Tuesday, December 21, 2021

The January 1833 Issue of the Evening and Morning Star and how Critics (Larry Jonas; the Tanners) try to Explain the Origins of D&C 87

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.)

 

On Joseph Smith's prophecies, including some articles on D&C 87, see:


Resources on Joseph Smith's Prophecies