Times and Seasons (, Hancock Co., IL), 1 Mar. 1842, vol. 3, no. 9, pp. 703–718; edited by JS. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
Historical Introduction
The first issue of the -affiliated newspaper Times and Seasons was published near , Illinois, in 1839. Owned jointly by and , the paper was edited at various times by Smith, Robinson, and through summer 1841. Following the deaths of Smith and Thompson in August 1841, Robinson became sole proprietor and editor of the paper. On 28 January 1842 JS dictated a revelation that directed the to assume editorial responsibility for the paper. A week later Robinson sold the newspaper, along with the remainder of his printing establishment, to JS.
Though JS assumed editorship of the Times and Seasons sometime in mid-February, he stated in his first editorial passage that he did not begin reviewing the paper’s content until the 1 March 1842 issue. A 2 March 1842 entry in JS’s journal notes, “Read the Proof of the ‘Times and Seasons’ as Editor for the first time, No. 9[th] Vol 3d. in which is the commencement of the Book of Abraham.” Though JS actively edited the paper at times, apparently assisted him in writing content. Regardless of who penned specific passages of editorial material, JS openly assumed editorial responsibility for all installments naming him as editor except the 15 February 1842 issue.
Included in the 1 March 1842 issue of the Times and Seasons are four editorial passages, which are featured below with introductions. Other JS documents published in this issue of the newspaper, including an excerpt from the Book of Abraham and a rare narrative history of the church, are featured as stand-alone documents in this or other volumes of The Joseph Smith Papers. In the first editorial passage, JS publicly announced his new role as editor of the Times and Seasons to the newspaper’s readership.
Note that only the editorial content created specifically for this issue of the Times and Seasons is annotated here. Articles reprinted from other papers, letters, conference minutes, and notices, are reproduced here but not annotated. Items that are stand-alone JS documents are annotated elsewhere; links are provided to these stand-alone documents.
Ebenezer Robinson, “To the Patrons of the Times and Seasons,” Times and Seasons, 16 Aug. 1841, 2:511; Ebenezer Robinson, “Items of Personal History of the Editor,” Return, May 1890, 257; July 1890, 302; see also Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:91–92.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
The Return. Davis City, IA, 1889–1891; Richmond, MO, 1892–1893; Davis City, 1895–1896; Denver, 1898; Independence, MO, 1899–1900.
Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.
In the 15 March 1842 issue of the Times and Seasons,Robinson confirmed JS’s declaration. Apprising readers that in early February it had not been “fully decided whether President Smith should take the responsibility of editor, or not,” Robinson stated that the 15 February issue went to press without JS’s “personal inspection.” (Ebenezer Robinson, “To the Public,” Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1842, 3:729.)
lieve that he will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
We believe in the literal of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes. That will be built upon this continent. That Christ will reign personally upon the earth, and that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradasaic glory.
We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty God according to the dictates of our conscience, and allow all men the same privilege let them worship how, where, or what they may.
We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law.
We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul “we believe all things we hope all things,” we have endured many things and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is any thing virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praise worthy we seek after these things. Respectfully &c.,
JOSEPH SMITH.
——————————
TIMES AND SEASONS.
CITY OF ,
TUESDAY, MARCH 15 [1], 1842.
——————————
Editorial Note
In the first editorial passage, JS publicly announced his new role as editor of the Times and Seasons to the newspaper’s readership.
TO SUBSCRIBERS.
☞This paper commences my editorial career, I alone stand responsible for it, and shall do for all papers having my signature henceforward. I am not responsible for the publication, or arrangement of the former paper; the matter did not come under my supervision.
JOSEPH SMITH.
————
Editorial Note
The second editorial passage relates to a 26 January 1842 article printed in the New-York Tribune that suggested that the paymaster of the militia had absconded with money earmarked for the militiamen who had fought in the 1838 Mormon War. Commenting on this article, the editor of the Times and Seasons inveighed against the militia and citizens of Missouri for their role in killing church members at , Caldwell County, Missouri, in 1838 and forcing thousands of to leave the state in 1839.
HONOR AMONG THIEVES.
We extract the following from the ‘New York Tribune.’
The Paymaster of the Militia, called out to put down the Mormons, some two years since, was supplied with money some time since and started for Western , but has not yet arrived there. It is feared that he has taken the ‘Saline slope.’
We are not suprised that persons who could wantonly, barbarously, and without the shadow of law, drive fifteen thousand men, women and children from their homes, should have among them a man who was so lost to every sense of justice, as to run away with the wages for this infamous deed: it is not very difficult for men who can blow out the brains of children; who can shoot down, and hew to pieces our ancient veterans, who fought in the defence of our country, and delivered it from the oppressor’s grasp; who could deliberately, and in cold blood, murder men, and rob them of their boots, watches, &c. and whilst they were yet weltering in their blood and grappling with death, and then proceed to rob their widowed houses. Men who can deliberately do this, and steal near all the horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, and property of a whole community, and drive them from their homes en-masse, in an inclement season of the year, will not find many qualms of conscience in stealing the pay of his brother theives, and taking the ‘saline slope.’
The very idea of government paying these men for their bloody deeds, must cause the sons of liberty to blush, and to hang their harps upon the willow; and make the blood of every patriot run chill. The proceedings of that have been so barbarous, and inhuman, that our indignation is aroused when we reflect upon the scene.
We are here reminded of one of the patriotic deeds of the gove[r]nment of that , who, after they had robbed us of every thing we had in the world, and taken from us many hundred thousand dollars worth of property, had their sympathies so far touched, (, their good name,) that they voted two thousand dollars for the relief of the ‘suffering Mormons,’ and choosing two or three of her noblest sons, to carry their heavenly boon, these angels of salvation came in the plenitude of their mercy, and in the dignity of their office, to . To do what? to feed their hungry, and clothe their naked with the $2000? verily nay! but to go into and steal the Mormon’s hogs (which they were prohibited themselves from obtaining, under penalty of death,) to distribute among the destitute, and to sell where they could obtain the money. These hogs, thus obtained were shot down in their blood, and not otherwise bled; they were filthy to a degree.— These, the Mormons’ own hogs, and a very few goods, the sweepings of an old store in , were what these patriotic and noble minded men gave to the ‘poor Mormons,’ and circulated to the world how sympathic, benevolent, kind and merciful the Legislature of the State of was, in giving two thousand dollars to the ‘suffering Mormons.’ Surely, ‘the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.’ [p. 710]
The paymaster of the Missouri militia was Major Horner, a veteran of the War of 1812. (Journal of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, 26 Jan. 1843, 258–259; History of Boone County, Missouri, 885; Waller, History of Randolph County Missouri, 387.)
Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, On Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.
History of Boone County, Missouri. Written and Compiled From the Most Authentic Official and Private Sources. . . . St. Louis: Western Historical Co., 1882.
Waller, Alexander H. History of Randolph County, Missouri. Topeka, KS: Historical Publishing Company, 1920.
The expression was “Sabine slope” not “Saline slope.” According to a nineteenth-century dictionary of American expressions, one meaning of the word slope was “to run away.” Contemporary uses of “Sabine slope” suggest that the expression was used to describe the action of absconding from moral or financial obligations. Despite the suspicion the New-York Tribune expressed, there is no evidence that the paymaster, Major Horner, engaged in any financial improprieties. (“Slope,” in Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, 310; “Commercial and Money Matters,” New-York Daily Tribune [New York City], 21 Oct. 1842, [3]; “Daniel Webster,” Weekly Globe [Washington DC], 1 Oct. 1842, 681; “Rail Road Management—the Bank Clique—Anecdote of a Financial Operation,” New York Herald [New York City], 19 Jan. 1842, [2].)
Bartlett, John Russell. Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases, Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States. New York: Bartlett and Welford, 1848.
This is likely a reference to the murder of Sardius Smith by vigilantes near the Hawn’s Mill settlement in Caldwell County, Missouri, on 3 October 1838. According to a firsthand account of the massacre written by Latter-day Saint Joseph Young, one of the attackers killed nine-year-old Sardius with a close-range rifle shot to the head. (Greene, Facts relative to the Expulsion, 23.)
Greene, John P. Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons or Latter Day Saints, from the State of Missouri, under the “Exterminating Order.” By John P. Greene, an Authorized Representative of the Mormons. Cincinnati: R. P. Brooks, 1839.
This is likely a reference to the murder of Thomas McBride at the Hawn’s Mill settlement in 1838. One survivor, Amanda Barnes Smith, described McBride as an “old white headed Revalutioner [Revolutioner],” though he was born in 1776. Another survivor later related how vigilantes shot McBride with a gun and mutilated him with a corn cutter. (Baugh, “Rare Account of the Haun’s Mill Massacre,” 166; Amanda Barnes Smith, Statement, 18 Apr. 1839, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL.)
Baugh, Alexander L. “A Rare Account of the Haun’s Mill Massacre: The Reminiscence of Willard Gilbert Smith.” Mormon Historical Studies 8 (2007): 165–171.
Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.
A few survivors reported that after the attack at Hawn’s Mill, vigilantes looted houses, wagons, and tents, stealing clothing from both the deceased and survivors. (Greene, Facts relative to the Expulsion, 24; Amanda Barnes Smith, Statement, 18 Apr. 1839, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL.)
Greene, John P. Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons or Latter Day Saints, from the State of Missouri, under the “Exterminating Order.” By John P. Greene, an Authorized Representative of the Mormons. Cincinnati: R. P. Brooks, 1839.
Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.
In an 1839 petition to the Missouri legislature, church members asserted that after they had surrendered to militiamen in Far West, Missouri, the soldiers proceeded to plunder and burn building materials and steal or kill cattle, sheep, and hogs. (Greene, Facts relative to the Expulsion, 13–14.)
Greene, John P. Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons or Latter Day Saints, from the State of Missouri, under the “Exterminating Order.” By John P. Greene, an Authorized Representative of the Mormons. Cincinnati: R. P. Brooks, 1839.
Over six thousand militiamen were deployed during the 1838 Mormon War. In February of the following year, the Missouri legislature began the process of appropriating as much as $200,000 for “paying the expenses of the troops called out to drive the mormons from the State.” (Gentry and Compton, Fire and Sword, 496; An Act to Authorise the Procurement of a Loan of Money to the State of Missouri, for the Purpose of Paying the Volunteers and Militia That Have Been Engaged in the Service of the State, and for Other Purposes [9 Feb. 1839], Laws of the State of Missouri [1838–1839], pp. 79–80, sec. 1; John Smith, St. Louis, to Lilburn W. Boggs, Jefferson City, MO, 4 Mar. 1839, in Journal of the House of Representatives, of the State of Missouri, 610–611; Pratt, History of the Late Persecution, 70, emphasis in original.)
Gentry, Leland Homer, and Todd M. Compton. Fire and Sword: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Northern Missouri, 1836–39. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2011.
Laws of the State of Missouri, Passed at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, on Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1838.
Journal, of the House of Representatives, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, on Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.
In a memorial submitted to the United States Senate in January 1840, church leaders estimated losses of nearly two million dollars from stealing and vandalism committed by vigilantes and militiamen in Missouri. A circa 1843 register of affidavits, created by Thomas Bullock and containing bills of damages related to the loss of property in Missouri, estimated the figure to be $1,381,084.51½ (though Bullock’s register apparently omitted several affidavits). (Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840; Thomas Bullock, “Bills,” in Mormon Redress Petitions, 1839–1845, CHL.)
Mormon Redress Petitions, 1839–1845. CHL. MS 2703.
Following the expulsion of church members from Daviess and Caldwell counties, many refugees lacked adequate food, clothing, and shelter. On 11 December 1838 Missouri governor Lilburn W. Boggs signed a bill that appropriated $2,000 “for the relief of sundry persons in Caldwell and Daviess counties.” (An Act for the Relief of Sundry Persons in Caldwell and Daviess Counties [11 Dec. 1838], Laws of the State of Missouri [1838], pp. 314–315.)
Laws of the State of Missouri, Passed at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, on Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1838.
Among those appointed to distribute necessities to the destitute were Henry McHenry and Elisha Cameron, the two men most often identified by name in Latter-day Saint accounts of these events. (“Theodore Turley’s Memorandums,” ca. 1845, [3], Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL; History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, Missouri, 143.)
Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.
History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, Missouri, Written and Compiled from the Most Authentic Official and Private Sources. . . . St. Louis: National Historical Co., 1886.
In a circa 1845 memorandum, Theodore Turley recalled that Elisha Cameron drove pigs owned by the Daviess County Saints down into Caldwell County; there they were slaughtered (though not properly bled per tradition) and sold by Henry McHenry to destitute members of the church for four to five cents per pound. (“Theodore Turley’s Memorandums,” ca. 1845, [3], Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL.)
Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.