Re: 33 years with new questions
Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2024 8:33 am
As I understand the history, Smith didn't really think he was going to be killed until the mob was there at his cell door, at which point it was obviously too late to try to save himself by recanting anything—it was too late for any words to do anything. Smith may have made some grandiose statements about going like a lamb to be slaughtered and being killed in cold blood, but at least from some other closely contemporary statements mentioned in the Wikipedia page, he seems to have thought that he would either beat the treason charge in court or else be rescued by his Nauvoo Legion.
Or at least, he seems to have had some confidence that he would either beat the rap or be rescued. He was clearly taking a risk, in returning to Illinois for arrest, instead of just hiding out further west. I don't think he needed the kind of motivation it would have taken to face certain death, because I think he was far from certain that he was facing death, but he surely did need enough motivation to take a serious risk. What could that motivation have been, if it wasn't a sincere conviction that he was God's chosen Prophet and only doing God's will?
I don't know, but it seems to me that the whole polygamy problem may not have been as much less of a deal in Smith's day, in comparison to the disgust it raises now, as Mormon apologists try to make us believe. On the contrary, I think that the kind of serial sexual predation that Smith practiced was obvious grounds for lynching in his time and place, and that Smith must have been dreadfully anxious for months to conceal his multiple affairs, as well as the secret religious doctrine by which he justified them. So he took desperate measures when the Nauvoo Expositor published his crimes, but this only made things worse. This was the background to Smith's arrest, which didn't just come out of the blue as a sudden persecution for no reason. It was all a problem of Smith's own making, but it had been building and now it was all blowing up and coming out.
Even though it all happened fast, I expect that Smith didn't need long to see that if he just ran off as a fugitive then his days as a Prophet were over. So I reckon he was prepared to take even a fairly big risk if it gave him a chance of emerging on top. He was probably hoping that his flock would rally to save him and that, having done that, they would then be committed enough to him to go west with him. Smith may not have had the full-blown idea of migrating to Utah and founding Salt Lake City, but the notion of "lighting out for the Territory" to escape oppressive circumstances was a widespread meme in the time. It might even have worked, if Smith's hold over his Legion had been stronger than it proved to be in the end.
Or at least, he seems to have had some confidence that he would either beat the rap or be rescued. He was clearly taking a risk, in returning to Illinois for arrest, instead of just hiding out further west. I don't think he needed the kind of motivation it would have taken to face certain death, because I think he was far from certain that he was facing death, but he surely did need enough motivation to take a serious risk. What could that motivation have been, if it wasn't a sincere conviction that he was God's chosen Prophet and only doing God's will?
I don't know, but it seems to me that the whole polygamy problem may not have been as much less of a deal in Smith's day, in comparison to the disgust it raises now, as Mormon apologists try to make us believe. On the contrary, I think that the kind of serial sexual predation that Smith practiced was obvious grounds for lynching in his time and place, and that Smith must have been dreadfully anxious for months to conceal his multiple affairs, as well as the secret religious doctrine by which he justified them. So he took desperate measures when the Nauvoo Expositor published his crimes, but this only made things worse. This was the background to Smith's arrest, which didn't just come out of the blue as a sudden persecution for no reason. It was all a problem of Smith's own making, but it had been building and now it was all blowing up and coming out.
Even though it all happened fast, I expect that Smith didn't need long to see that if he just ran off as a fugitive then his days as a Prophet were over. So I reckon he was prepared to take even a fairly big risk if it gave him a chance of emerging on top. He was probably hoping that his flock would rally to save him and that, having done that, they would then be committed enough to him to go west with him. Smith may not have had the full-blown idea of migrating to Utah and founding Salt Lake City, but the notion of "lighting out for the Territory" to escape oppressive circumstances was a widespread meme in the time. It might even have worked, if Smith's hold over his Legion had been stronger than it proved to be in the end.