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The Nauvoo Expositor was a newspaper in Nauvoo, Illinois, that published only one issue. Its publication, and the destruction of the printing press ordered by Mayor Joseph Smith and the city council, set off a chain of events that led to Smith's arrest for treason and subsequent killing at the hands of a lynch mob.

The Expositor was founded by both anti-polygamist Mormons recently excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as well as local non-Mormons. At the time of its publication, Smith faced state criminal charges of perjury and "fornication and adultery" based on sworn statements by the excommunicated anti-polygamists.

The first, and ultimately the only, edition of the newspaper on June 7, 1844, denounced Smith and other church leaders. Specifically, Smith was accused of practicing polygamy and promoting polytheism by teaching that church members can become gods.

In response to the newspaper's publication, Smith and the Nauvoo City Council declared the paper a public nuisance and ordered the press to be destroyed. The town marshal carried out the order during the evening of June 10. The destruction of the press led to charges of riot against Smith and other members of the council. Smith declared martial law and mobilized the Nauvoo Legion, a militia commanded by Smith. After Smith surrendered on the riot charges expecting to be freed on bail, he was also charged with treason against Illinois and held without bail. Smith was killed by a mob, while awaiting the trial, in Carthage Jail.

Background

In 1830, Joseph Smith, age 24, published the Book of Mormon, which he described as an English translation of ancient golden plates he received from an angel. The same year he organized the Church of Christ, calling it a restoration of the early Christian Church. Members of the church were later called "Latter Day Saints" or "Mormons". Smith and his followers sought to assemble together in a theocratic community under Smith's leadership, or 'Zion', first in Kirtland, Ohio and later in Independence, Missouri.

In 1833, a mob of settlers attacked a Mormon newspaper's printing office, destroyed the press, and tarred and feathered two Mormon leaders. Mormons were driven from Jackson county. After losing the 1838 Mormon War, Smith was jailed and his followers were forced out of Missouri.

After Smith escaped custody, he fled to Illinois, where he founded a new settlement that he named Nauvoo. After the Nauvoo City Charter passed both houses of the state legislature, Illinois governor Thomas Carlin signed it into law on December 16, 1849. The charter allowed the Nauvoo city council to pass laws 'not in conflict with the state and federal constitutions'; Chicago and Alton charters had similar provisions. The charter also empowered the Nauvoo Municipal Court to issue writs of habeas corpus. The power would later enable Joseph Smith to elude authorities from Missouri, where he was wanted on charges of treason. Nauvoo was not the only city with such a power; In 1839, Alton had been granted the same power to issue habeus corpus writs.

William Law, a wealthy immigrant from Ireland, and his wife had joined the Church of Christ in 1836 in Canada. In 1839, Law led a group of Canadian LDS members to Nauvoo. In 1841, Joseph Smith chose him to be a member of the First Presidency. He was also a member of the Nauvoo city council.

Francis M. Higbee had joined the church in 1832. In the aftermath of the 1838 Mormon War, Francis Higbee was arraigned along with Smith, in Richmond, Missouri on November 11, 1838. He was released 18 days later. On June 30, 1842, Francis Higbee gave a sworn statement that "Joseph Smith told that John C. Bennett could be easily put aside or drowned, and no person would be the wiser for it". On January 15, 1844, the Nauvoo Municipal Court issued a warrant for his arrest on the affidavit of Orson Pratt. Chauncey Higbee had also joined the church in 1832. In November 1841, he had been appointed aide-de-camp to Major General John C. Bennett of the Nauvoo Legion.

Origins

Although he had been married since 1827 and polygamy was criminal, Smith had been secretly marrying his followers since 1833. In 1842, church leader and Nauvoo mayor John C. Bennett was excommunicated for adultery. In response, Bennett published a book-length exposé revealing Smith's own practice of polygamy. In public, Joseph Smith repeatedly denied polygamy throughout his lifetime. In 2014, the Church admitted Smith had married about 40 of his female followers, including a 14-year-old and others who were already married.

On July 12, 1843, Joseph Smith dictated a revelation about polygamy to his scribe William Clayton. Later that day, Joseph and Hyrum presented it to Joseph's first wife Emma, who rejected it.

On August 12, 1843, Hyrum Smith read Smith's revelation concerning plural marriage to the Nauvoo High Council. Joseph Smith made several proposals to William Law's wife Jane, under the premise that she would enter a polyandrous marriage with Smith. Law's wife later described Smith's proposals, saying that Smith had "asked her to give him half her love; she was at liberty to keep the other half for her husband." Upon learning of the proposal, Law threatened to expose Smith unless he went before the High Council to confess and repent. On January 8, 1844, Smith removed Law from the First Presidency. On February 1, 1844, the Times and Season announced that Hiram Brown had been excommunicated for preaching polygamy in Michigan

In Spring 1844 Dr. Robert D. Foster returned home to find his wife being visited by Joseph Smith. She later confessed that Smith had preached polygamy and attempted to seduce her.

Key Stone Store meeting

In mid-March, Joseph Jackson attempted to recruit two Nauvoo men, Marenus G. Eaton and Abiathar Williams, stories about "men tied hand and foot and runthrough the heart with a sword, and there heads taken off, and then buried." The pair attended a meeting the back room of a grocery store; In attendance were the Laws, the Higbees, Robert D. Foster. Foster told about Joseph Smith's attempt to seduce his wife. Chauncey Higbee confirmed the practice of polygamy among Smith and other church leaders. Jackson suggested he had knowledge of a conspiracy to kill the Smiths. Eaton and Williams meeting reported the events to Joseph Smith.

On March 24, Joseph told his congregation that a group planned to "destroy all the Smith family in a few weeks.", naming the members as: Chauncey Higbee, Robert Foster, Joseph Jackson, and William and Wilson Law.

On April 6, Law notified Smith and some member of the Twelve that he desired an investigation before the Church General Conference.

On April 7, Smith addressed the Church's annual general conference in Nauvoo in a speech known as the King Follett sermon (named for a Mormon who had recently died in an accident). Smith reported he was "never in any nearer relationship to God than at the present time". Smith elaborated, saying he wanted to "refute the idea that God was God from all eternity". Smith explain that God was "once was a man like us". He advised followers that "You have got to learn how to make yourselves God, king and priest, by going from a small capacity to a great capacity to the resurrection of the dead to dwelling in everlasting burnings." William Law later reported that the conference featured "some of the most blasphemous doctrines... ever heard of," such as "other gods as far above our God as he is above us."

On April 13, Smith questioned Robert Foster in Municipal Court. When Foster declined to testify, Joseph brought charges against him "for abusing my character privately, for throwing out slanderous insinuation against me, for conspiring against my peace and Safety, for conspiring against my life, for conspiring against the peace of my family."

Sworn statements by the witnesses to the Key Stone Store were published in the Nauvoo Neighbor on April 17.

Excommunications

On April 18, four dissenters were excommunicated from the church: William Law, his wife Jane, his brother William, and Robert D. Foster; Contrary to standard protocol in Church courts, they were given no opportunity to defend themselves or bring witnesses, nor were the defendants were not present at their church trial. Also excommunicated was Howard Smith. Joseph charged Foster with "immorality and apostacy", character defamation, lying, and endangering his life in the Nauvoo High Council.

On May 1, Francis M. Higbee filed a legal complaint in the Fifth Judicial District of Illinois, suing Smith for slander and requesting damages of five thousand dollars. On May 4, William Law, his wife Jane, and Austin Cowles appeared before a Justice of the Peace and gave a sworn statement about Smith's polygamy.

On May 10, a newspaper prospectus was circulated, announcing the creation of the Nauvoo Expositor. The Expositor was planned as an exposé of church practices which Law and his associates opposed.

On May 18, the church excommunicated Francis M. Higbee, James Blakesley, Charles Ivins, and Austin Cowles for apostasy.

Criminal indictment of Joseph Smith

On May 23, a grand jury from the Hancock County Circuit Court issued a criminal indictment against Smith on the charges of perjury and "fornication and adultery" based on the statements of Joseph Jackson, Robert Foster, and William Law. Law swore that Smith had been living with Maria Lawrence "in an open state of adultery" since October 12, 1843.

On May 26, Smith again denied polygamy, preaching: "What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one. I am the same man, and as innocent as I was fourteen years ago; and I can prove them all perjurers." On May 29, 1844, the church's high council ordered the publication of testimony and affidavits which purported to be accounts of Chauncey Higbee's trial before the high council two years earlier. According to the documents, Chauncey Higbee had been accused of "adulterous sins" and tried on May 24, 1842. Included were statements from women claiming he had committed adultery by telling them that Joseph Smith secretly preached the practice of polygamy. In response, Chauncey Higbee was excommunicated from the church.

Contents

The only issue of the Nauvoo Expositor, dated June 7, 1844, was a four-page publication. In addition to more mundane content such as poetry and marriage announcements, it contained a statement from the "Seceders from the Church at Nauvoo" and sworn statements from multiple individuals attesting to the teaching of "the plurality of wives".

Prospectus from publishers

In their prospectus, the publishers advocate for major reforms including the repeal of the Nauvoo City Charter. They vow to "decry moral imperfections" wherever found, "whether in the Plebeian, Patrician, or self-constituted monarch".

The publishers of the Expositor were: William Law of the First Presidency, his brother Brigadier General Wilson Law of the Nauvoo Legion Charles Ivins, Col. Francis M. Higbee of Nauvoo Legion, his brother Chauncey L. Higbee, Robert Foster and his brother Charles Foster. The editor was Sylvester Emmons, a non-Mormon member of the Nauvoo City Council.

Statement from seceders

The preamble establishes that despite the schism, the authors maintain their belief in "the religion of the Latter Day Saints, as originally taught by Joseph Smith".

The statement discusses the schism, attributed to "many items of doctrine, as now taught, some of which, however, are taught secretly, and denied openly" which they declare "heretical and damnable". They cite the practice of plural marriage, accusing Smith and other church leaders of using their ecclesiastical position to coerce recently arrived female converts into becoming Smith's "spiritual wi". They also cite the "false doctrine of many Gods", saying "t is contended that there are innumerable Gods as much above the God that presides over this universe, as he is above us; and if he varies from the law unto which he is subjected, he, with all his creatures, will be cast down as was Lucifer". The statement criticizes the process behind the recent excommunication, writing "Smith has established an inquisition"—a process they "contend is contrary to the book of Doctrine and Covenants, for our law condemnest no man until he is heard".

The statement suggests that their struggle will be on-going, writing: "We most solemnly and sincerely declare that the sword of truth shall not depart from the thigh, nor the buckler from the arm, until we can enjoy those glorious privileges which nature's God and our country's laws have guarantied to us—freedom of speech, the liberty of the press, and the right to worship God as seemeth us good." The authors resolve not to "acknowledge any man as king or law-giver to the church" and vow to oppose "every attempt to unite church and state". They accuse Smith and other church officials of introducing "false and damnable doctrines into the Church, such as a plurality of Gods above the God of this universe, and his liability to fall with all his creations; the plurality of wives, for time and eternity, the doctrine of unconditional sealing up to eternal life, against all crimes except that of shedding innocent blood".

Affidavits

The Expositor contained affidavits alleging the teaching of a revelation from Smith which "authorized certain men to have more wives than one at a time". Statements were made by William Law, his wife Jane, and Austin Cowles.

Reception and destruction

Smith called a meeting of the City Council, where "he proceeded to put the Expositor and its editors on trial, as if that body was of a judicial instead of a legislative character." The trial "lasted all of Saturday, June 8, and a part of Monday, June 10".

After the city council declared the Expositor a public nuisance, Smith issued two orders for the Expositor's destruction. City Marshall John P. Greene, accompanied by a hundred man posse, carried out the destruction.

The members of the Nauvoo municipal government were:

• Mayor Joseph Smith
• Councilor Hyrum Smith
• Councilor John Taylor
• Councilor Sylvester Emmons
• Councilor Jonhnson
• Councilor Benjamin Warrington
• Councilor Hunter
• Alderman Samuel C. Bennett
• Alderman Elias Smith

Aftermath of the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor

Seeking relief from the state courts, Francis M. Higbee, one of the Expositors publishers, gave a sworn statement about the events of June 10. Non-Mormons in Hancock County were infuriated when they heard of the news of the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor, believing that it was an example of Mormon disregard for their laws. Many of them, including the neighboring newspapers Quincy Whig and Warsaw Signal, called for the arrest of the Mormon leaders. On June 12, the Hancock County Justice of the Peace issued a warrant for the arrest of Smith and 17 other named individuals under the jurisdiction of the Hancock County Court. Specifically named were: Joseph Smith, Samuel Bennett, John Taylor, William W. Phelps, Hyrum Smith, John P. Greene, Stephen Perry, Dimick B. Huntington, Jonathan Dunham, Stephen Markham, William Edwards, Jonathan Holmes, Jesse P. Harmon, John Lytle, Joseph W. Coolidge, Harvey D. Redfield, Porter Rockwell, and Levi Richards.

First arrest attempt

Constable David Bettisworth was tasked with arresting Smith and conveying him to the Hancock County Court. On June 12, Bettisworth served Smith with the warrant. Rather than return with Bettisworth to the Hancock County Court, Smith instead petitioned the Municipal Court of Nauvoo to dismiss the charges.

On June 12, a hearing was held in the Municipal Court of Nauvoo. The Court dismissed the charges against Smith. The following day, Smith presided over the Municipal Court of Nauvoo when it dismissed the charges against the others named in the Hancock County Court warrant. Unable to compel Smith to return, Bettisworth left Nauvoo without Smith or any of the others named in the arrest warrant.

Wider response in Illinois

On June 13, citizens of Hancock County gathered in the county seat for a mass-meeting in response to the destruction of the Expositor. The meeting resolved to seek help from the Governor, writing:

Whereas said Smith and others refuse to obey the mandate of said writ; and whereas in the opinion of this meeting, it is impossible for said officer so raise a posse of sufficient strength to execute said writ; ... it is the opinion of this meeting that the circumstances of the case require the interposition of executive power. Therefore,

Resolved, that a deputation of two discreet men be sent to Springfield to solicit such interposition.

The following day, the Warsaw Signal published the resolutions, editorializing that "epeated attempts have been made to arrest Smith, but he has been uniformly screened from the officers of Justice, by the aid of the Municipal Court , which is the tool and echo of himself."

On June 14, Smith defended the destruction of the Expositor to Governor Thomas Ford, writing:

In the investigation it appeared evident to the council that the proprietors were a set of unprincipled men, lawless, debouchees, counterfeiters, Bogus Makers, gamblers, peace disturbers, and that the grand object of said proprietors was to destroy our constitutional rights and chartered privileges; to overthrow all good and wholesome regulations in society; to strengthen themselves against the municipality; to fortify themselves against the church of which I am a member, and destroy all our religious rights and privileges, by libels, slanders, falsehoods, perjury & sticking at no corruption to accomplish their hellish purposes. and that said paper of itself was libelous of the deepest dye, and very injurious as a vehicle of defamation,—tending to corrupt the morals, and disturb the peace, tranquillity and happiness of the whole community, and especially that of Nauvoo.

Smith declared martial law on June 18 and called out the Nauvoo Legion, an organized city militia of about 5,000 men.

On June 21 Governor Ford arrived at the Hancock County seat in Carthage. On June 22, Ford wrote to the Mayor and City Council of Nauvoo, writing:

I now express to you my opinion that your conduct in the destruction of the press was a very gross outrage upon the laws and the liberties of the people. It may have been full of libels, but this did not authorize you to destroy it.
There are many newspapers in this state which have been wrongfully abusing me for more than a year, and yet such is my regard for the liberty of the press and the rights of a free people in a republican government that I would shed the last drop of my blood to protect those presses from any illegal violence.
...
The owners of the press obtained ... a warrant against the authors of this destruction for a riot;
...
They have ever since refused to be arrested or to submit to a trial at any other place or before any other court, except in the city and before the Municipal Court .

Smith fled the jurisdiction to avoid arrest, crossing the Mississippi River into Iowa. On June 23, a posse under the command of the governor entered Nauvoo to execute an arrest warrant, but they were unable to locate Smith.

Surrender and killing of the Smiths

On June 25, 1844, Joseph and Hyrum Smith, along with the other fifteen co-defendants, surrendered to Bettisworth on the original charge of inciting a riot. An arraignment was held on the rioting charge and Justice Robert F. Smith granted bail of $500 for each of the defendants.

After the defendants were granted bail on the riot charge, Justice R. F. Smith heard testimony from Augustine Spencer and issued a writ for the arrest of Joseph and Hyrum Smith on the charge of treason against Illinois. The Smiths were placed under arrest and transported to Carthage Jail. Smith and the others so charged insisted the treason accusations were not properly heard in court.

On June 27, while awaiting trial, a mob attacked the jail and killed both Joseph and Hyrum Smith; John Taylor was wounded in the attack.

Repeal of Nauvoo Charter and Exodus

At the next session of the Illinois state legislature the following December, the Nauvoo Charter was repealed by a vote of 25–14 in the Senate and 75–31 in the House. This disincorporated the City of Nauvoo and dissolved its municipal institutions. Nauvoo municipal assets were court-ordered to be placed in receivership.

The winter of 1845–46 saw the enormous preparations for the Mormon Exodus via the Mormon Trail. In early 1846, the majority of the Latter Day Saints left the city.

Mormon views

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While most scholars agree that the destruction of the press was illegal, some Mormons have defended the destruction of the Expositor by Smith and the council, while other Mormons view the destruction as illegal.

In her 1945 biography of Smith, No Man Knows My History, Mormon historian Fawn Brodie described the destruction of the press as a "violation of the holy Constitution", opining that "It was a greater breach of political and legal discipline than the anti-Mormons could have hoped for." The following year, Brodie was excommunicated. In his 2005 book, historian Richard Bushman called Brodie "the most imminent of Smith's unbelieving biographers".

In 1962, Dallin H. Oaks was named as the stake mission president in Chicago. In 1965, Oaks, then a law professor at the University of Chicago Law School, published an article in the Utah Law Review in which he argued that while the destruction of the Expositor's printing press was legally questionable, under the law of the time the newspaper could have been declared libelous and therefore a public nuisance by the Nauvoo City Council. Oaks concludes it would have been legally permissible under the common law of the time for city officials to destroy, or "abate", the actual printed newspapers. However, he notes that there "was no legal justification in 1844 for the destruction of the Expositor press as a nuisance" and that its owners could have sued for damages; Oaks was president of Brigham Young University until 1980, when he was appointed to the Utah Supreme Court. In 1984, he resigned from the Court to be "called" to high levels of LDS Church leadership, as a member of both the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and, later, First Presidency. Other Mormon legal scholars, such as Edwin Firmage and R. Collin Mangrum, similarly concluded that "Whether or not the suppression of the Expositor was justified, such action may have exceeded the council's authority." The official church website cites the opinion of Oaks, asserting that "The Nauvoo City Council had reason to believe their actions were legal."

Grant H. Palmer was a Mormon historian who authored the 2002 book An Insider's View of Mormon Origins; He was disfellowshipped two years later. After resigning in 2010, Palmer published an article on William Law in which he opined that Law was "the most credible and important person to have ever left the First Presidency". Palmer argues that the William and Jane Law opposed Joseph Smith because he ordered the death of his enemies, married other men's wives, and sought to establish a kingdom within the United States.

References

1. ^ "Polygamy, Persecution And Power", The Salt Lake Tribune, June 16, 1996, paragraph 16, 17
2. ^ Linder, Douglas O. "'Better to Smash Than to Live': The Order to Destroy the Nauvoo Expositor". Famous Trials. University of Missouri - Kansas City. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
3. History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints volume VI (1912), pp. 430-432. The council met on June 8 and June 10 to discuss the matter.
4. ^ Brodie, Fawn M. (1963). No Man Knows My History. Knopf. p. 129. A mob had stormed into Independence, burned the printing house, smashed the press, carried off the newly printed collections of revelations, tarred and feathered Bishop Partridge, and ordered the whole colony to leave the county.
5. History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints volume VI (1912), p. 432: "The Council passed an ordinance declaring the Nauvoo Expositor a nuisance, and also issued an order to me to abate the said nuisance. I immediately ordered the Marshall to destroy it without delay." – Joseph Smith
6. ^ Firmage, Edwin Brown; Mangrum, Richard Collin (2001). Zion in the courts. University of Illinois: University of Illinois Press. pp. 114 & 115 of 430 pages. ISBN 0-252-06980-3.
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20. Clayton journal:"Wednesday 12th This A.M, I wrote a Revelation consisting of 10 pages on the order of the priesthood, showing the designs in Moses, Abraham, David and Solomon having many wives & concubines &c. After it was wrote Prests. Joseph & Hyrum presented it and read it to who said she did not believe a word of it and appeared very rebellious. ...appears much troubled about "
21. Smith 1995, pp. 94–101 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1995 (help)
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24. ^ Brodie, p.369
25. Young, Ann Eliza (1875). Wife no. 19. Hartford, Connecticut: Dustin, Gilman & Co. p. 61.
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27. Bushman, p. 527
28. ^ Brodie, p.371
29. Bushman, p. 530
30. Bushman p.531
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33. Cook, Lyndon W. (1994). William Law: Biographical Essay, Nauvoo Diary, Correspondence, Interview. Grandin Book Company. p. 18. William Law requested his case be heard at the April 1844 general conference but was denied because of the explosive nature of things at Nauvoo resulting from the mounting opposition of the dissenters.
34. Bushman p.533-4
35. ^ Bushman p.537
36. Bushman, p.531
37. John Taylor (1843). Nauvoo Neighbor, 1843–1845.
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42. Doctrine and Covenants 124:115.
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44. Nauvoo Expositor
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External links

• Nauvoo Expositor (wikisource)
• Nauvoo Expositor : Facsimile of the Expositor, with original columns and formatting.
• 1840 Nauvoo Charter (wikisource)
• Illinois Constitution of 1818 (wikisource)
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints article on the Nauvoo Expositor

• 1844 in Christianity
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