From: "Blaine Borrowman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
DavidM:
By the way, Joe's habit of beating arrest warrants was by running away, which is what he was doing when his wife urged him to come back or face
losing everything.
By the way, Joe's habit of beating arrest warrants was by running away, which is what he was doing when his wife urged him to come back or face
losing everything.
Blaine:
His wife, Emma, apparently did not understand the
situation, as evidenced by later events. But as to
running away, Jesus did the same a number of times. He
did not always stick around to let the boys do whatever Satan inspired them to
do. Jesus also often avoided going into Jerusalem and Nazareth, for the
simple reason he knew they were laying for him. There are actually many
parallels between the life of Joseph Smith and that of Jesus the Christ.
Judy:
God ordained Government and I still can't believe you are making this comparison Blaine - good
sense has flown out the window - there is NO
comparison between the two, Jesus trusted God - what did he
tell the "sons of thunder?" They didn't know what spirit they were
of. The following is taken from Governor Thomas Ford's book on the
History of the State of Illinois....
"A new warrant, in pursuance of the constitution of the United States, was issued, and placed in the hands of a constable in Hancock. This constable and the Missouri agent hastened to Nauvoo to make the arrest, where they ascertained that Joe Smith was on a visit to Rock river. They pursued him thither, and succeeded in arresting him in Palestine Grove, in the county of Lee. The constable immediately delivered his prisoner to the Missouri agent, and returned his warrant as having been executed. The agent started with his prisoner in the direction of Missouri, but on the road was met by a number of armed Mormons, who captured the whole party, and conducted them in the direction of Nauvoo. Further on they were met by hundreds of the Mormons, coming to the rescue of their prophet, who conducted him in grand triumph to his own city.
"Blaine:
The main advantage Joseph Smith had over Jesus was
that he lived in a country where supposedly church and state were
separated. This was not the case with Jesus. The death penalty only
required Roman sanctions--all else was legal for Jews, and as shown during his
final trials, even the Jews' own laws were violated in dealing with
him. Most of Joseph Smith's brushes with the law stemmed from attempts by
religious nuts to bring him up on religiously oriented charges, and when that
failed, other charges were trumped up. But the main problem was usually
based on opposition to his religious views.
Judy:
Not according to the Governor thomas Ford in his
History of the State of Illinois:
Such was the ignorance and stupidity of the Mormons generally, that they deemed anything to be law which they judged to be expedient. All action of the government which bore hard on them, however legal, they looked upon as wantonly oppressive; and when the law was administered in their favor, they attributed it to partiality and kindness.
If the stern duty of a public officer required him to bear hard on them, they attributed it to maliceBlaine:
When this was brought out during his trials, he was
found innocent.
Judy:
This was probably when he was kidnapped and his
trials were at Nauvoo. He was Mayor of the city and never convicted of anything
there.
Blaine:
In at least one case, however, he was not allowed
his constitutional right of a speedy trial--he remained in Liberty Jail, for
example, for some time, and trial was deliberately delayed. Apparently
they knew to bring him to trial would mean they woud eventually have to let him
go. The same thing happened to Porter
Rockwell. He was in jail for 9 months, still no trial. He finally
was given $100.00, by his wife, I think, which he used to hire a lawyer, and his
trial was then scheduled for two weeks later. He was found innocent, and
they then had to release him. But even then, his lawyer told him not to
leave during the daytime. He had to sneak out of town, under cover of
darkness, and had to travel barefooted. When he arrived in Nauvoo, his
feet were a bloody mess--on the trip, he had paid people several times to carry
him piggyback
Judy:
Jesus never had to sneak out after dark and ride
piggy-back. When the Jews tried to stone Him he passed right through them
unharmed. In fact they could do nothing to Him before the time and when the time
came He layed down His life. Nobody took it from Him.
DavidM: What do you think of the charge of treason
against him, which came about because as Mayor of the largest city in
Illinois, he ordered the printing presses destroyed that published an
article that exposed his polygamy. Don't you think that was a breach
of the public trust on his part?
Judy: (The Governor saw it this way) No further demand for the arrest of Joe
Smith having been made by Missouri, he became emboldened by success. The Mormons
became more arrogant and overbearing. In the winter of 1843-'4, the common
council passed some further ordinances to protect their leaders from arrest, on
demand from Missouri. They enacted that no writ issued from any other place
than Nauvoo, for the arrest of any person in it, should be executed in the city,
without an approval endorsed thereon by the mayor; that if any public
officer, by virtue of any foreign writ, should attempt to make an arrest in the
city, without such approval of his process, he should be subject to
imprisonment for life, and that the governor of the State should not have the
power of pardoning the offender without the consent of the
mayor. When these ordinances were published, they created
general astonishment. Many people began to be believe in good earnest that the
Mormons were about to set up a separate government for themselves in defiance of
the laws of the State. Owners of property stolen in other counties, made pursuit
into Nauvoo, and were fined by the Mormon courts for daring to seek their
property in the holy city. To one such I granted a
pardon. Several of the Mormons had been convicted of larceny, and they never
failed in any instance to procure petitions signed by 1,500 or 2,000 of their
friends for their pardon. But that which made it more certain than every thing
else, that the Mormons contemplated a separate government, was that about
this time they petitioned Congress to establish a territorial government for
them in Nauvoo; as if Congress had any power to establish such a government, or
any other within the bounds of a State.
To crown the whole folly of the Mormons, in the spring of 1844, Joe Smith announced himself as a candidate for president of the United States. His followers were confident that he would be elected. Two or three thousand missionaries were immediately sent out to preach their religion, and to electioneer in favor of their: prophet for the presidency. This folly at once covered that people with ridicule in the minds of all sensible men, and brought them into conflict with the zealots and bigots of all political parties; as the arrogance and extravagance of their religious pretensions had already aroused the opposition of all other denominations in religion. It seems, from the best information which could be got from the best men who had seceded from the Mormon church, that Joe Smith about this time conceived the idea of making himself a temporal prince as well as a spiritual leader of his people. He instituted a new and select order of the priesthood, the members of which were to be priests and kings temporarily and spiritually. These were to be his nobility, who were to be the upholders of his throne, He caused himself to be crowned and anointed king and priest, far above the rest; and he prescribed the form of an oath of allegiance to himself, which he administered to his principal followers. To uphold his pretensions to royalty, he deduced his descent by an unbroken chain from Joseph the son of Jacob, and that of his wife from some other renowned personage of Old Testament history. The Mormons openly denounced the government of the United States as utterly corrupt, and as being about to pass away, and [322] to be replaced by the government of God, to be administered by his servant Joseph. It is now at this day certain also, that about this time the prophet reinstituted an order in the church, called the "Danite band." These were to be a body of police and guards about the person of their sovereign, who were sworn to obey his orders as the orders of God himself. About this time also he gave a new touch to a female order already existing in the church, called "Spiritual Wives." A doctrine was now revealed that no woman could get to heaven except as the wife of a Mormon elder. The elders were allowed to have as many of these wives as they could maintain; and it was a doctrine of the church, that any female could be "sealed up to eternal life," by uniting herself as wife or concubine to the elder of her choice. This doctrine was maintained by an appeal to the Old Testament scriptures; and by the example of Abraham and Jacob, of David and Solomon, the favorites of God in a former age of the world.
Soon after these institutions were established, Joe Smith began to play the tyrant over several of his followers. The first act of this sort which excited attention, was an attempt to take the wife of William Law, one of his most talented and principal disciples, and make her a spiritual wife. By means of his common council, without the authority of law, he established a recorder's office in Nauvoo, in which alone the titles of property could be recorded. In the same manner and with the same want of legal authority he established an office for issuing marriage licenses to the Mormons, so as to give him absolute control of the marrying propensities of his people. He proclaimed that none in the city should purchase real estate to sell again, but himself. He also permitted no one but himself to have a license in the city for the sale of spirituous liquor; and in many other ways he undertook to regulate and control the business of the Mormons. This despotism administered by a corrupt and unprincipled man, soon became intolerable.
To crown the whole folly of the Mormons, in the spring of 1844, Joe Smith announced himself as a candidate for president of the United States. His followers were confident that he would be elected. Two or three thousand missionaries were immediately sent out to preach their religion, and to electioneer in favor of their: prophet for the presidency. This folly at once covered that people with ridicule in the minds of all sensible men, and brought them into conflict with the zealots and bigots of all political parties; as the arrogance and extravagance of their religious pretensions had already aroused the opposition of all other denominations in religion. It seems, from the best information which could be got from the best men who had seceded from the Mormon church, that Joe Smith about this time conceived the idea of making himself a temporal prince as well as a spiritual leader of his people. He instituted a new and select order of the priesthood, the members of which were to be priests and kings temporarily and spiritually. These were to be his nobility, who were to be the upholders of his throne, He caused himself to be crowned and anointed king and priest, far above the rest; and he prescribed the form of an oath of allegiance to himself, which he administered to his principal followers. To uphold his pretensions to royalty, he deduced his descent by an unbroken chain from Joseph the son of Jacob, and that of his wife from some other renowned personage of Old Testament history. The Mormons openly denounced the government of the United States as utterly corrupt, and as being about to pass away, and [322] to be replaced by the government of God, to be administered by his servant Joseph. It is now at this day certain also, that about this time the prophet reinstituted an order in the church, called the "Danite band." These were to be a body of police and guards about the person of their sovereign, who were sworn to obey his orders as the orders of God himself. About this time also he gave a new touch to a female order already existing in the church, called "Spiritual Wives." A doctrine was now revealed that no woman could get to heaven except as the wife of a Mormon elder. The elders were allowed to have as many of these wives as they could maintain; and it was a doctrine of the church, that any female could be "sealed up to eternal life," by uniting herself as wife or concubine to the elder of her choice. This doctrine was maintained by an appeal to the Old Testament scriptures; and by the example of Abraham and Jacob, of David and Solomon, the favorites of God in a former age of the world.
Soon after these institutions were established, Joe Smith began to play the tyrant over several of his followers. The first act of this sort which excited attention, was an attempt to take the wife of William Law, one of his most talented and principal disciples, and make her a spiritual wife. By means of his common council, without the authority of law, he established a recorder's office in Nauvoo, in which alone the titles of property could be recorded. In the same manner and with the same want of legal authority he established an office for issuing marriage licenses to the Mormons, so as to give him absolute control of the marrying propensities of his people. He proclaimed that none in the city should purchase real estate to sell again, but himself. He also permitted no one but himself to have a license in the city for the sale of spirituous liquor; and in many other ways he undertook to regulate and control the business of the Mormons. This despotism administered by a corrupt and unprincipled man, soon became intolerable.
William Law, one of the most
eloquent preachers of the Mormons, who appeared to me to be a deluded but
conscientious and candid man, Wilson Law, his brother, major-general of
the legion, and four or five other Mormon leaders, resolved upon a rebellion
against the authority rophet. They designed to enlighten their brethren and
fellow-citizens upon the new institutions, the new turn given to Mormonism, and
the practices under the new system, by procuring a printing press and
establishing a newspaper in the city, to be the organ of their complaints and
views.
Judy:
Sounds kind of like San Francisco today doesn't it?
Grace and Peace,
Judy
