Joseph Smith for President: The Prophet, the Assassins, and the Struggle for American Non secular Freedom

By the election yr of 1844, Joseph Smith, the controversial founding father of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had amassed a nationwide following of some 25,000 believers. Almost half of them lived within the metropolis of Nauvoo, Illinois, the place Smith was not solely their spiritual chief however

additionally the mayor and the commander-in-chief of a militia of some 2,500 males. In lower than twenty years, Smith had helped remodel the American spiritual panorama and grown his personal political energy considerably. But the standing of the Mormon folks in American society remained unstable. Unable to

garner federal safety, and having didn’t win the help of former president Martin Van Buren or any of the opposite candidates within the race, Smith determined to take issues into his personal arms, launching his personal bid for the presidency. Whereas many scoffed on the notion that Smith may come wherever

near the White Home, others regarded his run�and his faith�as a risk to the steadiness of the younger nation. Hounded by mobs all through the marketing campaign, Smith was finally killed by one�the primary presidential candidate to be assassinated.

Although Joseph Smith’s run for president is now greatest remembered�when it’s remembered in any respect�for its ugly finish, the renegade marketing campaign was revolutionary. Smith referred to as for the whole abolition of slavery, the closure of the nation’s penitentiaries, and the reestablishment of a nationwide financial institution to

stabilize the economic system. However Smith’s most vital proposal was for an growth of protections for spiritual minorities. At a time when the Invoice of Rights didn’t apply to particular person states, Smith sought to empower the federal authorities to guard minorities when states failed to take action.

Spencer W. McBride tells the story of Joseph Smith’s quixotic however consequential run for the White Home and reveals how his requires spiritual freedom helped to form the American political system we all know at present.