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prophet and the presidency: Mormonism and politics in Joseph Smith's 1844 Presidential campaign, The

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Summer 2000 by Wood, Timothy L

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Smith made the formal announcement of his candidacy on January 29, 1844. At first, James A. Bennett, a New York businessman, was selected as Smith's Vice Presidential candidate. However, after it was discovered that Bennett had been born in Ireland and was therefore ineligible for office, the number two position fell to Sidney Rigdon, Smith's close friend and advisor. As he launched his campaign, Smith admonished his supporters to "tell the people we have had Whig and Democrats Presidents long enough. We want a President of the United States."44 At the same meeting, Smith commissioned such prominent Mormon figures as Brigham Young, John Taylor, Parley Pratt, Sidney Rigdon, and Joseph's brother Hyrum to head to the east coast to electioneer for the Saints' candidate. During the following weeks of the campaign, Smith maintained an upbeat, yet realistic, attitude. Indeed, the Mormon founder openly admitted that the campaign was partially motivated by his desire to make the Saints' political clout felt on the state and national level. Smith stated that: "I do not care so much about the Pres[idential] election as I do the office I have got. We have as good a right to make political party to gain power to defend ourselves as for demagogues to make use of our religion to get power to destroy ourselves. We will whip the mob by getting up a President. Smith then quipped, "When I look into the eastern papers and see how popular I am, I am afraid I shall be President."45

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Of course, Smith's bid for high office was greeted with enthusiasm within the Mormon community at Nauvoo. Inside the pages of the Nauvoo Neighbor, Smith was heartily endorsed on an almost weekly basis. The proclamation, or the Views of General Smith on the Powers and policy of the Government, is acknowledged by all parties to be the ablest document of the kind they ever saw... What a blessing to have a prophet and seer at the helm, to avert evils, and dispense bounteous blessings.... [Smith] fearlessly declares his political as well as religious principles .General Smith is the man that the God of heaven designs to make a savior of the nations now . . ."46

Travelers visiting Nauvoo wrote letters to the editor recording their favorable impressions of the Mormon prophet. From many reports, I had reason to believe [Smith] a bigoted religionist as ignorant of politics as the savage, but to my utter astonishment... I have found him as familiar with the cabinet of nations, as with his Bible. . . . Free from all bigotry and superstition, he dives into every subject, and it seems as though the world was not large enough to satisfy his capacious soul, and from his conversation, one might suppose him as well acquainted with other worlds as this."47 Mormon writers even compared Smith to such luminaries as America's first president. ". . . like a second Washington, he arms himself with the principles of Freedom, virtue, political economy, and religious rights, and with these weapons he combats the powers of political demagoguery until there shall be neither root nor branch left, to contaminate the free born sons of these United States."48

prophet and the presidency: Mormonism and politics in Joseph Smith's 1844 Presidential campaign, The

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Summer 2000 by Wood, Timothy L

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