Minutes of December 28, 1835

Mormon History: 1830 to 1839

Minutes of December 28, 1835

Joseph Smith charges Almon Babbitt with misrepresenting him about the debating school incident. Testimony on both sides. Almon confesses to doing harm, but not to lying §. Age of Reason referenced §.

Date		December 28, 1835		Kirtland council, 131–134.
Location		Kirtland, Ohio.
Description		… a meeting of the High Council of the church of the Latter Day Saints …
Presiding		President Sidney Rigdon
Clerk		Not named.
Counselors		William E. McLellin D. W. Patten (h) John Smith Orson Johnson Jared Carter Luke Johnson (h)	Orson Hyde (h) Lyman Johnson (h) Samuel H. Smith Martin Harris Brigham Young Parley Pratt (h)	Original: W. E. McLelin This council consists of seven apostles (William, David, Luke and Lyman, Orson, Brigham, and Parley) and five high priests (John, Orson, Jared, Samuel, and Martin).
Open	¶	Prayer by Sidney Rigdon. …
Joseph's complaint	¶	[132] Joseph submits a complaint:		"… having prefered a charge against Elder Almon Babbit for traducing my character, he was this morning called before the High Council …" Diary-2, 91.
	¶	To the Presidents of the High Council,
Almon Babbitt misrepresenting me	¶	Brethren, Almon Babbitt has been misrepre~~pre~~senting me to certain of the brethren. I therefore prefer a complaint to the council that the subject may be investigated, that my character and influence may be preserved as far as it can in righteousness.		Original throughout: Babbit Almon Babbitt (1813–1856) baptized [1833], Zion�s Camp, seventy, Kirtland stake president (1841–1843), attorney, disfellowshipped (1839, 1841, 1843, 1851), Territorial Utah's first delegate to Congress, killed by Indians.
	¶	Yours in the bonds of the New & everlasting covenant. Joseph Smith Junr.
Counselors speak	¶	Three counselors are selected to speak on each side.		Three speak on each side for difficult cases.
Lyman Wight: Babbitt said Joseph got mad because he lost debate		Elder L Wight was called and stated what led to the affair was a difference in opinion respecting keeping their meeting. Elder Babbitt said J. Smith Junr. got mad because he got overpowered in argumint as Babbitt had remarked before		Debating School Incident, 1835–1836 Lyman Wight
		L. Wight, said men would get over the mark, in advocating error.
Babbitt said Joseph cause of disturbance		Babbitt said a man must be a very weak man if he could not argue aginst the truth without being swerved Babbitt said he (Smith) got mad because he was overpowered in argument. There would have been no disturbance if he had not got mad.
Elder Orton		Elder Orton agreed with what L. Wight had stated. Dont know whether the conversation was heard by any one else.		Roger Orton
Babbit can read Paine Joseph's bad spirit		Babbitt said he could read Tho. Paine or any other work without being swerved. B. Said this by the door of the House, and appeared dissatisfied with J. Smiths bad spirit.		Thomas Paine §
Lyman Wight: Babbitt's bad spirit		Elder L. Wight thought Babbitt showed a bad spirit against J. Smith.
Lyman Sherman Defends Babbit	¶	L. Sherman testifies he has not heard Babbitt say anything against Joseph. When the council asks if he has seen Babbitt "exhibit a restless or a dissatisfied spirit," he responds,		Lyman Sherman
Jesting		… on the Flats one or two days after the transaction at the debate, Babbitt said of his party. If it was not able one way, it was another, by knocking down. Sherman understood, that if they could not [133] overpower by argument, they would by knocking down. but said in a jesting way.
Babbit said Joseph the cause		Babbitt said we would not have had any difficulty, if J. Smith had not have got mad.
Babbitt's singular spirit		Babbitt has a singular Spirit. Babbitt gave him an idea that he had a difficulty with J. Smith.
Benjamin Johnson: riled v. mad		Benjamin Johnson testifies Joseph seemed "riled" and William was "mad."
Brigham Young: Babbitt and Bishop agree		Brigham Young testifies that Babbitt "agreed with Bishop. about being swerved when debating questions, must be weak minded."		Possibly Francis Gladden Bishop (1809–1878), president of the branch at Westfield, New York, who confessed to "advancing heretical doctrines" in September. Minutes of September 28, 1835
Babbitt said Joseph got mad because he lost		Babbitt said Smith would not have wanted the school broke up, if they had not got defeated.
Brigham supports Joseph		Young did not hear any thing from Smith at school that was calculated to hurt feelings and character.
Babbitt denigrated presidency, meant to hurt Joseph		he also thinks he Babbitt cast reflections on the whole Presidency, as well as J. Smith Junr. and that what Babbitt said was calculated to hurt J. Smith.
Babbitt said Joseph against the school		Babbitt said that Smith was against the school.
Orson Hyde: Babbitt wanted school to continue; Joseph willing until disturbance	¶	Elder O[rson] Hyde knows that Babbitt wanted the school to continue and said Smith had tended school till the disturbance & had it not been for this circumstance he (Smith) would have been willing for it to continue heard this statement from Eld. Bishop and not from Babbit respecting reading Tho. Paine without having his faith shaken.		Joseph Sr.'s father urged him to read Paine's Age of Reason.
Lyman Sherman: maybe Almon didn't mean it	¶	Eld. L. Sherman thinks if Babbitt means all he says he is a singular man. & Babbitt said if it had not been for J. Smith getting mad there would have been no difficulty.
Elder Rich: Babbitt doesn't hold anything against Joseph		Eld. Rich stated that from what he heard from Babbitt, he thought he had nothing against J. Smith Junr.		Leonard Rich
Elder Orton: Babbitt said school would have continued if Joseph hadn't got mad		Elder Orton stated that Babbitt said the school would have continued if J. Smith Junr. had not got mad.
Babbitt and Bishop liked debate		He also thought that Babbit and Bishop had the spirit of the debating school.
	¶	Counsellors spoke to the case
Hyrum and Frederick	¶	President H. Smith addressed the council.
	¶	[134] President Williams then addressed the council
Verdict	¶	President S. Rigdon then rose and delivered the decision. That Eld. Babbitt shall confess that for the want of conformity to the spirit of God he has spoken things falsely to the injury of J. Smith Junr. and by injuring him he has insulted the feelings of the church of Christ And that he shall confess publicly to the satisfaction of his brethren.
	¶	This decision was confirmed by the whole council.
Confession	¶	Elder Babbitt rose and confessed that he was to blame, for speaking about Brother Smith as he did, & that he said them in anger, And that he never meant to rise up in rebellion against the ~~church~~ government of the church, And that in a bad spirit he said what was proved and sees it was wrong to talk as he did about Brother J. Smith, and that he thought he would give B[rother]. J. Smith as good as he sent, as he did.		"… he in part acknowledged his fault, but not Satisfactory to the council, and after parleying with him a long time, and granting him every indulgence, that righ[t]eousness require[d] the council adjourned, without obtaining a full confession from him—" Diary-2, 91.
But didn't lie	¶	Elder Babbitt confesses that he has injured J. S. character and is sorry for it, but is not willing to confess that he lied. and cannot confess all that President Rigdon has said in his speech Says he knows the council says he has done wrong and is willing to confess it. The decision is correct.
	¶	Brother Babbitt confessed to all present the charges above stated to the satisfaction of most of the brethren present,

		Joseph Dissatisfied
Joseph dissatisfied		I attended, with my witnesses, and substantiated my charge against him and he in part acknowledged his fault, but not Satisfactory to the council, and after parlying with him a long time, and granting him every indulgence, that righteousness require the council adjourned without obtaining a full confession from him		Diary-2, 91. Did Joseph make his dissatisfaction known at the meeting and the majority ruled, in effect, against him?

		Thomas Paine (1737–1809) and the Age of Reason
Franklin Common Sense (1776)		Thomas Paine was born in England to Quaker parents. In 1774 he met Benjamin Franklin in London, sailed to America, where he became editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine in Philadelphia. Anonymously he wrote and published Common Sense (January 1776), directing profits be for Continental army supplies.		Eric Foner, ANB 16:925–928.
The American Crisis (1776) Washington		After the Declaration of Independence he joined the Philadelphia militia and later joined the forces of George Washington as they retreated across New Jersey. In December 1776 he wrote The American Crisis, which begins, "These are the times that try men's souls." By 1783 he had published twelve more Crisis pamphlets.
Jefferson		In 1787 went to France in an unsuccessful effort to raise funds for a wrought-iron scheme. But in Paris he managed to win the friendship of American ambassador Thomas Jefferson.
Rights of Man (1790)		In 1790 he published Rights of Man, in praise of the French revolution. In January 1793 he spoke in the Convention against execution.
The Age of Reason (1794, 1795)		While imprisoned by the Jacobins (December 1793 to November 1794), Paine, a deist, wrote the first part of The Age of Reason, an attack on organized Christianity and the inspiration of the Bible. A second part appeared in 1795. He was roundly denounced by clerics and believers in both Europe and America.
Obscurity		When Paine returned to America in 1802, Thomas Jefferson was president. But he embarrassed the administration by persistently contributing deist essays to The Prospect, and he fell into obscurity.

		Age of Reason quotes
Believe in God	¶	… I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.		Chapter 1
Equality, justice, mercy, etc.	¶	I believe the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.
Do not believe in:	¶	But, lest it should be supposed that I believe many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them.
Creeds of any organized religion	¶	I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.
Churches	¶	All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. …
Scriptures	¶	EVERY national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special mission from God, communicated to certain individuals. The Jews have their Moses; the Christians their Jesus Christ, their apostles and saints; and the Turks their Mahomet; as if the way to God was not open to every man alike.		Chapter 2
	¶	Each of those churches shows certain books, which they call revelation, or the Word of God. …
Jesus Christ	¶	… Jesus Christ wrote no account of himself, of his birth, parentage, or anything else. … The history of him is altogether the work of other people; and as to the account given of his resurrection and ascension, it was the necessary counterpart to the story of his birth. His historians, having brought him into the world in a supernatural manner, were obliged to take him out again in the same manner, or the first part of the story must have fallen to the ground. …		Chapter 3

		Age of Reason and the Smiths
Joseph Sr.'s father: believe it!		… while we were living in the Town of Tunbridge [1796–1802] … I endeavored to persuade my husband to attend the methodist meeting with me … But as soon as his Father and brother Jesse heard that we were attending Methodist meeting they were much displeased and his father came to the door one day and threw Tom Pains age of reason into the house and angrily bade him read that untill he believed it.		Lucy, 1844–1845 draft, 291.
		Richard L. Bushman maintains that Asael:		JS New England, 207n183.
But Asael was a believer		by no means agreed with Paine's theology, however, for the Age of Reason ridicules the divinity of Christ, the atonement, the resurrection, and the authenticity of the New Teatament all of which Asael deeply accepted, as shown in his family address, written about this time [1799]. His act may have been scornful, an association of the then unpopular Methodism with the deviations of Paine—or an agreement with Paine's attack on religious superstition, though Asael stopped far short of the extremism of the Age of Reason.		Asael and sons Joseph Sr. and Jesse founded a Universalist society in Tunbridge in December 1797. Lucy, 168.
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