high that a Palmyra newspaper advertises two occult handbooks: The Complete Fortune Teller, and The Book of Fate .
[Wikipedia, Joseph Smith Chronology, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_Joseph_Smith,_Jr.]
Local interest in fortune telling is sufficiently high that a Palmyra newspaper advertises two occult handbooks: The Complete Fortune Teller, and The Book of Fate .
[Wikipedia, Joseph Smith Chronology, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_Joseph_Smith,_Jr.]
35 years ago today - May 11, 1984
At the Mormon History Association's annual meeting in Provo, Utah, Melvin T. Smith presents a paper titled "The Believing Mormon Historian's Dilemmas."
175 years ago today - May 11, 1844
The endowed quorum meets and two new members receive temple ordinances; Sidney Rigdon and John P. Greene. Sidney was invited by W. W. Phelps not Joseph Smith.
[Hales, Brian C., Joseph Smith's Polygamy: History and Theology, 3 vols., Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2013 (www.JosephSmithsPolygamy.com)]
[Hales, Brian C., Joseph Smith's Polygamy: History and Theology, 3 vols., Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2013 (www.JosephSmithsPolygamy.com)]
180 years ago today - May 11, 1839
[Apostle Wilford Woodruff Journal]
11th Resolved that the subject of Elder Rigdon's going to Washington be adjourned untill tomorrow.
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
11th Resolved that the subject of Elder Rigdon's going to Washington be adjourned untill tomorrow.
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
190 years ago today - about May 11, 1829
Harmony, Pennsylvania. Joseph Smith translated the end of the book of Helaman and the beginning of 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon.
[BYU Studies Journal, volume 46, no. 4: A Chronology of the Life of Joseph Smith, http://byustudies.byu.edu]
[BYU Studies Journal, volume 46, no. 4: A Chronology of the Life of Joseph Smith, http://byustudies.byu.edu]
135 years ago today - May 10, 1884
[Apostle Heber J. Grant Diary]
Called on Prest Taylor this day and he advised me for the present to drop the Insurance Co and intimated that in the near future I might be called on a foreign mission. He advised me not to get too much interested in business matters as my duties as an apostle could not allow or admit of my time being occupied in that direction.
[Diary of Heber J. Grant, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
Called on Prest Taylor this day and he advised me for the present to drop the Insurance Co and intimated that in the near future I might be called on a foreign mission. He advised me not to get too much interested in business matters as my duties as an apostle could not allow or admit of my time being occupied in that direction.
[Diary of Heber J. Grant, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
165 years ago today - May 10, 1854
[Brigham Young Sermon, Nephi UT]
... I want peace [with the Indians], don't you? I will tell you how to begin it. In the first place stop the boys and men fooling with the Indians and let the boys go to school, and let them learn good sense. Also let the Indians go to school and them be taught, and let the parents manifest good feelings towards the Indians, and the Lord will give us favor in the eyes of these Indians, and let them see that we want them to understand the things of God as they are, instead of wanting to slay them, you should pity them, but do not put yourselves on a level with them, but be above them and try to take a course to exalt them instead of decreasing? Yourselves to their level. Now go to work and raise train for them, also go to work and make a wall around your city so high that they cannot get over it. .... Now mark it, that if you do not do this, I will tell you that it will not be a many years until your throats will be cut and the Indians will take scalps enough to make a wick-a-up, and you will write this down as a prophecy, and write it down too, that if you will follow my counsel and do as I tell you and build your walls and forts as I direct you, not one of you shall be hurt. ... I have heard the people speak in tongues and prophecy and say I have got to go and teach the Lamanites and teach them to work and prepare them to receive the gospel, but as soon as they come among them, they want to kill them, but at the same time they will steal worse than the Indians. Now what should you do in such a case? Kill the Mormon thief and teach the Indian, for I have a thousand excuses for the Indians, to where I have one for the brethren in stealing from and killing each other. .... I expect you will soon come to my house and see a good squaw in my house. They are the seed of Israel. It will be but a very little while when they will be a white and delightsome people. This will come hard upon the women, but they must stand it.
[The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
... I want peace [with the Indians], don't you? I will tell you how to begin it. In the first place stop the boys and men fooling with the Indians and let the boys go to school, and let them learn good sense. Also let the Indians go to school and them be taught, and let the parents manifest good feelings towards the Indians, and the Lord will give us favor in the eyes of these Indians, and let them see that we want them to understand the things of God as they are, instead of wanting to slay them, you should pity them, but do not put yourselves on a level with them, but be above them and try to take a course to exalt them instead of decreasing? Yourselves to their level. Now go to work and raise train for them, also go to work and make a wall around your city so high that they cannot get over it. .... Now mark it, that if you do not do this, I will tell you that it will not be a many years until your throats will be cut and the Indians will take scalps enough to make a wick-a-up, and you will write this down as a prophecy, and write it down too, that if you will follow my counsel and do as I tell you and build your walls and forts as I direct you, not one of you shall be hurt. ... I have heard the people speak in tongues and prophecy and say I have got to go and teach the Lamanites and teach them to work and prepare them to receive the gospel, but as soon as they come among them, they want to kill them, but at the same time they will steal worse than the Indians. Now what should you do in such a case? Kill the Mormon thief and teach the Indian, for I have a thousand excuses for the Indians, to where I have one for the brethren in stealing from and killing each other. .... I expect you will soon come to my house and see a good squaw in my house. They are the seed of Israel. It will be but a very little while when they will be a white and delightsome people. This will come hard upon the women, but they must stand it.
[The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
170 years ago today - May 10, 1849
[Patriarchal Blessings]
[Patriarchal Blessing of Joseph Toronto on May 10, 1849]
... Thou shalt be endowed with power from on high and ... shall have power to do miracles before their eyes to astonish them, to heal the sick, cause the blind to see, and all other miracles, even to raise the dead, to rebuke the winds and the waves of the sea. All these miracles are to be done when it is necessary for the safety and salvation of thy people. ... You shall live to see the winding up scene of this generation, helping to build Zion with the saints ...
[Patriarchal Blessings]
[Patriarchal Blessing of Joseph Toronto on May 10, 1849]
... Thou shalt be endowed with power from on high and ... shall have power to do miracles before their eyes to astonish them, to heal the sick, cause the blind to see, and all other miracles, even to raise the dead, to rebuke the winds and the waves of the sea. All these miracles are to be done when it is necessary for the safety and salvation of thy people. ... You shall live to see the winding up scene of this generation, helping to build Zion with the saints ...
[Patriarchal Blessings]
175 years ago today - May 10, 1844
William Law distributes prospectus for NAUVOO EXPOSITOR newspaper. It advocates repeal of Nauvoo's charter and proposes to reveal "gross moral imperfections" in Nauvoo. Prospectus refers to Nauvoo's "SELF-CONSTITUTED MONARCH." Two days later Joseph Smith "called a meeting of the Kingdom," (Council of Fifty) during which the NAUVOO EXPOSITOR'S prospectus was a topic of discussion. Sidney Rigdon is authorized to visit Law and "negotiate terms of peace." Rigdon offers reinstatement of Law and his wife to "our standing in the Church and to all our offices, and they would publish it in the papers." Law counters with his own ultimatum: he demands that Joseph Smith publicly apologize for teaching "the doctrine of the plurality of wives." Rigdon "said he had not authority to go so far."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com, based on Michael Quinn's Mormon Hierarchy vols 1 & 2]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com, based on Michael Quinn's Mormon Hierarchy vols 1 & 2]
180 years ago today - May 10, 1839
[Lucy Mack Smith]
Joseph Jr., Emma, and their four children move into the Homestead, a two-story, four-room log cabin purchased from Hugh White about a mile south of Commerce. Joseph Sr. and Lucy live in a lean-to built on this cabin.
[Anderson, Lavina Fielding, Editor, Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir, 2001, Signature Books, http://bit.ly/lucys-book]
Joseph Jr., Emma, and their four children move into the Homestead, a two-story, four-room log cabin purchased from Hugh White about a mile south of Commerce. Joseph Sr. and Lucy live in a lean-to built on this cabin.
[Anderson, Lavina Fielding, Editor, Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir, 2001, Signature Books, http://bit.ly/lucys-book]
180 years ago today - 1839 10 May.
Joseph Smith moves to the village of Commerce, Illinois, which he expands and renames Nauvoo in the new city plat on 30 Aug. By the end of 1845 the city's population would swell to 12,000, second only to Chicago in the state's urban population. Another 3,000 Mormons live in the surrounding area.
[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 7: Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power]
[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 7: Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power]
180 years ago today - May 10, 1839
[Joseph Smith]
When the Saints begin to move to the Iowa territory across the river from Commerce, they find that Dr. Isaac Galland, from whom they bought the land, did not have legal title to the half-breed lands. They are therefore eventually forced to move back across the river to Commerce.
[Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]
When the Saints begin to move to the Iowa territory across the river from Commerce, they find that Dr. Isaac Galland, from whom they bought the land, did not have legal title to the half-breed lands. They are therefore eventually forced to move back across the river to Commerce.
[Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]
130 years ago today - Thursday, May 9, 1889
[Apostle John Henry Smith Diary]
Salt Lake City
Prest. W. Woodruff, G. Q. Cannon, J. F. Smith, L. Snow, F. D. Richards, F. M. Lyman, H. J. Grant and Myself met at the Gardo and dedicated a room for prayer and had a pleasant time.
[Jean Bickmore White (editor), Church, State, and Politics: The Diaries of John Henry Smith, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1990, http://bit.ly/johnhenrysmith]
Salt Lake City
Prest. W. Woodruff, G. Q. Cannon, J. F. Smith, L. Snow, F. D. Richards, F. M. Lyman, H. J. Grant and Myself met at the Gardo and dedicated a room for prayer and had a pleasant time.
[Jean Bickmore White (editor), Church, State, and Politics: The Diaries of John Henry Smith, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1990, http://bit.ly/johnhenrysmith]
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