Blaine: Joseph Smith (not Jo, or Joe--only known by such among his enemies, who wished to trivialize him in the eyes of others) had the full backing of the city fathers of Nauvoo, Illinois. Joseph was a duly elected Mayor, and had the support of an overwhelming majority of the citizens of Nauvoo. He was elected after his predecessor, John C. Bennet, a slanderer and adulterer, was deposed. The Editors of the Expositor were a small minority of apostates and troublemakers, using the free press as an excuse to slander the good names of upstanding citizens, and stir up contention. The city council was simply trying to prevent these evil men from stirring up more hatred of the Haun's Mill variety. They were in every sense justified in destroying the press.
Joseph Smith the Man
Some of these men brought suit against Joseph for slander, false swearing, and adultery and polygamy. Their charges were countered by claims in the Nauvoo Mormon newspapers that the accusers were sexual profligates who had seduced many innocent women. In May Joseph himself denied publicly that he had ever had more than one wife. This may have satisfied those who were ignorant of his scores of wives, but what soul-searching it must have caused those who knew the truth, and heard such a monstrous lie coming from the lips of God's mouthpiece!
But the press run by the Mormon dissidents, The Expositor, gave out details of the involvement of high church officials with polygamy. To spare humiliation to the "spiritual wives," many of whom had been bullied, seduced, or tricked into accepting their polygamous unions, The Expositor mentioned no names. But the readers of the newspaper recognized in its stories the situations of many friends and loved ones, and more and more began to mistrust the prophet's vehement denials of the existence of polygamy and the extent to which it was practiced.
Joseph's solution to this challenge to his authority was simple. The staff members of The Expositor were "tried" without judge, jury, or witness for their own defense, accused by members of the city council and declared to be operating a public nuisance. Part of the Nauvoo Legion was dispatched to destroy the presses and all existing copies of the publication; and in its smoking ruins Joseph thought he saw a return to peace in Nauvoo. When news reached the shocked outside world, though, the flame of Joseph's life flickered on a shrinking wick.
Perhaps Joseph realized it, for some Latter-day Saints claim that not long before this he had given to his son, Joseph, a "father's blessing," which concluded with the promise that young Joseph would be his father's successor as leader of the church.48 In addition, more and more of Joseph's public statements and prophecies referred to his imminent death.
The people of Illinois were aghast to learn of the destruction of the Expositor press. Some local militia from surrounding towns were ready to attack Nauvoo at a moment's notice, but to prevent mob invasion Governor Ford ordered Joseph and his co-conspirators to appear in Carthage, Illinois, for trial. Joseph and his brother Hyrum, along with Willard Richards and Orin Porter Rockwell, escaped into Iowa Territory across the flood-swollen Mississippi River.
The leaderless Mormon people, under imminent attack from all sides, felt betrayed by Joseph's flight. Word was sent to the fugitives, imploring them to return. Joseph, upon hearing the urgent message, reflected, "If my life is of no value to my friends, it is of no value to myself." He and the others returned to Nauvoo, where Joseph prepared his legal defense, and then rode on into Carthage.
There they faced charges of rioting. Though most of the men were released on bail, Joseph and Hyrum were put into the two-story stone Carthage jail, even before the preliminary hearing. Joseph's friends brought news to him that some of the militia troops were planning to storm the jail. When the word was conveyed to Governor Ford, he dismissed the possibility, and, confident of Joseph's safety, returned to Nauvoo. In desperation, Joseph sent for the Nauvoo Legion with a message that entreated them to break him out of the jail, for he feared for his life.
The message never reached Nauvoo. As Joseph and Hyrum and their two visitors, Willard Richards and John Taylor, sat sipping wine, a commotion outside made them jump for their two smuggled guns.
When the smoke cleared, Taylor was slightly wounded, and Richards untouched. But the blood-crazed mob was sated. Joseph and Hyrum were dead.
Those who hoped Mormonism would die with Joseph were disappointed. Had his desire that his son succeed him been realized, perhaps Mormonism would not be so powerful today. Those who thought that was what was needed followed Joseph Smith III and his mother Emma, renouncing the doctrines of plural marriage, the teachings on the Negro, and other doctrines, saying that these were perversions of truth, and that Joseph Smith had "fallen" in his later years.
What Mormonism did need, and got, was the strong leadership of a man like Brigham Young Mormons are taught that he was a gruff, plainspoken man. What they fail to appreciate is how power affected that man. The triumph of leading his people in the trek across the American Plains never wore off. When he arrived in Utah, he became a despot who controlled with a grasping hand the economy, religion, and morals of the people of the Salt Lake Valley. His legendary scores of wives, his excesses of rage, his amazing (and now-suppressed) teachings on blood atonement, all are unknown or unnoticed by Mormons of today who admire in him the ideal of work and fortitude.
Perhaps the Mormon people, for survival as a people, needed a prophet like that. Perhaps they needed a Joseph Smith.
But a Christian needs only Christ.
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