Moksha wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2024 9:17 pm
The City Council listened to Joseph's orders and not the other way around. Remember, he was the prophet, the mayor, the Commander of the Nauvoo Legion, and had recently appointed himself to be King and High Priest of the Earth. He communed with Jehovah and was the man in charge.
Even as King and High Priest of the Earth, Joseph couldn't see around corners. He didn't see that coming. The rest sounds like speculative apologetics.
The Nauvoo Charter granted the city council powers equal to the Illinois legislature within the jurisdiction of Nauvoo. Power was granted to the city council to pass ordinances for the order and welfare of the city. The city council declared the press a nuisance (which it was) and then ordered Smith, as Nauvoo's Mayor, to in turn order the city Marshall to destroy the paper and the press. Joseph Smith did nothing that a number of elected officials around the country didn't do, including destroying a public nuisance.
But it was illegal when taking property rights into consideration, which only means the owners could have sued for the damages, but they never did.
There is a free pdf online of a book detailing the conspiracy involving Thomas Ford and the Whig party. It is not apologetics, I think the authors try to present their material objectively, they in fact show they have an anti-Mormon sentiment when talking about later "Mormon vengeance" and the Mountain Meadows massacre. There is a plethora of documentation, factual information and a comprehensive study of the events. The authors successfully argue the assassination was result of conspiracy of local and state politicians.
Junius and Joseph: Presidential Politics and the Assassination of the First Mormon Prophet
Illinois Govenor, Thomas Ford, was himself part of the Whig Party conspiracy to murder Joseph Smith. In Ford's narrative in 'A History of Illinois' pretty much says Joseph Smith and the Saints got along very well in Illinois until Joseph got involved in state politics. It was determined that a Mormon prophet's candidacy might disrupt the outcome of the 1844 presidential election. Those involved were supporters of Kentuckian Henry Clay, the elder statesman of the American Whig party, and his 1844 bid for the American presidency. The Expositor was merely being used, by those plotting against the Prophet's life, as ammunition for an entirely different scheme.
Any assertion that the destruction of the Expositor was what began the mob violence that led to the deaths of Joseph Smith, is completely unfounded. The people in the mob were not even from Nauvoo. They were mostly from Warsaw. Joseph was not even held for the destruction of the Expositor. He was charged with treason for mustering up the Nauvoo Legion (a false charge in order that he could be held without bail). Joseph was politically assassinated by evil men for power. Any property rights violations, that were never even brought forth, had nothing to do with it.
William Law and others in Illinois were plotting. Dr. Wall Southwick in meeting he had attended in Carthage, Illinois, wherein the enemies of the Prophet had gathered together from every state in the Union but three because Joseph’s “views on government were widely circulated and took like wildfire.” According to Southwick, they believed that if the Prophet “did not get into the Presidential chair this election, he would be sure to the next time; and if Illinois and Missouri would join together and kill him, they would not be brought to justice for it.” Dr. Southwick’s statement suggests that the Prophet’s presidential campaign was definitely part of the cause for his assassination.
Joseph was charged with inciting a "riot" which was a (non-criminal) civil affair, and that same charge was unsubstantiated in Nauvoo municipal court since the destruction of the press had been orderly. Joseph and others consented to be brought before another court, headed by a (non-Mormon) justice of the peace, Daniel H. Wells. Wells again discharged them, but did not have the authority to acquit them. Joseph Smith then declares martial law in Nauvoo and calls out the militia to protect the city from anti-Mormon mobs.
Governor Ford writes to tell Joseph that he must face charges before the same judge that issued the writ for his arrest, because only this will appease the public (not the law) which was in a very hostile community. It was a death trap, which Joseph and Hyrum did foresee, so they left Nauvoo to seek refuge. Until they returned in order to protect the church from being despoiled and driven out if he did not, and proclaiming that he was going to his death. Despite Joseph and fifteen others receiving guarantees of safety and presented themselves in Carthage. They were freed on bail pending the October arrival of the circuit court.
However, Joseph and Hyrum were then jailed by a writ issued by Robert F. Smith, a Methodist minister, justice of the peace, and captain of the Carthage Greys militia. So once they stopped at Carthage, he was incarcerated there without bail, despite the Governor's promises of protection and a fair trial, Governor Ford allowed the Smiths to be imprisoned by their enemies on a wholly new charge of "treason" for having declared martial law in Nauvoo, a legal farce.
Stating that he had to "satisfy the people," and "had no doubt but that they would be immediately dismissed", and so did not keep his promise that the prisoners could go with him to Nauvoo. The Governor Ford ignored clear warnings of danger and disbands all the militia companies, except the hostile Carthage Greys, to guard the jail and took the most dependable troops with him to Nauvoo,
During the governor's absence, the discharged Warsaw militia company then attacks the jail. There were between one hundred and two hundred armed men whom blackened their faces with mud and gunpowder, and then stormed the jail. In less than two minutes, they overcame feigned resistance from the Greys (they had loaded their weapons with gunpowder but no bullets), the mob rushed upstairs, and started firing through the closed unlocked door of the cell keeper's bedroom.
bill4long wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2024 9:17 pm
I have no problem with self-defense, but he was hardly a "lamb going to the slaughter" without a fight.)
What exactly should a man say when he self-surrenders to a murderous army? He was clearly lamb when he surrendered and he makes it clear he knew he was going to die. He only fired back after they already started firing at him in a confined space, shot at his friends, and shot his brother in the face.