The Rise and Fall of Nauvoo

by B. H. Roberts

The location which the Saints had contemplated as the site for the temple was on a bold eminence overlooking the river, the landscape on the Iowa side, and all the surrounding country for miles around. It was not only by far the noblest site in Nauvoo for a temple, but ideal in its fitness.

Footnotes

[1]. Doctrine and Covenants, Section 124.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE CONFERENCE OF APRIL 6TH, 1841.

THE sixth of April, 1841, was a memorable day in the history of Nauvoo. That day the corner stones of the great temple which God by revelation had commanded His people to build were to be laid. To the Prophet Joseph the day must have been a veritable gleam of sunshine amid the constantly renewing storms of his eventful career. It was a beautiful day, clear and balmy—propitious for the exercises to take place.

Early in the morning there was a hurrying to and fro in the streets of militiamen, for the presence of sixteen uniformed companies of the Nauvoo Legion was to add brightness and interest to the imposing ceremonies. A great procession was formed and marched to the temple site. Here the Legion was formed in a hollow square surrounding the excavations made for the foundation of the temple and enclosing the officers of the Legion, choir, citizens and prominent Elders of The Church who were to lay the corner stones of that structure. Sidney Rigdon was the orator of the occasion; and, doubtless owing to the recent admonition he had received in the revelation from the Lord—to which reference has been made—he was aroused from his lethargy for the time. At any rate, on this occasion he spoke with his old fervor and eloquence. He reviewed the trials of the past, the blessings they then enjoyed, the brightening prospects of the future, and dwelt at some length upon the importance of building temples, and the labor to be performed in them.

At the conclusion of the oration, at the direction of the First Presidency, the architects lowered the southeast cornerstone to its place, and Joseph Smith said:

This principal corner-stone in representation of the First Presidency, is now duly laid in honor of the great God; and may it there remain until the whole fabric is completed; and may the same be accomplished speedily; that the Saints may have a place in which to worship God, and the Son of Man have where to lay His head.

To which Sidney Rigdon added: