In the January 1833 issue of The Evening and Morning Star, an early Latter-day Saint periodical, we find the following editorial from W.W. Phelps:
REBELLION
IN SOUTH CAROLINA.
In addition to the above
tribulations, South Carolina has rebelled against the laws of the Untied
States; held a state convention, and passed ordinances, the same as declaring
herself an independent nation, and, more than all, 'Resolves, That this
Convention do recommend to the people of South Carolina the observance of
Thursday the 31st day of January next, as a day of fasting, humiliation and
prayer, on which they are invited to implore the blessings of Almighty God on
the efforts that are made to restore liberty and happiness to our beloved
State."
And General Jackson has ordered
several companies of Artillery to Charleston, and issued a Proclamation, urging
submission, and declaring such moves as that of S. Carolina TREASON. He closes
thus: "May the Great Ruler of nations grant that the signal blessings with
which he has favored ours, may not, by the madness of party or personal
ambition, be disregarded and lost; and may His wise Providence bring those who
have produced this crisis, to see their folly, before they feel the misery of
civil strife; and inspire a returning veneration for that Union, which if, we
dare to penetrate His designs, he has chosen as the only means of attaining the
high destinies to which we may reasonably aspire." (W.W. Phelps, "Plague,
Pestilence, Famine and the Sword, IN THESE LAST DAYS!" The Evening
and Morning Star 1, no. 8 [January 1833]: 64)
Previously in the same issue, there is an article entitled “Signs
of the Times” which makes passing reference to the troubles concerning South
Carolina:
SIGNS and appearances are such,
that even the most unbelieving dread coming events; and no wonder, for when the
Lord comes out of his place to rebuke the nations, all hearts are faint, and
all knees do tremble. Every man has a right to do as he pleases, being an agent
to himself, but we ardently hope, while such important signs, and extraordinary
commotions, as: --
The Cholera spreading over the
whole earth;
The plague breaking out in India;
The Revolutions of Europe;
The dissolution of South
Carolina from the Union;
The gathering of the saints to
Zion, and The assembling of the Jews at Jerusalem,
are passing in rapid succession,
that some will turn to God and live. Such strange movements of men; such
dreadful sickness; oh! such fearful looking for the wrath of God to be poured
out upon this generation, together with the evidence of Holy writ, ought to convince
every man in the world, that the end is near; that the harvest is ripe, and
that the angels are reaping down the earth!
It is certainly a day of
dilemmas: The political party that has just been crowned with victory, shudders
at the prospect before it. Horror, with all its fearful gloom slackens in one
place, and commotion, or rebellion, with all its crimson warnings, reddens in
another, showing, if ever there was a time when the sword of the Lord hung by a
single hair, over the heads of them that have seated themselves round the feast
table, it is now. The man that undertakes to run FROM the pestilence, runs to
danger: and he that would leave Europe because her kingdoms are crumbling to
pieces, to come to America, beholds the links in the chain of Freedom break, as
the new ropes in the hands of Sampson: and he looks, but looks in vain for
peace, for the hour is nigh, when it shall be taken from the earth. In the east
there is trouble; in the west there is fear; in the north there is no peace,
and in the south there is consternation. Well may we exclaim, all things must
change: but virtue shall endure forever. (“SIGNS
OF THE TIMES,” Ibid., 62, emphasis in bold added)
I reproduce these articles as some critics point to it as
evidence against a supernatural origin to what is now canonized as
D&C 87, the so-called “Civil War Prophecy.” For example, Larry Jonas noted
that:
On July 14, 1832, Congress passed
a tariff act which South Carolna thought was so bad, she declared the tariff
null and void. President Andrew Jackson alerted the nation’s troops. At the
time Smith made his prophecy, the nation expected a war between North and South
to begin at the rebellion of South Carolina. This can be confirmed in a U.S.
history book. Better yet, let me confirm it from a Latte-day Saints Church
publications, Evening and Morning Star, published monthly from Kirtland.
Example 28 is page 122 [sic] of the issue which came out for January
1833. IT was known before December 25, 1832 but it was not available in time
for the December issue. It takes quite a while for new to be set up even today
in our dailies. We would expect it to wait for a month to come out in a
monthly. The example contains the information available to the church before
the paper hit the street. The example and the prophecy are strangely similar…Both
consider the pending war a sign of the end—which it is not. In fact, the
war expected in 1832 did not come to pass… Far from being evidences of Smith’s
divine calling, the most famous prophecies which he made are evidences that he
can copy views of his time. (Mormon Claims Examined, by Larry S. Jonas,
page 52, in Jerald Tanner and Sandra Tanner, Mormonism: Shadow or Reality?
[5th ed.; Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1987. 2008],
190)
The Tanners themselves note that, in light of these articles
Joseph Smith was probably familiar
with the fact that South Carolina had rebelled at the time he gave the
revelation. Just before the revelation concerning the Civil War is recorded in
Joseph Smith’s History, the following statement is attributed to him:
. . . the United States, amid all
her pomp and greatness, was threatened with dissolution. The people of South
Carolina, in convention assembled (in November), passed ordinances, declaring
their state a free and independent nation; . . . (History of the Church,
Vol. 1, page 301) (Ibid)
The Tanners also point to an article entitled “Extracts from
the Message of the Governor of South Carolina at the opening of the Legislature,
November 27, 1832” in the December 10, 1832 issue of the Boston Daily
Advertiser & Patriot in support of the claim that people expected South
Carolina to take military action before the reception of D&C 87 (Dec
25, 1832). Commenting on the speech, the Tanners write that the governor's “message
warned that South Carolina was prepared to resist the U.S. Government by force
if necessary” (Ibid.).
Of course, demonstrating their ability to make mountains out
of molehills, the Tanners also note that:
The same day that this [the Boston
Daily Advertiser & Patriot article] was printed (Dec. 10, 1832), Orson
Hyde “left Boston.” On December 22, 1832, he “arrived at Kirtland Ohio, . . . “
(Journal of Orson Hyde, typed copy, pp. 56-57). We cannot, of course, prove
that Orson Hyde brought a copy of the Boston Daily Advertiser & Patriot with
him, but it is interesting to note that just three days after his arrival (Dec.
25, 1832), Joseph Smith gave his revelation on “the rebellion of South
Carolina.” (Ibid.)
