Wentworth letter censored
In the 1 March 1842 edition of the Times and Seasons, Joseph Smith published a letter over his signature titled “Church History.” The letter responded to a request from John Wentworth, the editor and proprietor of the Chicago Democrat, who sought information for a friend of his named Mr. Bastow.
The letter is commonly known now as the Wentworth letter. It was included as a chapter in the lesson manual Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teachings-joseph-smith/chapter-38?lang=eng
In the first paragraph, Joseph wrote “As Mr. Bastow has taken the proper steps to obtain correct information all that I shall ask at his hands, is, that he publish the account entire, ungarnished, and without misrepresentation.”
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/church-history-1-march-1842/1
As it turns out, Joseph didn’t need to worry about Mr. Bastow.
Instead of Mr. Barstow, it was the Curriculum Department that refused to publish the Wentworth letter “entire, ungarnished and without misrepresentation.” They omitted a key segment of the Wentworth letter, and the omission continues to cause confusion among Latter-day Saints and their friends.
This screen shot of the page in lesson manual shows the ellipses for the deleted (censored) material.
The following is a direct quotation from the original Wentworth letter. The part in blue is in the lesson manual. The part in red was censored.
"Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift and power of God.
"In this important and interesting book the history of ancient America is unfolded, from its first settlement by a colony that came from the Tower of Babel at the confusion of languages to the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian era. We are informed by these records that America in ancient times has been inhabited by two distinct races of people. The first were called Jaredites and came directly from the Tower of Babel. The second race came directly from the city of Jerusalem about six hundred years before Christ. They were principally Israelites of the descendants of Joseph. The Jaredites were destroyed about the time that the Israelites came from Jerusalem, who succeeded them in the inheritance of the country. The principal nation of the second race fell in battle towards the close of the fourth century. The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country. This book also tells us that our Savior made His appearance upon this continent after His Resurrection;"
The censored material includes two key changes that Joseph made to correct Orson Pratt's pamphlet.
1. Orson Pratt wrote “The second race came directly from the city of Jerusalem, about six hundred years before Christ, being Israelites, principally the descendants of Joseph.” Joseph clarified by writing “The second race came directly from the city of Jerusalem, about six hundred years before Christ. They were principally Israelites of the descendants of Joseph.” Joseph’s explanation accommodates non-Israelites among the group, where Pratt’s version said they were all Israelites.
2. Orson Pratt wrote “The remaining remnant, having dwindled into an uncivilized state, still continue to inhabit the land, although divided into a “multitude of nations,” and are called by Europeans the “American Indians.” He then spent several pages claiming that Lehi landed in South America, that “The persecuted nation emigrated towards the northern parts of South America, leaving the wicked nation in possession of the middle and southern parts of the same,” and that, “The second colony, which left Jerusalem eleven years after the remnant of Joseph left that city, [i.e., the Mulekites] landed in North America, and emigrated from thence, to the northern parts of South America; and about four hundred years after, they were discovered by the Nephites, as we stated in the foregoing.”
Joseph replaced Orson Pratt’s hemispheric explanation with the simple declaration that “The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country.” Because Joseph wrote the letter in Nauvoo, Illinois, and sent it to Mr. Wentworth in Chicago, Illinois, the term “this country” naturally meant the country in which both sender and recipient lived. This is consistent with the revelations, as note 12 in the Joseph Smith Papers observed.
The easy remedy for this problem would be to undo the censorship and publish Joseph's account "entire, ungarnished, and without misrepresentation." While the printed manual cannot be replaced and will likely never be reprinted, the online version can easily be fixed.