Commenting on D&C 87, we read the following commentary from a RLDS work:
On Tuesday,
December 25, 1832, the revelation on the Rebellion was given, foretelling accurately,
as the reader will see, many of the leading events of the late war. South
Carolina had, the November before, in convention assembled, passed the famous
Nullification Act. This was met by the prompt and decisive action of President
Jackson, in declaring that he would treat nullification as treason, and for a
time war was threatened. The government made preparations to invade South
Carolina, and the State prepared to defend. This difficulty was finally settled
by Henry Clay’s compromise Tariff Acts of 1833, and all preparations for
hostilities ceased.
To
those who supposed that it was based upon the then existing South Carolina trouble,
it began to look as though the revelation had failed. Probably some who had
looked for its fulfillment may have grown doubtful, for surely that would have
been the tendency of the natural mind.
Joseph,
however, still remained confident that a great and bloody conflict would be
forced upon our country, for on Friday, January 4, 1833, he wrote Mr. [Noah C. Saxton], editor of a paper published at Rochester, New York, from which letter
we make the following extract:--
“And
now I am prepared to say by the authority of Jesus Christ, that not many years
shall pass away before the United states shall present such a scene of bloodshed
as has not a parallel in the history of our nation; pestilence, hail, famine,
and earthquakes will sweep the wicked of this generation from off the face of
the land, to open and prepare the way of the return of the lost tribes of
Israel from the north country. The people of the Lord, those who have complied
with the requisitions of the new covenant, have already commenced gathering together
to Zion, which is in the State of Missouri; therefore I declare unto you the
warning which the Lord has commanded me to declare unto this generation,
remembering that the eyes of my Maker are upon me, and that to him I am
accountable for every word I say, wishing nothing worse to my fellow men than
their eternal salvation; therefore, ‘fear God and give glory to him, for the
hour of his judgment is come.’ Repent ye, repent ye, and embrace the
everlasting covenant, and flee to zion before the overflowing scourge overtake
you, for there are those now living upon the earth whose eyes shall not be
closed in death until they see all these things, which I have spoken,
fulfilled. Remember these things; call upon the Lord while he is near,
and seek him while he may be found, is the exhortation of your unworthy
servant,
Joseph Smith, Jr.”
--Times and Seasons, vol. 5, p. 707
(The
History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Volume
1: 1805-1835 [Independence, Miss.: Herald House, 1952], 261-62)
