JS, “President Joseph Smith’s Journal,” Journal, 4 vols., Dec. 1842–June 1844; handwriting and signatures of ; 1,045 pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes shorthand and illustrations; also includes redactions, use marks, and archival stickers.
kept “President Joseph Smith’s Journal” in four small memorandum books. The paper in book 1 is blue, while the paper in books 2–4 is white. In the first two books, the paper was printed with seventeen blue lines and extra space for page headers, whereas the paper for book 3 was printed with nineteen blue lines and no header space. The first eight gatherings of paper for book 4 were printed with sixteen blue lines and header space, while the last nine gatherings were printed with nineteen blue lines and no header space. The four volumes have 147, 160, 142, and 190 free leaves, respectively, and were sewn with all-along sewing. The leaves in books 1–3 were trimmed to measure 6 × 3¾ inches (15 × 10 cm), while the paper in book 4 measures 6¼ × 3¾ inches (16 × 10 cm). Books 2–4 have matching red-speckled stain on the page edges. All four books were bound with a tight-back case binding and have brown leather over pasteboards. Books 1–3 measure 6¼ × 4 × ¾ inches (16 × 10 × 2 cm); book 4 measures 6⅜ × 4 × ¾ inches (16 × 10 × 2 cm). The outside covers of book 1 feature an embossed pattern around the borders. The cover of book 4 is red and features a gold pattern around the borders on the front and the back.
inscribed most of the journal entries in these memorandum books with a quill pen in ink that is now brown, although he also used blue ink for several entries. The volumes also include inscriptions written in graphite, some of which are contemporaneous and some that are later redactions. Richards paginated the first 114 of the 285 inscribed pages in book 1—discounting the title page that precedes the pagination—and the first 20 of the 309 inscribed pages in book 2. There is no pagination in books 3–4. In book 2, pages 11, 17, and 20–21 feature illustrations of celestial observations.
The memorandum books include later inscriptions that are not transcribed in this edition. At the end of book 2, added a list of -era plural marriages. A few revisions, additions, or notes are penciled in throughout the volumes. There are also several use marks throughout the volumes—probably made when the journal entries were later revised for inclusion in the “History of Joseph Smith” published in Mormon newspapers in the mid-nineteenth century. The spines of the volumes are now labeled with blue-colored paper stickers that probably date from the early Utah period. Each of the four volumes also bears the mark of a square sticker removed from the upper right-hand corner of the outside front cover. Finally, a “Historian’s Office Archives” self-adhesive paper sticker appears in the front inside cover or on the first flyleaf of each book.
identified himself as the scribe for the journal on the title pages of books 1 and 4. Because Richards kept the journals for JS and kept his own journal in the back of book 4 after JS’s death, the books may have been among “Drs [Richards’s] private books & Papers” listed in the 1846 inventory of church records made in , Illinois. The volumes are listed in inventories made in Salt Lake City, Utah, by the Church Historian’s Office in 1855, 1858, and 1878, as well as in the 1973 register of the JS Collection. These archival records and the physical evidence of archival stickers indicate continuous institutional custody and authenticity.
Note: The journal kept for JS is divided into four physical books. The transcript and annotation here are for book 4, covering 1 March through 22 June 1844. The transcript and annotation for the other three books are also available on this website; book 1 covers 21 December 1842 through 10 March 1843, book 2 covers 10 March through 14 July 1843, and book 3 covers 15 July 1843 through 29 February 1844.
This serialized history drew on the journals herein beginning with the 4 July 1855 issue of the Deseret News and with the 3 January 1857 issue of the LDS Millennial Star.
The labels on the spines of the four volumes read respectively as follows: “Joseph Smith’s Journal—1842–3 by Willard Richards” (book 1); “Joseph Smith’s Journal by W. Richards 1843” (book 2); “Joseph Smith’s Journal by W. Richards 1843–4” (book 3); and “W. Richards’ Journal 1844 Vol. 4” (book 4). Richards kept JS’s journal in the front of book 4, and after JS’s death Richards kept his own journal in the back of the volume.
“Inventory. Historian’s Office. 4th April 1855,” [1]; “Contents of the Historian and Recorder’s Office G. S. L. City July 1858,” 2; “Index of Records and Journals in the Historian’s Office 1878,” [11]–[12], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL; Johnson, Register of the Joseph Smith Collection, 7.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
Johnson, Jeffery O. Register of the Joseph Smith Collection in the Church Archives, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1973.
Historical Introduction
took over the responsibility of keeping JS’s journal from on 21 December 1842, the same day JS “made a particular request” that Richards “act as his private se[c]retary & historian.” This was the second time Richards kept JS’s journal; he had also kept it between 13 December 1841 and 29 June 1842 before leaving for , Massachusetts, to bring his family to , Illinois. During Richards’s absence, Clayton kept JS’s journal, inscribing entries, as Richards had done, in the large Book of the Law of the Lord, which also contained records of donations for the . Clayton continued keeping the journal—JS’s first Nauvoo journal—even after Richards returned to Nauvoo on 30 October 1842, probably because, as temple recorder, Clayton was the custodian of the Book of the Law of the Lord. When Richards resumed keeping JS’s journal on 21 December 1842, he began using a much smaller memorandum book. This second Nauvoo journal was kept by Richards through 22 June 1844 and eventually comprised four such memorandum books.
Several pieces of evidence indicate that these four memorandum books were considered volumes of the same journal rather than separate journals themselves. For example, whereas JS’s journals kept during the 1830s were recorded in bound books or notebooks labeled with different titles—such as “Sketch Book” or “The Scriptory Book”—the first and last of ’s memorandum books bear virtually identical titles, with the fourth explicitly identified as “vol 4”. Similarly, that books 2 and 3 lack titles suggests that each was simply a continuation of the previous book. This suggestion is made even stronger in book 2, in which the first entry commences at 4:00 p.m. on 10 March, with the events of the earlier part of the day recorded at the end of book 1. All four memorandum books are virtually the same size, and the bindings on the first three are similar.
As with nearly all the entries in JS’s previous and journals, JS neither wrote nor dictated the text of the entries in the memorandum books; they are based on ’s observations. For example, the entry for 22 September 1843 records only that Richards “saw Joseph pass in a waggon with Hiram.” Despite the secondhand nature of the entries, however, Richards, a close associate and frequent companion of JS, was able to capture in detail JS’s words and actions on many occasions.
The shift of ’s office from temple recorder and scribe to JS’s “private se[c]retary & historian,” as well as the transfer of the journal out of the Book of the Law of the Lord, may have influenced what events Richards recorded in the memorandum books. At least some of the material Richards, as JS’s private secretary, included in this journal—such as the detailed record of a medical malpractice suit over which JS presided—probably would have received much less emphasis had Richards, in the capacity of temple recorder and scribe, been keeping JS’s journal in the book that also contained records of donations for the temple. Similarly, although the ledger-size Book of the Law of the Lord likely remained in the recorder’s office and most journal entries were probably made there, each of the memorandum books was small enough that Richards could easily carry it with him, allowing him to record many of JS’s activities closer to the actual event—both temporally and spatially—than was possible earlier.
’s new title of historian was significant as well. On 1 December 1842, he began working on the “History of Joseph Smith” that was being serially published in the Times and Seasons, and by August 1843 he was drawing on JS’s earlier journals for that history. Richards therefore likely expected that the contemporaneous journal entries he was keeping for JS would eventually be used as the basis for JS’s history.
employed various techniques in keeping the journal. For a few entries, he made lightly penciled notes and returned later with a quill pen to expand the entry. In other entries, the morning or afternoon portion of an entry was written in one ink and the evening portion of the entry in a different ink that matches that of the following entry. These changes in writing media and in other aspects of the inscribed text indicate that many entries—or parts of entries—were made on the very day of the events they described. The textual evidence in other entries indicates that they were written several days after the date they bear. Still other entries are a hybrid. Richards’s notes of sermons and legal proceedings, for example, bear evidence of both contemporaneous inscription and later revision. In some instances, Richards left blank spaces and even blank lines, apparently intending to add details later. Hurried note taking often resulted in missing words, informal abbreviations, inconsistent spelling, and poorly formed characters. Richards revisited some difficult passages to mend or rewrite characters, revise spelling and punctuation, and add interlineations. Some of the blanks were filled while others were left standing. Richards’s notes include both immediate emendations, such as wipe-erasures made while his ink was still wet, as well as later revisions, such as knife-erasures of words written in ink that had dried. The various ways in which Richards wrote and revised entries resulted in the journal’s uneven texture but also contribute to its wealth of immediately recorded information and clarifying additions.
Over time, settled somewhat into a pattern of generally recording the events of one day on one page—some pages largely empty and others filled with cramped writing—with weather reported at the bottom of the page. He made an entry for almost every day during the last year and a half of JS’s life. The journal ended when JS left on 22 June 1844, five days before he was killed at the jailhouse at , Illinois. Richards accompanied JS to Carthage and, during the final days of JS’s life, kept extensive notes of JS’s activities in his personal journal.
Note: The journal kept for JS is divided into four physical books. The transcript and annotation here are for book 4, covering 1 March through 22 June 1844. The transcript and annotation for the other three books are also available on this website; book 1 covers 21 December 1842 through 10 March 1843, book 2 covers 10 March through 14 July 1843, and book 3 covers 15 July 1843 through 29 February 1844.
6 P.M. Proph[e]sied that. <in> the sickly season the that sicklyseason sickness would enter into their houses. and sweep them & vex them until they would fain repent in dust and ashes. and they will be smitten with the scab and— &c—
7 [p.m.] recevd a writtn invitation from James Hamilton & 5 or 6 othe[r]s to preach to morr[o]w
Editorial Note
JS’s journal ends with the 22 June 1844 entry. A letter JS received from governor late in the evening of 22 June, along with JS’s response to that letter, clarifies JS’s situation at the close of the journal. Ford wrote that after careful examination, he felt that it could be “safely assumed, that the immediate cause of the existing excitement, is the distruction of the press and fixtures of the Nauvoo Expositor; and the Subsequent refusal of the individuals accused to be accountable therefor according to the general laws of this State; And the insisting on your parts to be accountable only before your own Municipal Court, And according to the ordinances of your City.” Ford characterized the destruction of the press as “a very gross outrage upon the laws and the liberties of the people” and charged JS and his associates with violating the constitutional provisions of freedom of the press and the guarantee against being deprived of “life liberty or property” without due process of law and a jury trial. The governor also accused the City Council of assuming “more power than . . . entitled to in relation to writs of habeas” and of taking upon itself judicial power that it did not have when it declared the press a nuisance. “In no other State, county, city Town, or Territory in the ,” Ford asserted, had the idea that a newspaper could be “legally abated or removed as a nuisance” ever been considered.
then insisted that all who were accused of destroying the Nauvoo Expositor press submit themselves “to be arrested by the Same Constable, by virtue of the same warrant and be tried before the same magistrate whose authority has heretofore been resisted”—referring to at . “You have made it necessary that a Posse should be assembled to execute legal process,” Ford said, and he warned that he would also call out the militia to arrest the accused if necessary. “I Sincerely hope that your people may do nothing which will make Such a proceeding necessary,” Ford continued, as he had “great fears” that militia officers would lose control of their troops in such an event and that would be destroyed and many Latter-day Saints killed. The governor closed his letter by guaranteeing the safety of anyone who came to Carthage either for trial or as a witness for the accused.
According to , sent his letter by thirty “officers,” who told JS that they would wait until the following morning, 23 June, for JS and the others to prepare to accompany them to and that if “they were not then ready they should wait no longer but return & tell the governor they were resisted.” These thirty men may have been the posse referred to in Ford’s letter and mentioned in subsequent discussions and records. Ford, however, reported that he sent a constable and ten men to arrest JS. Whatever the number, the compilers of JS’s history reported that the posse did not arrive in until the morning of 23 June.
In his response, JS told the that rather than insisting on being accountable only to the Municipal Court, he and others pled for “as a last resort,” seeing it as the only means by which they could save themselves “from being thrown into the power of the mobocrats.” JS defended the city council’s authority to declare the press a nuisance, referring to the Nauvoo charter and to William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England. JS also cited a legal case in that revolved around the of a press for libel to demonstrate precedence for the Nauvoo City Council’s actions. Their application of habeas corpus, similarly, had been made “in accordance with the Letter of the Charter, & Constitutin, as we confidently understnd them.— and that too with the ablest counsel.” Invoking constitutional protection against , JS also told Thomas Ford that those who had been accused of destroying the press had been examined and discharged by justice of the peace . “But notwithstanding this,” he continued, “we would not hissitate to stand another trial according to your Excellencys wish, were it not that we are confident our lives would be in danger, we dare not come.” In addition, JS told the governor that upon receipt of his letter, martial law had been lifted from Nauvoo and that JS and others, on the advice of “legal & high minded Gentlemn from abroad,” would be leaving Nauvoo immediately to lay their case before the federal government, “as the appernc [appearance] of things is not only treasonabl ag[ai]nst us, but againt this state on the part of .” “If any thing wrong has been done on our part, and we know of nothing,” JS closed, “we will make all things right. if the governmnt will give us the oppor[tu]nity, disperse the mob and secure to us our constitinal [constitutional] privileges— that are lives may not be endangered—when on trial.”
JS, , , and left during the night, crossed the , and arrived in the following morning. According to , JS left Nauvoo “rather than resist the officers & Militia or go to .” In a letter to his on 23 June, JS wrote that he did not know where he would go or what he would do, but that “if possible” he would “endeavor to get to the city of .” In an account based on reminiscent sources and clearly influenced by intervening events, compilers of JS’s history later wrote that he left Nauvoo for “the Great Basin in the Rocky Mountains” after instructing “to commence petitioning the President of the and Congress for redress of grievances, and see if they would grant the Church liberty and equal rights.”
For ’s detailed account of JS’s activities between 23 and 27 June 1844, see Appendix 3.
The invitation was from officers and members of the Nauvoo Legion from outlying areas who had come to Nauvoo to protect the city. The men requested that “we have liberty of seats near enough to the Stand to hear inasmuch as we have an oppertunity to hear him [JS] but Seldom and Some of us have not heard him atol.” The invitation was signed by “James Hamilton and Co.” of the Liberty Branch, Nathaniel Case of La Harpe, “Hugh, H. Yager & Co” of Macedonia, Hiram Clark, Z. D. Wilson’s company, Alvah Tippets’s company, S. Hancock, and Warren Snow. (James Hamilton et al., to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 17 [22] June 1844, JS Collection, CHL.)
Ford, Thomas. A History of Illinois, from Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847. Containing a Full Account of the Black Hawk War, the Rise, Progress, and Fall of Mormonism, the Alton and Lovejoy Riots, and Other Important and Interesting Events. Chicago: S. C. Griggs; New York: Ivison and Phinney, 1854.