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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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Thus, having finally obtained a period of relative peace and prosperity after the intense persecutions of the previous decade, Smith set about the task of securing some sort of political protection for his oft beleaguered Saints. Smith looked to the upcoming presidential race, hoping to secure the ear of a candidate willing to come to the aid of the Mormons. As the Presidential election of 1844 approached, six potential candidates dominated the nation's political landscape. First was the Democrat and former president Martin Van Buren. Still stinging from his 1840 loss to William Henry Harrison, in 1844 Van Buren attempted a presidential comeback. Offering a platform which featured opposition to both the annexation of Texas and the expansion of slavery into the territories, Van Buren found that those positions would in fact cost him his party's nomination that year. John C. Calhoun was another prominent name who was considered for the Democratic nomination in 1844. An articulate spokesman for the slave culture of the South, Calhoun favored continued westward expansion, taking the "peculiar institution" in tow. However, his positive insistence on the virtue and morality of slavery greatly reduced his viability as a candidate for national office. Next was the last minute Democratic nominee and eventual victor, James Knox Polk. Polk was zealous in his desire to bring a slave-- holding Texas and a free Oregon into the Union, offering an expansionist option to voters which maintained the sectional balance between slave and free states.

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Meanwhile, within the Whig camp, incumbent President John Tyler was denied renomination due to his party's dissatisfaction with his excessive use of the veto against their own legislation. Thus, the Whig nomination went to his inter-party rival Henry Clay, who ran on a platform advocating continued sectional balance between the slave and free states; however, he opposed risking war with Great Britain or Mexico in order to annex new territory. Finally, the staunchly abolitionist candidate of the dark-horse Liberty Party was James G. Birney. Running primarily on the slavery issue, Birney favored general emancipation and resettlement of the freed slaves in Africa or the Caribbean. Indeed, Birney's popularity in the Northern states drew key votes away from Clay, assisting Polk in his eventual victory.28

Joseph Smith watched the developing race with intense interest. Although Polk entered the race too late to be noticed by Smith, and the Mormon founder fundamentally disagreed with Birney's abolitionist stance, the Nauvoo mayor was especially interested in obtaining some kind of commitment or pledge of assistance from at least one of the other four remaining candidates. Each one received a letter from Smith requesting a redress of the Saints' grievances; each candidate avoided making Smith any promises. Smith did not attempt to hide his contempt over the noncommittal politicians of his day. No doubt Smith would have applied his written response to Henry Clay equally to Tyler, Van Buren, and Calhoun: "I mourn for the depravity of the world; I despise the imbecility of American statesmen; I detest the shrinkage of candidates for office, from pledges and responsibly; I long for a day of righteousness, when he 'whose right it is to reign, shall judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth,' and I pray God, who hath given our fathers a promise of a perfect government in the last days, to purify the hearts of the people and hasten the welcome day."29 Smith felt the time had come to make a bold statement. In order to demonstrate the political clout of the Mormons to the nation's two major parties, as well as to publicize his own views on the nature of government, Joseph Smith determined to offer himself as a candidate for the Presidency of the United States of America.

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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