4 William Clayton’s Secular Nauvoo

Beginning in early 1842, William Clayton found himself involved in nearly every important activity of Nauvoo, but especially the private concerns of Joseph Smith. For two and a half years, until Joseph’s death in 1844, they were in each other’s company almost daily. Writing letters, recording revelations, and performing important errands, Clayton became an intimate friend and confidant of the Prophet. Few things, in fact, became more important to him than this friendship. From the moment they met, Clayton was completely devoted to Joseph, and remained so throughout his life. The feeling was mutual, and the two were close enough that they apparently, at times, even referred to each other as David and Jonathan, reminiscent of one of the most remarkable stories of friendship in the Bible. Joseph Smith’s twenty-six-year-old scribe must have felt a special inward glow, then, when he received a note from the Prophet dated October 7, 1842. What Clayton had previously asked permission to do is unknown, but the response is heartwarming:

Oct 7th in Solitude for love of Truth

Brother Clayton

Dear Sir

I received your Short note I reply in Short be shure you are right and then go ahead David Crocket like and now Johnathan what shall I write more only that I am well and am your best Friend Joseph Smith to William Clayton

or David

or his mark
------X------¹

Like Jonathan of old, William would do anything for this modern-day David (illus. 4-1).

Clayton led a uniquely busy and varied life in Nauvoo. He kept the sacred “Book of the Law of the Lord,” helped prepare Joseph Smith’s official history (indeed, Clayton’s personal journals became the source for many entries in that history), and kept various other books and accounts. He met regularly with the temple committee, was responsible for receiving tithes collected for building the temple, and kept all its construction records. In September 1842, he was appointed city treasurer, which required him to post a $1,000 bond, and on February 11, 1843, he was publicly elected to that office.² He also became recorder and clerk of the Nauvoo City Council, secretary pro tem of the Nauvoo Masonic Lodge, an officer of the Nauvoo Music Association, and a member of the committee responsible for erecting the Music Hall. He was present when the Prophet announced or explained many new doctrines and practices, including plural marriage, and became a member of the surreptitious Council of Fifty and of Joseph Smith’s private prayer circle, where the all-important temple ceremonies were introduced. In this unique combination of the secular and the religious, his life probably represents as well as that of anyone, other than Joseph, the totality of the Nauvoo experience.

Illus. 4-1. A reproduction of a note Joseph Smith sent to William Clayton, suggesting the David-Jonathan–like relationship between the two. Courtesy Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum, Salt Lake City

Undeterred by the failure of Zarahemla, Clayton threw himself with a vengeance into the secular Nauvoo. At first he was probably awestruck at the thought of working in the Prophet’s office, especially when, on June 29, 1842, he learned he was to take it over completely. But if he had visions of imminent, high-intensity spiritual activities, they were quickly adjusted to a down-to-earth awareness that most of Joseph Smith’s daily life was concerned with the hard realities of the secular Kingdom. One of these realities was the land business, and only three days after Clayton’s appointment the eager new clerk found himself riding around the city with his leader looking at lots. A week later the two of them were on the Illinois prairie looking at more land and hoeing potatoes on Joseph Smith’s farm.³

Joseph and William may have spent more time on real estate over the next two years than on any other single business item. Clayton was constantly looking at, showing, and selling property, meeting land agents,⁴ and taking business trips for the Prophet. On February 9, 1843, for example, Joseph Smith gave William a letter in which Joseph was told that a Mr. Walsh was willing to transfer to him some land that lay outside the city, upon proof that $500 had been deposited at Quincy. Three days later, Joseph gave his clerk the full amount in gold and silver and sent him to Quincy. The trip took three days, in very cold weather, but Clayton deposited the funds and got the necessary receipt. Always ready to mix religion with business, he spent the evenings away from home in “interesting debate” and “pleasant conversation” on the gospel.⁵

The full extent of Joseph Smith’s real estate activities may never be unraveled, but it is clear that he was one of the major land dealers in Nauvoo. This was one way to promote large-scale immigration as rapidly and orderly as possible. It also provided some personal income for the Prophet, at least for a time. But equally important were the Church’s financial needs, and as early as October 20, 1839, Joseph Smith became Church treasurer and was given the power to set prices and sell lots. In January 1841, he was elected trustee-in-trust for the Church, and soon his personal business affairs were almost inextricably mixed with those of the Church.⁶

Joseph and William strongly urged new arrivals to purchase land from Nauvoo’s most prominent agent—not just to help the Prophet repay his heavy personal debts but also to provide funds for the work of the earthly Kingdom of God. Clayton felt deeply about this and in December 1843 said so as forcefully as he knew how in an article in the Nauvoo Neighbor:

I feel it my duty to sa. . . . that there is in the hands of the trustee in trust, a large quantity of lands, both in the city and adjoining townships in this county, which is for sale, some of which belongs to the church and is designed for the benefit of the poor, and also to liquidate debts owing to the church, for which the trustee is responsible. Some, also, is land which has been consecrated for the building of the Temple and the Nauvoo House.

If the brethren who move in here and want an inheritance, will buy their lands of the trustee in trust, they will thereby benefit the poor, the Temple, and the Nauvoo House, and even then only will be doing that which is their duty, and which I know, by considerable experience, will be vastly for their benefit and satisfaction in the days to come. Let all the brethren, therefore, when they move into Nauvoo, consult President Joseph Smith, the trustee in trust, and purchase their lands of him; and I am bold to say that God will bless them. . . .

We hold ourselves ready at any time to wait upon the brethren and show them the land. . . . and can be found any day, either at President Joseph Smith’s bar-room, or at the Temple Recorder’s office at the Temple.⁷

The economic problems facing the infant Mormon metropolis were not unlike those of other struggling frontier communities. It was difficult to obtain specie, and Joseph Smith sold too much land on credit and even at times practically donated it to the poor.⁸ It was unusual for Clayton actually to receive cash, and this probably accounts for the satisfaction he seemed to feel when he wrote in his journal on July 31, 1843, that he had sold a hundred acres to Benjamin Meginness for $1,000 and that the purchaser had agreed to pay $800 cash and give a $200 note. Three days later, Clayton received the down payment in specie and happily took the note for the rest.⁹

Joseph Smith’s scribe was especially interested in the stream of European immigrants that poured into Nauvoo, mostly from England. When two boatloads arrived on April 12 and 13, 1843, he must have taken at least a moment to compare his own arrival a year and a half earlier with theirs. Instead of landing in New York and taking his circuitous route along rivers, canals, lakes, and over land, the new immigrants landed at New Orleans and from there took a riverboat all the way to Nauvoo. The sight that greeted them was a far cry from the ramshackle community that greeted Clayton: brick homes were going up here and there (illus. 4-2), various businesses were operating, the temple was beginning to rise, and William could take any interested friends to Joseph Smith’s brick store, where William worked in the second story office. He could also take them to his own office—a small brick building recently erected near the temple. More important, he had land to sell, and he could, in all good conscience, take the new arrivals around the city and its environs extolling the importance of buying there and then, while the city of the Saints was in its growing stage.

Illus. 4-2. The Brigham Young (top) and Heber C. Kimball (bottom) homes were built in Nauvoo during a time of prosperity. Both courtesy Church Archives

On April 13, the immigrants were taken to the unfinished temple where inside its slowly rising walls they were treated to a special religious service complete with choir music and a major address from the Prophet. William Clayton listened with interest as Joseph declared that he would not address the new arrivals on doctrine but, rather, on matters of temporal welfare. Clayton was well aware of the disparity between rich and poor that characterized the Saints. He also knew of Joseph Smith’s not always successful efforts to sell at high prices to the rich not only to make money but also to find means to help the poor. Joseph’s talk contained elements of all these concerns:

I got away from my keepers in Missouri; and when I came to these shores, I found four or five hundred families who had been driven out of Missouri without houses or food; and I went to work to get meat and flour to feed them. The people were not afraid to trust me, and I went to work and bought all this region of country, and I cried out, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” And the answer was, “Build up a city and call my Saints to this place,” and our hearts leap with joy to see you coming here. We have been praying for you all winter from the bottom of our hearts, and we are glad to see you. We are poor, and cannot do by you as we would; but we will do for you all we can. It is not expected that all of you can locate in the city. There are some who have money and who will build and hire others. Those who cannot purchase lots can go out into the country; the farmers want your labor. No industrious man need suffer in this land. The claims of the poor on us are such that we have claim on your good feelings, for your money to help the poor; and the church debts also have their demands to save the credit of the church. This credit has been obtained to help the poor and keep them from starvation, &c. Those who purchase church land and pay for it, this shall be their sacrifice.

Knowing that the immigrants would hear him accused of speculation and of charging unjustly high prices, Joseph emphasized his dual role as both entrepreneur and prophet:

Men of considerable means who were robbed of everything in the state of Missouri, are laboring in this city for a morsel of bread; and there are those who must have starved, but for the providence of God through me. We can beat all our competitors in lands, price and everything; we have the highest prices; and best lands, and do the most good with the money we get. . . . Suppose I sell you land for ten dollars an acre, and I gave three, four or five dollars per acre; then some persons may cry out, “You are speculating.” Yes. I will tell how: I buy other lands and give them to the widow and the fatherless. If the speculators run against me, they run against the buckler of Jehovah. . . . I speak to you as one having authority, that you may know when it comes, and that you may have faith and know that God has sent me. . . .

Those who have money, come to me, and I will let you have lands; and those who have no money, if they will look as well as I do, I will give them advice that will do them good. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.¹⁰

The next day, William Clayton and Joseph Smith rode out on the prairie with several immigrants, and about twenty acres of land were sold. Three days later, Clayton thankfully began receiving hard cash from some of the immigrants, and two days after that he sold thirty acres more.

Joseph Smith was a good judge of character when he selected William Clayton to be his scribe, confidant, and land agent. But he was not always so perceptive, especially when someone played upon his natural sympathies. His predisposition toward trust and generosity created more than one disappointment for him.¹¹ A case in point was Joseph H. Jackson, who for a time loomed as a possible successor to Clayton as the Prophet’s land agent. Perhaps this was one of the tests of faith so often experienced by the disciple from Penwortham, for Joseph almost replaced him with a scoundrel.

Jackson first appeared in Nauvoo in fall 1842 but left when someone, thinking him a Missouri spy, took a shot at him. He went to Carthage, became acquainted with several anti-Mormons, and in March returned to Nauvoo. Joseph Smith first met him on May 18, 1843, as he returned from a visit with Stephen A. Douglas in Carthage and found Jackson waiting at his home. Lying to the Prophet, Jackson said that he was a Catholic priest, and two days later Joseph took him along as he rode out on the prairie with Clayton to look at land. Suddenly the Prophet informed his clerk that to relieve him of the burden of selling lands he had appointed Jackson to take over. The new man, he said, appeared to be a “fine & noble fellow,” but he was reduced in circumstances and Joseph felt disposed to hire him in order to “give him a chance in the world.” For his part, Jackson promised Joseph and William that he would be baptized soon.¹²

Jackson, however, did not join the Church, and before long his actions began to belie the Prophet’s first impression. Only three days after the ride on the prairie, Joseph had occasion to question one of his plural wives, Eliza Partridge, about the conduct of Jackson while Joseph was away, and he later told Clayton that “Jackson is rotten hearted.” But even then the falling out was not immediate, and as late as December 29, Jackson was there when Joseph told of some of his early revelations. Jackson again declared that he was almost persuaded to unite with Joseph, to which the Prophet replied: “I would that he were not only almost, but altogether.” Eventually Jackson became an anti-Mormon of the worst sort, involving himself in conspiracies that led to Joseph Smith’s assassination and even publishing an exposé of the Church.¹³ Jackson, it appeared from his own admission, had returned to Nauvoo only so he could win the Prophet’s confidence and then reveal to the world the “real designs and nature of his operations.” He intentionally deceived Joseph, he later explained, for “the end justified the means,” and in 1846 he published his exposé.¹⁴

Clayton was not replaced. Instead, he drew close enough to Joseph that when the Prophet decided to transfer title of some of his lands to avoid having them taken away through lawsuits, he “appointed” Clayton to purchase some of it in his own name. William became highly protective of the Prophet’s land and on one occasion even stopped his Manchester friend, Arthur Smith, from cutting timber on Joseph’s prairie property.¹⁵ This did not mean that Clayton always pleased the Church leader. On January 2, 1844, for instance, he sold Willard Richards two lots for $500. For some reason, recorded but unexplained, this displeased the Prophet and Clayton received a scolding. Joseph Smith, Clayton was learning, could scold, become angry, and make mistakes in judgment like any other human.

Real estate was not the only activity in which Clayton, as the Prophet’s scribe, participated (illus. 4-3). If Joseph Smith needed money, Clayton was sent to borrow it. On occasion he went to Carthage to pay taxes, he sometimes went on trips to obtain supplies, and he frequently spent time examining the books of various business ventures. One such venture was the little stern-wheeler, the Maid of Iowa, and on September 21, 1843, Joseph instructed Clayton to spend a month on this Church-owned riverboat regulating the books.¹⁶ For personal reasons, Clayton spent only a few days on the boat, but one of his greatest satisfactions was the fact that the Prophet trusted him with such errands.

Clayton’s errands also included acting as Joseph Smith’s personal emissary in connection with various legal problems. A series of events from 1843 to 1844 illustrate these as well as the interesting variety of interrelated affairs he found himself involved in. They also reveal some significant personal attitudes and perceptions evolving in the mind of at least one devoted Mormon as he attempted to relate to the secular world of western Illinois.

Illus. 4-3. Acting as Joseph Smith’s scribe, William Clayton penned this note to Dan Jones, captain of the Maid of Iowa. Courtesy James B. Allen

Joseph Smith was frequently the object of arrest warrants, sometimes by Missouri officers attempting to have him extradited on various trumped-up charges, and other times on spurious Illinois charges. Often he had himself brought before the courts of the city of Nauvoo and, on writs of habeas corpus, released. One of Clayton’s frequent tasks was to keep his leader informed of impending difficulties. On August 8, 1842, Joseph was arrested, along with Orrin P. Rockwell, for alleged complicity in the attempted murder of the former governor of Missouri, Lilburn W. Boggs. The Nauvoo municipal court quickly issued a writ of habeas corpus, and both Smith and Rockwell were released. The frustrated Missouri officers appealed to Illinois governor Thomas Carlin, who had signed the arrest order, and Carlin immediately offered a reward for the apprehension of both men. Joseph went into hiding, and as he remained in seclusion over the next several weeks William Clayton was among those trusted friends who clandestinely visited him.

The record of those days reads almost like an adventure story. Joseph secretly crossed the Mississippi River to Zarahemla, and on August 11, sent word to Nauvoo that he wanted to meet a few trusted people, including his scribe, that night on an island. Sometime after dark, William met Emma Smith, Hyrum Smith, William Law, Newel K. Whitney, George Miller, and Dimick Huntington near Joseph’s store, then took a skiff to the island. After waiting patiently in the dark, they heard the sound of a skiff from the Iowa side, and Joseph, along with Erastus Derby, appeared. In a dramatic late-night council the small group of friends decided that the Prophet should be taken up river, where he would continue to hide out. It was an emotional meeting for all of them, and five days later the Prophet dictated his feelings to William Clayton in a long, tender soliloquy that captured the meaning of genuine friendship as well as anyone could. Said he, in part:

My heart was overjoyed as I took the faithful band by the hand, that stood upon the shore, one by one. . . .

I do not think to mention the particulars of the history of that sacred night, which shall forever be remembered by me; but the names of the faithful are what I wish to record in this place. These I have met in prosperity, and they were my friends; and now I meet them in adversity, and they are still my warmer friends. These love the God that I serve; they love the truths that I promulgate; they love those virtuous, and those holy doctrines that I cherish in my bosom with the warmest feelings of my heart, and with that zeal which cannot be denied. . . . They are my brethren, and I shall live; and because I live they shall live also.¹⁷

This was only one of several such clandestine visits during this time.

It took both ingenuity and intrigue to keep Joseph’s hiding place a secret. On the thirteenth, Emma decided to go up river by carriage to see her husband. It soon became clear, however, that the sheriff was watching her every move. She walked to the Durphy home, therefore, leaving Clayton and Lorin Walker to take her carriage down the river, with the curtains open so everyone would know she was not there. Emma, meanwhile, eluded the sheriff, made her own way down the river, and boarded her carriage without being seen. She and her two escorts continued four miles down the river, turned onto the prairie, drove around Nauvoo, and finally joined Joseph Smith at the home of Edward Sayers. Clayton, Emma, and Erastus Derby returned to Nauvoo the next day.

Two days later, Joseph wrote his wife that he felt he must relocate, possibly in the pine country to the north, and asked her to come to him again. He also wanted William Clayton and Lorin Farr to come along and to bring “all the writings and papers, books, and histories, for we shall want a scribe in order that we may pour upon the world the truth, like the lava from Mount Vesuvius.”¹⁸ Obviously he expected to send some important teachings to the Saints from his hiding place, much like he had done while languishing in a Missouri jail in 1839, and Clayton was to be part of the process. The Church leader’s dependence on the scribe from Penwortham was growing.

Joseph did not go to the pine country but remained in an on-again-off-again hiding situation until December. Sometimes he felt he could return to Nauvoo with relative safety, and on August 19, he went home, under cover of night, to await the next crisis. It was not long in coming, for more Missouri officers were on their way. They kept their movements as secret as possible, but certain Mormons suspected who they were and wrote directly to Clayton, who was constantly in touch with the Prophet and could deliver the warning. David S. Hollister wrote from Quincy on September 1, saying that the Missourians had two requisitions with them, one addressed to the governor of Illinois and the other addressed to the governor of Iowa. He suspected that the Iowa requisition was a ruse to throw the Mormons off guard, but he was unable to provide any certain information except that the enemy was “on the move.” George Miller, writing from St. Louis on September 4, told Clayton that according to the proprietor of a St. Louis hotel, men had been there eight or ten days earlier boasting that they were on the way to Nauvoo to get Joseph Smith, alive or dead. The Hollister letter arrived on the morning of Saturday, September 3, and shortly after noon Deputy Sheriff Pitman and two other men arrived at Joseph Smith’s home in Nauvoo. According to an account apparently written by William Clayton, the officers planned to arrive during the night but somehow lost the road and became separated on the way from Quincy. Fatigued and “sore from riding,” they nevertheless entered the house and found John Boynton, whom they began to question as to the Prophet’s whereabouts. Joseph was in another room eating dinner with his family, but Boynton, in the typical evasive fashion common among Joseph’s friends, simply replied that he had seen him early that morning. The Prophet, meantime, slipped out the back door, through the tall corn in his garden, and over to the home of Newel K. Whitney where he hid. At the same time, Emma Smith confronted the officers, who admitted they had no search warrant but wanted to search the premises anyway. Realizing that the search would only delay them, thus giving her husband time to make good his escape, Emma graciously allowed it. Finding nothing, the Missourians left. About nine o’clock that night, Joseph slipped out of the Whitney home and went to Edward Hunter’s, where he was warmly welcomed and where, wrote Clayton, “He can be kept safe from the hands of his enemies.”¹⁹

Clayton was a firsthand observer of many such incidents, and they disgusted him thoroughly. Already his pen was smoldering with bitter denunciation of anyone who threatened his leader. “This is another testimony and evidence of the mean, corrupt, illegal proceedings of our enemies,” he fumed, “not withstanding the Constitution of the United States” that contained guarantees against unreasonable search and seizure. “Yet these men audaciously, impudently and altogether illegally searched the house of President Joseph Smith even without any warrant or authority whatever. Being satisfied that he was not in the house, they departed. They appeared to be well armed, and no doubt intended to take him either dead or alive; which we afterwards heard they had said they would do; but the Almighty again delivered His servant from their bloodthirsty grasp.”²⁰

Joseph had escaped again, at least for the time being, and Clayton continued to do whatever he could to save his leader from further harassment. On September 17, he wrote a long letter to Governor Carlin “showing up,” according to Joseph’s history, “the Missouri persecution and my suffering in their true colors.”²¹ The letter is not extant, but one can imagine that it did not mince words in praising the Prophet and denouncing his enemies.

That fall, with the help of the Mormon vote, Thomas Ford (illus. 4-4) replaced Carlin as governor of Illinois, and on December 9, Clayton found himself in a delegation of nine men leaving Nauvoo to visit the new chief executive in Springfield. Their task was to get Carlin’s order for Joseph’s arrest set aside. They arrived on the thirteenth and the next day, after consulting with Stephen A. Douglas and U.S. District Attorney Justin Butterfield, began making their plea. Ford sympathized with the Prophet but was not sure of his authority to rescind the order. A few days of meetings and negotiations followed, and finally, after consultation with Douglas and six state supreme court judges, Ford decided on what amounted to a legal ruse as the most practical course of action. Joseph should voluntarily submit himself to arrest by a friend and come to Springfield. There the court would grant him a writ of habeas corpus, thus effectively forestalling the pending arrest by Missouri constables. Actually, three judges were ready to dismiss the case without a hearing, but the other three, together with Ford and Douglas, thought the habeas corpus procedure was the best way to assure the Prophet’s continuing freedom.

The plot had all the elements of a political intrigue, and Clayton understood its implications. He was impressed by Douglas’s argument that since it had been said that Joseph had defied the laws of Illinois, this would be the surest way of satisfying the public mind and at the same time securing the governor from public censure. Clayton also recognized the obvious self-interest in the governor’s actions, and Clayton’s comment seemed reminiscent of Joseph Smith’s denunciation of President Martin Van Buren, who had refused to intervene in behalf of the Mormons in Missouri for fear he should lose that state’s vote. Ford, wrote Clayton, “appears to have the best of feelings towards Joseph but is unwilling as stated above to interfere lest he should lose the confidence of his political friends.”²² But Clayton liked the plan, though he still feared the possibility that treachery somewhere along the line would result in Joseph being sent to Missouri. At this point the Prophet’s Masonic association seemed to pay political dividends, for Douglas assured Clayton that as a Mason, he believed there was not a particle of doubt that Joseph would be released immediately. The governor, Douglas said, had promised Joseph protection on his way to Springfield, and Douglas promised to see Ford personally and request a written authority for safe conduct.

Illus. 4-4. With the help of the Mormon vote, Thomas Ford was elected governor of Illinois in 1842. Courtesy Church Archives

On the seventeenth, at Clayton’s request, the governor wrote a letter to Joseph explaining the plan. Butterfield did the same thing, and, armed with both documents, the delegation left for Nauvoo immediately. When the plan was presented to the Prophet, he was delighted.

The scheme went off like clockwork. On the day after Christmas, Wilson Law arrested Joseph Smith, and Clayton was sent to Carthage to obtain a writ of habeas corpus to take Joseph before the Springfield court. The next day, Clayton was with the Prophet and his group as they started for Springfield to carry out the plan. The hearing began on January 4, and two days later William was among those who testified that on the day the attempt was made on Boggs’s life Joseph was, indeed, in Illinois and not in Missouri. The trial concluded the same day according to the planned results, and that evening Clayton wrote gratefully in his journal: “We feel to thank the great God for thus delivering his servant from the power of the wicked and designing men.”²³

The first trip to Springfield, early in December, had another purpose, and one that was not completely fulfilled. Joseph Smith was chafing under the burden of heavy debt, much of which was a result of the Church’s financial crisis in Kirtland a few years earlier. Among other things, he had taken upon himself the obligation of paying certain debts even though they had been incurred for the benefit of the Church. His financial situation in Nauvoo, moreover, was precarious partly because of his own initial land purchases and partly because he was so generous in granting credit to others. Joseph and other leaders simply did not have enough cash flow to meet all the demands being placed upon them in 1842. The Prophet had no intention of defaulting, but the pressures became so great that he finally decided to take advantage of the new Bankruptcy Act of 1841 and file for discharge, still planning to make full payment of all his debts when he was able.

At first, Justin Butterfield opposed such action, partly because of Joseph’s responsibilities as trustee-in-trust for the Church. Shortly after Joseph’s delegation arrived in Springfield, however, Hyrum Smith was actually discharged in bankruptcy and Butterfield himself consented to an “arrangement” whereby Joseph also could be discharged. So confident was William Clayton of the outcome that he wrote in his diary on his way home that “there is now nothing to prevent pres. Josephs discharge in Bankruptcy.”²⁴ When Joseph later went to Springfield for the extradition proceedings, Butterfield represented him before the court and was apparently so impressed with the Prophet’s integrity that he became a permanent friend. Unfortunately, the bankruptcy issue was not settled before Joseph Smith was murdered.

William Clayton’s journal entry for New Year’s Day, 1843 (during the trip to Springfield), provides modern Church members with one of their most oft-quoted statements from Joseph Smith. It also demonstrates Clayton’s concern with recording the spiritual as well as the temporal as he made daily notes on what he saw and heard. As recorded by Clayton:

This a.m. we had a pleasant interview with M Butterfield, Judge Douglas, Senator Gillespie & others. Pres. Joseph stated to Mr Butterfield the prominent points of difference in sentiment between the Latter Day Saints & Sectarians viz: the latter are all circumscribed by some peculiar creed which deprives its members of the right of believing anything not contained in it; whereas the Latter Day Saints have no creed, but are ready to believe all true principles existing, as they are made manifest to us from time to time. He said further, that if any person should ask him if he was a prophet he should not deny it, as to deny it would give him the lie & then shewed from the Revelations of John that any man who has the testimony of Jesus has the spirit of prophecy &c.²⁵

Four months of running and hiding while still attempting to conduct Church and community business were wearing on the Prophet as well as discouraging for his friends in Nauvoo. Shortly after his return to the city a day of fasting and thanksgiving was held, and on January 18, a group of close friends was invited to the Smith home for a grand dinner party. The list of guests included Lucy Mack Smith (Joseph’s mother), Hyrum Smith, Brigham Young, Willard Richards, John Taylor, Orson Hyde, Wilford Woodruff, George A. Smith, Heber C. Kimball, the wives of these men, Eliza R. Snow, several other prominent citizens, and, of course, William and Ruth Clayton. The festivities began with the singing of two jubilee hymns written especially for the occasion, one by Wilson Law and Willard Richards and the other by Eliza R. Snow. Joseph Smith distributed cards with the hymns printed on them. The conversation centered around the deliverance of Joseph from his enemies and at 2 p.m. the Prophet and Emma began to serve dinner. It took four shifts, for their dinner table could not hold all the guests at once, and the Smiths had their own meal only with the last shift. The party broke up at 6 p.m. Wrote Clayton, “Truly it was a time of Jubilee; all hearts rejoiced.”²⁶ But all the celebration must have been too much for his constitution, for he went home feeling ill and could not even attend the Masonic lodge meeting that evening, as Joseph did.

Clayton soon realized that Joseph’s delivery was only a temporary reprieve. On the night of June 18, 1843, Clayton was visiting at the home of a Sister Booth, along with Ruth and her sister, Margaret (who had only recently become his first plural wife). Suddenly William F. Cahoon rushed in, telling Clayton that Hyrum Smith wanted to see him at the temple immediately. Another writ was out for Joseph’s arrest, but he was away with his wife and family, visiting Emma’s sister, Elizabeth Wasson, who lived near Dixon. Clayton rushed to the temple where Hyrum met him and asked him to ride to Dixon immediately to warn Joseph. Clayton borrowed $120 for the trip, persuaded Stephen Markham to go with him, and rode swiftly out of town at midnight on Joseph Smith’s favorite horse, Joe Duncan. The two riders covered the 190 miles in sixty-four hours, with very little rest along the way. It is not surprising that Joe Duncan was so jaded at the end of the trip that he could not be ridden for several days.²⁷

Clayton and Markham found Joseph and Emma about halfway between Dixon and the Wasson home and delivered their message. They need not be alarmed, the Prophet assured them, for his enemies could not hurt him. Nevertheless he prudently kept out of sight all day on June 22, even though he had agreed to preach at Dixon and many people turned out to hear him.²⁸ Clayton told Joseph that Hyrum wanted him to return home immediately, but Joseph thought it better to remain there a few days and see what happened.

The seemingly inevitable happened quickly. Already Joseph H. Reynolds, the sheriff from Jackson County, Missouri, and Constable Harmon T. Wilson of Carthage were in the area. They were disguised, however, passing themselves off as Mormon elders. On Friday morning, June 23, Clayton went into Dixon to find out what was happening. He must have been chagrined when he later discovered that he actually passed Reynolds and Wilson along the way without recognizing them. Perhaps he could have saved the Prophet from arrest. But the two officers knew where Joseph was, for they had been told by his friends at Dixon who thought they were Mormons. They arrived at the Wasson home early in the afternoon, took Joseph by surprise, and after considerable abusive language and harsh treatment arrested him and tried to hurry him off to Missouri before anything could complicate their plans.

Clayton heard of the arrest from Markham and quickly began making arrangements for another writ of habeas corpus. Eventually, after a long series of complicated maneuvers, several writs were issued, and Joseph’s captors were themselves arrested for using violence against him. In an almost comic-opera turn of events they were ultimately forced to take him to Nauvoo for a habeas corpus hearing where, of course, there was no question that Joseph would be released.

Clayton, meantime, set out to inform Hyrum and the others. He took a carriage to Rock Island and then a riverboat to Nauvoo, where he arrived on Sunday, June 25. As soon as they received the message, Hyrum Smith and Wilson Law called for volunteers to “rescue” the Prophet. Some three hundred men volunteered, and out of these around one hundred twenty were selected to go in two companies. One group boarded the Maid of Iowa (illus. 4-5), planning to stop any riverboats in case Reynolds and Wilson had taken the Prophet that way, and the other rode horseback toward Dixon.

No rescue mission was needed, however, and on June 30, leading his captors, Joseph made a dramatic, triumphal entry into Nauvoo. The poignancy of the day, especially as described by William Clayton, demonstrated the irresistible influence that was Joseph Smith’s in the city of the Saints. Joseph himself sent a messenger ahead, who told his friends that his party would arrive about noon and that he wanted the band and as many citizens as possible to meet them. About 11 a.m. the band marched to the edge of town, followed by Hyrum and Emma Smith on horseback and a train of carriages a half-mile long carrying other prominent citizens. Clayton was there in a buggy, and about a mile and a half east of the temple they met Joseph Smith and his party, which included several men on horseback who had gone on the rescue mission. As soon as they saw Joseph, the people of Nauvoo began to cheer, whereupon Joseph left his buggy, mounted a horse, called for his wife and his brother and, holding hands, the three “wept tears of joy.”

Illus. 4-5. The Maid of Iowa, partly owned by Joseph Smith, carried immigrants up the Mississippi River to Nauvoo. In 1844, Church leaders used it to patrol the river and protect Joseph Smith from mob attacks via water. Courtesy Museum of Church History and Art

The band struck up “Hail Columbia” and the whole procession—horses, carriages, and crowds on foot falling in behind—marched slowly into the city. There the streets were lined with people on both sides, and with crowds cheering, guns firing, and cannons roaring, Joseph made his way to his home, where an even greater crowd was waiting. There also he met his sixty-six-year-old mother, and, in describing the reunion, Clayton could not refrain from adding his own emotional editorializing to the scene. Joseph, he wrote: “repaired to her & with the welling tears rolling down his cheek kissed the parent who had so often been compelled to sorrow & suffer feelings of the most exquisite anguish to see her offspring hunted from place to place for his religious sake. Tears of joy bedewed her aged cheeks whilst she once more held him in clasped in her arms.” His children also crowded around, and seven-year-old Fred exclaimed, “Pa, the Missourians won’t take you away again, will they?” (Just a year earlier the same little Fred had amused the whole family by telling of a dream in which he saw that “the Missourians had got their heads knocked off.”) The entire scene ended with Joseph introducing his friends to the people from out of town, who were astonished at the enthusiasm of the greeting, and the crowd dispersed only after he promised to address them at the temple at 4 p.m.²⁹

There was another element in this story that only Clayton and a very few other confidants of Joseph Smith were privy to. Deeply involved in the life of the Prophet, William had frequent opportunity to observe and reflect upon the personal relations between Joseph and Emma. It was no easy thing for Emma to be married to a man who was so constantly in demand, by both friends and enemies, and who was also teaching things she did not like. On occasion the strain became obvious. The introduction of plural marriage was her most difficult trial, and it was undoubtedly this issue that led Joseph Smith to discuss some “delicate matters” with William during that eventful trip to Dixon in late June. Clayton had taken his own first plural wife two months earlier, had recently performed the plural marriage between Joseph Smith and Lucy Walker on May 1, and in mid-May had allowed another of Joseph’s plural wives, Desdimona Fullmer, to board at his home.³⁰ It is understandable that Emma resented Clayton at this point, and this seems to be the only explanation for Joseph confiding in his friend on June 23, not only that Emma wanted somehow to “lay a snare” for Clayton, but also that she had treated Joseph himself coldly since William arrived at Dixon.³¹ Thus it was a particular pleasure, seven days later, for Clayton to see the tender evidence of reconciliation as Joseph and Emma embraced each other upon Joseph’s triumphal return to Nauvoo. “Such a feeling I never before witnessed when the Prest. took hold of the hand of his partner in sorrow & persecution. Surely it would have moved anything but the heart of an adamantine.”

Joseph went in the house to have dinner and, ironically, among the guests were Sheriff Reynolds and Constable Wilson. Clayton could not resist a comment, worth noting here because it shows so well his disgust for anyone who abused his idol. He seemed seldom to miss an opportunity, either in Nauvoo or later, to use whatever descriptive talent he had to both sing the Prophet’s praises and damn his enemies. “Wilson & the Sheriff were very kindly invited to sit at table with the family & friends,” he wrote in his journal, “& partook of the kind hospitality of him whom they had so lately insulted and abused in the most shameful manner. What a contrast between the treatment they met with & that which they had used toward J[oseph] while he was there prisoner. It was very evident that they were in some measure conscious of the magnitude of their baseness & maltreatment.”

Reynolds and Wilson left Nauvoo, but they did not abandon efforts to capture the Prophet and return him to Missouri. In the meantime, Joseph entered his own suit against them, for illegal imprisonment and abuse, and in May 1844 it was the ever-present William Clayton, along with Stephen Markham, who went to Dixon to see the matter through the courts. It proved to be an interesting two-week trip, and one that illustrates the diversity that could fill a short period in the life of a friend and employee of Joseph Smith.

On Thursday, May 2, Clayton spent the morning preparing to board the Maid of Iowa, but he was interrupted by the need to take care of several business items for the Prophet. He had to rush to be at the dock by twelve minutes to ten, when the little riverboat departed upstream. Joseph and Emma were there to say goodbye.

By Friday night the Maid was steaming up the Rock River, but on Saturday night it was stopped by rapids about twelve miles below Dixon. The next morning, Clayton and Markham decided to finish the trip on foot—the wisdom of which was confirmed by their discovery that another steamer was stuck in the rapids a little ways above them. They arrived in Dixon about mid-morning and, to their surprise, found that the people of Dixon were not as friendly as expected. The reason, Clayton speculated, was that the Mormons were supporting Joseph Smith rather than Martin Van Buren for the presidency of the United States.

A second purpose of the trip to Dixon was to buy corn. On Monday, after determining that the court would not bring up Joseph Smith’s case that day, Clayton bought nearly three hundred bushels and helped load it on a flatboat they had rented for two dollars.

Clayton spent the next two days waiting impatiently in the Dixon courtroom. “I want to be away from this place,” he wrote on May 8, “for I do not like their spirit, and I feel very uneasy about my family.” When the case was finally called up and a jury impaneled on May 9, Clayton expressed dismay, for he believed that about half the prospective jurors had to be dismissed because of their prejudices. “Even some that did sit acknowledged that they were much prejudiced,” he wrote. “What a disgrace to a town to think that men will let their prejudice run so high against a man from rumor and report that they cannot do him justice.” Clearly William’s own prejudices tinted his view of the Dixonites, and one can imagine the fervor with which he defended both Joseph and the faith in a discussion that took place that evening. “We had a very interesting debate with two gentlemen on our religion,” he said, “wherein truth appeared doubly beautiful and error equally ridiculous.”³²

Witnesses were examined all afternoon, and by 6 p.m. the trial was over and the jury given its charge. The next morning the verdict came, and, much to Clayton’s delight, the jury had decided in favor of Joseph Smith. The Prophet was awarded $40 damages, and court costs were assessed against Reynolds and Wilson. But Clayton was still unimpressed with the people of Dixon. “We were credibly informed,” he recorded, “that the jury quarrelled very hard almost to a fight and did not agree on their verdict until after sunrise this morning. We were glad to see truth and virtue again triumph over tyranny and oppression & equally disgusted to witness the effects of prejudice in the jury Box. We filed our bills of costs hired a team to take us to the boat and at 10 we left Dixon, and felt truly glad to be released from such superstitious prejudice and corrupt hypocrisy.”³³

About eighteen miles downstream they boarded the Maid of Iowa. The next day, Saturday, they took on 280 sacks of wheat. About mid-afternoon the boat became hung up on the rapids. Sunday morning they were still stuck and sent for a flatboat onto which they began to unload their cargo. Finally, about 3 p.m., the steamer floated, but only at the cost of a near-tragedy. Three men in a small skiff were attempting to help them weigh anchor, and as the boat began to float the skiff capsized. Fortunately the rocks prevented it from sinking completely, and two of the men were eventually able to row it to shore. The other clung to the anchor cable and got himself aboard the steamer. They finally got the anchor up and floated downriver to a place where they could reload the cargo and continued on their way. The rest of the trip was uneventful, and at 5:30 in the afternoon of May 13, Clayton arrived in Nauvoo and reported his success to the President of the Church.³⁴

As important as Joseph Smith’s legal affairs were, Clayton had much more to do, and sometimes found himself both overloaded and overwhelmed. He spent much of Christmas Day, 1842, for example, working with Willard Richards on Joseph Smith’s history and then went home that night and continued working. All the next morning was spent on the same task, interrupted only by the need to make preparations to go to Springfield with the Prophet. He constantly wrote letters for Joseph, sometimes wrote articles for the Nauvoo Neighbor, and was frequently appointed to take minutes at conference and other church meetings. He also, at times, assisted other Church leaders with their writing, and helped Heber C. Kimball arrange his history.³⁵

Generally uncomplaining at the mountainous burden he always carried, on occasion he could not help but display at least a note of dismay in his diary. On July 7, 1843, he had arranged to give a supper for the band, but suddenly Hyrum Smith had work for him to do. “Hyrum wants me to write,” he wrote, “& seems to care nothing for any disappointment.” Loyal workhorse that he was, Clayton took the assignment and simply asked the band to see that his share of the meal was taken to his home where he was working. His feelings about such demands would not be made public—he was much too concerned about his image as a loyal disciple for that. But he would be less than human if he had not harbored at least some note of resentment when such demands were made of him. In this case he had a slight reprieve for in the evening the band came to his home anyway, and they enjoyed themselves until midnight. Clayton then stayed up until 2 a.m. writing for Hyrum and spent all the next day, until 7 p.m., finishing the job. It is not surprising that he was “considerable unwell” that day.

Joseph Smith was not so aloof from the world that he did not appreciate the role of practical politics in promoting the interests of the Kingdom. He was deeply involved in political affairs, though he usually emphasized that his political views were not to be considered principles of the faith or binding on his followers. But he also emphasized that he would use whatever political influence he could muster if it would further the interests of his cause. As he told a group of temple workers in February 1843: “It is our duty to concentrate all our influence to make popular that which is sound and good, and unpopular that which is unsound. ’Tis right, politically, for a man who has influence to use it as well as for a man who has no influence to use his. From henceforth I will maintain all the influence I can get.”³⁶ His influence in western Illinois was sometimes pivotal, for the Mormons, of course, were generally willing to follow his political lead and their block voting could swing important elections. He used that influence to help formulate and promote the important city charter that made Nauvoo practically independent of the state.³⁷ He was not reluctant to let people know where he stood on issues or with respect to candidates, he openly threw his support to candidates friendly to his causes, and he had much to say about national issues. He was elected to the first Nauvoo city council, and in 1843 he was elected mayor. His was the major policymaking voice in the political life of the Mormon community in Illinois.³⁸

One of the most interesting examples of Joseph Smith’s political influence occurred during the Congressional election of 1843. The Mormons generally voted Democratic, but Cyrus Walker, the Whig, and Joseph P. Hoge, the Democrat, both found encouraging support among influential people in Nauvoo. Hyrum Smith, Joseph’s brother as well as his “assistant president” and also patriarch to the Church, was in Hoge’s camp, while William Law, a counselor to Joseph Smith, was in Walker’s. Walker was especially encouraged, for it was soon made public that Joseph Smith had also promised him his vote.

Did the Prophet’s example mean that all the Saints were supposed to vote for the Whig, even though most of them still felt the Democrats more deserving of their support? “I never tell any man how to vote or whom to vote for,”³⁹ Joseph had said during an Independence Day address, but just five days before the August election he found a unique way to throw the election to Hoge while still keeping his promise to Walker. Hyrum was campaigning publicly for Hoge and even declared that it was the will of Heaven that the Saints should vote for him. William Law angrily challenged Hyrum’s right to make such a statement, saying that Joseph Smith would never sanction it. The next day, Sunday, the Prophet got out of a sickbed to preach to the Saints on politics, though he told them, “The Lord has not given me a revelation concerning politics. I have not asked him for one.” He spoke glowingly of Cyrus Walker, affirming his promise to vote for him in return for Walker’s past friendship and legal favors. But, he told his listeners, this was “not for electioneering purposes.” Some may have considered this a classic tongue-in-cheek statement, however, when they heard him also say that Walker had withdrawn “all claim to your vote and influence if it would be detrimental to your interests as a people,” then followed with what amounted to a political bombshell: “Brother Hyrum tells me this morning that he has had a testimony to the effect it would be better for the people to vote for Hoge; and I never knew Hyrum to say he ever had a revelation and it failed. Let God speak and all men hold their peace.”⁴⁰ Did this mean that God really wanted Hoge to win? William Clayton apparently thought so, for he wrote in his diary that Joseph “stated that Hyrum had had a manifestation that it was for our interest to vote for Hoge.”⁴¹ Clayton and, apparently, most other Illinois Church members were reading the obvious into what the Prophet said: he was going to keep his promise to Walker, but it was in their interests as a people to vote the other way. The Mormons swung to Hoge, and their vote decided the election in his favor.

Joseph Smith’s decision to run for president grew, at least in part, from his disillusionment with the national government for its lack of action in behalf of the Mormons. His visit to Washington in 1840, in an attempt to get President Van Buren or Congress to intercede for Latter-day Saints in Missouri, ended in total failure. On the way home, his history records, “I did not fail to proclaim the iniquity and insolence of Martin Van Buren toward myself and an injured people, which will have its effect upon the public mind; and may he never be elected again to any office of trust or power, by which he may abuse the innocent and let the guilty go free.”⁴²

Joseph Smith continued to denounce Van Buren, becoming especially critical in his presidential campaign statement four years later. William Clayton and other disciples followed his lead—Van Buren and those like him were, in their minds, violating every principle of political and human decency by not using federal power to intervene in Missouri, protect the Mormons against mobs, and force redress for their losses. In December 1843, Joseph Smith went so far as to prophesy, “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that, if Congress will not hear our petition and grant us protection, they shall be broken up as a government.”⁴³ Joseph probably had reference to whoever was in power (which was actually the Whig party in the Senate and the Democratic party in the House) rather than the national government as an institution, but statements like this affected disciples like Clayton deeply. Clayton never had a good word to say for the government of the United States as a whole—he always saw it as corrupt, an enemy of the Kingdom, and about to be overthrown because of its failure to help the Saints.

Actually, Joseph Smith and his followers were probably too hard on Martin Van Buren and other government officials who were there when Joseph was lobbying in Washington. Practically all of them, including such leading figures as John C. Calhoun and Henry Clay, treated him with courtesy, expressed sympathy for the Mormons in their time of tragedy, but, like the president, declared that it was not within the power of the national government to act. The issue was states’ rights—and whether the government had the Constitutional authority to intervene within the boundaries of the states. It was generally agreed that the government could not, and the volatile slavery issue made it foolhardy for any politician with national aspirations to suggest that the federal government could for any reason violate state boundaries. It had caused a near civil war in 1832 when Andrew Jackson declared South Carolina in rebellion and threatened to send troops into the state because of its nullification of a federal tariff law. But not even this excuse could be used in the 1840s, for Missouri was hardly in a state of rebellion against the nation. The Constitution, furthermore, nowhere authorized either the president or Congress to intervene for any reason. On the contrary, it specified that the national government was to act against domestic violence only on the application of the legislature or governor of the affected state (article IV, section 4). It was both politically and constitutionally impossible at the time to do what the Mormons were asking.

Joseph Smith, however, had different ideas and was, in some respects, anticipating the Fourteenth Amendment. In modern times that amendment has been used to justify exactly what he was calling for—federal intervention in the states to protect the civil rights of citizens. States’ rights, Joseph bitterly declared in November 1843, fed mobs. Such doctrines, he fumed, “are a dead carcass—a stink, and they shall ascend up as a stink offering in the nose of the Almighty.”⁴⁴ Six weeks earlier he had made it clear what he really wanted in the Constitution. This great document had only one fault—it was not “broad enough to cover the whole ground.” It did not contain the means for punishing governmental officers who refused to “protect the people in their religious rights, or punish those mobs, states, or communities who interfere with the rights of the people on account of their religion.” The answer was to provide that “every officer of the Government who should neglect or refuse to extend the protection guaranteed in the Constitution should be subject to capital punishment; and then the president of the United States would not say, ‘Your cause is just but I can do nothing for you.’”⁴⁵ He wanted nothing less than a powerful anti-states’-rights amendment, and in his 1844 presidential platform statement he called upon the people “to repeal and impugn that relic of folly, which makes it necessary for the governor of a state to make the demand of the president for troops, in cases of invasion or rebellion. The governor himself may be a mobber.”⁴⁶ Clearly the Missouri difficulties and their political aftermath were at the heart of Joseph Smith’s views on the power of the national government.

There is no evidence that William Clayton involved himself in these issues of practical political philosophy. After all, he could not even vote, for he was not yet a citizen of the United States, and it does not appear that he took the time to study such Constitutional questions for himself. Nevertheless, Joseph Smith’s frequent rehearsals of the failures of the national government planted seeds of mistrust in his malleable mind, and every refusal in Washington to support the Mormons nurtured the antipathy that had been sown there by his most trusted mentor. Clayton was convinced that the American government’s days were numbered, but in the meantime it seemed only right that God’s prophet should put himself up as a candidate for the American presidency. Who else, after all, could the Mormons themselves support?

By late 1843, Joseph and his closest associates were seriously considering whom they would support for president in the 1844 campaign. On November 2, William Clayton was in a meeting attended also by Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Brigham Young, Heber Kimball, Willard Richards, John Taylor, and William Law—all prominent Church leaders. They agreed that letters should be written to five of the leading candidates, inquiring what their course of action would be toward the Mormons and their problems if any of them were elected. Two days later the letters were written, signed by Joseph in behalf of the Church, and sent to John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, Lewis Cass, Richard M. Johnson, and Martin Van Buren. Only two replied: Calhoun and Clay, and their letters were so unsatisfactory that Joseph Smith responded with long, angry replies to each of them.⁴⁷

On January 12, 1844, the Quorum of the Twelve decided to press Joseph Smith’s candidacy, and on the same day he began working with William W. Phelps on his political statement. Joseph may not have seriously believed he could win a national election, but he was serious about putting his views before the nation as positively as possible. The document was broad in its application, hardly mentioning the Mormons but paying specific attention to many of the national issues that were sure to find their place in election year politics: particularly reform, slavery, and expansionism. As the campaign got underway, hundreds of Mormon elders, including most of the top ecclesiastical leaders, were sent throughout the United States not only to spread the gospel but also to spread Joseph Smith’s political platform.

William Clayton was delighted and was even told by Joseph Smith on January 29, that he would be sent on a political mission. A little over a week earlier the non-Mormon sheriff, Jacob Backenstos, had agreed to support the Prophet’s candidacy, and Clayton apparently thought this was a hopeful sign. Four months later, however, he found many residents in Dixon ridiculing the Saints for their support of Joseph rather than Van Buren. Clayton was eager to see his leader go all the way to the White House, but the ambitious campaign would come to a tragic and sudden halt on June 27, with the Prophet’s murder at Carthage.⁴⁸

Meantime, Clayton also had his personal temporal concerns, one of which was building a home for his family. He obtained a lot in the first tract of land Joseph Smith had purchased, the Hugh White farm, thus settling in the lowlands of Nauvoo rather than on the hill. He followed to the letter the Prophet’s admonitions as to where the Saints should buy land.⁴⁹ Clayton’s property was on the southwest corner of the block, where Durphy and Hotchkiss streets intersected (illus. 4-6). Each city block was four acres square, and looking about four blocks to the north Clayton could watch the imposing Nauvoo temple slowly rising. To get to Joseph Smith’s home or store, Clayton had to walk five blocks south to Water Street, then three blocks west.

Illus. 4-6. Map of Nauvoo and vicinity.

Clayton began erecting a fine brick home—the only brick home, in fact, on the block. Early in November 1842, he hired masons to begin laying the brick, and on April 28, 1843, they finished. It took another month for the carpenters to complete their work, and on May 28, Clayton could write in his journal, “We are occupying our new house for which I feel very thankful.” He still had to haul water until the well was finished in September. The house apparently cost Clayton about $500 cash to build. Little did he imagine that his family would remain in the home for less than three years.⁵⁰

Clayton did not keep himself too busy to enjoy the social and cultural life of Nauvoo. For one thing he was, like Joseph Smith, a member of the Nauvoo Masonic Lodge, and this organization provided fraternal association as well as some important social outlets. He also enjoyed pleasure cruises aboard the Maid of Iowa, which could carry up to two hundred noncabin passengers on its deck. But Clayton’s interests were broader than that. It would be unthinkable for him to give up playing his beloved violin, and he frequently played with a small band for both public and private performances. He promoted the arts as much as he could and found himself acting as a trustee of the Nauvoo Music Association, as a member of the committee responsible for building a music hall in the city, and as a member of the choir committee. He took the choir seriously and in the early months of 1843, regularly attended singing school. He also went to hear visiting lecturers and attended theater performances in Nauvoo as well as in Springfield when he was there on business. When he went to St. Louis in September 1843, he even attended the circus. It would never be said that this single-minded disciple could not enjoy the finer things of the world in the same way that his exemplar, Joseph Smith, also enjoyed them. Maybe Clayton enjoyed them even more, for there is no record that Joseph Smith ever played a musical instrument, took singing lessons, or joined a choir. On the other hand, William Clayton was not a wrestler or a stick-puller as was his athletic leader. The clerk from Penwortham preferred cultural activities that were slightly more passive. Both men, however, enjoyed dancing, dinner parties, and good visiting, all of which helped make up the social side of William Clayton’s Nauvoo.

These, then, were some of William Clayton’s secular concerns as he found himself building the Kingdom of God alongside Joseph the Prophet. The clerk from Penwortham may have functioned in more public and semipublic capacities than almost any other person in Nauvoo. The spiritual Kingdom was very much in, if not of, the secular world, and Clayton found most of his time taken up with worldly affairs.