Polygamy exposure sank Joseph Smith's run for White House

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10288969

The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 08/24/2008 01:14:46 AM MDT

Joseph Smith petitioned the candidates for U.S. president in 1844 seeking redress on behalf of his Mormon followers. The Mormons deserved federal protection from mobs and persecution, he argued. Not one gave him the time of day.

Smith's frustration with politicians running for office has echoed through the ages. "I despise the imbecility of American statesmen; I detest the shrinkage of candidates for office."

Looking around for someone not an imbecile nor in danger of shrinkage, Smith noticed himself. If no one would take up the Mormons' political cause, then he would. In late January he declared his candidacy for president.

The campaign, however, immediately stumbled. It was discovered that his first pick as a running mate, James Bennett, a New York businessman, had been born in Ireland and was, therefore, constitutionally unqualified.

But his second pick, Sidney Rigdon, a longtime friend and counselor, was American-born.

Smith set about developing a platform and a campaign organization. He produced a raft of what we call today "policy papers." Besides seeking protection for Mormons, he also touched on slavery, a proposal to reduce the size of Congress by two-thirds and radical prison reform.

Despite saying nasty things about Northern abolitionists, Smith was troubled when he saw, "the condition of men . . . in this boasted realm,
where the Declaration of Independence 'holds these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;' but at the same time some 2 or 3 millions people are held as slaves for life because the spirit in them is covered with a darker skin than ours. . . ."

Smith recommended the emancipation of all slaves by 1850 through a program of monetary restitution to the owners.

But it was Smith's views on incarceration (of which he had some experience) that would land him squarely in the liberal-nutcake wing of the political landscape.

"Petition your state legislatures to pardon every convict in their several penitentiaries, blessing them as they go, and saying to them, in the name of the Lord, go thy way, and sin no more.

Smith saw "reason and friendship" as more effective in reforming offenders than tossing them in the pokey.

Smith also floated something he called "Theodemocracy." In theory it was to be the best of republican democracy married to enlightened religiosity. Brigham Young later carried the concept with him when he settled the church in the Great Basin. In practice, the U.S. government never appreciated how great a system it was and sent an army to make the Saints stop it.

Smith dispatched his most effective missionaries to organize and stump for his presidential campaign.

Did Smith really believe he had a chance? One moment he was a realist who saw what a long shot it was, merely running to make a point. But a moment later he would tell himself: "Hey, people like me!"

It is interesting to speculate what effect the Smith campaign might have had on an exceptionally close national election if he hadn't badly miscalculated and destroyed the presses of the Nauvoo Expositor, an action that started the chain of events that led to his murder in the Carthage, Ill., jail. The newspaper snidely remarked that it is tricky to run for president and be under indictment at the same time. The public exposure of Smith as a polygamist was too much for any campaign to take. No matter how true the charges.

More can be found about Joseph Smith's 1844 presidential bid in Timothy Wood's article in the Summer 2000 edition of Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society.
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* PAT BAGLEY is the editorial cartoonist for The Salt Lake Tribune.