The Joseph Smith Papers: Documents, Vol. 7

September 1839 - January 1841

by Ronald K. Esplin

Just months after he escaped from state custody in Missouri and less than a year after church members were violently driven from the state, Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints gathered in October 1839 to officially designate the Commerce, Illinois, area as a center of gathering for the saints. During the next fifteen months, Joseph Smith and the church focused their efforts on establishing the city that became known as Nauvoo, gaining restitution for the property lost in Missouri, and extending the church’s reach through missionary work. Documents, Volume 7 begins with church leaders earnestly striving to settle the Commerce area. They created a plat for the planned town of Nauvoo and began selling town lots to the Saints. But as they progressed in establishing a Zion community, church members in the Commerce area suffered greatly from disease, particularly malaria. Even in the midst of the Saints’ struggles on the marshy banks of the Mississippi River, Joseph Smith did not forget the difficulties church members had experienced in Missouri. In fall 1839, he spent much of his time preparing to travel to Washington DC to petition the federal government for redress for property church members lost when they were expelled from Missouri. While in Washington in late 1839 and early 1840, Joseph Smith and the rest of the church delegation sought aid from President martin Van Buren and the United States Congress. They were ultimately unsuccessful, despite having submitted to Congress a lengthy memorial detailing the losses the Saints had suffered. Although frustrated by the government’s refusal to grant redress to the Saints, Joseph Smith and the church continued their efforts to build up their community in Commerce and to strengthen the church throughout the world. Eight members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were proselytizing in Great Britain, and two other apostles had been appointed to serve a mission to the Jews in Europe and Palestine. Throughout this period, church leaders deliberated about the best way to distribute more copies of church publications domestically and internationally. Many of the documents in Documents, Volume 7, showcase the determination and optimism that Smith and others felt about building up the church and its members. Partly as a result of international missionary success, the population in Nauvoo and the surrounding area flourished, and the church and its community along the Mississippi continued to stabilize. In summer 1840, Joseph Smith announced that a temple would be built in Nauvoo and taught the doctrine of baptism for the dead for the first time. Before the end of the year, the Illinois legislature passed the Nauvoo city charter, granting the city extensive legal powers and protections and allowing for the establishment of the Nauvoo Legion and a university in Nauvoo. A January 1841 revelation to Joseph Smith highlighted efforts to build up the Saints’ new gathering place. In the ensuing years, the revelation functioned as a sort of sacred charter that guided the Saints’ efforts to establish Nauvoo as a “corner stone of Zion.” The texts presented here, along with their extensive historical annotation, make this volume an invaluable resource for those studying this period of Mormon history and the church leader who strived to unify his people, obtain redress for the wrongs they suffered, and create a safe place for them to gather.