Thus ended the year 1843.
Topics.—1. Settlement at Nauvoo. 2.
The healing of the sick. 3. City of
Nauvoo. 4. Attempts to take Joseph to Missouri.
Questions and Review.—1. Locate Nauvoo. 2. What was its name before it was called Nauvoo? 3. Relate how Joseph healed the sick. 4. When did Joseph go to Washington? 5. What was his mission there? 6. What answer did President Martin Van Buren make? 7. Why was it useless to expect justice from Missouri? 8. What kind of city did Nauvoo become? 9. What was the Times and Seasons? 10. What was the Nauvoo Legion? 11. Name some of the causes that led to the new persecution. 12. Who was Dr. Bennett, and what did he do? 13. Tell of the efforts to get Joseph to Missouri.
On January 29, 1844, Joseph Smith was nominated for President of the United States. Neither he nor his friends had much hopes of his election, but it gave the citizens of Nauvoo at least a chance to vote for an honest man who was their friend. Brethren were sent to various parts of the country to make speeches in his favor, and Joseph published his views on how the government should be conducted. One of his ideas was that the government should set the negro slaves free, paying their masters for them. President Abraham Lincoln, twenty years later, also favored this plan.
Meanwhile, Nauvoo prospered and the Church grew. When the weather would permit, meetings were held in a grove near the temple, there being no room large enough to hold the large crowds of people. Joseph continued to give many glorious truths to the Church about the nature of God, the land of Zion, baptism for the dead, and many other things.
The Prophet’s prediction that there was a Judas in their midst soon proved too true; and there were more than one. William Law, Joseph’s second counselor, William Marks, president of the Nauvoo Stake, with many other leading men proved themselves false to Joseph and the Church. They even planned with Joseph’s enemies to have him killed. They were also proved guilty of other sins and were therefore cut off from the Church. After this, these men said Joseph was a fallen prophet, and so they organized a church of their own. It did not amount to anything, however.
Joseph’s periods of peace were not many. Apostates were his worst enemies, and they were all the time annoying him by having him arrested on all manner of false charges. These men were very bitter, and they howled around him like a pack of wolves, eager to devour him; but Joseph trusted in the Saints and they in him, for those who were faithful to their duties knew by the Spirit of God that Joseph was not a fallen prophet.
In June, 1844, the enemies of the Saints began to publish a paper in Nauvoo, called the Expositor. Its purpose was to deprive the people of Nauvoo of their rights, so it boldly said. One paper was printed, and that was so full of false statements and abuse against the city officials that the city council declared it a nuisance and had the press, type, etc., destroyed.