Willard Richards · 1852 April General Conference · 1852-04-06
Published in Journal of Discourses, Volume 6, pp. 298-306 (reported April 6, 1852), and in the Deseret News, April 17, 1852, p. 46. Pitman shorthand report by George D. Watt; the speaker did not review this text before publication. Text transcribed from the printed JD; restored to the complete unabridged prayer (see final_review_notes).
Full text of the dedicatory prayer as published in the Journal of Discourses; this pass's source_url.
Digital transcript previously used to source the text; superseded by direct scan collation this pass.
Minutes of the conference identifying this as the opening dedicatory prayer.
Page-anchored scan witness for Journal of Discourses volume 6, page 298.
Proofread against the source text.
Proofread against the JD scan witness; restored two previously-abridged passages. Superseded by the full page-by-page restoration in final_review_notes.
Collated word-by-word against the original scan.
Heavyweight pass: no official churchofjesuschrist.org or CHL digitization exists for this 1852 discourse; BYU ContentDM/IA JD 6:298-306 remains the best verified source. Body was flagged ABRIDGED by a prior pass; restored two missing passages verbatim confirmed against the source piecewise: (1) a 'lawyers not have power to stir up strife' clause in the civil-authorities blessing, and (2) the bulk of the Native-American ('ancient covenant people') passage, which had been trimmed to two sentences. This partial restoration was itself found still well under half the printed prayer by two later Final Review sessions and has now been superseded by a complete page-by-page restoration; see final_review_notes.
This is a living critical edition. If you find a transcription, metadata, or sourcing error in this talk, report it to the editors →Reports are collated against the page scan and land as corrections in the vault.