| Oliver
Cowdery is excommunicated
by the bishop and high council of Zion in
Far West. As an assistant president of the High Priesthood, Oliver is
entitled to a hearing by "the common council of the church, who shall
be assisted by twelve counselors of the High Priesthood" (D&C
107:82). Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams are
among those who testify against Oliver. |
| Nine charges are brought
against Oliver Cowdery. Six are sustained: urging vexatious lawsuits, insinuating
adultery against the Prophet, not attending meeting, leaving his calling
and turning to the practice of law, dishonestly retaining paid notes, disgracing
the Church by being connected in the 'Bogus' [counterfeit] business. |
| Oliver is "considered
no longer a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." |
| Date |
|
April 12, 1838 |
|
FWR,
162–169. |
| Location |
|
Far West, Missouri. |
|
Bishop
Partridge's counselor, John Corrill, presents testimony (below); counselor
Isaac Morley gives the benediction. |
| Description |
|
The High Council and
Bishoprick of Zion, met according to appointment … |
|
| Presiding |
|
Bishop Edward Partridge |
|
| Clerk |
|
Ebenezer Robinson |
|
| High
council |
|
The high council is organized
in the following order:
|
|
| |
|
Samuel
H. Smith, Jared Carter, Thomas
Grover, Isaac Higbee, Levi Jackman, Solomon Hancock, George
Morey, Newel
Knight, George M. Hinkle, George W. Harris, Elias Higbee, John
Murdock. |
|
Membership
in the high council changed frequently. On March 24 the council decided
those who could not attend should resign and let others replace them. FWR,
157. |
| |
|
Elect John
Murdock president. |
|
| Charges |
|
Edward
Partridge gives the opening
prayer, opening remarks, and reads the charges: |
|
Charges: Minutes
of April 7, 1838 |
| Stirring
up the enemy with lawsuits |
|
1st, For stirring up the enemy to persecute the brethren by urging on
vexatious lawsuits and thus distressing the inocent.
|
|
Oliver
had continued with his suits against members stemming from the failure of
the Kirtland Safety Society, contrary to the moratorium the Church had declared. |
| Insinuating
Joseph committed adultery |
|
2nd, For seeking to destroying the character of President
Joseph Smith jr by falsly insinuating that he was guilty of adultry &c.
|
|
| Not
attending meetings |
|
3rd For treating the Church with contempt by not attending meetings.
|
|
|
| Refusing
to be controlled in temporal affairs |
|
4th For virtually denying the faith by declaring that he would not be
governed by any ecclesiastical authority nor Revelation whatever in his
temporal affairs.
|
|
This
charge was dropped. |
| Selling
his lands |
|
5th For selling his lands in Jackson County contrary to the Revelations.
|
|
This
charge was dropped. |
| Insulting
President Marsh and high council |
|
6th For writing and sending an insulting letter to President T. B. Marsh
while on the High Council, attending to the duties of his office, as President
of the Council and by insulting the whole Council with the contents of
said letter.
|
|
This
charge was withdrawn. |
| Abandoning
his calling |
|
7th, For leaving the calling, in which God had appointed him, by Revelation,
for the sake of filthy lucre, and turning to the practice of Law.
|
|
|
| Joining
the "bogus" business |
|
8th, For disgracing the Church by Lieing being connected in the 'Bogus'
buisness as common report says.
|
|
bogus
business: counterfeiting |
Retaining
paid notes
Forsaking the cause of God |
|
9th For dishonestly Retaining notes after they had been paid and finally
for leaving or forsaking the cause of God, and betaking himself to the
beggerly elements of the world and neglecting his high and Holy Calling
contrary to his profession.
|
|
|
Oliver's written response
Did sell his land
|
|
Bishop Partridge then reads a letter from Oliver, dated that day. Oliver
had hoped to talk things over with Joseph before the charges were brought
before the council, but this not being the case, he responds to the
5th charge, acknowledging he sold his lands in Jackson. He believes
most of the council have already made up their minds that this warrants
disfellowshipment and has no reason they would change their minds.
|
|
|
| That
is his right |
|
He believes that in the
United States landowners may dispose of their land freely, "without
the consent or even approbation of a superior." |
|
¶ D&C
134:10 |
| Believes
in the right of personal security, personal liberty, and private property. |
|
He believes the council
has already made up its mind regarding charge 4, but recalls his words were,
"I will not be influenced governed, or controlled, in my temporal interests
by any ecclesiastical authority or pretended revelation whatever, contrary
to my own judgment." He is still of that opinion: |
|
|
| |
|
The right of personal
security, the right of personal liberty, and the right of private property
… are so interwoven in my nature, have so long been inculcated into
my mind by a liberal and intelligent ancestry, that I am wholly unwilling
to exchange them for any thing less liberal, less benevolent, or less free. |
|
|
| |
|
He regards the charges
brought against him are: |
|
|
| Ecclesiastical
government cannot override consitutional guarantees of property rights |
|
an attempt to set up a kind of petty government, controlled and
dictated by ecclesiastical influence, in the midst of this National and
State Government. You will, no doubt say this is not correct; but the
bare notice of those over which you assume a right to decide, is,
in my opinion, a direct attempt to make the secular power subservient
to Church dictation—to the correctness of which I cannot in conscience
subscribe …
|
|
|
| |
|
This attempt to controll me in my temporal interests, I conceive to be
a disposition to take from me a portion of my Constitutional privileges
and inherent rights. I only, respectfully, ask leave, therefore to withdraw
from a society assuming they have such right.
|
|
|
| |
|
So far as relates to the other seven charges, I shall lay them carefully
away, and take such a course with regard to them, as I may feel bound
by my honor, to answer to my rising posterity.
|
|
|
| Testimony |
|
Testimony was then taken
of several brethren: |
|
|
| John
Corrill: Oliver had me arrested for debt |
|
John
Corrill: last fall Marcellus
Cowdery, Oliver's brother, asked Corrill to pay some of Joseph's debts,
but he declined. A writ was served on him, which he believes was through
Oliver's influence. Also, Oliver said to him, "the law is my theme." |
|
|
| John
Anderson: suits increased after Oliver arrived |
|
John Anderson: believes
that Oliver "had been influential in causing lawsuits in this place,
as a number more lawsuits have taken place since he came here than before." |
|
John Anderson
(b. ca. 1796), RLDS representative to Salt Lake City in 1869. |
| Dimick
B. Huntington: Oliver encouraged prosecutions |
|
Dimick B. Huntington:
one day after Oliver had been appointed attorney for the city, he and Oliver
crossed each other on the street. Oliver said: |
|
Dimick B. Huntington
(1808–1879), Far West constable |
| |
|
that he smelt a skunk (an enemy &c) and if he knew who it was he
would put the screws to him, and … if he heard any guns fired in
town to put the screws (i.e., the law) to him who done it) … and
also went on to urge lawsuits as even to issue a writ on the Sabbath day
also, that he heard him say that he intended to form a partnership with
Donaphon who is a man of the world and a wicked man.
|
|
|
| George
M. Hinkle: Oliver sued people for debts |
|
George M. Hinkle: Oliver
"wanted to become a secret partner in the store" so he could act
as an attorney and collect debts. He did a great deal of work for them but
"finally they got sick of him and got rid of him," but he persisted
in soliciting for business in collecting debts. |
|
George M. Hinkle
(1801–1861), storekeeper, high council, commander Far West militia;
accused of turning Joseph and other leaders over to General Lucas on October
31, 1838; testified against them in Richmond. |
| George
W. Harris: Oliver insinuated Joseph committed adultery |
|
George W. Harris: last
fall Oliver, Joseph, and Thomas Marsh were in his house, and Oliver "seemed
to insinuate that Joseph Smith jr was guilty of adultery." But when
Oliver was asked if Joseph had ever admitted he was guilty, Oliver said
no. Also believes Oliver institututed many law suits lately. |
|
George W. Harris
(1780-1857), married to Lucinda Pendleton Morgan, widow of Masonic martyr
William Morgan; baptized by Orson Pratt, 1834; Far West high council;
Nauvoo alderman; Council Bluffs high council; died in Council Bluffs. |
| David
W. Patten: adultery |
|
David W. Patten (h):
when Oliver asked him if it was true that Joseph committed adultery with
a certain girl, he provided some details about the incident and said "that
no doubt it was true. Also said that Joseph told him, he had confessed to
Emma. Also that he has used his influence to urge on lawsuits." |
|
| Thomas
B. Marsh: adultery |
|
Thomas B. Marsh (h):
last summer in Kirtland David W. Patten asked Oliver if Joseph had confessed
to Emma he had committed adultery with a certain girl. Oliver "cocked
up his eye very knowingly and "hesitated to answer the question yet
conveyed the idea that it was true." |
|
|
| |
|
Then, in Far West last
fall, Thomas heard Joseph ask Oliver |
|
|
| |
|
if he had ever confessed to him that he was guilty of adultery, when
after a considerable winking &c. he said No. He then asked
him if [167] he ever told him that he confessed to any body, when he answered
No.
|
|
|
| Joseph:
told Oliver many things, explains girl business |
|
Joseph
Smith: Oliver had been a bosom friend and he had trusted him with "many
things." He then explained "the girl buisness [sic]" and
went on to say that Oliver had taken him aside and said: |
|
"The
girl" is Fanny Alger (b. September 20, 1816). See "Mormonism's
First Plural Wife?" in Sacred Loneliness, 25–42. |
Oliver
intent on getting property
Took press without returning notes |
|
that he had come to the conclusion to get property and if he could not
get it one way he would another, God or no God, Devil or no Devil, property
he must have, and since that he has dealt dishonest with him, that he
has taken a printing press and type from Kirtland, for which he was to
give up some notes which he had against Joseph Smith jr and Sidney Rigdon,
which he did not do, nor had to this day.
|
|
| Sidney:
Joseph and I gave Oliver notes for his share in the printing office, traded
for press and type |
|
After a one-hour adjournment,
the council reconvenes and hears Sidney testify that in January 1837 he
and Joseph agreed to buy Oliver's share in the Kirtland printing office
and gave him notes for it. In the spring of 1837 they agreed to let him
have a press and some of the type "on conditions that he should give
up the notes." |
|
|
| Oliver
didn't return notes, cleaned out the office |
|
But Oliver did not return
Joseph's and Oliver's notes, and "completely stripped the office,"
leaving hardly enough to print one issue of the Elders' Journal, where
there had been enough to print several books. |
|
|
| Frederick
G. Williams: Davis can counterfeit money |
|
Frederick
G. Williams: Oliver told him a member named Davis could make metal
currency dies so fine that the counterfeit could not be detected. Then
three men came to him (Williams) for a writ to arrest John Boynton (h),
Warren Parrish, and Burton H. Phelps for passing bogus money. |
|
Davis: co-conspirator
in an alleged
murder plo. Did Joseph
Plot the Murder of Newell Grandison? |
| |
|
Also that it was reported
that Oliver was engaged in the Bogus money buisness. Also he [Cowdery] did
not disapprove of the principle of Davis' making the dies and money. |
|
| Joseph
Smith: told Oliver to leave if involved in counterfeit money, he did |
|
Joseph Smith: when Mr.
Sapham, a non-Mormon, told him that Oliver was about to be arrested for
counterfeiting, he and Sidney went to see him. They told him to "leave
the country" if he was guilty or stand trial if innocent. Oliver denied
involvement but then fled that night or the next. Sidney Rigdon endorses
the Prophet's statement. |
|
| John
Corrill: hasn't attended meetings |
|
John
Corrill: Oliver has "neglected
attending meeting." George W. Harris concurs. |
|
|
| Jared
Carter for defense, Samuel H. Smith for the church |
|
By arrangement, Jared
Carter speaks on Oliver's behalf, Samuel H. Smith
for the church. |
|
|
| Rejected
charges |
|
Court rejects charges
4 and 5 (denying the faith by refusing to be governed in temporal affairs;
selling his lands in Jackson county). Charge 6 (insulting letter to the
high council) withdrawn. |
|
| Sustained
charges |
|
Bishop and high council
sustain charges 1–3 (urging vexatious lawsuits, insinuating adultery,
not attending meeting); 7 (leaving his calling and turning to the practice
of law); and 9 (dishonestly retaining paid notes). Find 8 "sustained
satisfactoryly by circumstantial evidence" (disgracing the Church by
being connected in the 'Bogus' business). |
|
| No
longer a member |
|
Oliver is "considered
no longer a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."
High council sanctions the decision. Council adjourns to tomorrow morning. |
|
Minutes
of April 13, 1838 |
| Close |
|
Prayer by Isaac
Morley. |
|
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| |
|
Minutes of April 13, 1838
Minutes of April 8, 1838
Far West Minutes
Ousters
|