A Special Conference held at Nauvoo
April 6^th AD 1844

Conference assembled at 10 oclock AM April 6
President B. Young called the conference to
order. President Joseph Smith said He should
not occupy time in speaking of any difficulties
that might have occured in our midst.
Said He was not a fallen prophet, & never in
any nearer relationship to God than at the
present time, & would show before the conferen[ce]
closed that God was with him. Prayer by
W. W. Phelps, after which Sidney Rigdon
arose & said it was with no rordinary feelinggs
He arose to speak. A privilege which he had
not before enjoyed in the same capacity for
five years, and the circumstances of the
occasion points out to me my text, which is
the Saints of the last Days.

I remember in
1830 All the Church met in a log cabin, whare
we conversed extensively about laying the
foundation of this kingdom. our minds
expanded far & wide while contemplateing
this subject even in that day we talked
as large then as now. we spoke of Great things
that the world could not bear & that is
the reason why we were in secret the world
would laugh & consider us fools & even mob
us becaus we talked about things that wer true
& have and will come to pass yet things that
looked impossible to them because they did
not view them by faith as we do. And if we
should still convers about things in secret it
would be upon the same principle for we

are not willing to bear the scoffs of the world
any longer unnessarily had we told openly
& talked openly of the things of God that have
& will come to pass our Blood would have
been shed we should not have been here
this day. But we hid ourselves up in secret.
there we talked, wept, & prayed & the Angels
Administered unto us & the Spirit of God was
with us & the heavens opened unto us, but we
should now have been in our grave had we
proclaimed unto the world what God showed
unto us, notwithstanding it was for the benef-
it of man, & for his salvation, & not for evil
The appearance of this congregation this day
shows the fulfillment of the revelations of
Jesus Christ given in those days. No incident has
taken place in this day but what we spoke
of at that early period. all those things were
deeply impressed upon the mind by the God of
Heaven. How could you be made to believe tha[t]
you did not live in Nauvoo & have not got habit-
ations. Neither could we disbelieve this to be the
Church of God. We cannot disbelieve it for we
see hear & feel. I have always known it to be
I cannot see otherwise. Have I not seen Gods
glory by the visions of Heaven yea I have. then
what have we to do with the little difficulties
on earth nothing. Those were the beginning
of Good days shut up in a little shop with
nothing to eat but a little CJonnycake & milk & water
ownly as we would occasionlly shoot a squirrel
& we lived in an old smokey house. still we
rejoiced in the things God was revealing unto
us: many thicnk it hard to live in Nauvoo, but
we counted those good days God had given

us great things. dont think strange if
men donott think of great things when I
obtained a great & glorious principle I felt
like locking it up lest the people would laugh
at me. And while we were together & telling
one thing we would learn another. I speak
of these things to do away with the notion
or feelings about our secret meetings
was their any thing wrong then no, neither
will their be now. No, I have no fear of it
what God does is for my salvation & the
salvation of man, & I say go ahead.
I have spoken of the grand principle of
the beginning, & I have marvelled at
one thing ie after the foundation of the
Church men crept in that were vary
wise more so than God professed to know,
more some of them, it has kept the Chur[c]h
in a continueal broil. it was so in the days
of Moses but he disposed of them. He killed
them or the Lord destroyed them.

I will leave this subject & show why
salvation belongs to the Priesthood of God
& why it belongs to us as a people. Men
labor under a mistake ie salvation is distinct
from Goverment. salvation is always the
result of goverment. evry man has a right to
govern himself in a goverment, as evry good
is a part of the goverment & the laws is for
the defence of a man. we see the need
of laws in this city for their is evil [to] dispose of
here I have seen some trials in this city
what some persons were tried for insulting
the Marshall, but any other man is as good as

the Marshall. many other usful remarks
were made by the speaker, when he gave
way untill the Afternoon

Was followed with many usful remarks
from Elder Taylor. The stand was occupied
with with eleven Lamanites chiefs braves &c

At 2 oclok the conference Assembled &
resumed his subject & said we were discusing
in the morning service upon the History of
the Church of Jesus Christ. its a miserable man
that could not manufactor his own tex[t] I have
known many a sermon spoiled by a bad tex
The Church of Jesus Christ then. The Hights
of testimony, & amount of evidence that many
of those have had that have fallen away, has
been of such a nature that when they say
they dont believe this work to be true they
lie. The things that were done in secret
in the begining are now seen openly and
their is nothing secret now but what all
will know in time to come. I am aware
their is many things I did not Hint at I will
speak of them now. I have seen the time
when the Presidency of the Church sitting
now before me, were locked up with me in
secret places waiting upon God we did not
go out at all but to eat &c But it was soon
found out, & a mob came saying God damn
you to Hell, & threatend our lives. it was at this
time we sat for hours sin the Visions of heaven
around the throne of God & gazed upon the
scenes of Eternity. one evening a Mexican
called upon us & he went out armed to see

to see a dozen armed mem [men] in the cornor
of the fence. he wanted to shoot them. after-
wards the mob came in & broke the door, took
me & dragd me out through the streets by my
heels with my head pounding over the frozen
ground. Another company took presiden
Smith, & tar & featherd him. they tried to
tar and turn Aquiphortos [aqua fortis] down our throats
this is the reason why we were in secret,
under lock & key. Now if you will let us
work openly we will not work in secret
we will work openly as much as you want.
I think I have said enough already to show
that the Church has come up through great
tribulation. let this suffice then upon this
subject. Their is men standing in your midst
who are not afraid of men or devels &
men whos mouths cannot be stoped unless
you take their lives for they will speak
in defence of the innocent of virtue & truth
while they live. their is men in your midst
who have learned their is a great God who
can do as he pleases take up the Hills as a
little thing, & such men do not fear
death. they know about Heaven. they have
seen it & know all about it. their is men
in your midst which you must sustain or
go to Hell. save them & you save yourselves
reject them & you go to Hell. We are 14
years of age now. Chuse your guardeen
and when you get to be 21, then do business
for yourselves you can save yourselves or
Damn yourselves. you have just men among
you & the reason is because God has taught

them chose & ordained them & this is the
reason why they are so. you have men in your
midst who will not turn to the right hand or left
if you are in their path you must get out
you cannot cort by yfavor or welth or any
thing els. they do not ask Poleticians kings
or people for favor. they ask God for it alone
if the world make them rich or poor they
never ask for it. The man whom God has
raised up to lay the foundation of this work
is placed in such a situation that He cannot
fall and He is so lovely that I cannot get
mad at him. This is an important part
in the History of the Church. the cry of some
is, I shall not get office if these men are not
put down. well God intended to keep them
fearing iwhen God sets up his kingdom
He will sustain it above all laws & kingdom
of the world & the world has no power
over the kingdom of God. the laws will
be so strict that the world will make to
try to ketch the Saints that it will hang
themselves by the wholesale. we want to
build up the Laws of God in Hancock Co I
dont care any thing about all the laws in
the world for I will live above them. God
teaches his servants to respects kings, Gov
Presidents, & men in authority. But I have a
right to proclaim myself a king and priest
unto the most High God, yet I will not transgress
your laws, but dont do as they did in
Missouri kill people abecause they would not bre
break the law. I dont want any office in
this goverment for I am determined to be
a king in the kingdom of God; what be

king in heaven and quarrel about the
office of constable on earth. The kingdom
of God may rise up in the midst of the kingd[om]
of the world and live above all laws, and not
be a law abiding man. I will live above all law
I will pay my taxes & obey all requirments
that the goverment has uppon me. the
reason we was mob in Mo was because we
would not have any thing to do with the
laws we did not break any we lived above
them so they sent a mob upon us.
The kingdom of God to the world would
be a light in a dark place. The kingdom
of God could be set up in any kingdom
or country & not break the law but live
above it. Conference Adjourned till to
morrow morning