175 years ago today - Jun 7, 1844

William Law, Joseph Smith's second counselor, publishes the first and only edition of THE NAUVOO EXPOSITOR (intended to be a weekly paper), which exposes the practice of polygamy in Nauvoo The newspaper asserted that Smith had "introduced false and damnable doctrines into the church" such as "the plurality of wives," which "are taught secretly, and denied openly" and amount to "abominations and whoredoms." It also references the teaching by Joseph Smith that there is more than one God, and Joseph Smith's 1844 ordination as king on earth. Law writes in his journal this day that the EXPOSITOR is "rich with facts, such expositions, as make the guilty tremble and rage.- 1000 sheets were struck and five hundred mailed forthwith." Although Law and his associates see Joseph as a corrupt and fallen prophet the EXPOSITOR maintains that the editors "know of a surety, that the religion of the Latter Day Saints as originally taught by Joseph Smith, which is contained in the Old and New Testament, Book of Covenants, and Book of Mormon, is true; and that the pure principles set forth in those books, are the immutable and eternal principles of Heaven, and speaks a language which, when spoken in truth and virtue, sinks deep into the heart of every honest man." In London Wilford Woodruff learns of a plot by anti-Mormons to copyright the Doctrine & Covenants for themselves and thereby deprive Mormons of the ability to print their own scriptures in England. Woodruff hastily obtains copyright in his own name on the same day.