The Rise and Fall of Nauvoo

by B. H. Roberts

A few days, only, after the departure from Springfield of the Prophet and his party, John C. Bennett arrived there. The measures he then set on foot, and which produced, ultimately, what very nearly became serious results, may be judged from the following letter addressed to Sidney Rigdon and Orson Pratt, under date of January 10, 1843:

DEAR FRIENDS—It is a long time since I have written to you, and I should now much desire to see you; but I leave tonight for Missouri, to meet the messenger charged with the arrest of Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Lyman Wight and others, for murder, burglary, treason, etc., etc., and who will be demanded in a few days on new indictments found by a grand jury of a called court on the original evidence, and in relation to which a nolle prosequi was entered by the district attorney.

New proceedings have been gotten up on the old charges, and no habeas corpus can then save them. We shall try Smith on the Boggs case, when we get him into Missouri. The war goes bravely on; and although Smith thinks he is now safe, the enemy is near, even at the door. He has awoke the wrong passenger. The governor will relinquish Joe up at once on the new requisition. There is but one opinion on the case, and that is, nothing can save Joe on the new requisition and demand, predicated on the old charges on the institution of new writs. He must go to Missouri; but he will not be harmed if he is not guilty; but he is a murderer, and must suffer the penalty of the law. Enough on this subject.

I hope that both of your amiable families are well, and you will please to give to them all my best respects. I hope to see you soon. When the officer arrives I shall be near at hand. I shall see you all again. Please write me at Independence immediately.

This letter was handed by Orson Pratt to Joseph, and was read by him to Sidney Rigdon and the company which gathered at the Nauvoo Mansion to celebrate the Prophet's release by a feast, to the discomfiture of Sidney Rigdon, who of course was averse to having it known that he held any correspondence with Bennett. The action of Orson Pratt in this matter paved the way for his return to his position in The Church, for he had been suspended from his quorum in the Priesthood, having been led to oppose the counsels and falsely accuse the Prophet, in consequence of the misrepresentations and malicious schemes of John C. Bennett. But after the above incident, he was re-baptized by the Prophet and received back into the quorum of the Apostles in full confidence and fellowship.

Meantime Nauvoo was growing. At this period—the winter of 1843—her inhabitants are variously computed from twelve to sixteen thousand. Her public buildings, chiefly the Temple and the Nauvoo House, were progressing rapidly. More pretentious buildings were being erected, and new additions to the original town plat were made, and the city, early in December, 1842, had been divided, ecclesiastically, into ten wards, and Bishops were appointed by the High Council to preside over each. The city council was active in passing ordinances to meet the growing necessities of a rapidly increasing population, looking especially to the cleanliness, health and morality of the city. In February, 1843, Joseph was elected a second time to be mayor, and all things considered, Nauvoo was rapidly approaching the high water mark of her prosperity.

CHAPTER XXVI.

DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMENT AT NAUVOO—INTERPRETATION OF THE SCRIPTURES.

AFTER the effort of the Prophet's enemies to drag him into Missouri on the charge of being an accessory before the fact in an attempt upon the life of ex-Governor Boggs, Nauvoo was granted a blessed season of peace, lasting from January, 1843, to the month of June following. It is well to note the circumstance, for Nauvoo had few such periods. Peace is essential to the growth of cities. Commerce flees from strife; and trade sinks into decay where conflicts distract the people. Nauvoo was favorably located and no city in the inland-West gave better promise of becoming an important center of domestic commerce, manufactures, and inland and river trade. With peace it could easily have become the rival of St. Louis or Chicago; and Kansas City and Omaha as outfitting points for the great West might scarcely have been known. In addition to being a center of trade, manufactures and domestic commerce, the presence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would have made it a shrine, a gathering place for the faithful from all parts of the world, and an educational center also; for already the charters were secured and the faculty chosen for a great university; and the keen interest which the Prophet and his followers had ever manifested in education gave every promise that Nauvoo in time would be one of the prominent centers of higher education in the United States.

The peace essential to this material and educational growth, however, was not granted to Nauvoo. Sectarian bitterness against the religion of the Prophet and his followers was too deep-rooted; political jealousy was too strong; and hence strife, plots, threats of violence, actual violence, rumors of invasions from Missouri, hints of assistance from mobs in Illinois, the frequent arrest of the founder of the city, the false reports that went abroad concerning its inhabitants—all combined to blight the growth which otherwise might have been hoped for from Nauvoo's favorable position and early development. But this lull referred to in that all but incessant storm which beat upon the uncovered head of Joseph Smith from the time he announced to the world a revelation from God until this period of grace—from January, 1843, to the June following—was employed by him to good advantage in the matter of the doctrinal development of The Church. It was in this period that he unfolded the doctrines which most distinguish The Church, which under God he had founded, from the sectarian churches founded by men. Unfortunately we do not have verbatim reports of his discourses during this period. Most of them were reported in long-hand by Willard Richards, his confidential friend and secretary, and Wilford Woodruff, one of the Twelve Apostles and noted among other things for daily journalizing events passing under his observation. But these reports are not verbatim, and there doubtless exist many verbal inaccuracies, and often the impression of the idea left upon the mind of the reporter rather than the idea itself. But notwithstanding some verbal inaccuracies that may exist, and even the statement of the impression of ideas for the ideas themselves, still these long-hand reports of the discourses of the Prophet, stand among the most valued documents of our annals.

Without strict regard to the chronological order in which occur his discourses, conversations, letters, and revelations quoted in the following pages of the chapters devoted to doctrinal subjects, I wish to present the substance of his teachings within the period named.

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE PRIESTHOOD TO BLESS.