Given you both have a high degree of familiarity with the Nauvoo period, I am wondering what you think was going on with JSjr, and in particular his relationship with the church body of LDS. Here are some mileposts that form the vertebrae of the course of events that I'm wondering about:
- By spring 1842, JSjr had not produced any new ancient writing translations since he shelved the BoAbr project around November 1835--but at last, Facsimile 1 was published
- April 19, 1842, Henry Caswall presented a Greek Psalter in Nauvoo, all reports admit of Caswall being there, disputed but Caswall claims JSjr misidentified the writing as ancient Egyptian before slipping out the back door unnoticed
- John C Bennett's spiritual wifery spins out of control, becomes public, has to be execommunicated (5/11/1842) and becomes outspoken critic of JSjr including exposing the conspiracy that had been hatched and Missouri's governor (Boggs) being shot on 5/6/1842, for which JSjr was arrested
- Facsimile 3 is published 5/16/1842
- late 1842, JSjr dusts off the BoAbr project and finishes it in early 1843 and begins publishing it
- JSjr accuses Sidney Rigdon of disloyalty
- April-May 1843, the Kinderhook Plates incident, where JSjr identified the first character of one plate at least to be reformed Egyptian and 'translated' using the GAEL as the key
- Plural marriage 'revelation' in July 1843, and delivers sermon about the persecution of the innocent, a man's foes being they of his own house and secret enemies in Nauvoo, mingling with the LDS
- 8/13/1843, JSjr gets into a scuffle with Walter Bagby, a tax collector for Hancock County, which involved JSjr choking Bagby who had threated JSjr with a rock
- JSjr claims evidence of Rigdon's betrayal, call for his removal
- anti-Mormons meet in Carthage in August, draft charges in hopes that JSjr will be arrested
- Late September 1843, JSjr forms special council of elders
- October 1843, the general conference assembly denies JSjr his request to boot Sidney Rigdon from the FP
- Dec 1843-Jan 1844, Jane Law rebuffs JSjr's advances; JSjr removes Walmart Law from FP, begins moves to excommunicate Walmart Law
- Jan 21, 1844, JSjr complains of "a great difficulty in getting anything into the heads of this generation it has been like splitting hemlock knots with a Corn doger for a wedge & a pumpkin for a beetle, Even the Saints are slow to understand I have tried for a number of years to get the minds of the Saints prepared to receive the things of God, but we frequently see some of them after suffering all they have for the work of God will fly to pieces like glass as soon as any thing Comes that is Contrary to their traditions, they Cannot stand the fire at all, How many will be able to abide a Celestial law & go through & receive their exhaltation I am unable to say but many are Called & few are Chosen"
- Feb 1844, discussions held to move the LDS to California or Oregon, create Texas settlement
- March 10, 1844, the Council of Fifty formed in secrecy,
and its existence denied - March 20, 1844, the 'Voice of Innocence from Nauvoo" published, denouncing polygamy--penned by Emma Smith--calling the spiritual wife system to be John C Bennett's, "a grand scheme of profligates to seduce women", "let polygamy, bigamy, fornication, adultery, and prostitution, be frowned out of the hearts of honest men to drop into the gulf of fallen nature, ‘where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched!"
- March 24, 1844: JSjr claims conspiracies against him orchestrated by William and Wilson Law, Robert D. Foster, Chauncey Higbee, and Joseph H. Jackson
- April 7, 1844, as part of the King Follett Sermon, " from that time they begin to be enemies, like many of the apostates of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. When a man begins to be an enemy, the hunts me."
- April 11, 1844, Council of Fifty votes JSjr to be prophet, priest and king
- May 12, 1844, JSjr warns against false prophets--would prefer to be a fallen true prophet than a false prophet, and "God will always protect me until my mission is fulfilled. I calculate to be one of the Instruments of setting up the Kingdom of Daniel, by the word of the Lord, and I intend to lay a foundation that will revolutionize the whole world"
- May 25, 1844, JSjr indicted for adultery
- May 26, 1844, proclaims he has but one wife, Emma,
and " If they want a beardless boy to whip all the world, I will get on the top of a mountain and crow like a rooster; I shall always beat them _ when facts are proved, truth and innocence will prevail at last. My enemies are no philosophers; they think that when they have my spoke under, they will keep me down_ but for the fools. I will hold on, and fly over them. God is in the still small voice _ in all these affidavits, indictments it is all of the devil_ all corruption. Come on ye prosecutors, ye false swearers, all hell boil over, ye burning mountains roll down your lava, for I will come out on the top at last. I have more to boast of than ever any man had I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole^ church together since the days of Adam _ a^large majority of the whole have stood by me:- neither Paul, John, Peter nor Jesus never did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as me _ the followers of Jesus ran away from him, but the Latter Day Saints never ran away from me yet." - May 27, 1844, at Artois Hamilton's hotel, JSJr was told of conspiracy against him, orchestrated by Charles Foster out of Carthage
- The Nauvoo Expositor exposes JSjr's secrets on June 7, 1844
- June 10, 1844--JSjr orders the Expositor destroyed
- June 12 and again June 17, 1844, JSjr arrested for causing a riot when having the Nauvoo Expositor destroyed
- June 23, 1844, JSjr instructed William Clayton to conceal minutes of Council of Fifty by sending them away, burying them, or burning them; Clayton buried them in his garden
- June 23, 1844, JSjr flees to Montrose,
Iowa to evade being arrested, but later returns to Nauvoo - June 27, 1844, mob murders JSjr
It seems to me that JSjr was losing his grip over the Mormons, his 'top' was slowing down and becoming wobbly and out of control. Quite simply, he could no longer keep his crap together, indulged his ego and thirst to quiet dissenters and the end was inevitable in that time frame even though he was only 38 years old.
You both come at this from different perspectives from one another. Given the abundance of familiarity you each have with the primary sources of Mormonism to at least 6/27/1844, what is your thoughts about what was different in those last two years than the 12 that preceded them?
