General epistle from the Council of the Twelve Apostles

General epistle from the Council of the Twelve Apostles, to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints abroad, dispersed throughout the earth, greeting. [St. Louis, 1848] 8 pp. 25 cm.

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At end: Written at Winter Quarters, Omaha Nation, west bank of Missouri River, near Council Bluffs, North America, and signed December 23d, 1847, in behalf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Brigham Young, President. Willard Richards, Clerk.

General Epistle from the Council of the Twelve Apostles marks the beginning of Mormonism’s Utah period. Issued fifty-three days after Brigham Young and most of the Twelve returned to Winter Quarters following their trek to the Great Salt Lake Valley, it opens with an account of the evacuation of Nauvoo, the settling of the Iowa camps, the call of the Mormon Battalion, and the overland journey of the pioneer company. It announces the establishment of a new home for the Latter-day Saints, describes the Salt Lake Valley, and calls upon the Saints to gather “on the east side of the Missouri River, and, if possible, be ready to start from hence by the first of May next, or as soon as grass is sufficiently grown, and go to the Great Salt Lake City.” It counsels those unable to move to the Valley the following summer to settle for a time near Council Bluffs, urges the European Saints to immigrate speedily, by way of New Orleans to the Bluffs, and asks all those coming west to bring whatever seeds, plants, livestock, tools, machinery, books, maps, charts, and scientific instruments they can to the Valley.

The epistle also speaks of “having it in contemplation soon to re-organize the Church according to the original pattern, with a First Presidency and Patriarch.” In fact, on December 5, at Orson Hyde’s house near Council Bluffs, Brigham Young and eight members of the Twelve had reorganized the First Presidency with Brigham Young, president, and Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards, his counselors, and the following day had called John Smith as patriarch. Eighteen days later, the day after they issued the epistle, they convened a four-day general conference at Council Bluffs during which Young, Kimball, Richards, and Smith were sustained by the congregation.

During the latter part November 1847, Orson Pratt, Wilford Woodruff and George A. Smith, and Ezra T. Benson submitted suggestions for the epistle to Willard Richards, and on December 16 at 11 p.m. he began dictating it to Robert L. Campbell, finishing it at 8 a.m. the following morning. The draft was discussed at a meeting of the Twelve later that day and again on the 19th and 21st. Richards and Thomas Bullock worked together on revisions over the three days December 20-22. The manuscript was handed to Amasa Lyman and Ezra T. Benson, who in company with William I. Appleby , Erastus Snow, James H. Flanigan, and others, left Council Bluffs for the East on December 28, and on January 14, Lyman, Benson, Snow, and Appleby reached St. Louis. Three days later, from St. Louis, Benson and Appleby wrote to Brigham Young that they had “five hundred copies of the Epistle already struck off” and were getting 3,000 printed at a cost of about $30.

Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley, A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. Volume Two, 1848-1852. Forthcoming.

Used by permission of the author.

General Smith’s views of the powers and policy of the government

Smith, Joseph. General Smith’s views of the powers and policy oe [sic] the government of the United States. Nauvoo, Illinois : Printed by John Taylor: 1844.
p. 24.5 cm.

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Exactly what Joseph Smith’s expectations were for his presidential campaign is open to question. Some have suggested that its purpose was only to publicize the Mormon position, that he had no thought of being elected. On the other hand, the fact that over 300 campaign “missionaries” were sent to every part of the country with instructions to advertise his political views would seem to indicate a serious candidacy, at least one intended to influence national politics.

Joseph Smith dictated the principal ideas in his Views to W. W. Phelps on January 29, 1844 ; but the text itself was certainly written by Phelps. Fifteen hundred copies were printed in February 1844, and during the next four months General Smith’s views was twice reprinted in Nauvoo, and republished in Pittsburgh ; Pontiac , Michigan ; Philadelphia ; Kirtland , Ohio ; and New York.

It is a windy document, peppered with foreign language phrases-some misspelled. Beginning with a strong anti-slavery statement, it lists eight specific proposals, among them the institution of a tariff; the reduction of the number of congressmen, by one-half; the abolishing of imprisonment for all crimes except murder; the establishment of a national bank; the granting of authority to the president to independently suppress civil uprising in the states; and the annexation of Oregon and Texas.

Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley and Chad J. Flake, A Mormon Fifty: an exhibition in the Harold B. Lee Library in conjunction with the annual conference of the Mormon History Association. (Provo, Utah, Friends of the Brigham Young University Library, 1984). Item 23, p. [19]; and Peter Crawley, A Descriptive bibliography of the Mormon Church. Volume One, 1830-1847. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, Religious Studies Center, [1997]). Item 210, p. 254.

Used by permission of the authors and the Religious Studies Center , Brigham Young University .

Good news

Good news!!! The Latter-day Saints (d.v.) intend holding a camp meeting, at Hillmorton, near Rugby, on Sunday, July the 4th, 1847, (or if wet on that day, on the first fine Sunday afterwards,) when Elder Thos. Smith from Leamington, with Elder Day, and others, will address the meetings. Services to commence in the afternoon at two. Evening, at half-past six o’clock. “Hear and then judge!” {Rugby? 1847]
Broadside 19 x 12 cm.

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Thomas Smith of Leamington, not to be confused with Thomas Smith of Norwich, was the president of the Warwickshire conference, which included the branch at Rugby over which Thomas Day presided. Born near Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, September 2, 1814, Day converted to Mormonism in September 1842 and immediately devoted himself to missionary work. About three years after his conversion, he settled in Rugby, where he lived until he immigrated to America. In 1850 he led a company of Latter-day Saints across the Atlantic, and in 1852 he made the trek to Utah. Four years later he joined the Salmon River Indian mission and subsequently settled in southern Utah. Eventually he moved to Circleville, where he died, January 6, 1893.

Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley, A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. Volume One, 1830-1847. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, Religious Studies Center, [1997]). Item 338, p. 368-69.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.

Gospel Reflector

The Gospel Reflector, in which the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is set forth, and scripture evidence adduced to establish it. A brief treatise upon the most important prophecies recorded in the Old and New Testaments, which relate to the great work of God of the latter-days. In short, the subjects of the gospel of Christ, apostasy of the Jews and Gentiles, reorganization of the Kingdom of God and renewal of the gospel dispensation, the appearing of the Book of Mormon, the restoration of the House of Israel, second coming of Christ and destruction of the wicked, millennium, &c., &c., are treated upon. Edited by B. Winchester, presiding elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Philadelphia. Philadelphia, Brown, Bicking & Guilbert, Printers, No. 56 North Third Street, 1841.
2 p.l., [1]-316 p. 23 cm.

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The idea of publishing an independent magazine in support of the Church was in Benjamin Winchester’s mind as early as the spring of 1840. This idea must have been reinforced by the success of the Millennial Star which he observed during a trip to England in the fall of 1840, and by Parley Pratt’s ambitious publishing ventures which helped finance Parley’s mission. Between January 1 and June 15, 1841, Winchester published an issue of the Gospel Reflector every two weeks, making twelve numbers in all, the whole continuously paged. Each bears the caption title: The Gospel Reflector. Published by B. Winchester, Pastor of the Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Philadelphia. The individual numbers were issued with paper wrappers, but no copy in wrappers has survived. With the close of the volume in June 1841, the twelve numbers were bound with a title page and table of contents; and it is in this form that the Gosepl Reflector is invariably found.

Like other Mormon periodicals, it borrowed heavily from other sources. But the bulk of the articles were written by Winchester, and the influence of Parley Pratt’s Voice of Warning–explicitly acknowledged in the first number–is pervasive. Winchester moved beyond the Voice of Warning, however, by marshaling in support of his arguments a large collection of biblical proof-texts, many appearing in a Mormon publication for the first time. Here the Gospel Reflector marked a shift away from the polemics of the preceding four years and toward the more apologetic form of writing which would characterize the productions of Orson Spencer and Orson Pratt in the latter part of the decade.

Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley and Chad J. Flake, A Mormon Fifty: an exhibition in the Harold B. Lee Library in conjunction with the annual conference of the Mormon History Association. (Provo, Utah, Friends of the Brigham Young University Library, 1984). Item 20, p. [17-18].

Used by permission of the authors.