Killing of Joseph Smith


, the founder and leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother, Hyrum Smith, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois, United States, on June 27, 1844, while awaiting trial in the town jail on charges of treason.
As a result of the 1838 Mormon War and a state executive order by Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs, a large group of Mormons, including Smith and his brother, had to flee Missouri. In 1839, the group settled in Commerce, Illinois, where Smith soon became mayor and which he renamed Nauvoo.
In 1844, a group of ex-Mormons who opposed polygamy and who had recently been excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints established the Nauvoo Expositor newspaper. On June 7, 1844, the newspaper published its first issue, which criticized Smith and other church leaders, reporting that Smith was practicing polygamy, marrying the wives of other men, teaching a "plurality of Gods", and alleging that he intended to set himself up as a theocratic king. After a vote of the Nauvoo City Council, Smith, as mayor, ordered the Expositors printing press destroyed.
The destruction of the press led to broader public outrage in the communities surrounding the city. The Smith brothers and other members of the Nauvoo City Council were charged by the State of Illinois with inciting a riot. Joseph Smith was apprehended, but freed by the Nauvoo municipal court. Smith declared martial law and called for the Nauvoo Legion to help keep the peace. After failing and briefly fleeing Illinois, Smith received a personal statement from the governor of Illinois, Thomas Ford, who "pledged his faith and the faith of the state to protect him while he underwent a legal and fair trial", convincing Smith and Hyrum to return to Illinois and face trial voluntarily. When the brothers arrived at the county seat of Carthage to surrender to authorities, they were charged with treason against Illinois for declaring martial law.
The Smith brothers were detained at Carthage Jail awaiting trial when an armed mob of 150–200 men stormed the building, their faces painted black with wet gunpowder. Hyrum was killed almost immediately when he was shot in the face, shouting as he fell, "I am a dead man!" After emptying his pistol towards the attackers, Joseph tried to escape from a second-story window, but was shot several times and fell to the ground, where he was again shot by the mob.
Five men were indicted for the killings, but all were acquitted at a jury trial. At the time of his death, Smith was also running for president of the United States, making him the first U.S. presidential candidate to be assassinated. Smith's death marked a turning point for the Latter Day Saint movement.

Background

In 1830, Joseph Smith, aged 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 violently 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, then traveling on to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Martin Van Buren, seeking intervention and compensation for lost property. Van Buren said he could do nothing to help. Smith returned to Illinois and vowed to join the Whig Party. Most of his supporters switched with him to the Whig party, adding political tensions to the social suspicions in which Smith's followers were held by the local populace.

Polygamy divides Smith's followers

Despite public denials of polygamy, Joseph Smith had a practice of secretly being sealed to his female followers. As early as 1838, Smith had faced accusations of polygamy. On April 18, anti-polygamists William Law, Wilson Law, Jane Law, and Robert Foster were excommunicated. On May 10, a prospectus announcing the Expositor was circulated.
On May 23, a grand jury from the Hancock County Circuit Court issued a criminal indictment against Smith on the charges of perjury based on the statements of Joseph Jackson and Robert Foster. A second indictment, for "fornication and adultery", was issued based on the statements of William and Wilson Law who swore Smith had been living with Maria Lawrence "in an open state of adultery" since the prior October 12.

Destruction of the ''Nauvoo Expositor''

In 1844, in the city of Nauvoo, Illinois, where Smith was mayor, several anti-polygamist Mormons, recently excommunicated from Smith's church, joined to publish a newspaper called the Nauvoo Expositor. It put out its first and only issue on June 7, 1844. Based on sworn statements, the Expositor alleged that Smith practiced polygamy, marrying at least eight other men's wives, and he had tried to marry the wives of some of the Expositor's publishers.
In response to public outrage generated by the Expositor, the Nauvoo City Council passed an ordinance declaring the newspaper a public nuisance which had been designed to promote violence against Smith and his followers. They reached this decision after some discussion, including citation of William Blackstone's legal canon, which defined a libelous press as a public nuisance. According to the Council's minutes, Smith said he "would rather die tomorrow and have the thing smashed, than live and have it go on, for it was exciting the spirit of mobocracy among the people, and bringing death and destruction upon us."
Under the council's new ordinance, Smith, as Nauvoo's mayor, in conjunction with the council, ordered the city marshal to destroy the Expositor and its printing 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 not only was the printing press destroyed, but that "several hundred minions... injured the building very materially".
Smith's critics said that the action of destroying the press violated freedom of the press. Some sought legal charges against Smith for the destruction of the press, including charges of treason and inciting a riot. Violent threats were made against Smith and the Latter Day Saints. On June 12, Thomas C. Sharp, editor of the Warsaw Signal in Warsaw, Illinois, a newspaper hostile to the church, editorialized:

Arrest attempt and martial law

Warrants from outside Nauvoo were brought in against Smith for the charge of riot. On June 12, Smith was arrested by David Bettinger, constable of Carthage. Bettinger sought to convey Smith to the Hancock County Court that issued the warrant, Smith was freed when the charges were dismissed in Nauvoo municipal court on a writ of habeas corpus. Smith declared martial law on June 18 and called out the Nauvoo Legion, an organized city militia of about 5,000 men, to protect Nauvoo from outside violence.
In response to the crisis, Illinois governor Thomas Ford traveled to Hancock County, and on June 21 he arrived at the county seat in Carthage. On June 22, Ford wrote to Smith and the Nauvoo City Council, proposing a trial by a non-Mormon jury in Carthage and guaranteeing Smith's safety. Smith fled the jurisdiction to avoid arrest, crossing the Mississippi River into the Iowa Territory. On June 23, a posse under Ford's command entered Nauvoo to execute an arrest warrant, but they were unable to locate Smith.

Smith surrenders

After briefly fleeing Illinois, Smith received a personal statement from Governor Ford, who "pledged his faith and the faith of the state to protect him while he underwent a legal and fair trial", convincing Joseph Smith along with Hyrum to return voluntarily. He was reported to have said, "If my life is of no value to my friends it is of none to myself." He reluctantly submitted to arrest. He was quoted as saying, "I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer's morning; I have a conscience void of offense towards God, and towards all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me—he was murdered in cold blood." During the trip to Carthage, Smith reportedly recounted a dream in which he and Hyrum escaped a burning ship, walked on water, and arrived at a great heavenly city.
On June 25, 1844, Smith and his brother Hyrum, along with the other fifteen Council members and some friends, surrendered to Carthage constable William Bettisworth on the original charge of riot. Upon arrival in Carthage, almost immediately the Smith brothers 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 Council members were released on $500 bonds, pending later trial. The judge ordered the Smith brothers to be held in jail until they could be tried for treason, which was a capital offense.

Incarceration at Carthage Jail

The Smith brothers were detained at Carthage Jail, and were soon joined by Willard Richards, John Taylor and John Solomon Fullmer. Six other associates accompanied the Smiths: John P. Greene, Stephen Markham, Dan Jones, John S. Fullmer, Dr. Southwick, and Lorenzo D. Wasson.
Ford left for Nauvoo not long after Smith was jailed. The anti-Mormon "Carthage Greys", a local militia, were assigned to protect the brothers. Jones, who was present, relayed to Ford several threats against Joseph made by members of the Greys, all of which were dismissed by Ford.
On Thursday morning, June 27, church leader Cyrus Wheelock, having obtained a pass from Ford, visited Smith in jail. The day was rainy, and Wheelock used the opportunity to hide a small pepper-box pistol in his bulky overcoat, which had belonged to Taylor. Most visitors were rigidly searched, but the guards forgot to check Wheelock's overcoat, and he was able to smuggle the gun to Smith. Smith took Wheelock's gun and gave Fullmer's gun to his brother Hyrum.