August 9th

Aug 9, 1844 - The day after he had exacted a vote of confidence from the Nauvoo Saints, Brigham Young and the Quorum of Apostles begin to take firm control of the affairs of the Church by issuing a series of executive orders. On this and ensuing days they 1) appoint Bishops Newel Whitney and George Miller to assume the duties of the Trustee-in-Trust "and settle the affairs of the late Trustee"; 2) order the Nauvoo House Association to "wind up their business and report"; 3) strengthen the city police force; 4) take Amasa Lyman back into the Twelve; 5) put the Nauvoo Neighbor and the Times and Seasons under the personal management of John Taylor; 6) order that "the general superintendancies' [sic] direction and control of emigration from England be in the name of Brigham Young, President of the Quorum of Twelve"; 7) divid the North American Continent into administrative districts presided over by high priests under the direction of Apostles Young, Kimball, and Richards; 8) ordain that "Willard Richards continue the history of the Church and be supported"; 9) say that Lyman Wight and George Miller be allowed to take their company to Texas "if they desire to go"; 10) order an increased wage for some Temple workers; 11) decree that Nauvoo was still the place of gathering and would continue to be so; 12) urge all Saints to "proceed immediately to tithe [themselves of] a tenth of all their property and money…and then let them continue to pay in a tenth of their income…"; and 13) order them to have nothing to do with "politics, voting, or president making at present."

Aug 9, 1846 - Brigham Young tells a general meeting that certain apostles are wrong in saying that marriage sealings will occur "in the wilderness." He insists that sealings cannot occur until another temple is built, though a week previously he secretly sealed three plural wives to Wilford Woodruff at the camp.
Brigham Young writes to President James K. Polk, "We will go so far that our enemies will not choose to follow us and we will pick so unpromising a place that nobody will covet it."

Aug 9, 1847 - The Twelve had decide on a name for their settlement "and a caption for all letters and documents issued from this place, which is as follows: Salt Lake City, Great Basin, North America."

Aug 9, 1850 - The United States Attorney in Illinois files a complaint to recover a debt Joseph Smith owed from the 1840 purchase of the steamship NAUVOO. The judge upholds the Illinois law that no church can legally hold more than ten acres of property, but he also rules that all the property which exceeded the allotted ten acres that Joseph held either personally or as trustee-in-trust after 1842 must be sold to pay the creditors. This includes all the other property Joseph had conveyed to Emma or the children after that time.

Aug 9, 1857 - Apostle John Taylor: "This [Horace] Greeley is one of their popular characters in the East, and one that supports the stealing of niggers and the underground reailroad."

Aug 9, 1868 - Brigham Young preaches: "Just ask yourselves, historians, when was monogamy introduced on to the face of the earth? When those buccaneers, who settled on the peninsula where Rome now stands, could not steal women enough to have two or three apiece, they passed a law that a man should have but one woman. And this started monogamy and the downfall of the plurality system. In the days of Jesus, Rome, having dominion over Jerusalem, they carried out the doctrine more or less. This was the rise, start and foundation of the doctrine of monogamy; and never till then was there a law passed, that we have any knowledge of, that a man should have but one wife."

Aug 9, 1874 - Brigham Young publically dictates revelation on communitarian United Order. Officially published in DESERET NEWS and JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES but never canonized.

Aug 9, 1877 - Twenty days before his death Brigham Young saus at a Bishop’s meeting, it is his intention to have the old tabernacle taken down and a comfortable meeting house erected in its stead. On the 23d, at a similar meeting, he being present, appoints George Goddard, Thomas Taylor, Henry Grow, William Asper and Edward Brain to act as a committee to carry out his suggestions. The "old tabernacle" is replaced by the many-spired Assembly Hall on the south-west corner of Temple Square. This is Young's last public expression of a business nature.

Aug 9, 1879 - U.S. Secretary of State William M. Eveats instructs American diplomatic officers to encourage foreign governments to prevent Mormon emigration to United States. With continued defiance of LDS leaders against 1879 Supreme Court decision, U.S. State Department in 1884 instructs diplomatic officers "to refuse protection to Mormon missionaries" from foreign governments or individuals.

Aug 9, 1900 - Minutes of the meeting of the Apostles read: "A letter from Pres. J. F. Smith was read. Said that they (namely, Elders S. B. Young, presidency of the Juarez Stake, and himself) had met in council with B[enjamin] Cluff, Jr., pres. of the B. Y. College Scientific Expedition to South America and that Elder Cluff could not give up his cherished project to continue the expedition, although they had so advised it, and in consequence he would select 7 or 8 of his best men to continue the journey, the remainder to be released to take a mission to the S.W. States or return home. Some considerable discussion was indulged in regarding the unwillingness, apparently, of Elder Cluff to take the advice of Pres. J. F. Smith. There were some other things mentioned in relation to Elder Cluff, which made it appear that he was a man of poor judgment and, therefore, not altogether fitted to take charge of an expedition that would be attended with great danger and difficulties all along the line. Finally, it was moved and carried by unanimous vote that Pres. J. F. Smith be telegraphed to release and return the members of the expedition to their homes."

Aug 9, 1903 - Apostle John Henry Smith attends and President Joseph F. Smith speaks at cornerstone-laying ceremony for orthodox Jewish synagogue Montefiore in Salt Lake City. Two months later First Presidency donates $650 toward its completion.

Aug 9, 1931 - Apostle James E. Talmage gives a talk in the Tabernacle on "The Earth and Man.: He says that plants and animals "lived and died, age after age, while the earth was yet unfit for human habitation. . . . Geologists and anthropologists say that if the beginning of Adamic history dates back but 6,000 years or less there must have been races of human sort upon the earth long before that time--without denying however, that Adamic history may be correct if it be regarded solely as the history of the Adamic race. . . . I do not regard Adam as related to--certainly not descended from--the Neanderthal, the Cro-Magnon the Peking or the Piltdown man." The talk is later published by the Church as a pamphlet. Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith later writes "False doctrine" on at least one copy of the pamphlet.

Aug 9, 1941 - Leader of National Reform Association tells annual meeting of Christian Citizenship Institute that LDS church president Heber J. Grant is "the morst powerful political individual in America today" because "Grant patronizes presidents, makes bargains with great political parties, dictates the political policies of Utah and at least five surrounding states and wields effective political influence in at least five others." Grant tells the national press that the speaker should "purge himself of falsehood," and entire exchange appears in CHURCH SECTION on Nov. 29.

Aug 9, 1983 - Second Counselor Gordon B. Hinckley dedicates temple at Nuku'alofa, Tonga.

Aug 9, 1985 - Second Counselor Gordon B. Hinckley dedicates temple near Chicago, Illinois.

Aug 9, 1991 - Salt Lake Tribune article, "Of LDS Women, 58% Admit Premarital Sex."

Aug 9, 1992 - General authority Jacob de Jaeger tells Salt Lake City congregation that Latter-day Saints have responsibility "to get along with everybody--and that includes those that read the ENSIGN and those that read SUNSTONE."

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