The Story of the Mormons:

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It does not appear that Smith had any original party
predilections. But he was not pleased with questions which
President Van Buren asked him when he was in Washington (from
November, 1839, to February, 1840) seeking federal aid to secure
redress from Missouri, and he wrote to the High Council from that
city, "We do not say the Saints shall not vote for him, but we do
say boldly (though it need not be published in the streets of
Nauvoo, neither among the daughters of the Gentiles), that we do
not intend he shall have our votes."*

* Millennial Star, Vol. XVII, p.452.

On his return to Illinois Smith was toadied to by the workers of
both parties. He candidly told them that he had no faith in
either; but the Whigs secured his influence, and, by an
intimation that there was divine authority for their course, the
Mormon vote was cast for Harrison, giving him a majority of 752
in Hancock County. In order to keep the Democrats in good humor,
the Mormons scratched the last name on the Whig electoral ticket
(Abraham Lincoln)* and substituted that of a Democrat. This
demonstration of their political weight made the Mormons an
object of consideration at the state capital, and was the direct
cause of the success of the petition which they sent there,
signed by some thousands of names, asking for a charter for
Nauvoo. The representatives of both parties were eager to show
them favor. Bennett, in a letter to the Times and Seasons from
Springfield, spoke of the readiness of all the members to vote
for what the Mormons wanted, adding that "Lincoln had the
magnanimity to vote for our act, and came forward after the final
vote and congratulated me on its passage."

*This is mentioned in "Joab's" (Bermett's) letter, Times and
Seasons, Vol, II, p. 267.

In the gubernatorial campaign of 1841-1842 Smith swung the Mormon
vote back to the Democrats, giving them a majority of more than
one thousand in the county. This was done publicly, in a letter
addressed "To my friends in Illinois,"* dated December 20, 1841,
in which the prophet, after pointing out that no persons at the
state capital were more efficient in securing the passage of the
Nauvoo charter than the heads of the present Democratic ticket,
made this declaration:--

* Times and Seasons, Vol. III, p. 651.

"The partisans in this county who expect to divide the friends of
humanity and equal rights will find themselves mistaken. We care
not a fig for Whig or Democrat; they are both alike to us; but we
shall go for our friends, OUR TRIED FRIENDS, and the cause of
human liberty which is the cause of God . . . . Snyder and Moore
are known to be our friends . . . . We will never be justly
charged with the sin of ingratitude,--they have served us, and we
will serve them."

If Smith had been a man possessing any judgment, he would have
realized that the political course which he was pursuing, instead
of making friends in either party, would certainly soon arraign
both parties against him and his followers. The Mormons announced
themselves distinctly to be a church, and they were now
exhibiting themselves as a religious body already numerically
strong and increasing in numbers, which stood ready to obey the
political mandate of one man, or at least of one controlling
authority. The natural consequence of this soon manifested
itself.

A congressional and a county election were approaching, and a
mass meeting, made up of both Whigs and Democrats of Hancock
County, was held to place in the field a non-Mormon county
ticket. The fusion was not accomplished without heart-burnings on
the part of some unsuccessful aspirants for nominations. A few of
these went over to Smith, and the election resulted in the
success of the state Democratic and the Mormon local ticket,
legislative and county, Smith's brother William being elected to
the House. It is easy to realize that this victory did not lessen
Smith's aggressive egotism.

Some important matters were involved in the next political
contest, the congressional election of August, 1843. The Whigs
nominated Cyrus Walker, a lawyer of reputation living in
McDonough County, and the Democrats J. P. Hoge, also a lawyer,
but a weaker candidate at the polls. Every one conceded that
Smith's dictum would decide the contest.

On May 6, 1842, Governor Boggs of Missouri, while sitting near a
window in his house in Independence, was fired at, and wounded so
severely that his recovery was for some days in doubt. The crime
was naturally charged to his Mormon enemies,* and was finally
narrowed down to O. P. Rockwell,** a Mormon living in Nauvoo, as
the agent, and Joseph Smith, Jr., as the instigator. Indictments
were found against both of them in Missouri, and a requisition
for Smith's surrender was made by the governor of that state on
the governor of Illinois. Smith was arrested under the governor's
warrant. Now came an illustration of the value to him of the form
of government provided by the Nauvoo charter. Taken before his
own municipal court, he was released at once on a writ of habeas
corpus. This assumption of power by a local court aroused the
indignation of non-Mormons throughout the state. Governor Carlin
characterized it somewhat later, in a letter to Smith's wife, as
"most absurd and ridiculous; to attempt to exercise it is a gross
usurpation of power that cannot be tolerated."***

* The hatred felt toward Governor Boggs by the Mormon leaders was
not concealed. Thus, an editorial in the Times and Seasons of
January 1, 1841, headed "Lilburn W. Boggs," began, "The THING
whose name stands at the head of this article," etc. Referring to
the ending of his term of office, the article said, "Lilburn has
gone down to the dark and dreary abode of his brother and
prototype, Nero, there to associate with kindred spirits and
partake of the dainties of his father's, the devil's, table."

Bennett afterward stated that he heard Joseph Smith say, on July
10, 1842, that Governor Boggs, "the exterminator, should be
exterminated," and that the Destroying Angels (Danites) should do
it; also that in the spring of that year he heard Smith, at a
meeting of Danites, offer to pay any man $500 who would secretly
assassinate the governor. Bennett's statement is only cited for
what it may be worth; that some Mormon fired the shot is within
the limit of strict probability.

** Rockwell, who, in his latter days, was employed by General
Connor to guard stock in California, told the general that he
fired the shot at Governor Boggs, and was sorry it did not kill
him.--"Mormon Portraits," p. 255.

*** Millennial Star, Vol. XX, p. 23.

Notwithstanding his release, Smith thought it best to remain in
hiding for some time to escape another arrest, for which the
governor ordered a reward of $200. About the middle of August his
associates in Nauvoo concluded that the outlook for him was so
bad, notwithstanding the protection which his city court was
ready to afford, that it might be best for him to flee to the
pine woods of the North country. Smith incorporates in his
autobiography a long letter which he wrote to his wife at this
time,* giving her directions about this flight if it should
become necessary. Their goods were to be loaded on a boat manned
by twenty of the best men who could be selected, and who would
meet them at Prairie du Chien: "And from thence we will wend our
way like larks up the Mississippi, until the towering mountains
and rocks shall remind us of the places of our nativity, and
shall look like safety and home; and there we will bid defiance
to Carlin, Boggs, Bennett, and all their whorish whores and
motley clan, that follow in their wake, Missouri not excepted,
and until the damnation of Hell rolls upon them by the voice and
dread thunders and trump of the eternal God."

* Ibid., pp. 693-695.

In October Rigdon obtained from Justin Butterfield, United States
attorney for Illinois, an opinion that Smith could not be held on
a Missouri requisition for a crime committed in that state when
he was in Illinois. In December, 1842, Smith was placed under
arrest and taken before the United States District Court at
Springfield, Illinois, under a writ of habeas corpus issued by
Judge Roger B. Taney of the State Supreme Court. Butterfield, as
his counsel, secured his discharge by Judge Pope (a Whig) who
held that Smith was not a fugitive from Missouri.

While these proceedings were pending, the Nauvoo City Council
(Smith was then mayor), passed two ordinances in regard to the
habeas corpus powers of the Municipal Court, one giving that
court jurisdiction in any case where a person "shall be or stand
committed or detained for any criminal, or supposed criminal,
matter."* This was intended to make Smith secure from the
clutches of any Missouri officer so long as he was in his own
city.

* For text of these ordinances, see millennial Star, Vol. XX, p.
165.

But Smith's enemy, General Bennett (who before this date had been
cast out of the fold), was now very active, and through his
efforts another indictment against Smith on the old charges of
treason, murder, etc., was found in Missouri, in June, 1843, and
under it another demand was made on the governor of Illinois for
Smith's extradition. Governor Ford, a Democrat, who had succeeded
Carlin, issued a warrant on June 17, 1843, and it was served on
Smith while he was visiting his wife's sister in Lee County,
Illinois. An attempt to start with him at once for Missouri was
prevented by his Mormon friends, who rallied in considerable
numbers to his aid. Smith secured counsel, who began proceedings
against the Missouri agent and obtained a writ in Smith's behalf
returnable, the account in the Times and Seasons says, before the
nearest competent tribunal, which "it was ascertained was at
Nauvoo"--Smith's own Municipal Court. The prophet had a sort of
triumphal entry into Nauvoo, and the question of the jurisdiction
of the Municipal Court in his case came up at once. Both of the
candidates for Congress, Walker (who was employed as his counsel)
and Hoge, gave opinions in favor of such jurisdiction, and, after
a three hours' plea by Walker, the court ordered Smith's release.
Smith addressed the people of Nauvoo in the grove after his
return. From the report of his remarks in the journal of
Discourses (Vol. II, p. 163) the following is taken:

"Before I will bear this unhallowed persecution any longer,
before I will be dragged away again among my enemies for trial, I
will spill the last drop of blood in my veins, and will see all
my enemies in hell . . . . Deny me the writ of habeas corpus, and
I will fight with gun, sword, cannon, whirlwind, thunder, until
they are used up like the Kilkenny cats . . . . If these
[charter] powers are dangerous, then the constitutions of the
United States and of this state are dangerous. If the Legislature
has granted Nauvoo the right of determining cases of habeas
corpus, it is no more than they ought to have done, or more than
our fathers fought for."

Smith expressed his gratitude to Walker for what the latter had
accomplished in his behalf, and the Whig candidate now had no
doubt that the Mormon vote was his.

But the Missouri agent, indignant that a governor's writ should
be set aside by a city court, hurried to Springfield and demanded
that Governor Ford should call out enough state militia to secure
Smith's arrest and delivery at the Missouri boundary. The
governor, who was not a man of the firmest purpose, had no
intention of being mixed up in the pending congressional fight
and struggle for the Mormon vote; so he asked for delay and
finally decided not to call out any troops.

The Hancock County Democrats were quick to see an opportunity in
this situation, and they sent to Springfield a man named
Backenstos (who took an active part in the violent scenes
connected with the subsequent history of the Mormons in the
state) to ascertain for the Mormons just what the governor's
intentions were. Backenstos reported that the prophet need have
no fear of the Democratic governor so long as the Mormons voted
the Democratic ticket.*

* Governor Ford, in his "History of Illinois," says that such a
pledge was given by a prominent Democrat, but without his own
knowledge.

When this news was brought back to Nauvoo, a few days before the
election, a mass meeting of the Mormons was called, and Hyrum
Smith (then Patriarch, succeeding the prophet's father, who was
dead) announced the receipt of a "revelation" directing the
Mormons to vote for Hoge. William Law, an influential business
man in the Mormon circle, immediately denied the existence of any
such "revelation." The prophet alone could decide the matter. He
was brought in and made a statement to the effect that he himself
proposed to vote for Walker; that he considered it a "mean
business" to influence any man's vote by dictation, and that he
had no great faith in revelations about elections; "but brother
Hyrum was a man of truth; he had known brother Hyrum intimately
ever since he was a boy, and he had never known him to tell a
lie. If brother Hyrum said he had received such a revelation, he
had no doubt it was a fact. When the Lord speaks, let all the
earth be silent." *

* Ford's"History of Illinois," p. 318.

The election resulted in the choice of Hoge by a majority of 455!

CHAPTER VI. Smith A Candidate For President Of The United States

Smith's latest triumph over his Missouri enemies, with the
feeling that he had the governor of his state back of him,
increased his own and his followers' audacity. The Nauvoo Council
continued to pass ordinances to protect its inhabitants from
outside legal processes, civil and criminal. One of these
provided that no writ issued outside of Nauvoo for the arrest of
a person in that city should be executed until it had received
the mayor's approval, anyone violating this ordinance to be
liable to imprisonment for life, with no power of pardon in the
governor without the mayor's consent! The acquittal of O. P.
Rockwell on the charge of the attempted assassination of Governor
Boggs caused great delight among the Mormons, and their organ
declared on January 1, 1844, that "throughout the whole region of
country around us those bitter and acrimonious feelings, which
have so long been engendered by many, are dying away."

Smith's political ideas now began to broaden. "Who shall be our
next President?" was the title of an editorial in the Times and
Seasons of October 1, 1843, which urged the selection of a man
who would be most likely to give the Mormons help in securing
redress for their grievances.

The next month Smith addressed a letter to Henry Clay and John C.
Calhoun, who were the leading candidates for the presidential
nomination, citing the Mormons' losses and sufferings in
Missouri, and their failure to obtain redress in the courts or
from Congress, and asking, "What will be your rule of action
relative to us as a people should fortune favor your ascendancy
to the chief magistracy? "Clay replied that, if nominated, he
could "enter into no egagements, make no promises, give no
pledges to any particular portion of the people of the United
States," adding, "If I ever enter into that high office, I must
go into it free and unfettered, with no guarantees but such as
are to be drawn from my whole life, character and conduct." He
closed with an expression of sympathy with the Mormons "in their
sufferings under injustice." Calhoun replied that, if elected
President, he would try to administer the government according to
the constitution and the laws, and that, as these made no
distinction between citizens of different religious creeds, he
should make none. He repeated an opinion which he had given Smith
in Washington that the Mormon case against the state of Missouri
did not come within the jurisdiction of the federal government.

These replies excited Smith to wrath and he answered them at
length, and in language characteristic of himself. A single
quotation from his letter to Clay (dated May 13, 1844) will
suffice:--

"In your answer to my question, last fall, that peculiar trait of
the modern politician, declaring 'if you ever enter into that
high office, you must go into it unfettered, with no guarantees
but such as are to be drawn from your whole life, character and
conduct,' so much resembles a lottery vender's sign, with the
goddess of good luck sitting on the car of fortune, astraddle of
the horn of plenty, and driving the merry steeds of beatitude,
without reins or bridle, that I cannot help exclaiming, 'O, frail
man, what have you done that will exalt you? Can anything be
drawn from your LIFE, CHARACTER OR CONDUCT that is worthy of
being held up to the gaze of this nation as a model of VIRTUE,
CHARACTER AND WISDOM?'. . . 'Your whole life, character and
conduct' have been spotted with deeds that causes a blush upon
the face of a virtuous patriot; so you must be contented with
your lot, while crime, cowardice, cupidity or low cunning have
handed you down from the high tower of a statesman to the black
hole of a gambler . . . . Crape the heavens with weeds of woe;
gird the earth with sackcloth, and let hell mutter one melody in
commemoration of fallen splendor! For the glory of America has
departed, and God will set a flaming sword to guard the tree of
liberty, while such mint-tithing Herods as Van Buren, Boggs,
Benton, Calhoun, and Clay are thrust out of the realms of virtue
as fit subjects for the kingdom of fallen greatness--vox reprobi,
vox Diaboli."

Calhoun was admonished to read the eighth section of article one
of the federal constitution, after which "God, who cooled the
heat of a Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, or shut the mouths of lions
for the honor of a Daniel, will raise your mind above the narrow
notion that the general government has no power, to the sublime
idea that Congress, with the President as executor, is as
almighty in its sphere as Jehovah is in his." 1

*For this correspondence in full, see Times and Seasons, January
1, and June 1, 1844, or Mackay's "The Mormons," p. 143.

Smith's next step was to have judge Phelps read to a public
meeting in Nauvoo on February 7, 1844, a very long address by the
prophet, setting forth his views on national politics.* He
declared that "no honest man can doubt for a moment but the glory
of American liberty is on the wane, and that calamity and
confusion will sooner or later destroy the peace of the people,"
while "the motto hangs on the nation's escutcheon, `every man has
his price.'"

* For its text, see Times and Seasons, May 15,1844, or Mackay's
"The Mormons," p.133.

Smith proposed an abundance of remedies for these evils: Reduce
the members of Congress at least one-half; pay them $2 a day and
board; petition the legislature to pardon every convict, and make
the punishment for any felony working on the roads or some other
place where the culprit can be taught wisdom and virtue, murder
alone to be cause for confinement or death; petition for the
abolition of slavery by the year 1850, the slaves to be paid for
out of the surplus from the sale of public lands, and the money
saved by reducing the pay of Congress; establish a national bank,
with branches in every state and territory, "whose officers shall
be elected yearly by the people, with wages of $2 a day for
services," the currency to be limited to "the amount of capital
stock in her vaults, and interest"; "and the bills shall be par
throughout the nation, which will mercifully cure that fatal
disorder known in cities as brokery, and leave the people's money
in their own pockets"; give the President full power to send an
army to suppress mobs; "send every lawyer, as soon as he repents
and obeys the ordinances of heaven, to preach the Gospel to the
destitute, without purse or scrip"; "spread the federal
jurisdiction to the west sea, when the red men give their
consent"; and give the right hand of fellowship to Texas, Canada,
and Mexico. He closed with this declaration: "I would, as the
universal friend of man, open the prisons, open the eyes, open
the ears, and open the hearts of all people to behold and enjoy
freedom, unadulterated freedom; and God, who once cleansed the
violence of the earth with a flood, whose Son laid down his life
for the salvation of all his father gave him out of the world,
and who has promised that he will come and purify the world again
with fire in the last days, should be supplicated by me for the
good of all people. With the highest esteem, I am a friend of
virtue and of the people."

It seems almost incomprehensible that the promulgator of such
political views should have taken himself seriously. But Smith
was in deadly earnest, and not only was he satisfied of his
political power, but, in the church conference of 1844, he
declared, "I feel that I am in more immediate communication with
God, and on a better footing with Him, than I have ever been in
my life."

The announcement of Smith's political "principles" was followed
immediately by an article in the Times and Seasons, which
answered the question, "Whom shall the Mormons support for
President?" with the reply, "General Joseph Smith. A man of
sterling worth and integrity, and of enlarged views; a man who
has raised himself from the humblest walks in life to stand at
the head of a large, intelligent, respectable, and increasing
society; . . . and whose experience has rendered him every way
adequate to the onerous duty." The formal announcement that Smith
was the Mormon candidate was made in the Times and Seasons of
February 15, 1844, and the ticket--

FOR PRESIDENT,

GENERAL JOSEPH SMITH,

Nauvoo, Illinois.

was kept at the head of its editorial page from March 1, until
his death.

A weekly newspaper called the Wasp, issued at Nauvoo under Mormon
editorship, had been succeeded by a larger one called the
Neighbor, edited by John Taylor (afterward President of the
church), who also had charge of the Times and Seasons. The
Neighbor likewise placed Smith's name, as the presidential
candidate, at the head of its columns, and on March 6 completed
its ticket with "General James A. Bennett of New York, for
Vice-President."* Three weeks later Bennett's name was taken
down, and on June 19, Sidney Rigdon's was substituted for it.
There was nothing modest in the Mormon political ambition.

* This General Bennett was not the first mayor of Nauvoo, as some
writers like Smucker have supposed, but a lawyer who gave his
address as "Arlington House," on Long Island, New York, and who
in 1843 had offered himself to Smith as "a most undeviating
friend," etc.

Proof of Smith's serious view of his candidacy is furnished in
his next step, which was to send out a large body of missionaries
(two or three thousand, according to Governor Ford) to work-up
his campaign in the Eastern and Southern states. These emissaries
were selected from among the ablest of Smith's allies, including
Brigham Young, Lorenzo Snow, and John D. Lee. Their absence from
Nauvoo was a great misfortune to Smith at the time of his
subsequent arrest and imprisonment at Carthage.

The campaigners began work at once. Lorenzo Snow, to whom the
state of Ohio was allotted, went to Kirtland, where he had
several thousand pamphlets printed, setting forth the prophet's
views and plans, and he then travelled around in a buggy,
distributing the pamphlets and making addresses in Smith's
behalf. "To many persons," he confesses, "who knew nothing of
Joseph but through the ludicrous reports in circulation, the
movement seemed a species of insanity."* John D. Lee was a most
devout Mormon, but his judgment revolted against this movement.
"I would a thousand times rather have been shut up in jail," he
says. He began his canvassing while on the boat bound for, St.
Louis. "I told them," he relates, "the prophet would lead both
candidates. There was a large crowd on the boat, and an election
was proposed. The prophet received a majority of 75 out of 125
votes polled. This created a tremendous laugh."**

* "Biography of Lorenzo Snow."

** "Mormonism Unveiled," p.149.

We have an account of one state convention called to consider
Smith's candidacy, and this was held in the Melodeon in Boston,
Massachusetts, on July 1, 1844, the news of Smith's death not yet
having reached that city. A party of young rowdies practically
took possession of the hall as soon as the business of the
convention began, and so disturbed the proceedings that the
police were sent for, and they were able to clear the galleries
only after a determined fight. The convention then adjourned to
Bunker Hill, but nothing further is heard of its proceedings. The
press of the city condemned the action of the disturbers as a
disgrace. Mention is made in the Times and Seasons of July 1,
1844, of a conference of elders held in Dresden, Tennessee, on
the 25th of May previous, at which Smith's name was presented as
a presidential candidate. The meeting was broken up by a mob,
which the sheriff confessed himself powerless to overcome, but it
met later and voted to print three thousand copies of Smith's
views.