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Joseph Smith, Jr., founder and leader of the Latter Day Saint movement and presidential candidate, was assassinated by a mob on 27 June 1844. Many Mormons consider him a martyr for his beliefs.
Preparation for succession
Joseph's brother Hyrum Smith was intended to succeed Joseph as President of the Church. Additionally, at a meeting with the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the Council of 50, Joseph made statements to the effect that the authority to lead the Church was bestowed on members of those groups. According to the autobiography of Benjamin F. Johnson and the journal of Wilford Woodruff, Joseph, "in the presence of the Quorum of the Twelve and others who were encircled around him" rose and spoke at length about "his life and sufferings, and of the testimonies he had borne." According to Woodruff he spoke for three hours with "his face...as amber, and he was covered with a power that * had never seen in the flesh before." Finally the Prophet "said that the Lord had now accepted his labors and sacrifices, and did not require him any longer to carry the responsibilities and burden and bearing off of this kingdom, and turning to those around him, including the 12, he said, 'And in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I now place it upon you my brethren of the council (of 50) and I shake my skirts clear from all responsibility from this time forth.'"
Incidents leading to the event
Several of Smith's disaffected associates at Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois—some of whom alledged that Smith had tried to seduce their wives into plural marriage—joined together to publish a newspaper called the Nauvoo Expositor. Its first and only issue was published 7 June 1844.
The bulk of the paper was devoted to three main criticisms of Smith: The opinion that Smith had once been a true prophet, but had fallen by advocating polygamy, Exaltation, and other controversial doctrines; the opinion that Smith, as both Mayor of Nauvoo and President of the Church held too much power, which was further consolidated by the overwhelmingly Mormon make-up of Nauvoo's courts and city council, who intended establishing a theocracy via the Council of Fifty; and the belief that Smith had corrupted women by forcing, coercing or introducing them into plural marriage.
In response to public outrage generated by the paper, the Nauvoo city council passed an ordinance declaring the newspaper a public nuisance designed to promote violence against Smith and his followers. They reached this decision after lengthy discussion, including citation of William Blackstone's legal canon, which included a libelous press as a public nuisance. Under the council's new ordinance, Smith, as Nauvoo's mayor, in conjunction with the city council, ordered the city marshal to destroy the paper and the press on June 10, 1844. By the city marshal's account, the destruction of the press type was carried out orderly and peaceably. However, Charles A. Foster, a co-publisher of the Expositor, reported on June 12 that additionally to the printing press being destroyed, the group which he dubbed "several hundred minions ... injured the building very materially" as well , though this is contradicted by the fact that the building was in use for at least another decade.
Smith’s critics said that he had violated freedom of the press. Some sought legal charges against Smith for the destruction of the press, including charges of inciting riot and treason. Violent threats were made against Smith and the Mormon community. Thomas Sharp, editor of the Warsaw Signal, a newspaper hostile to the Mormons, editorialized:
- War and extermination is inevitable! Citizens ARISE, ONE and ALL!!!—Can you stand by, and suffer such INFERNAL DEVILS! To ROB men of their property and RIGHTS, without avenging them. We have no time for comment, every man will make his own. LET IT BE MADE WITH POWDER AND BALL!!! (Warsaw Signal, 12 June 1844, p. 2.)
Warrants from outside Nauvoo were brought in against Smith and dismissed in Nauvoo courts on a writ of habeas corpus. Smith declared martial law on June 18 and called out the Nauvoo Legion, a private military force of about 5,000 men, to protect Nauvoo from outside violence.
Incarceration at Carthage Jail
Illinois Governor Thomas Ford proposed a trial by a non-Mormon jury in Carthage, the county seat, and guaranteed Smith's safety. Smith reluctantly agreed and submitted to arrest.
On 25 June 1844, Joseph and Hyrum Smith, along with the other fifteen city council members and some friends, surrendered to Carthage constable David Bettisworth on the original charge of riot. Almost immediately Joseph and Hyrum were charged with treason against the state of Illinois for declaring martial law in Nauvoo, by a warrant founded upon the oaths of A. O. Norton and Augustine Spencer. At a preliminary hearing that afternoon the city council members were released on $500 bonds, pending later trial. The judge ordered Joseph and Hyrum Smith to be held in jail until they could be tried for treason, a capital offense.
The Smith brothers and their companions were held at the Carthage Jail, joined there by Dr. Willard Richards, and John Taylor. Governor Ford left for Nauvoo not long after Smith went to stay at the jail. The anti-Mormon Carthage Greys, a local militia, were assigned to protect Smith.
Attack by the mob
Before a trial could be held, a mob of about 200 armed men, their faces painted black with wet gunpowder, stormed the jail in the late afternoon of 27 June 1844. As the mob was approaching, the jailer became nervous, and informed Smith of the group. In a letter dated 10 July 1844, one of the jailers wrote that Smith, expecting the Nauvoo Legion, said "Don't trouble yourself ... they've come to rescue me."
The Carthage Greys reportedly feigned defense of the jail by firing shots or blanks over the attackers' heads, and some of the Greys reportedly joined the mob, who rushed up the stairs.
The mob fired shots through the door and attempted to push the door open to fire into the room. Hyrum Smith was shot in the face, just to the left of his nose. He cried out, "I am a dead man!" and collapsed. His body received five additional gunshot wounds.
Smith, Taylor, and Richards attempted to defend themselves. Taylor and Richards attempted to deflect the guns with walking sticks from behind the door. Smith used a small pepper-box pistol that Cyrus Wheelock gave him when Wheelock had visited the jail earlier that day. Three of the six barrels misfired. Taylor later stated he had been informed that two assailants had died of wounds received from the pistol; however, witnesses identified three injured men who survived and were later indicted for the murder of Joseph Smith .
Taylor was shot four times and severely injured, but survived the attack. Richards escaped unscathed by hiding under the bed.
Joseph Smith made his way towards the window. As he prepared to jump down, Richards reported that he was shot twice in the back and a third bullet, fired from a musket on the ground outside, hit him in the chest.
Taylor and Richards' accounts both report that as Smith fell from the window, he called out "Oh Lord, my God!" Some have noted this is similar to "Oh, Lord, My God, is there no help for the widow's son?", a traditional Masonic call for aid from fellow Masons. (see Hiram Abif) These last recorded words have led to speculation that his statement was a call for assistance from any Masons that may have been in the mob .
There are varying accounts of what happened next. Taylor and Richards' accounts state that Smith was dead when he landed after his fall; Daniels' account reports that Smith was alive when mob members propped his body against a nearby well, assembled a makeshift firing squad, and shot him before fleeing. Daniels' account also states that one man tried to decapitate Smith for a bounty, but was prevented by divine intervention. There were additional reports that thunder and lightning frightened the mob off. Mob members fled, shouting, "The Mormons are coming," although there was no such force nearby.
Joseph Smith's mother, Lucy Mack Smith, summarized the account as follows:
"My sons were thrown into jail, where they remained in company with Brothers Richards, Taylor and Markham. At the end of this time, the Governor disbanded most of the men, but left a guard of eight of our bitterest enemies over the jail, and sixty more of the same character about a hundred yards distant. He then came into Nauvoo with a guard of fifty or sixty men, made a short speech, and returned immediately. During his absence from Carthage, the guard rushed Brother Markham out of the place at the point of the bayonet. Soon after this two hundred of those discharged in the morning rushed into Carthage, armed and painted black, red and yellow, and in ten minutes fled again, leaving my sons murdered and mangled corpses!"
After the deaths, much speculation was made about who was responsible. Governor Ford was accused of knowing about the plot to kill Smith, and some said he even approved of it. Ford denied this, but he later wrote that it was good for the Mormons to have been driven out of the state and said that their beliefs and actions were too different to have survived in Illinois. He said Smith was "the most successful imposter in modern times," and that some people "expect more protection from the laws than the laws are able to furnish in the face of popular excitement."
Interment
Joseph and Hyrum Smith's bodies were returned to Nauvoo the next day. The bodies were cleaned and examined, and death masks were made, preserving their facial features and structures.
A public viewing was held on 29 June 1844, after which empty coffins weighted with sandbags were used at the public burial. (This was done to prevent theft or mutilation of the bodies.) The actual coffins bearing the bodies of the Smith brothers were initially buried under the unfinished Nauvoo House, then disinterred and reburied under an out-building on the Smith homestead. The exact location of the gravesite was soon lost to memory.
In 1928 Frederick M. Smith, president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and grandson of Joseph Smith, fearing that rising water from the Mississippi River would destroy the gravesite, authorized civil engineer William O. Hands to conduct an excavation to find Joseph and Hyrum's bodies. Hands conducted extensive digging on the Smith homestead, and located the bodies. The remains—which were badly decomposed—were examined and photographed, and the bodies were reinterred beside Emma Smith on higher ground.
References
- Taylor's account of Smith's death.
- Richards's account of Smith's death.
- Ford, Thomas, A History of Illinois (1995 edition with introduction by Rodney O. Davis. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 1995).
External links
Footnotes
- Tanner, 1981, Chapter 17,
- Starr, Lance
- http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/josephsmithsdeath.htm#Masonic%20Cry
- Richards, 1844; D&C 135, Tracy, Oaks and Hill, 1979, Quinn, 1994.
"Death of Joseph Smith, Jr."