82: Exposing the Expositor Part 1 - The Players | 132 Problems; Revisiting Mormon Polygamy

The Nauvoo Expositor, an essential part of church history that lead directly to the martyrdom, and is used by historians and critics to support the assumption that Joseph was indeed the originator of section 132 and polygamy, requires a lot of serious investigation.
Understanding the situations and motivations of the men behind this newspaper, the fears of the city it sought to overthrow, and the things it actually says (and does not say) is essential to the discussion of Joseph Smith’s polygamy. While people with only surface research or understanding make claims that the expositor proves Joseph’s polygamy, deeper understanding reveals exactly the opposite.

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Links:
The Warsaw Signal, May 22, 1844

Lucy Mack Family Memoir

Nauvoo Neighbor, April 17, 1844

Nauvoo Neighbor, May 29, 1844

City Council Minutes, June 8, 1844

City Council Minutes, June 10, 1844

Nauvoo Expositor

Road to Martyrdom, Joseph I. Bentley

William Law: Nauvoo Dissenter, Lyndon Cook

William Law Letters

Sangamo Journal, Warsaw Signal, and other newspapers

Interview on Nauvoo Counterfeiting

Joseph Jackson Letter and Book

Eaton and Williams Affidavits

William Law diary – request form

William Law’s Amazing (and Suspect) Diary, by Benjamin Park

Tribune interview with William Law, July 31, 1887

Richard Law interview (son of William Law), 1903

Mark Hofmann forgeries article

Transcript:

[00:00:01] Welcome to 132 problems revisiting Mormon Polygamy where we explore the scriptural and theological case for plural marriage. My name is Michelle Stone and as always, I do strongly recommend listening to these episodes from the beginning and going in order. Of course, you can skip around and listen in any order you want. But I do think it’s very important and helpful to understand this pur the purpose of this podcast where it has come from and especially to get a good grip on the scriptural case that laid out at the beginning. Now, we are deep into the weeds of exploring the case for Joseph’s polygamy and that’s what this episode will be. It’s finally part one of the novel Expositor. I had planned an episode on this, but it is so big that it has turned into a series that will be at least two episodes. I’m hoping I can finish it in two, maybe three. But anyway, it is a fascinating topic. I hope you will be as like just amazed and interested in it as I am. And I also really want to thank those who have contributed and who continue to contribute to this podcast. It is so so appreciated. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it and how helpful it is. I always want to invite anybody else to consider contributing if that’s something you could do. And I also would recommend sharing this pod if you find it interesting. I think that these are such important conversations to be having. So as always, I think, you know, give, give me your thoughts, tell me what you agree with what you disagree with and let’s really engage earnestly in searching for truth. So anyway, with all of that said, I am glad that you’re here as we take a deep dive into the murky waters of Mormon polygamy, we’re going to start by laying out just a brief description and explanation of what the Nauvoo expositor even is because I don’t think the majority of church members maybe they’ve heard of it but wouldn’t really know what it is. So we have to back up. So we’re in Nauvoo, John Bennett, we’re going back up to John Bennett, even though he wasn’t directly involved. He was the extremely brilliant and impressive but incredibly corrupt and awful man who came to Nauvoo. He was ex incredibly instrumental and helping um get the Nauvoo City Charter. And Joseph had put him in his own first presidency is the second counselor until word started to come in of who John Bennett really was that he had abandoned a wife and child who he had abused. He was a serial adulterer and womanizer and many other problems. So he was called repentance. He, he was well, he was called out on it. He sincerely repented promised he would never do it and but of course, continued to do it. So he was removed from his calling, ex communicated and fled Nauvoo. So that’s who John Bennett was. He was replaced in the first presidency by William Law, who we are going to talk about in depth in this episode. Incredibly, within two years of being in the first presidency, very similar things happened. William Law also became, well, I I should have said John Bennett when he left promised to become Joseph Smith’s worst nightmare and he did writing just so many letters and articles and books and making so many accusations and claims and contacting governments just making sure that Joseph Smith and the Saints could never have a moment’s peace. And so William Law when he became disgruntled with Joseph went in a similar um in a similar direction, but he stayed in Nauvoo for reasons that will go into and he instead tried to um sort of attack Joseph from within Nauvoo and that’s what the Nauvoo expositor is William Love uh who had been William Bennett. I mean, John Bennett’s replacement in the first presidency and his cohort started the Nauvoo expositor, which was an Anti Mormon newspaper. I the term anti Mormon is tricky. I’m just using it in terms of anti jos of anti Mormon in, in that day newspaper that was established in Nauvoo trying to bring down the church. So that’s kind of an overview of it. If anyone takes a show, I’m just trying to go off the top of my head and give some brief notes. So anyway, it was published one episode and one edition only was published on June 7th, 1844. So, you know, just a few weeks before Joseph’s death and then the city council and Joseph Smith ordered the novel Expositor. The press destroyed, they um destroyed, they brought it all out into the street, broke the press with sledge hammers pipe, the type which I think means spread all like through all of the um letters everywhere. So it couldn’t be recovered and burned all of the um all of the copies of the no expositor. And so that is what started the series of events that led to Joseph’s death. So that’s what we’re going to look into. So the claim and I really want to steel man this here. So I’m I’m going to do my best. Just know I am trying to make the best claim that I can in the novel Expositor. There are three affidavits, one by William Law, who’s the first counselor, the second counselor in the first presidency who were talking about his wife, Jane Law and a man named Austin CS who will talk about more in the next episode. And they each wrote an affidavit talking about the revelation

[00:05:19] that, well, William Locke claims that Hyrum brought it to him and he took it home and showed it to Jane, his wife and Austin Kells claims that Hyrum read it in the High Council meeting. So they, they all three write these affidavits. Austin’s is the longest. The other two were quite short and they have, they, they say some things that have similarities that do connect to section 132. So the general universal understanding is that the affidavits are referring to section 132 right? That, that is what that Hyrum brought, what is now section 132 to the um laws and that he read it in the High Council. And I will say this is what the church says, the church leaders say. And this is what all of the um historians say and all of the anti Joseph people say. So this is pretty universally accepted. And um and this is the evidence for it. Well, the strongest evidence for it is that this was contemporaneous. So it’s saying, look, it is proof that 132 existed in 1844 during Joseph’s life. So it can’t have been a later creation by Brigham Young. That’s what the claim is. So that’s what we’re going to investigate. The o the other part of the claim is that we’ll go into this more and more is that William Law was a really good guy who was faithful to Joseph who just could not abide polygamy. And so felt like he had to speak out against it because he has so much integrity. That’s kind of what goes along with this story. And also there was one other part I was going to say, oh, that the reason Joseph had the press destroyed is because he was so desperate to keep polygamy a secret. And so it’s kind of a um admission of guilt if you will, that he destroyed the press to try to keep polygamy under wraps. So that’s the understanding that I am addressing, right? I think, I think, I hope you’ll agree that I’ve laid out the case pretty well. Maybe some of you have been convinced by it, but we’re going to get into it. I think there is a lot to look at here, a lot of assumptions. Some of the main assumptions here are that you can just make these big, um, claims based on this very little understanding. The, the expositor is a hu is a whole newspaper, right? And the um the affidavits are actually 2.5% of the um the expositor content, which I think is really interesting and important to consider. We don’t pay attention to any of the rest of it. This is really the only thing we know about it and then we assume that just knowing this is enough and it’s all we need to know and we can claim these things as proof. So that’s what I really want to dig into. And as I said, it’s going to take more than one episode to I, I’ve, I’ve actually thought this would be a pretty easy episode because I know I have already seen sources that I think completely undermine this thing. So my plan was to just bring forward those sources and go, ok. There it is. But as I started digging into this topic, I was just like, amazed by how huge it is. You really can’t study the Nauvoo expositor. You can’t really understand the Nauvoo expositor enough to make claims about it or speak about it adequately without getting into studying the entire situation in Nauvoo. The all of the things that were happening in the happening in the newspapers, all of the discon dissent that was happening, the um many, many lawsuits and charges the entire NAU City Charter and then problems that were happening in NAU like little things that kind of related to the charter, like the huge problems of crime and counterfeiting and then the the entire series of events that led to Joseph’s death and Joseph’s death. And so much more, there are so many rabbit holes. So I have been studying like crazy and I really decided that to do justice to this topic and not, I, you know, if I just give you the quotes and do it quickly like that. I think people will still be like, well. But, but I mean, you know, I think it’s pretty, a pretty hard case to make when you actually do some research. It’s quite amazing the things that have been left, it left out omitted from this discussion that, that directly applied to it. And, um, you have to, in addition to what I’m talking about, you have to read, um, all of the many letters and um, interviews and the diary of William Law. You have to read everything that William Law wrote and said, and then you have to do the investigative work to see what of it is valid. You have to understand more about these people anyway. There’s so, so much so to do justice. I am going to not just give the quick easy answers. In fact, most of those will come in part two. I want to really help us gain a, a much more solid understanding of this entire topic so that, so that people can’t just say, well, uh you know, something that you could really be like. No. OK, here it is, there’s no room to wiggle out of this one. At least that’s how it looks to me and that’s what I want to set out. So that’s what we’re going to do. I, I could not disagree more with the assumption that all you need to know are the affidavits and you can make this case and it’s done case closed.

[00:10:21] I think that is completely false. And it’s the kind of thing that you only believe because, you know, so little right, like there are lots of things, I think that people who are critics of Mormonism um make the claim and I think that it is a justified claim that people believe just the standard narrative of Mormonism mainly because they don’t know very much about our history. And I would agree with that. And I think that the same is true here. It’s really easy to make blanket claim, blanket claims, make them sound like they’re certain that are, that have so many built in assumptions, but so little actual understanding of the history, the documents, the events, the people, all of the other things. So that’s what we’re going to dig into. OK. In this part, we are going to focus mainly on three questions that we’re going to try to investigate and answer. The first is who were the men behind the Nauvoo Expositor? What do we know about them? And what you know, what can we learn about them that can help us understand this. The second is what was the purpose of the novel Expositor? What were these men trying to accomplish by doing this? And the third question is why was the Nauvoo expositor destroyed? I think that getting into these questions and understanding more about this will help us have a much better foundation for part two, which is where we will explore how polygamy plays into all of this, how it is or isn’t involved in these three questions that we first asked and also exploring everything that was said about it. So that is coming. Don’t think I’m neglected it. I’m just focusing on this other part first because I think that it comes first. So we’ll start with um the men behind the expositor right there were primary, the primary, um I guess I can call them conspirators. Um were William Law and his older brother Wilson. It was three sets of brothers, the law, the law brothers, the Higgy brothers and the foster brothers. So William and Wilson Law, Francis and Chauncey Higby and then Robert and Charles Foster, those were the, that was the central group. There were some others that come into it. Definitely. Like we’ll talk a little bit about Joseph Jackson in this episode, that guy. And then, you know, the other, most of the other people like Austin cells and some of the others will talk more about in the next episode. But this was the central group that was responsible and that was involved with the Nauvoo expositor. And so um we know by far the most about William Law, as I said, he was the, the in, in the um first presidency with Joseph Smith, he was John Bennett’s replacement. I just find that to be so interesting. These two counselors in a row. It’s like, oh, wow, that’s rough. And so, um we know by far the most about him. So we’ll look at him the most, but we do know some about the others. So we’ll do our best to try to understand all of these guys. The basic understanding, at least among the sort of Post Mormon or non Mormon group that I see is that, that this understanding of Willie Bla is just this man that’s like very, this man of high moral character and a ton of integrity who just he, he, he was so honest and he just could not abide polygamy. And so because of that, that’s why he had to go against Joseph and he just wouldn’t lie under any circumstance. He was a good, good guy. So that’s kind of the understanding and that’s what I want to look into is to see if that really is who he is based on the records that we have all of the we have or if maybe he was a different guy that we have misjudged, right? And so that’s, that’s, that’s what we’re going to start by investigating. So, ok, William and Wilson Law, they joined the church in Canada in 1836. From all appearances, William at least was a sincere and faithful convert. We um there’s been some great work done and there’s, I’ll, I’ll link of course, the notes below as many as I can possibly remember. I have read so much, but I have a ton of tabs open. So I think I’ve saved all of my links so they’ll be posted below for people who want to read these papers or who want to look at the original sources. I will do my best to include them all. So anyway, we can read a lot of um Williams letters early on from before he came to Nauvoo. So um he actually presided over the large um branch in Churchville, Canada. So he was sort of the branch president from what I understand. And this is interesting. So we’re gonna back up and try to explore this, right. Joseph Smith actually visited the Canadian members in 1837. I didn’t realize that Joseph went to Canada, but that’s what it said. And he told them he sort of warmed, warned them to gather with the saint as quickly as they could. So this was in 1837 most of the Canadian Saints actually heated quite immediately and emigrated in 1837 and 18 th early 1838. You know, they did pretty quickly as quickly as they could. But William Law, who was the branch president, as I said, delayed moving for over a year. And it looks like the delay was at least in part, if not, mainly because he wanted to sell his properties, his whole things. He already had a mill um in Canada and some other things. So he sort of wanted to wait and get a good price for his property before he left. I’m not saying there’s anything good or bad about that. I just want to point out kind of these series of events that I think help us understand him a little bit better.

[00:15:31] So even though he was the, the um you know, one of the leaders there, he hesitated, the others all left and he waited over a year, he didn’t leave Canada, I think until the very end of 38. So over a year after most of the others had left and even then, even after he left Canada, he stayed in Pennsylvania. And I, I’m quoting from one of these articles where they waited for the Silver Horn State to be divided and their share to be sold. So Jane, um it was William and Jane Law, Jane was Jane Silver Horn. So it sounds like her um inherited was being prepared and William waited, waited there and did I say it was Pennsylvania? Is that where it was? Um And yeah, he stayed in Pennsylvania until they got all of, you know, till they made sure that they got their fair share of James settlement, I guess it was. And it’s interesting that um you know, that like you can start to see a pattern of priorities that I think play out. Importantly, I don’t want it to sound like I’m nitpicking. I’m not, I can see doing all of these things, but there’s a difference between the saints who were like, hey, we’re just leaving and we’re going because we’re being obedient and him who was like, I’m gonna get my nest egg together before I go. And there’s a little bit more to this. So, um he claimed that he was anxious to be gathered with the people of God in, in various letters. Yet it seems he was more anxious to collect his nest egg, as I said in his letter to his friend Mulholland, who along with most of the of his other Canadian friends had already gathered with the Saints in time to experience some of the things in Missouri far west, you know, you know, they, they had a struggle and I think a lot of these members could have used help um from the comparatively very well to do laws who already were doing pretty well and then had just sold all of their properties and gotten this inheritance. And so, um but he wrote to Mulholland and said as soon as that, as soon as the exiled saint, exiled saints fixed a place of resting, he would endeavor to move there. So he was kind of like I’m gonna wait and see how this turns out and where you guys end up. So as soon as you know, where you’re gonna be, let me know and I’ll meet you there. And so, um in another, this is the letter that I found the most interesting. Um another letter he wrote to his Canadian friend Robert Thompson who also had already gathered. Um He, he like really wanted to learn how he could best financially profit from his move to wherever the saints were. This is what he said as to the mercantile business. I wish you would give me all the information you can on the subject as early as possible as my brother wishes to go to the West this season. Let me know how the people pay. What kind of goods is most suitable, how much capital would be needed, whether there are many stores there and where is the best situation and where the best situation would be for doing business in that line. Give me a description of the county climate, et cetera and tell me where the Saints are going to settle. If you know, with a first rate new horsepower um would a first rate new horsepower for grinding and sign be useful. There, there is a new one and there’s a new invention come out. That is excellent. So you can see that he’s really got a um entrepreneurial type mindset. He’s really a um a, a mover and shaker in finances. He really is not looking at, oh, I need to gather with the Saints. He wants the inside scoop. It reminds me a little bit of um for a little while I, I knew people who were involved in construction and it was so interesting to see how someone could get the inside scoop of where a temple was going to be built before they started being everywhere. You know, this was um a while ago and it was fascinating to see how people would start building really big homes around where a temple was going to be built because the property values would skyrocket. You know, so it’s kind of this like using insider information in the church to financially profit that, you know, whatever. but it is interesting, right? It tells us a little bit about who, who William Law is. I think so once they finally did make the move, this is quoting from um one of the roads I, one of the papers I’ll link called Road to Martyrdom by Joseph Bentley. He says, William wasted little time putting down roots at Nauvoo with, with his brother Wilson, his partner, he purchased properties, opened a store and proceeded to build a mill. He saw the large influx of Mormons n nau an opportunity to personally take advantage of the economic growth of the community. And he became a man of means, possessing some influence and power, particularly among many of the Canadian converts then settling in the Mormon City. So um I think that while it’s since while it’s clear that William’s faith was sincere, his conversion to Mormonism, it seems to have been very intermingled with his desire to see a prophet, right? I think that to William Law, Mormonism promised more than just spiritual

[00:20:12] blessings it also promised financial opportunities. And so Joseph was generally supportive of William’s endeavors and, and, you know, encouraged him, he wasn’t upset with him or anything and um that, that may have contributed to their good feelings. And I think that it’s good to understand that I, the impression I get is that Joseph, um his first presidency was a little more like a um well, I, I don’t wanna mischaracterize this, but the impression I get is that William Law in large part was put in the first presidency because he was a man of so much influence. He had so much influence over the Canadian Saints. He was a man of means and you know, a very competent man, obviously sort of like how John Bennett, Bennett had been. So I think that that was part of why um you know, you can think of it a little bit like a president and a vice president. You want some that can really help and accomplish things. That’s how I think that, that, that, that’s how the situation looks to me at least. And so um it’s really so, so I want to kind of point out some of his sincerity. He wrote a letter defending Joseph to a man who had been actually one of his mentors that he was a close friend. And after he’d been in Nauvoo for a year, he wrote, I have carefully watched his movement since I have been here and I want to ensure, assure you I have found him honorable and honest in all of our transactions, which have been very considerable. I believe he is an honest upright man. And so, you know, so they did start out with a good working relationship. I know things can sour obviously because that’s what happened. So as time went on, this is quoting Lyndon cook and he, he has two papers that I’ll link below. Um It says William and the prophet began to have diverging even conflicting financial interests. So these seem to be at the root of laws, disaffection, the more I have looked into it, the more clear this picture becomes. And so, in fact, this seems to be the case with all of these men with all six of these men. Um And so let’s look into a little bit, let’s let’s look a little bit into some of the others that we know less about, but we still know enough to kind of explore. So Robert and Charles Foster both came to Nauvoo in 1840 while in their late twenties, that’s at least how the math adds up to me. You can double check me. Unlike the laws, they immediately began purchasing land and establishing businesses planning, planning to profit the um from the saints that were settling there. Robert had been baptized in 1839 but there’s actually no evidence that Charles ever joined the church. So maybe he just came with his brother to join the financial endeavors. Maybe they were close, he was never baptized as a member from any records that we have. So that’s interesting. And all of these men you will see were very involved in land speculation. They knew that many that there was going to be an influx of saints because that, you know, they were like, where are you going to settle? Tell me where you’re going to settle and then they went and bought up land there because the saints were going to settle there. So all of them were very involved in that, which plays in quite a bit to what happened later. And so, um it’s interesting because both of these men, Robert and Charles are listed as doctors. But um I can’t, well, Charles, he didn’t graduate from medical school until 1847 a couple of years after Nauvoo and I can’t find any record of Robert ever attending or graduating from medical school. So that’s interesting. The same is true of William Law. I couldn’t find any record of him. He um from what I can see, he and Wilson were mainly businessmen and investors. They, I know they had a lot of, all of them had a lot of um knowledge of the law. You know, I think it was maybe a little looser than you could kind of be a jack of all trades including medicine and law. It is how it appears, you know, but I couldn’t find, um, I know that William Law lived the rest of his life after leaving Nauvoo as a doctor. But again, I couldn’t find any records of him attending medical school. So that’s interesting. Um, ok. And then we’ll go on to the next set of brothers Francis and Chauncey Higby. So they actually were converted, I think because boys, their father was a member and, and brought them to NTU and then he passed away and these guys kind of their true natures went out and they went a little bit crazy. They were both practicing lawyers still in their early twenties. They were quite young. And um oh, this is interesting. Both of them had been heavily mixed up with John Bennett before he fled. Nuan Disgrace Francis. Um Among many other things that we’re getting into, both of these guys had some problems, it sounds like, I mean, you can decide who to believe. But I think that going with the contemporaneous testimonies that’s backed up by several witnesses is a good decision. I think it’s interesting. I’m taking a little sidetrack here that maybe I was gonna talk about later. But there tends to be this assumption that everything William Law ever said was true and everything Joseph and Hyrum Smith ever said was a lie. And I think that’s fascinating. People claim

[00:24:43] to be looking at this evidence, specifically the novel Expositor because it’s contemporaneous. And so they say, look, we can look at this. But what they don’t seem to realize is that they’re bringing all of the baggage from all of the later records with them to do all of their investigation of the um expositor. They’re not coming to it with a clean slate. And I think it’s worth at least trying to step into a position of open mindedness where you can, can consider what the strongest evidence is in this specific time frame with the records that we have. Right? That because that’s the reason it’s valuable to be contemporaneous. We have to like to some extent, let go of all of the assumptions we have from all of the later records that came from Utah and try to come to this with somewhat of an open mind to see, you know, where, where’s the strongest evidence of truth telling? So that was a little sidetrack that um we’ll, we’ll maybe get into a little bit more. But, um, there are quite a few allegations of Francis and um chauncey Higby that I think are worth considering. And so, um Francis, among many other things, he made allegations against Joseph Smith that he accused him of murder in Missouri. And he later retracted that he and his father wrote an affidavit saying that no, that wasn’t true. But then later, he seems to have brought it up in the secret meetings for the expositor. So it’s kind of hard to know we’ll get into a little bit more about Um France is a little bit later, but chauncey also was implicated along with John Bennett in the attempted spiritual wifey seductions. It seems like he succeeded in several of them men, several women, including I think among others. But I’ve seen at least the these three Margaret Nyan Matilda. Nyan and Sarah Miller all signed explicit affidavits of his attempts to seduce them. Tell um he, you know, used all of John Bennet’s lines that if nobody found out about it, it wasn’t a sin and that if um something happened, if they got pregnant, he lied to them and said doctor Bennett can take care of it. John Bennett could take care of it. We covered that in the episode on the problem of no Children. And then he also, you know, invoked Joseph’s name. No, Joseph says, I, you know, I I’m close with Joseph. He, this is what he teaches in, in secret. So they were doing all of these things. We know that John Bennett was doing it and I think we know pretty clearly that cha chauncey and Francis Hickie were doing it as well. So they both seem to me to be very problematic guys, even after the um situation in NVA was wrapped up, Francis even cheated his own conspirators. He collected a second time and, and took all the money himself or it’s really confusing. But he just like even with the men he did the novel sponsored with, he even cheated them later on. So they just seem to be problematic guys. In fact, all of them do the fosters and the hippies. There’s more that we’re going to get into. But I’m like, oh, these are, these are these men? Ok, let’s look at, you know, who we think has better character, who you would rather have, be your neighbor or your husband, right? And these men. So, ok, so again, let’s look at some of the things that might have united these men that brought them together. They were all deep into not land speculation. And so I think to me that provides insight into why William law was so insistent on waiting until he sold his properties and got Jane’s inheritance. It gave him that nest egg to come and invest in Nauvoo, which he did. He invested heavily and immediately in Nauvoo. He was one of the few that had any money because most of the saints were homeless, penniless refugees chased out of Missouri and they sure could have used some help from someone who had money, right? But instead, it seems William law set out, set out to um profit as much as he could from the situation. Well, we’ll get into it more. So in all these men were at all in business together, they were just in business as brothers. But um cumulatively altogether, they owned nearly 80 lot, 80 acres. Each lot was an acre and each block is four acres. So altogether they own, owned 80 acres of lots in Nauvoo, like in the city pro you know, and um then they also owned at least 1500 acres of land right outside side Nauvoo, which they had purchased as early arrivals with money in Nauvoo. And so um they were, they really were planning to see huge profits as the incoming Saints bought land, bought lots from them. They also had additional holdings. So, um, the Fosters and hippies had less, but I’ll just tell you the laws, I mean, they, they had holdings, but the law, they had already built a grist mill and that’s a grain mill. I had to look that up because

[00:29:11] I didn’t know that term. And a lumber mill. So they had two mills. And, um, I believe from what I understand, someone can correct me. I think those were the only mills in town. So they saw huge profits from those. There were some complaints about them sort of overcharging or milking the people because of the monopoly. I, I don’t know if that’s true or not. They also owned a store and all of this was right in the heart of town and they had other um, businesses and properties as well. So all for all of these men nau meant profits and it seems that through their investments, their wealth in CRE creased, creased quite rapidly. And so, um, that was a lot of the things that they had in common, the, their desire to gain wealth and then eventually seeing Joseph Smith as in some ways an obstacle to their financial goals. So, we’ll get into that. So, um, ok, let’s see. Oh, in addition, all six of these men, I, I said that the, um, fo the Higby were both voyeurs. I remember the Higby were the youngest and I think the fosters and then the laws might have been a little bit older in their early thirties is uh maybe someone would correct me, but th those are about the ages and um they all had extensive dealings with the law, but they also, I think in large part because of their business, they had extensive sort of um conflicts with the people in Nauvoo, sometimes including Joseph Smith. So this is just a um quick rundown. We’ll hear, I’ll quote from Bentley again on January 17th, 1843. These are just, this is just a little snippet of some of the dealings that they had to, you know, some of the problems that they were having. Joseph Smith arbitrated a land case involving Robert Foster and six others. A month later, Robert Foss, Robert found himself in conflict with Joseph Smith over the economic development of some of the properties on the hill which were of greater value than properties in the Nauvoo flat. He wanted to promote his own development projects that competed with the building of the Nauvoo House and the churches need to sell lots on the river flats to pay off huge debts. Also, at that time, Wilson law was brought to court by UC Nickerson as the two men wrangled over some in some islands in the Missouri River near Nauvoo. And on March 29th, 1843 Joseph Smith and Oscar Spencer ruled, again, ruled against Robert Foster in a case concerning a debt, it goes on and on. So you can see that like this is all just about Robert Foster and that one snippet I chose. It’s just to kind of show how the um anger could be building because he kept having disputes with different people. And um Joseph had to arbitrate in those and, you know, sometimes Robert lost and you, we’ll see a little bit more that he did not have the temperament to um to lose. He, he did not like that at all. So anyway, um this is quoting from William um quoting from both um William law nau Dissenter by Lyndon Cook and Cultural crisis in the Mormon Kingdom by Marvin Hill. I won’t keep reading who I’m quoting from because it gets cumbersome. I’ll just tell you what I’m quoting and the links are below. So this is the quote since Joseph was either sitting as judge or in one case on the other end of the dispute, these legal and financial disputes seem to have fueled their anger and hatred for Joseph. It seems rather apparent that much of their motivation against Joseph was financial and, or political, political. The reasons law offered for his disaffect disaffection and schismatic behavior essentially related to a growing concentration of authority is what he called it into the areas of politic politics and economics. So that’s what it really was, was they were like Joseph is, um they felt like he was competing with them and he had more influence in the community than they did. I, it gets interesting. We’ll get into it a little bit more. I um I’m just gonna add this now. So I hope it’s not redundant or out of place right now. But it’s fascinating to see how things that didn’t bother them at all at one point all of a sudden became massive issues at another point and, and I know that can happen. But let me, let me try to explain what I mean, like um the, the, all of the complaints that they make in the novel Expositor, uh We’ll get into polygamy later, like I said, it’s a minor complaint and it doesn’t really apply to this conversation because I don’t think it was actually part of what one of any of their motivation at all. I think it was just a useful thing to throw in there. But um things like combining church and state didn’t bother them at all. In um 1842 1843 things using the habeas corpus that will get into a little bit later that didn’t bother them at all. Having um influential people in city government and church government didn’t bother them at all. It didn’t bother them until they started to feel like they weren’t profiting, profiting themselves as much as they wanted to. And so we’ll get into it a little bit more how that, how that went. But I just see a lot of potential hypocrisy happening in, um in their, you know, in their trajectory. So um it’s important to recognize as I’m talking about kind of them competing against him and being angry like so, so basically, I’m gonna get into this a little bit more.

[00:34:11] Joseph was asking the Saints to buy land from him when he came and settled. Nu- he had had all of those huge losses in Missouri. They were so far in debt and he still pledged his own property, his own word, his own name to buy huge tracts of land in Nauvoo for the Saints to come and settle. And he wanted the saints who could afford them to buy those lots so that he could pay off the huge debts and start building the city that they were building their community, right? That’s what he was trying to accomplish. And so um having these other men buy big tracts of land just for their own personal profits was hard because he really needed to pay off his debt. And I think that’s where the and so he did ask the members to please buy the land from the church that it already, they had made lot plants that’s, they had, had intended. And, um, that’s, I think what led to the laws and the other, their claims in the expositor that he was um overcharging them and you know that he was charging too much for his land. I actually don’t think, I don’t think there’s good evidence for that. We have the Book of Deeds, the Book of Landy, which I will do an episode on I’m getting there, there’s a lot to cover in the meantime. But um anyway, you can look and see the prices that he charged for every lot. Nobody was complaining people were buying lots. It wasn’t like they were having to pay a higher price. In fact, there are many lots that um Joseph and the church gave to people who were impoverished. So that was part of it too. They were like if you can afford to buy a lot, please buy a lot from us because we are trying to pay off the church debt, build this community and provide for the poor, right? And so, so that’s what it looks to me. At least that Joseph was trying to accomplish through the church and the laws and the fosters and Higby were just seeking private, you know, personal profits. And so, um so I, and, and it wasn’t like Joseph used any legal means to say the saints had to buy from him. He just had the influence to say, please buy from the church. Not from, um, I, I don’t even know if he said not from these other men. I don’t think he did. He just said, please buy the lots from the church. From what? And anyway, people can correct me. I haven’t read every source. I’ve just read a lot of them and I’m trying to keep it all straight in my head. So anyway, that’s, that’s what we’re going to get back into. I also do want to point out that these huge debts Joseph was trying desperately to pay off. He was trying to get, um, compensated by the government for the losses in Missouri. They had, I mean, think of how much property was taken from them. It’s painful to think about, you know, and they had other things happen that we will go into. But, um, those debts, those personal debts, he never was able to rid himself of. He died. And Emma and Joseph the third struggled over those debts for decades, maybe their entire lives. And so it wasn’t Joseph Smith was out personally profiting, you know, in all of these ways, he was just trying to keep the church afloat, putting himself on the line to try to do that. At least that’s how it looks to me. That’s really, really what he wanted to accomplish. So, um, ok, so as we’ve gone over already, there is plenty of evidence of the financial priorities and dealings of these men and it can be found in numerous documents. And so there were actually quite a few complaints against these men by the people of Nauvoo and as well as the leader. So here are just a couple of examples. Wilson law refused to pay a $600 note. He had written to Joseph Joseph Smith in January 1842 for the land they built their mills on. He made one payment of 100 $44.50. Well, over a year later than it was due and then he refused to pay the rest. And so, um Joseph had used the notes to purchase from other people. So like, you know, it’s, it’s interesting, you could say, hey, this guy owes me this money. I’m use this money that he owes me to buy this thing from you. So those notes had changed hands. They weren’t in Joseph’s hands anymore. So when will, when Wilson Law refused to pay them, the people Joseph had given them to came back at him and was like, hey, this is he’s not paying. So Joseph had to try to collect. So I think he, he started a suit on May 1st 1844 which just happens to be one month before the expositor was published. Um And there, there are so that’s just one little snippet that I found interesting. There are so many other accounts and testimonies of the law’s dealings. Um So I think I was going to say in all of the things you need to read, I really strongly recommend at the very least reading the City Council minutes on June 8th and June 10th, those also will be leaked below. I’m going to cover them the best I can. But if you want to make claims about the affidavit and the motivations and all of these things, I really think you need to read the sources firsthand and try to understand what was going on. There was a ton of testimony of the laws, um

[00:38:55] their self selfishness and dishonesty and quote, grind, the grinding, the faces of the poor. So I’ll give just a couple of examples. Um Hiram testified that while Joseph was under arrest the laws and the fosters would have been, rode, rode on a rail if he had not stepped forward to prevent it. Hiram really did tend to come to people defense. Both Joseph and Hiram tended to really give people the benefit of the doubt. I think they were a believers in forgiveness and second chances to a fall. In fact, you’ll hear Joseph say something along those lines that really seems to have been the main mistake they made was like believing in people and wanting to give people the benefit of the doubt and wanting to give them a chance to do better. That’s like, I mean, you know, if that’s the worst that we have to accuse them of, you know, II I know that’s not the worst people have to accuse them of. But when you get in looking at this, it looks like that is one of what was definitely one of the mistake, main mistakes they made. So a little bit more testimony, Peter Haas. Um and he’s a complicated figure as well. They are all of these, you know, there’s so much to explore about all of these. But Joseph said that Peter Haas was the first man to step forward and help serve the poor, help serve the poor from Missouri. So um he gave extensive relief to the poor. And so he gave of just very emotional testimony of the avaricious behavior of the laws. It’s um you know, it’s complicated to understand all of it in the notes and those kind of shorthand notes that was given. But in short, the best I can understand, Joseph counseled the people that were in Nauvoo to help the suffering Missouri refugees. So he was like, please help, you know that like please help us help them. But um according to Haas, the laws instead built mills, bought farms and oppressed the poor, they serve some other God than the one I served. So there is a lot of angry testimony. Um I get the sense that among other things, the laws had just a pattern of um they, they would just take other people’s money or property. Um they acted as loan sharks like they would lend out money or goods to people in need. And then, you know, they like, like Peter Haas, for example, he claims to have sacrificed, sacrificed his own wealth to help the poor. And um but then he would, they would treat the people horribly and to make them repaid like um there’s a lot of talk about threatening um cape which is a word that means to have them arrested. So they’re threatened to have them arrested, they harass their families when um people were away in church business. I’ll read a couple of examples of these. Um They were accused of charging exorbitant rates despite the dire poverty of the saints, like I said, for the Green Mill, they like they talked a lot about 2% which I guess was a high rate to charge. I, I don’t know. So um this is continuing with the testimony by councils of, of the presidency, Haas converted his funds. This is talking going back to Peter Peter Haas. He converted his funds to feeding the poor, bringing in meat and flour, et cetera. And while thus engaged, he drew upon the laws. So he, you know, took loans from them or purchased from them on credit, I guess who were engaged in merchandise to the amount of some $600 which on account of his expenditures for the for the poor, he was not able to pay within some 70 or $80 as soon as the laws wanted it. So when the laws came to collect, he was 70 or $80 short, he offered them good property at considerable less than market value. But they refused to accept that. And he was obliged, obliged to leave the city of a little season on church business while he was gone. William Law threatened and intimidated his family in his absence, absence for said pay. So basically a ha you know, well, II, I think you get the story that he was trying so hard to serve the poor went into, um, took some credit from the laws to do it. And then when they came back and said, pay us back, he had to race out of town was a little bit short. They wouldn’t accept any terms he offered and then they harassed his family while he was gone. I think that that’s awful if that’s true. But there’s a lot of testimony along these lines. Um Let’s see, oh, among the many awful dealings that they talk about, the one that seems to upset, particularly Peter Haas the most was when in preparing for a mission he had been called on. So he’d been called to serve on a mission. He dropped off 24.5 bushels of wheat to the lost mill which they ground and used. So I don’t know if they sold it if they used it themselves. He just when he went to get it, it, it they didn’t have it. He tried to collect it, but the loss put me off. He said finally, uh when he was on his way out town, he says valise in hand, he confronted William Law saying what is to be done about? My flower law promised brother has upon the honor of a gentleman and a saint. I will get it this week and will lodge it in your home. So he went on his mission with that promise thinking his family would be provided for. But when he came back,

[00:43:37] he found out that his family had been without bread and were on the brink of starvation. It this is a quote from the notes, could not say one word was boiling over. So he was very emotionally impact by this. As you can imagine that he left his family to starve. And so more testimony, it says that law Gold Nauvoo House, I had to look up all of those word gold is defined in the Webster 1828 I had to look up a lot of words in the Webster 1828. It means cheated, deceived or defrauded. So um la is accused of defrauding the Nauvoo house $500. It says blocked the wheels and locked the guns at night. I don’t know what a lot of this means. It just goes on and on. There’s a lot of testimony, Joseph Smith testified that at the time he was under arrest, like when he was in hiding, you know, just trying to get by William law pursued him for $40 he was owing and took the last expense money he had to pay it. So like he didn’t care what other people’s situations were. If you owe me money, I’m gonna get it from you. Right. That, that seems to be an ongoing pattern that kind of comes out in all of this. In addition to the many claims of bad dealing and extreme selfishness, there were also the allegations of immorality. So we already covered a little bit about chauncey’s excommunication due to his attempts to seduce several women in league with John Bennett. And I want to point out all of that happened before this expositor situation, right? Like we have those affidavits dated in 42 and Chan’s excommunication. So it’s not like um these allegations were just being thrown out at the city council to defend these men. That’s what the no um the uh the Warsaw signal claims, but it’s not true. You have the documentation. So anyway, um going on Francis Higby was also accused of illicit sexual conduct in 1841. But after promising to reform, no disciplinary action was taken against him. I’ll read a little bit of that in a minute of how that comes back up. And so as I said, unlike um Joseph Smith, we do have the contemporary evidence. We have the contemporaneous accusations of chauncey’s or affidavits of chauncey’s accusers and, and all of this, it didn’t come decades later, right? Um There’s extensive testimony from multiple witnesses. It was given about Wilson law seducing a girl. She was, it’s kind of a complicated story. She was 16 or 17. Her father had died. Wilson um, seduced her. You know, the story goes on. She, she lived, um, let’s see. Well, it says that at one point some women came in and caught the two of them on the floor together. And, um, it’s, you know, it’s, it’s a pretty complicated illicit story. But, um, there’s, there’s a lot of evidence that Wilson Wilson Law at least was also immoral and William Law interesting, interestingly was accused of adultery. Hyrum Smith testified that William Law win six, that he had been guilty of adultery. He was not fit to live or die. He had sinned against his own soul, et cetera. So, so that’s interesting that when, um, William Law thought he was on his deathbed, he confessed that to Hyrum Smith, which Hiram never brought up until this was all happening, you know, because they were accusing all, all they were accusing Joseph and Hiram of all of these things. So, um I, I’m gonna just really quickly address there’s so many crazy allegations about William and Jane Law and Joseph and Emma Smith. So not gonna go too much into all of them, but I really, I wanna quickly address just this one. So we have on the one hand and I guess I will get into it a little bit in a, in a minute. They, the, um, so there are accounts that, that Joseph was trying to marry Jane Law and that’s what made William so mad. Right. We’ll get into that and see what the sources of those and why they are completely invalid. And in fact, I was going to cover this next time, but even William Law, like almost every claim that is made, William Law himself is like, absolutely not. That is not true. So we’ll get into that. So I, I think that the evidence for Jane for Joseph proposition in Jane is terrible evidence, William himself says absolutely not William’s Children say absolutely not, never happened. But then on the other side, there are claims that um Jane Law tried to be sealed to Joseph Smith. So that’s what I’m gonna look at really fast because all of these claims I tend to think none of them should be really um considered valid for, for various reasons. So I’ll talk about this one really quickly. Um In this account, it was written by Alexander. Nar, he’s actually a pretty cool guy. He’s the first Jewish Mormon. And um, and he wrote this in his journal that claims to have been recorded on May 24th, 1844. So, um, you know, somewhat contemporaneous and this is what he writes Alexander. Nar, a close friend of the prophet said that Mr William Law wished to be married to his wife for eternity. Mr Joseph said he would inquire of the Lord. So, so they’re saying, you know, they wanted to be sealed, um which was happening. I think we don’t understand what that really was about, but um I’m still looking into it to try to get a better understanding.

[00:48:34] I don’t think that Joseph meant by sealing the same thing that we mean by sea. Um Anyway, Joseph out, the Lord answered no, because law was an adulterous person. Mrs Law wanted to know why she could not be married. Well, I guess sealed to Mr Law, Mr Smith said he would not wound her feelings by telling her some days after Mr Smith going toward his office, but was going to his office and Mrs Law stood in the door, beckoned to him more than um beckoned to him more than once did not know whether she beckoned to him. Sorry, it’s written without any punctuation in shorthand. Went across to inquire, yes, please to walk in. No one but him but herself in the house. She drawing her arms around him, said, if you won’t seal me to my husband, seal me to yourself. So that’s the claim is that Jane was upset that she couldn’t be sealed to William. So she called Joseph and threw her arms around him and said, if, if you won’t let me be sealed to him, then let me be sealed to you. He said, stand away and pushing her gently aside, giving her a denial and going out when Mr came home, he inquired who had been in his absence, she said no one but Mr Joseph, he then demanded what had passed Mrs law then told Jose told him Joseph wanted her to be married to him. So as I said, that’s um the in the journal of Alexander Nar 24th of May 1844. So, um, I, there are several reasons I don’t find this credible. Um I don’t know when the journal was written if it actually is contemporaneous and, you know, I haven’t looked into that. So I don’t have anything to say on that, but it’s dated May 24th, 1844. And there’s absolutely no way that this could have happened. I actually don’t think it could have happened at all. From all accounts, William and Jane Law had a very good marriage, were very faithful and loyal to each other. And this is so bizarre that I, I don’t find it credible in any way. I’m like, how, how would Alexander Nar have been privy to these conversations? Right? How would he know? Why would Jane do any of this? Why would she even think to be sealed to Joseph? I mean, that wouldn’t come around until later on, you know, the later understandings of ceilings, not anything that I can find that Joseph taught, when would this actually have happened? So this is something that I think is important to consider in late May. Jane would have been over eight months pregnant. She gave birth to a baby in early June 1844 just after they had left Nauvoo. So they, and also they had already the laws and the um smiths had already been in serious disputes for months and months before this happened. And so it, it couldn’t have happened, then no other date is given, I there are several other problems. II I won’t beat it to death. But, um, anyway, I think that we should just discard all of these claims about Jane Bennett. I actually, I’m Jane Law. I guess I have Jane Austen of the brain. But, um, I think that we should like, like for me, I, I accept sources unless I have a reason to reject them. Right. That’s kind of how I come to it. I just assume that people are telling the truth unless there’s a reason to go. This does not seem credible to me and for the following reasons. So that’s how I’m approaching this. If someone can explain to me why it’s legitimate or provide something else to back it up or help make sense of it in some way, then I’ll reconsider, but I personally am not comfortable using either of these accounts and you know, they both go to different sides of the argument. But I, I want the whole, I want to find better sources and I also just wish that we knew more about Jane in general. She’s the only female in the group that we know about. She wrote an affidavit, like and yet, and, and Joseph accuses her of spreading libelous rumors about him. But I, we don’t have any of her records. We don’t have any of the words that she said other than just her short affidavit. So I feel a little bit, I, I’m like, I want to know more about Jane and I haven’t been able to find that yet because I think it’s interesting to see how she plays into this. I kind of, I don’t know, you guys know I’m a bit of a, I hate feminist is such a tricky word. You know what I mean? I like women’s stories. I want to hear women’s stories. So, ok, so in any case, it should be clear that the sexual allegations, sorry for that sidetrack in tonight. I just wanted to talk about sources and some of these weird claims, um uh there were sexual allegations against the laws, the fosters and the higgy. So it would be difficult to claim that these men’s actual beef with Joseph was their moral objections to his supposed polygamy. And for anyone still hanging on saying, well, yeah, but um but um Joseph Smith was, was coming on to Jane was trying to seduce Jane Yeah, we’ll get to that. I also want to point out my friend who is my new producer. Hi, Karen. Thank you. I’m excited to be working with you. Um She pointed out to me last night a really good point that um like that Hyrum read that Joseph received this revelation that Hyrum read that was about virgins. That’s one of the things that the affidavits talk about, you know, that it had to be virgins and then immediately go, start, goes and starts propositioning a married woman that he had given it to.

[00:53:26] You know, like there are so many problems with this in so many ways, but I think there are a lot much stronger claims we’re going to get to. But when, when we get to the source of the stories about Joseph proposition in Jane, I hope that people will at least have the integrity to consider whether those should be believed at all. So, ok, so it seems that what started as financial and business conflicts progressed to legal and criminal disputes and very, very hard feelings. And so I really, you know, like the more I read through all of these documents, the better sense I got of this escalation. It is just a crazy sad situation, you know, and so the Joseph Smith papers are, it is really helpful. They have like summaries of all of the lawsuits and, and all of the um documents in each of the lawsuits. And anyway, there’s so much information available, you kind of have to know what to look for. But as I said, I’ll post, yeah, it’s gonna be a long list of links, so I’ll try to do it in some kind of an org organized way if I can. So it’ll be somewhat helpful. But, um, if you look through all of the documents, you will find very, very little if anything about polygamy and what you will find is far from credible. Well, we’re going to go into that in the next episode. What you will find though is a huge pile of complaints, affidavits, lawsuits, legal disputes, criminal charges, extreme rhe rhetoric and serious death threats against Joseph Smith and in his government position and threats against the city. That is the picture that emerges, that was really the actual situation. And so, um, ok, so I’m gonna try and do it just a quick over CP of the escalation. This will not do it justice at all, but I’ll try to start at the beginning kind of take us through to where it goes. So late December 1843 Joseph received warnings that there was a traitor in his council. There were reports that um, someone was working with Carthage to try to get him out of his position. You know, he started to get warnings and most of the reports were the William Law. So, um that he was anyway, so Joseph tried to let William Law speak for himself and tried to get to the bottom of this. It’s interesting because um um that must have been just almost unbelievable to him and so hard after John Bennett and now in hers, William law, I can assume that he was feeling like, am I just paranoid? You know, like it’s a, it’s a pretty tough situation. It’s interesting because William Marks who was the state president was also implicated, but only by Francis Higby from what I found. So it looks to me like Francis Higby was possibly trying to throw um Marks under the bus and throw Joseph off the scent of William law. And it is interesting for a variety of reasons that he chose William Marks. I won’t go into those right now, but you can think about it. It is interesting. So in early January, so that happened the very end of December in early January. After some investigation, some other problems happening, more accusations coming William Law was removed from the first presidency law complained bitterly for months that Joseph didn’t follow protocol. And um it seems that that is true that he didn’t follow the standard protocol of how to remove somebody from their office. But I think it isn’t worth at worth at least considering whether plotting to kill the president counselor you are, we are getting to, that might possibly cause you to forfeit some claims to standard procedure, right? Like I don’t think that these standard procedures were written for someone who was trying to kill you have and someone who was trying to have you killed. So Joseph seems to earnestly have tried to resolve the situation multiple times with law and the others. There were ups and downs again and again, these men would like pretend to be his friends. They would claim that everything was worked out and they were loyal to him, they would call him a friend, but then they would quickly betray him again. And like it’s just so awful to read what happens. I mean, even whatever side of this you’re on, at least just consider what was happening and what these guys were doing. Even if you think Joseph was guilty and deserved it. Like this is not good behavior. It just is, I don’t know, it’s hard, it’s hard to see. So ultimately, um things were set on their course. There was no redeeming it no matter how hard Joseph tried. So it’s hard to know how long all of this was in the works when it started. But secret meetings with plans to take down the Smith began in February and March. So we’ll get into this more and more the conspirators were excommunicated in April on April 18th. And um let’s see, that’s, that’s what I was going to talk about J law. So I need to get ahead um catch up to where I were. So, ok. So, yeah, they were excommunicated on the 18th. And then we’ll go ahead to just kind of look at some, we’re just gonna take some snapshots to kind of highlight the situation. This is not at all comprehensive, just trying to paint part of the picture. So the first meeting was February 26th. That was the first meeting of the conspirators.

[00:58:16] They began planning and implementing their strategy to take down the Smiths. Um They had, it was multifaceted, they had a legal strategy. They planned several lawsuits, most of them frivolous and were thrown out. But um but this is what they were doing. Um So remember the Higby were both lawyers and the others. They, they all had a lot of um ability to use the law in, in different ways. So anyway, so let I’m gonna talk about some of those lawsuits. So, ok, so if you can remember, um Oras or Simas F Bostwick, he, I couldn’t remember his name in a previous episode, but he’s the one who was making accusations against Hyrum Smith, accusing him of being a polygamist and accusing the women of Nauvoo. And that’s what led to the huge outrage that led to the voice of innocence that Emma Smith had written and contributed to the giant meeting they had on, do they write the date down? Yeah, on March 7th, they had over 8000 people, I think at the Temple Lot where the voice of innocence was read and all of these accusations were strong contradicted. And put down and I had three meetings, I believe the next day with relief society. So all of the sisters could come and hear the voice of innocent read. They were like leaving, no doubt that these allegations were false and that there was no polygamy. And so I know that people claim that they were just lying. I, ok, you know, I guess I can understand how the Post Mormons or the Anti Mormons claim that. But for the LDS, the faithful LDS people, I think that really needs to be thought about much more actually read through these things and see what they said and consider if you can write it off as carefully worded denials. But anyway, that, that’s the claim and, and even if you think they were lying, it’s pretty like that’s a pretty hard claim to make. So like anyway, I don’t find that credible. So anyway, that’s who or Sff Bos is, that’s all I was trying to get to. And interestingly, Joseph Smith sued him for slander against, I believe Hira Man and the women of Nauvoo. And interestingly Higby, I think it’s Chan Higby. It says different names at different places. But um some of the writers say it was Francis Higby, but Chauncey Higby is listed on the documents that I’ll post below. Um He, he was representing Bostwick and he threatened repeated, he threatened to appeal the case to Hancock County which Joseph correctly called out interpreted and called out as a threat to incite the mob against the Saints. They handled well, we’ll get into it a little bit more, but they handled things in the city. And so saying, I’m going to take this to Hancock County was a threat to bring the mob. That’s, that’s what all of this was motivated to do. It was motivated to get Joseph to Carthage and to get the community to come in against the um against null. You’ll see that escalate more and more. So couple more examples. I won’t take as long on these April 26th or maybe I will. April 26th. That was an exciting day. There was some unrest, there was a dispute between the two brothers, the brother who was anti Joseph, ended up choking the brother who was arguing in defense of Joseph. And um so when the, when the brother who had been choked and assaulted came and made a complaint and tried to have his brother arrested, everything broke, broke loose, the brother refused to be arrested. The um sheriff trying to do the arrest, ordered people to help him and people started sort of joined in on the other side because it was, I believe the Higby and the fosters and they um and so anyway, so it ended up that their um arrests were ordered and here’s what ensued in this chaos. Um So this is quoting from the report and the nue neighbor. Um and that’s the, the Nauvoo newspaper, Charles A Foster drew a double barreled pistol on the mayor Joseph Smith, but it was instantly wrenched from his hand and he afterward declared he would have shot the mayor if his pistol had not been taken from him. And he would have thanked God for the privilege of ridding the world of a tyrant. Chanel had be responded to Foster’s threats and swore by the eternal God. I will do it yet. Rd Foster. That’s Robert Foster. Then asked Higby if he had his pistols with him chauncey Higby said no. And if I had, I swear by God, I would shoot, shoot the right man for he is in the crowd looking the mare full in the face and stretching his hand out toward the mare. When he spoke it about this time, Chauncey Higby took up a rock in each hand and smote them together, repeating, repeating, repeatedly, swearing vengeance on the mayor and the officers of his city. And so this is I’m reading the account book from the Northern neighbors. But there are many accounts of this. There are many sources where this was written that you can look at. Um, by this time 40 or 50 had assembled around the office door, among whom was Doctor Richard. So the Willard Richards,

[01:03:00] the city recorder who was standing peaceably and silently on the step of the door when Robert Foster who was raging and foaming about the mayor and others came up to him suddenly and shaking his fists in the reporter’s face in the most threatening and abusive manner said, and you too, by God or another damned black hearted villain with many more such, oh a black hearted villain with many more like a appropriate appropriate epithets which he repeated many times. And so, um sorry for the swearing, I’m quoting, I didn’t realize so um I should have edited that before. But anyway, then this is from the Joseph Smith journal. You get more information that um Richards issued, issued a warrant for RD Foster on complaint. That’s Rich Robert Foster and complained of Willard Richards for breach of ordinance um Ordinance 3 22 39. In that Foster said to Richards, you shaking his fist in his face are another damned black hearted villain. You tried to seduce my wife on the boat when she was going to New York and I can prove it and the oath is out against you. So this is fascinating. This is the only allegation I have of polygamy at so far coming into this. And it’s Robert Foster accusing Willard Richards of propositioning his wife. And um there are, you know, other like other sources for this happening as well. And so that’s really interesting. It wasn’t Joseph Smith something to point out is that Willard Richards apparently did have three wives while in Nauvoo, he was one of these polygamy conspirators. And so I, you know, I don’t know what to believe about this, but it is possible we’re gonna read more about Roberts and how, I mean Robert Foster and how he found this out and what happened. It’s pretty dark. So I don’t know if it was true or not. But it is interesting. I will point out Robert’s wife was Sarah Finney Foster, who there’s no accusation from Robert or from Sarah against Joseph Smith, just this accusation against Willard Richards. But I will point out that Sarah Finney Foster has her very own land deed. And so for those who are trying to, you know, claim that land deeds line up to Joseph’s wife. Somehow, I just think that that’s an interesting one to bring out. And so, um, we’ll, we’ll go into that more in the episode on land deeds. I just, I’m adding that in, but it says, um, also that Foster was highly just during the trial accusing Joseph Smith of a great variety of vile and false epithets and charges. So, ok, so that’s this is showing kind of the state of affairs. May 1st Francis Higby sued Joseph Smith for $5000 damages for libel claiming, um because he said that Joseph claimed he had a venereal disease, which according to Joseph’s lawyers was true. Higby actually had Joseph arrested and the case taken to Carthage. So that with all of these, they were trying to get Joseph and Carthage and he immediately had to go to Carthage. And so, um that, that was kind of the pattern that they were establishing what they were trying to accomplish. It looks like. So it’s worth reading part of Joseph’s testimony that he gave because when he was arrested and taken to Carthage this time, he gave testimony, it’s long, I’m just gonna read a few snippets of it. It appears I am a prisoner and by the authority of the Circuit court, I petition this court for hearing, I am a prisoner and a ver a, a ver that it is a malicious prosecution and a wit and a wicked cons conspiracy. Got it by men for the purpose of harassing me and destroying me into their decoying me into their hands. I want to show the thing that’s interesting. There is how accurate he was. He was exactly right. I want to show that this man has joined a set of men who have entered into a conspiracy to take my life. We’re getting to that later. They have no merit in their cause. I want to show up this conspiracy that these men are working their ba their base corruption. They have lifted up their hands against innocence and then cut going forward to um to his claims against um Higby. This is what he said. I want to testify to this court of what occurred a lo a long time before John C. Bennett left the city. I was called on to visit Francis M Higby. I went and found him on the floor. He stunk very bad. I took Doctor Bennett out of doors and asked him, what was the matter with Francis when he told me that he was nearly dead with the pox? So I looked up the po, um, usually referred to gonorrhea and that’s what the symptoms are, seem to be similar to. So, um, he said he, he caught it on the fourth of July or it might have been a day or two after it was before Doctor Bennett left, a French lady came up from Warsaw, a very pretty lady. Francis M Higby got in company with this woman and so got this disease. I afterward talked with him when he acknowledged that he had got the pox. Doctor Bennett said he could not keep him away from the women, um, from the woman, but Bennett said, oh, from the women, it does say that Bennett said, Higby pointed out the spot where he had seduced one and that where he had seduced another. Higby had been guilty. This is cutting forward to the last

[01:07:59] Higby had been guilty of adulterous communication, perjury and et et cetera, which I am able to prove by men who heard them confess it. So, um, that’s the situation with Francis Hippie. And I think it is worth noting that Joseph Smith is testifying of this in the court of law and the kind of the case he makes to say Hey, I, you’re charging me with slander with libel and I need to be able to make my case. You can’t charge me a libel for saying, saying all this. So, so the court approved, yes, you can make your case. And so he is in court claiming this, which I think it would be pretty hard to say that he would do if he couldn’t back it up somehow. You know, you know, they would need to get other testimony from other people because he was already under arrest for this claim anyway. Yeah, it’s, it’s a pretty interesting, it’s pretty interesting that he stood before the judge and said all of these things in relation to the conspiracy. I have not heard Francis M Higby say that he would take away my life. But chances chauncey Higgy and Charles Foster and, um, Doctor Robert Foster said they would shoot me and the only offense against me is telling the truth and we already read the previous case where that’s all true. Everything he’s saying here by, by all the records we have is true. I did say that Doctor Foster did steal a Rawhide. I have seen, I guess they’re accusing him of all of the things that he said slanderous about them, which is so incredibly ironic with all of the things they were saying about him. I have to say this entire situation. It’s like, it’s just so much projection. It’s that like if, if you’re pointing out a finger, three fingers are pointed back at you. You know, like it’s hard to, it’s, it’s just, it’s crazy to see what is happening and what they are accusing him of and what they themselves are doing. So they accused him of saying he’s, he stole a raw hide. I have seen him steal a number of times when writing in the stage, I have seen him put his hand on a woman’s bosom and he also lifted up her clothes. Um There are also other lengthier reports of this and so uh of this thing that happened, I know that they are, they are wicked, malicious, adulterous, bad characters. I say it under oath. So that’s from that trial when he was um arrested for the charges that Francis HB had brought against him. OK? And then going on on May 9th, Joseph issued an arrest warrant for Richard Foster due to non-member, Charles of Jo um Joseph Kilmer’s complaint that Foster quote did violently and maliciously assault. The said Jonas Kilmer with a brick bat and did threaten to knock him down if he stirred and also did threaten to blow him through if he came onto that street again and did use other threatening abuse and impertinent language toward him. So this Richard Foster character has quite a long rap sheet of this kind of thing happening. There’s more to come like he just is not a good character. And I think you would agree that if someone brought to you this report and they had been a, um, accosted assaulted this way that you would need to act. Right. So Joseph had to try to have Robert Richard, um, oh, Richard Foster, they say the wrong name. Um, they had to try to have him arrested and it’s just a, a huge mess. Again, Foster refused to be arrested. And instead the credit that Joseph was a tyrant. So that’s always a nice option when you’re like a violent criminal to just be able to declare the mayor of the city where you’re supposed to be arrested, that he’s a tyrant and then go to all of the neighbors and have the mayor killed pretty useful, right? So anyway, May 9th, Charles Foster Foster sued Joseph Smith for 1000 for $1000 for having him arrested. So they’re suing him for him. Having the chauncey Higby represented him again, trying very hard to take things to Hancock County, trying to incite the mob, trying to get Joseph into Carthage. So the pattern just continues um interesting document in this case written by Chauncey Higby acting as his brother’s lawyer and just the names are interesting. You can see Francis Higby versus Joseph Smith and it will subpoena the following witnesses on the part of the plaintiff, among the witnesses were William Law Wilson law Chauncey Higby, Joseph F. Jackson, Robert D. Foster just showing exactly what was happening, right? And so also in May 1844 Robert Foster, Francis Higby William law and Wilson law jointly indicted Joseph Smith for perjury and polygamy before the grand jury, Francis Higby boisterously offered much hard swearing, but the testimony was rejected. So, um we again are going to get into these more. I actually think that I, I’m very excited to get into this. Please don’t think I’m trying to postpone somehow. I’m just again trying to be disciplined to set the framework before we get into these allegations that are going to be funded into. So, ok, again, constant attempts to get Joseph to Carthage. That’s what we talked about. That definitely seems to be a key part of their um plan of their plot right to and,

[01:12:47] and the many lawsuits of appeal. So there is now we’re moving on to a different topic, the, the catalog of article printed about the Mormons, particularly in the Sangamo Journal and the um, Warsaw signal. It is extensive and huge. We’re going to get into it a little bit. I, you know, I, I will again link to sources where you can read some of those things. There’s a new site I found that’s still under construction, but I think it’s gonna be exciting that’s gonna have uh it looks like a collection of all of these articles. So, um I think it’s an anti Mormon article, um um website, but it’s so useful to find the resource. So I appreciate them doing it. So it, it sheds more light on the attempts to get Joseph to Carthage. So this was written on May 29th on Monday last he, Joe. Old Joe, it was called Old Joe appeared in Carthage with a guard of about 40 chosen men and demanded an immediate trial just to clarify. This was not the time. So he was taken to Carthage where he had to testify about Higby and the pox. This was another time he was taken to Carthage like a week or two late. And so, um, it goes on to describe the proceedings. Some speculation is afloat as to the motive that prompted Joe to come forward and make application for immediate trial. So, you know, Joseph went and said, ok, I’m here, try me now and I’m leaving and he had 40 men there to protect him because he knew that his life was in danger. So they’re saying there’s some speculation of why he asked for the immediate tribal trial. It couldn’t possibly be that he knew that his life wasn’t safe in Carthage. Um going to quote this article, but the general opinion appears to be that he thought to catch his enemies napping and by a bold stroke to feed them, it was very evident however, that he acted with much trepidation and to tell the truth. So they’re trying to mock him for being afraid for his life while they go on to say this and to tell the truth, we believe he had cause we have seen and heard enough to convince us that Joe Smith is not safe out of outside of Nauvoo and we would not be surprised to hear of his death by violent means in a short time. OK. Then it goes on, I’ll just give you a little bit more of the details of how they were talking about him. Joe remained in Carthage but a short time and appeared much agitated while, while they are right because you just admitted that his life was in danger. We understood that while passing through the tavern yard, a pistol was discharged. The port of the report of which so alarmed his holiness that he retreated into the house with great precipitation as he passed out of the house, he met Mr Rollinson and extended to him his hand. Mr Rollinson said he would not take it. Why replied Joe be because said Mr Rollinson, you have acted the damned rascal toward me. I did not know it. Joe very humbly replied and passed on. So they include this just because I mean everything somehow points to get the show. Listen to me. I’m like he’s a nice guy and he’s being treated horribly by all these people. These anecdotes, anecdotes are simple are mere gossip. We are aware, but in the present state of feeling they interest our readers and this is our excuse for noting such trifles. So that was just kind of the atmosphere of what was going on, you know. And, um, and I know everyone’s gonna read this with different eyes. That’s what I was talking about. The lenses, people claim they’re not wearing lenses, they absolutely are. Unless we really can come to this and consider. Ok. Is it like, I wish people could just consider, is it possible that Joseph could be telling the truth and look into it and just see if it’s even possible based on the information we have. And if you do that, I think like there’s a, I think it’s actually quite heartbreaking to see what was happening. So OK, so that we’re just painting that outline of the situation going on between Joseph and these men and the surrounding communities. And so this is one statement from Joseph Smith that I think is just heartbreaking. If you’ll consider it that he was such a believer in second chances and forgave to a fault. He said the only sin I ever committed was an exercising sympathy and covering up their iniquities on the so on their solemn promise to reform of this, I am ashamed. I will never do so again. So he promised to like he agreed to not that I know that um John Bennett would cry like my mother, this will kill my mother. If she finds out, please don’t make it known. So Joseph would agree to give him another chance and that, that’s what he’s talking about like, like he tried to give people second chances. That’s what he was guilty of. And so, um, ok, we’re going to go on and see so much more about this. But as I said, all of these contemporaneous sources and evidence of the immorality of all of these men do make it pretty impossible to claim that it was their moral outrage against polygamy. That was the motivating factor as well as all of the things we already outlined and listed the,

[01:17:28] the com the library of problems that they were having with Joseph Smith. So from what I’ve laid out so far, I hope it is pretty clear that polygamy was not central to this at all. There were many other factors that played into the division and the hatred of Joseph Smith and their claims against him and polygamy. If you look through the piles of evidence, there’s just so little um about polygamy, even their um accusation, their lawsuit for fornication of polygamy. That was one in a sea of many other claims and charges, even that one lawsuit. If you look into it, it makes it abundantly clear how little his accusation, a accusers actually had to bring into it. They had nothing to accuse him of and the things that they tried to accuse him of it. Almost again, one of those like, thank you God for letting it be this that they accused him of because it’s like the best possible one to prove that they knew nothing and that it was false. So it’s, we’re gonna save that for next time. But I hope that you can see that polygamy really was little other than just a useful um like really emotionally explosive accusation to throw on the pile, to strengthen the, to, to ignite the sentiment against, against Joseph. That’s really what it was useful for. Um OK, so in addition to these conflicts and so many others that I can’t even possibly include all of them, there were some other very serious claims that we, that were made by several witnesses against these men. So the first one, some of them we’ve already gotten into, but a little bit, we’ll get into them more, but first is counterfeiting. So, ok, this is a big hairy subject. So um I I will just explain a little bit about the city charter because that, that is really one of the big issues here. So when n when the saints came to Nauvoo, right in the, the Nauvoo, I mean, I mean that when they came to Illinois and the people wanted to welcome them, they recognized the problems that they’ve had in Missouri and how unjust and horrible that had been. And so they granted them a very generous city charter so that they could protect themselves. And it’s interesting that John Bennett was really the one arguing for all of this, which is fascinating on so many levels. He really worked hard to get the city charter passed. And so, um he anyway, the charter had two specific things that were very unusual and it caused a lot of the bad feelings. The first was that it had um well, what is it, writs of habeas corpus? What it basically was, was that in, nobody could be extradited from Nauvoo without the approval of the NAU government, right? They had the right to say whether they could be extradited or not. And um and that was done specifically so that the Missourians couldn’t keep coming and trying to get Joseph Smith as they had done and continue to do with, you know, like Joseph just knew to stay out of Missouri as long as he stayed out of Missouri, they couldn’t come and get him by the force of law. That’s why that was added. And then the second one was um so, so, yeah, something about against extradition and the second one was, oh, the ability that they could have their own um militia. Sorry, I lost my train of thought, but usually that was reserved to like the state or, you know, like um the Nauvoo was Nauvoo was given the in their charter was given the right to have their own militia so that they could protect themselves. So that’s where the novel Legion came from. It actually was legal. But of course, with all of that, it was actually John Bennett that caused all of this if you look like, I, I don’t know, it’s interesting to see all of the furor that he was causing, I’m sure there were probably some problems with the charter. You know, there’s, you can argue this both ways. It’s really interesting to look into, but it’s fascinating to look at the rhetoric in the newspaper compared to the actual situation that seemed to be happening on the ground. The claims were different than the reality I would say. So anyway, that’s, that’s something to understand is that people couldn’t be extradited from Nauvoo, right? And when word of that came out got out, it actually was highly problematic because criminals from everywhere who had arrest warrants out for them knew that Nauvoo was the place to go. And so it actually became this like a hot spot for all of these thugs. Just bad people started coming to NAU and it was a great place for counterfeiting because they couldn’t be extradited, right? And so um so it just, it became a complicated, big hot mess. It does seem like um some of the locals learned the trade. So there’s like Mormons mixed up with counterfeiting a lot of false allegations, a lot like there’s just a lot to out to see. And you know, one of the main things you would do when you were accused of something or guilty of something is accuse someone else just like um Francis Higgy saying, no, it’s William Marks. That’s the Brutus. That’s the, you know, that’s the traitor. And it, it just happened again and again, in fact, we’re going to get into it a little bit more. But it’s interesting to consider Joseph Jackson. We’ll talk about him later. But I’ll tell you now, he was one of these really nasty guys who came to Nauvoo and he, like, this was not uncommon. He, he tried to cover his bet.

[01:22:28] So he went to the marshal of or the sheriff. I can’t remember what she’s called at Carthage and said, hey, I’ll go into Nauvoo and I’ll get in good with Joseph Smith and I’ll find out all of the information for you so you can prosecute him. And so he did that so that if he were ever caught in criminal activity and charged, he could say, no, I’m not guilty. I’m just undercover. I’m here to, to get the information on Joseph Smith, right? So this is like what a weasel this guy was anyway, we’ll get to him in just a minute. I’m going to just start getting into the charges of counterfeit because it was such a huge problem in Nauvoo. They really needed to get this figured out it was a problem for them and um, it was causing them problems because it was making the surrounding communities angry as well. So the word that they use is bogus. You know, they’re making bogus the bogus. And I thought it’s, it’s fun to learn where that word came from. So Warren Smith under oath testified that Francis Higby came to, came to him and proposed to have him go and it’s hard to know because they change back and forth. Uh, is it me or is it him? The what, what way they’re speaking? So he came to me and proposed to have me go in as a partner making bogus money. We, he would not, he said he would not work for a living. Um This might that he said that warn could, might go in with him if he would advance $50 and then he would show him and he, and he showed him a half dollar that he said was made with his dyes. So, so there’s the first accusation of Francis Higby being involved in this. And from like I said, like Francis Higby was not an honest guy. We know that for a fact from many sources. So, um anyway, then, um there are some others. Oh, Theodore Turley, he’s sworn under oath said that the laws had brought bogus dyes to him to fix. So that’s what Theodore Turley says. There are some people who say that Theodore Turley might have been involved in it because he was able to make the dyes. So who knows? There’s some, I’ll, I’ll be a fascinating discussion about counterfeit below it that can give you more insight as well. There’s so much to learn about all of these topics. So anyway. But as I said, most of the testimonies about counterfeiting by far are actually about Joseph Jackson, this awful awful guy. He is just about the worst that there could be. So, um, I already talked about him, but also he, he’s just described as an agent of chaos. He stirred up all kinds of contention and chaos for his own purposes. He’s just seemed to thrive off it. It’s like that. What is the quote about the joker? Some people just want to see the world burn. It seems like he was one of those type of guys. So like just one example, he told the Smith brothers that the law brothers were plotting to kill them and he told the laws that the Smiths were plotting to kill them. Like he just kept trying to foam it as much as he could. He later on ended up writing a book. And so maybe he was trying to, you know, serve himself that way. It’s very strange. He stole, cheated, counterfeited. And according to various testimonies, plotted murder. And, um, you know, I, I don’t know, he just, it’s, it’s bizarre. You can’t believe anything the guy says. So, um, he’s the one that I said, approached the sheriff. So he had no loyalty to anyone and absolutely no screw about anything so much is said about him also in these June 8th and tent city council meetings, mainly because of an awful letter. He said that was published in the Warsaw Signal, that newspaper on June 1st 1844. So a week before the expositor came out, but he was very much involved with this coalition that was doing the expositor. And, um, his, his book was published August of that same year just after the murders. So, um, both the letter and the book are so full of lies that it’s, it’s just ridiculous. They are not even, I’m not even going to go into depth into them right here. I’ll link them below so you can read them if you want. But I really hope people like, like have some critical thought as you approach these things. I think that as I said, usually I start so I approach sources bleeding that unless I have reason to reject them with Joseph Jackson at this point, I’m like, I’m only going to believe anything he says if I can find something else to back it up because that, that’s how bad he is. And so, um he like, compared to Jackson, John Bennett looks downright respectable. That’s how bad this guy is. So I’ll read one important, one little snippet from his book just to show you how, how ridiculous it is if I can find it. Oh, here it is. Um He, he claims that he came to Joseph Smith, claiming to be like an ex a priest who had committed murder, who had murdered a man and he had come to Nauvoo to hide and be of service. He said that Joseph said he could use a man like that like he needed a a thug to do his dirty work. And then he says, seeing that I was not gullible enough, gullible enough to believe his sanctified professions and having succeeded in making him believe that I was a proper tool for his uses.

[01:27:13] He gave in and acknowledged to me his proper character and principles. He admitted himself an atheist and the book of Mormon a humbug. Yeah, Joseph Smith admitted this to a man who had been in Nauvoo just a few months and who posed as a murderer. And like, like if you really think Joseph Smith admitted that to Jacob um to Joseph Jackson that he didn’t even believe in God and he had just made up the book of Woman. It goes on and on from there. So that’s why I think we should be viewed with extreme skepticism. So, on that note, I will point out that Joseph Jackson is the soul source for the claims about Joseph trying to seduce or marry Jane Law. It’s Joseph Jackson’s article in the, his letter to the newspaper and his book that makes those claims. That’s the, that’s where it comes from. Emma wanted law because he was such a sweet little man that comes from Joseph Jackson. And it’s, and then he also basically accuses them of wife swapping, you know, like, like he says that Joseph agrees to let Emma have law if she stop mistreating all of his young wives living in their home. That’s all only from Joseph Jackson. He’s the source of all of this. And it’s amazing to me that still today, people think that that’s what is it, Doctor and covenants 1 32 53 I was going to read it, but I guess I left it out but it says that, um, the Lord tells Emmett to take not of what that, which he had offered for. He did it as an abrahamic test. People still think that that’s about William Law because of Joseph Jackson. So if I’m missing something and there’s a better source for that, let me know. But from what I have seen, Joseph Jackson is the source and everything he says is completely ludicrous and ridiculous. And remember that William Law himself adamantly denies that anything along any of those lines ever happened. After I finished recording this episode, I realized that I had mentioned William Law’s diary briefly at the beginning and then made this claim, but I ended up stopping part one early before discussing the diary. I couldn’t go back and rerecord the episode. So I decided to add it at the end instead. So stay tuned afterward for some bonus content to learn about the William Law diary and a few other interesting sources. OK. There are many other awful things written about this guy. But um Joseph and the leaders, like we get to look at it now, in hindsight and seeing who all of these people were. Joseph had to figure it out and the other leaders, like all of these people coming and putting on a good show, you know, he didn’t know who John Bennett was. He didn’t know what William Law would do and he didn’t even know who Joseph Jackson was, but he figured it out pretty quickly and there are a lot worse, worse um things that he’s accused of. So these are some of the testimonies against Joseph Jackson that he was engaged in trying to make bogus, which was his principal business. Um That was Hiram Lorenzo D Watson said that Joseph H Jackson told him that bogus making was going on in the city, but it was two down small business. He wanted Watson to help him um to procure money with $500. He could get an engraving for bills on the banks of the Missouri. Um on, on one of the, on one of this and one on the state of New York and then they could really make money. So, you know, coins was the small business they needed to be able to make bills. That was what the real money was. Apparently, there were different, um There were like three different counterfeiting rings going on in Nauvoo. It was just a confusing mess. So, um Washington Peck testified that Jo that Jackson asked for a loan and gave peck jewelry as security or collateral. And soon after a man from across the river came after the jewelry that Jackson had stolen it from him. So this is, this is who this guy is. Another time. He wanted to get money. And he asked peck if he would do anything dishonorable to get a living. He said he would not. And Jackson said that he was a damned fool. He could get a living easier than he was doing by making bogus as some men in the church were engaged in the business. He claimed, Peck asked if it was Joseph and Jackson said, no, it was not Joseph. I would not dare tell Joseph and he said, but the witness did understand that the laws were engaged in it. So that’s another claim of the laws being involved. Jackson said he would be, he would be the death of the witness if he ever went to Joseph or anyone to tell them what he had said. So that seems credible. Now, I want to point out also a lot of this testimony is not coming from members of the church. It’s coming from a lot of this criminal element because they’re the ones that Jackson would approach, right? So it’s interesting that they’re getting all of this testimony, not from um their own people or people loyal to them, but from these other elements. And so, um and you know, like Peck is an example of this and he’s like, is Joseph involved. And he said no, and don’t you dare tell him or I’ll kill you because Jackson remember was trying to be, was trying to fool Joseph. And so, um it’s, it’s just really fascinating. There’s a lot more discuss about bogus, but it gets even worse. According to multiple witnesses, Jackson was plotting to have the entire Smith family killed.

[01:32:11] And so these might sound like extreme claim claims, but again, they are many different sources for them. And so apparently from the story, he wanted Hiram Smith 16 year old daughter. And when Hiram refu when he was refused, he planned to kidnap her and kill the entire family. So Lucy Ma Smith actually talks about this in her biography of her son and she sends out the Jackson connection to the to the expositor pretty well. This is quoting her about this time, a man by the name of Joseph Jackson who had been in the city several months being desirous to marry Lavina Smith. Hiram’s oldest daughter asked her father if he was willing to receive him as a son in law being answered in the negative. He went and requested Joseph to use his influence in his favor. As Joseph refused to do that, he next applied to law who was our secret enemies. So this is before they knew what William Law was really doing. He applied to him for assistance in stealing N Lavina from her father. And from this time forth, he continued seeking out our enemies till he succeeded in getting a number to join him in a conspiracy to murder the whole Smith family. They commenced holding secret meetings, one of which was attended by a man named Eaton who was our friend. And the interesting thing is there is documentation for all of this. We’ll get into a little bit of it. So she’s saying all of these, these things, but they’re all documented. There was a man named Eaton who was our friend, even though he was one of this criminal sect as well. And he exposed the plot. The man declared that the Higby laws and fosters were all connected with Jackson in his operations. There was another, also another individual named Augustine Spencer who I believe was concerned in this conspiracy. He played a role in the Jews. Oh, so we’ll get into him the next episode or, or if, if we go into talking about the um the martyrdom because he played an important role in the martyr martyrdom. And it’s important to know that he was involved with these people. So, um had Jackson and the apostates continued to gather strength. Till finally, they established a printing press in our midst through this organ, they belched forth the most intolerable and the blackest lies that were ever painted upon a community being advised by men of influence and standing to have this scandalous press removed the city council took the matter into consideration and finding that the law would allow them to do so, they declared it a nuisance and had it treated accordingly. So that’s Lucy’s summing up of the whole situation. I thought she did a really good job and she is not alone. As I said, there are many accounts of all of these things, but I’m going to talk right now about Joseph’s. Um, I, I mean about Joseph Jackson’s plotting against the Smith family. So Joseph Smith on Sunday, March 24th, he gave his speech. Oh, this is what I find so interesting that um this, well, we’ll get into that. This is his March 24th speech. I have been informed by two gentlemen that a conspiracy has got up in this place for the purpose of taking the life of President Joseph Smith, his family and all of the Smith family and the heads of the church. The names of the persons reveals that the head of the conspiracy are as follows. Chanel Higby, Robert D, Foster, Jos Joseph H Jackson, William and Wilson Law. Joseph H Jackson said a Smith should not be alive in two weeks, not over two months anyhow. So that’s Joseph Smith telling all of the saints what is happening. Um The two men who reported the plot that Lucy mentioned, one of them were MG, Eaton and a Aar B Williams. And so as I said, both were non-members living in Nauvoo I think maybe be part of this criminal element. Um Yeah, Eaton had a conviction for counterfeiting before coming to NAU. So, um that explains why they were both invited to the secret meetings, but apparently it seems that plotting murder was a step too far for these guys. So even though this was their element, they, they, you know, pulled the plug, they revealed the plot. And so um each of them filed um a formal affidavit on March 27th, 1844. So A R Williams is shorter. I’ll read that on or about the 15th day of March 1844 Joseph H. Jackson Jackson came to my house and requested me to walk with him, which I did during the time we were walking, said Joseph H Jack, oh I’m gonna take out. They say said Joseph, like thus said Joseph H Jackson, you know, it’s very legally. So I’m gonna try and cut those out during the time we were walking. Joseph H. Jackson said that he was then coming direct from Mr Law that he was going to a to um that he was going to a secret meeting in the city of Nauvoo probably tomorrow evening. But uh there was going to be a secret meeting in the city of Nauvoo probably tomorrow evening. But as it was not decided, he could not say positively as to the time, but he would inform me in season. Um Joseph H Jackson said that Doctor Foster Chania Higby and the laws were red hot for a conspiracy and he should not be surprised if in two weeks, not be one of the Smith family left alive in Nauvoo

[01:36:53] Jackson strongly solicited myself and Mr Eaton to attend the secret meeting and join them in their in intentions. So that is damning, right? These are not Joseph’s friendly sources necessarily, they’re not members of the church exposing this plot and everyone who was involved in it and what they were really trying to accomplish which was murder of the entire family. So each and’s affidavit is much longer. I’ll read parts of it on or about the 15th of May 1844 J Joseph H Jackson came to me several times and requested me to go on the hill with him. I finally consented, went with him to the Keystone store. I believe that’s the laws store in the city of Nauvoo, Doctor Foster and one of the Higgy I think chauncey were, were in the store. Joseph H Jackson, together with Richard Robert Foster and Higby went into the back room of the store. They appeared to enter into private council. Soon after they went into the room, Joseph H. Jackson invited me into the room where they were sitting. I immediately complied. Soon after I went in Higby commenced talking about the spiritual life system. This is one of the first things we hear about polygamy. But listen to the accusations. He said that he had no doubts, but some of the elders had 10 or 12 wives apiece. The elders is who he is accusing, right? He said they married them and then, and then this is the information he has. So it’s obviously just based in like rumors. Um He said they married them, whether they were, whether the females were living or not and they did it by recording the marriages in a large book, which book was sealed up after the record was made and was not to be opened for a long time. Probably not till many of the husbands of those who were thus married were dead. They would then open the open the book and break the seals in the presence of those females. And when they saw their names recorded in that book, they would believe that the doctrine was true and they must submit. He said that the book was kept at Mr Hiram Smith. Um So this is really interesting, right? Like the things they’re talking about, I to get in and dissect that more more deeply because there’s a lot there. That’s very interesting. And it is like I said, the first time polygamy comes into the discussion, I asked chauncey L Higby. And then um it’s it edits it saying here follow some expressions too in indecent for insertion, but then it goes on and it goes into a long story that I think is worth reading for a variety of reasons. So here it goes, the Aforesaid Rd Foster, that’s Robert Foster. Then asked me what I would think if during my absence from home, a carriage should drive up to my house, a person, a light and the carriage then drive off again. This person should then go into my house and begin to tell my wife a great many things against me, to prejudice her mind against me and to use every possible means to do this and finally would introduce and preach the spiritual wife doctrine to her and make an attempt to seduce her. Now, keep in mind this is Robert Foster who shook his fist in Willard Richard’s face accusing him of trying to seduce his wife. Right? There’s no name offered here. But the, the that’s the information that we have so far. So I think this is fascinating that I think Robert really, I think Robert had a term temper and really thought that this happened. So maybe it actually happened. I’m gonna go on a little bit more, but it wasn’t Joseph Smith. It was Willard Richards. That’s the important distinction here. So the elders have been accused and now Willard Richards has been accused. Hiram’s name has come into it with the book being kept in his house. But I, I don’t know why Hyrum name keeps coming into it. We I have to investigate that further. I know people will say because he was guilty. But how would like How would Higby know about this secret book? Where would that information come from in this super secret system? Right. How would you have that specific detail? It’s all so bizarre. Anyway. Ok. I’m gonna keep going on. Um, he preached the spiritual wife also. No, they call it the spiritual wife doctrine. That’s what it was called. And I have several quotes from Briny and I’ll show in another episode that he, for the first several years called that spiritual life doctrine. That is what it was called at the time. Um So he made the attempt to seduce her and further this person should sit down and dine with my wife that bless the Victuals. And while they were thus engaged, I should come home and find them. Thus associated, this person should eye up and say, how do you do and bless me in a very polite manner, et cetera. And also if upon these appearances, I should feel jealous that something was wrong. And when the person was gone, no, listen to this part, I would ask my wife, what had been the conversation between her and this person. But she would refuse to tell me, I then draw a pistol and present it to her head and threatened to shoot her if she did not tell me all, but she would still refuse. I then would give her a double barrel pistol and say to her, defend yourself. Or if you don’t tell me either you or I would shoot, she would then faint away through fear and excitement. And when, and it’s not enough even after she bins, when she comes to, he’s still on it,

[01:41:42] you know. And when she came to again, she would begin to tell how this person had been trying to poison your wife’s mind against you. And by preaching the spiritual wife to her had endeavored to seduce her. I replied, I should think he was a rascal but who had had such a trial is that the said Rd Foster answered that he was the man who had had that trial and who had been thus abused and who had been thus abused. Ok. So again, all of those points, right? Like this guy, Robert, who I’m talking about who held guns at people, he held a gun at his wife’s head, right? Like this isn’t a good guy. There is no account of Joseph ever doing anything like that to Emma. Who do we want to believe here? Right. And this is Robert Foster’s own testimony that he is telling to Eaton, who’s one of his element and it’s being reported. So here we go. And, and again, it’s not about Joseph Smith, it’s about Willard Richards, so many layers here to go into. So, ok. Um Let’s see. And as I pointed out, Willard Richards had three plural wives and Nauvoos. So the affidavit continues the said Doctor Foster though, I guess the other thing I want to say the only reason I would question this is because if you were this wife facing, being shot or beat or whatever would happen, being married to this man and he was holding a gun to your head. I, you know, like, like I imagine you would say what you need to say. But I tend to, I, I mean, I don’t know if Willard Richard did this or not, but it’s, it’s very, very possible. And in any case, that’s the accusation, that’s who Robert was speaking of. But left it subtle enough that someone could interpret it to have been Joseph Smith because he didn’t say a name. Ok. So they said, Doctor Foster, Higby and Joseph H Jackson then remarked that they were about to hold a, hold a secret meeting to oppose and try to put a stop to such things. The said Joseph H Jackson also said that if any person undertook to arrest him, he should begin to cut them. The said, Rd Foster further said he was afraid of his life and dared not to be out at night. I find that to be again. So ironic and ridiculous. The guy who was literally threatening everyone else’s lives, who’s holding a gun to people’s heads on multiple occasions, he’s the real victim here, right? Who needs to be afraid for his life. And so it goes on the said, Higby said he had not a doubt but that there had been men killed in Missouri who had secrets and they were afraid they would divulge. So that’s the same claim he had made before four and then wrote an affidavit saying he was lying about it. And now in this secret meeting, he’s bringing it up again. So, and this guy who is a known proven liar his entire life. So anyway, it goes on, the said Jackson further said he should not be surprised if there should be a real must and an insurrection in the city in less than two months and that if a disturbance should take place, the Carthaginians and others would come and help them. So they’re saying, hey, if we can start mob, we can make things coming, we can bring in the mob from Carthage. He mentioned some names of persons who would come from Carthage, which names I do not remember the same day when Mr Loomis, when in Mr Loomis’s room, I just think it’s interesting that he can’t remember. Maybe he couldn’t, but this guy was a criminal too. So everything needs to be taken with several grains of salt. Everyone’s probably got their own angles. It’s really interesting. Um I heard the said Jackson say that the laws were ready to enter into a sec secret conspiracy, tooth and nails. The said, Higby also said, while at the keystone store that if ever he was brought before the mayor’s court again, and the mayor told him to hold his tongue, he should get up and tell him he had a right to speak and should do so too. And, and then if any man attempted to put, put him from the court, he would shoot him through. That was the end of his testimony. So that’s the situation, right? These, this is the coming forward. So in the city council meetings of June 8th and 10th, so all of this happened before the expositor began, right? The June 8th and 10th city council meetings happened right after the expositor was released, was published on June 7th and they had meetings on June 8th and 10th because they understood all of this that had already been revealed and it was already established. So we’ll read to sound the discussion from the meetings. But again, understanding this should make it clear what the reasoning, the rationale was behind deciding to destroy the expositor, right? But we’ll get into it a little bit more. But um in, in both episodes, there are so many more elements that go into it,

[01:46:03] but it’s important to understand that the murders were being plotted and that was known the murders of the entire Smith family and the destruction of the city, the plan to bring in the mob and to incite the mob. Those things were already very well understood. So these are some of the discussions from um the meeting on the eighth and the 10th. Um The mayor Joseph Smith said at the time Governor Carlin was pursuing him with his writ. So Joseph was in hiding, William Law came to my house with a band of Missourians for the purpose of betraying me. He came to my gates and was, he was prevented by Daniel Carne who was set to watch. Law came within his, within my gate and called mayor and the mayor reproved law for coming at that time of night. So this is Daniel Carne’s sworn testimony. Um And we, you know, like, again, there are multiple sources for many of these things. About 10 o’clock at night, a boat came up the river river with about a dozen men, William Law came to the gate with them. Um Karen was on guard and stopped them. Law called Joseph to the door and wanted an interview. Joseph said, Brother Law, you know, better than to come here at this hour of the night. And Law returned next morning, he wrote a letter to apologize which he heard read which was written apparently to screen himself from the center of conspiracy. And the letter betrayed a conspiracy on the face of. So I didn’t, don’t know if we have that letter, I wasn’t able to find it. But there are many other accounts of these men trying to get Joseph, like, like them just being so duplicitous and trying to get Joseph somewhere where they could have a conversation with him. But then they get one of the accounts Joseph held on to the man’s gun that he was. Yeah, you know, like, like he was very, very aware that these men were trying to kill him and were trying to bring them up. They were trying to kill him, kill his whole family and bring them up. That was what they knew. So there is a lot, there’s so much evidence of this conspiracy trying to kill the Smith family that that in my opinion, there should be no doubt about it. So this moves us directly into our next question, which we’ve already hinted out at quite a bit, which is what was the purpose of the expositor, right? Was uh like again, we’ll ask the question, were these men just so morally upright and virtuous that the uh sorry that the idea of um polygamy just assaulted their morals and they had to take a stand for, for that sake. Like I hope that that has been officially debunked that no one will claim that anymore because it should be becoming abundantly clear and we’ll discuss much more in the next episode that the motivation for the expositor itself and the reason for the destruction of it had little to nothing to do with polygamy. It started out from this intense hatred of Joseph Smith for the Los Fostered and hippies for these political and financial reasons for Joseph Jackson, out of his anger of, well, just his awfulness in general and then his anger at not being able to get Lavina who he then planned to kidnap and rape and kill her entire family. You know, charming guy. Right. And, um, it’s, it’s so interesting to see what this really was all about that. It was about their hatred for Joseph Smith and polygamy was nothing more than a useful issue to tack on to it, to further vil vilify Joseph Smith. It should also be very clear that the destruction of the expositor was because of the serious threats of violence. The deep concern for the safety and well being of the members and leaders of the city and the church. It was about the serious threat and valid fear of mob violence which had already repeatedly traumatized the saints and the leaders and now was being threatened again. So just to give a little background, right, to just keep us remembering the context of this. Just four years earlier, Joseph and Hyrum and a few and other men were tried in November while they were held. And until April when they were allowed to be released, the coldest month of the year, they were held and tortured inhumanely and illegally as prisoners in Missouri in a dungeon. In horrific conditions, the dead of winter, very little food, no blankets, no warmth, grave concern for their family and their people. It was a terrible, terrible time. And while they were imprisoned, the saints were brutalized, stripped of their arms and their property, raped, killed, exterminated. And driven from their homes and out of the state in the dead of winter. This was after General Lucas leading a large militia threatened that if the Saints didn’t turn Joseph and the other leaders over to them, they were going to kill Joseph. Oh, they were planning to kill Joseph in the town square. Quote, they would massacre every man woman and child. Keep that in mind to see what the new governor Ford threatens and what he does right after Joseph surrendered. He and his family being abused in the process. Um I talked about this quite a bit in the episode that I did on Emma and Joseph General Lucas ordered Jennifer Donovan. Sir. You will take Joseph Smith and the other prisoners into the public square far west and shoot them at nine o’clock tomorrow morning.

[01:50:53] Again, Donovan refused. He said I will not believe your obey your order. It is cold blooded murder. My brigade, my brigade shall march for Liberty Township tomorrow morning at eight o’clock. And if you execute these men, I will hold you responsible for an earthly before an earthly tribunal. So help me God, this is what they had just experienced, right? And just bringing in those little pieces of it. So this was hardly even this in Missouri was hardly the only time the church members have faced severe danger and persecution. I just think it was the most extreme. I mean, think of how much Joseph had already been through, he had been beaten, tarred and feathered, persecuted, chased out of how many places and continually hounded by arrests and lawsuits. About 50 trials brought against him and most of them were frivolous and uh by the by people like Bennett and the laws and fosters and Higby, it was just this constant abuse. Libel and Slander said and written about him throughout his life. And I think that the Missouri persecution had been the worst so far, but it was also the most recent that was on their mind and it must have loomed large for them. And all of the exact same things were being threatened again, often with the exact same wording. And so this was intense. I think that there they showed remarkable restraint and for those who, you know, just wanna say, well, Joseph deserved it. He deserved to be arrested all of those times. That’s proof that he was in all of these criminal dealings. And I’m not gonna get into that argument right now. I, like I said, my purpose isn’t defending Joseph Smith. That’s not my purpose for doing this. The evidence that convinced me that Joseph Smith was innocent. It’s not my love for Joseph Smith that made me want to see the evidence to prove that he was innocent. The more I’ve seen of the evidence, the more I really respect and admire Joseph Smith. In fact, getting into this episode, I was like, this was a good guy. Holy cow, how he handled this. Like, I know just a little bit of, um, people saying horrible things about me. You know, it’s hard and, I mean, the things that were said about him, I, I just, it’s astounding what he had to deal with throughout his life. And so, and how sort of gracefully how well he did it. He was so peaceful, so forgiving, so charitable. And, ah, it’s amazing to me. So anyway, we can, we can discuss Joseph Smith. But I, the point I wanted to make was even for those who want to claim that he deserved it. I want you to pause and think if even criminals should be treated this way, is it really justified? Can you really make Joseph the villain in this and the other guys, all the good guys really? Is that what you want to argue? I think that like, that needs to be thought about a little bit more. And so, um anyway, like, like if you wanna make them all villains, ok, you can just talk about that. But trying to make these other guys good guys just doesn’t work. And that includes the laws, the fosters, the beast, John Bennett, Jo Joseph Jackson, all the rest. And so, and that’s another thing to think about if the laws were such good guys, they were working closely with Joseph Jackson, you know, they weren’t good guys. So this was the situation and environment in Nauvoo when the prospectus for the Nauvoo expositor was circulated on May 10th. So about a month before they actually started the paper, they passed out the pro prospectus for it, which was the announcement of the newspaper coming. Um The Warsaw signal summed it up. Well, five days later on May in their May 15th edition, it says the Nauvoo Expositor is the title of a new paper about to be started at Nauvoo by the opponents of Joe. The prospectus has been issued in, in which the proposed character of the paper is set forth. It will have nothing to do with religion but goes in for the repeal of the Nuvo City Charter. What’s the number one goal of the Nauvoo Expositor? The repeal of the NAU City Charter. If you read through it, that becomes abundantly clear. It’s abundantly clear in the prospectus that is announcing it like this is what we’re doing. We’re going to get rid of the Nauvoo City Charter. That’s even the Warsaw signal validates that by this is the way they sum it up. That’s the first thing it’s going to do is get rid of the city charter. So let me finish reading but goes in for the repeal of the NAU City Charter against political revelations and unconstitutional ordinance ordinances. It says it expects the paper will render Nauvoo too hot either for Joe or his enemies. So the paper is designed to like, like their, their stated goal is to revoke the Nauvoo City Charter and they know that it is going to stir up the mob saying it will render Nauvoo too hot either for Joe or his enemies. So it is going to foment unrest. That is what it is designed to do clearly from the very beginning. From the prospectus.

[01:55:22] They are going to print a newspaper that is going to unleash hell in Nauvoo. It’s going to that, that is their stated purpose. So again, I’ll quote from the prospectus, the publishers, therefore deem it a sacred duty that we owe to the co to their country and their fellow citizens to advocate through the columns of the expositor, the unconditional repeal of the NAU City Charter, that part is written in all caps. So the prospectus outlines their accusations against Joseph Smith. We’ll go over those next time again, it says nothing about polygamy. Those are their is that’s not the issue they have with him. And the expositor state purpose was to revoke the novice city charter effectively leading to the death, death of Joseph Smith and the end of the church. And here’s why like I already went over the Nauvoo Expo. I mean, the novice city charter was unusual in its rights that it granted to the city, it made it so that no one could be um taken from the city on legal charges, right? So that, that would be gone so anyone could come and take Joseph anywhere and have him killed it. We’ve already read many reports that he was only safe in Nauvoo. Right. And it also would take away the right for them to have their own independent militia, which was the only way they could hope to protect themselves from these threatening mobs. And so everyone knew that repealing the Nauvoo city city charter meant the death of the church leaders and the death of the saints and the destruction of the church. That’s what it meant. And that’s what like we’ll go on to talk about more. They were as happy to have the riots in Nauvoo from the church members opposing what they were doing as they were to have. That’s what Joseph Jackson had said. And what the Warsaw signal said is there’s gonna be riots in the city or outside of the city or both and in any case, we’re going to accomplish our purpose. So that’s what the Nauvoo expositor was setting out to do and they had never a month in advance, right? That’s the context for all of this also with all of these death threats everywhere and all of this being exposed. So, um the, the, the novel Expositor that people knew was explicitly designed to leave all of the Mormons completely vulnerable with no protection from government protection or mob violence. So I’ve said that enough times, ok. But the actual goal I think seemed was even darker. I think it was the more you read into it, the legal maneuverings, they were doing the newspaper articles that they were writing and the prospectus for the expositor. I think they were intentionally putting Joseph in a double bind that would lead to his death. Either way, if the expositor were allowed to continue, it would bring the mob and if Joseph ordered it stopped, stopped, it would bring them up. And even from the prospectus, from the very beginning, you get the sense that they are like daring Joseph to stop them like egg. You know, they keep saying we know our lives are at risk. We know that our press will be just might be destroyed and all of these things, it’s just crazy. And again, we’re gonna get into that more more in the next episode because for anyone thinking, jumping on the bandwagon and Joseph was wrong to destroy the press and of course he needed to be arrested for that. We’ll talk about that more in the next episode. There’s a lot more to that part of the story as well. So, OK, one more super important thing to add here that I didn’t know and blew me away when I learned it. The conspirators also started their own church. I did not know that it was called the true church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints or some of the um articles that are written about it, call it the reformed church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints, but usually I’ve seen it called the true Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. So on April. April 2818 44 the defectors met at the law’s property near, near their sawmill to organize their own reformed church of Jesus Christ of latter day saint. I’m quoting again from Bentley. He calls it that choosing William Law as president and prophet affidavits against Joseph Smith and others were collected and a committee was appointed to visit families in Nauvoo to see who might join their new church. On that committee were William Wilson Law, Francis Higby, Robert Fros Foster and three others. Wilson Law was chosen as one of um one of William’s counselors and Robert Foster and Fran Higby were among their 12 apostles. So that snippet right? There was a quote from Bentley. I’ll, I’ll tell you what I’m quoting most of this isn’t. I mean, I didn’t want it to make it sound like I’m quoting most of this. I’m not, I’ll tell you what I’m quoting. So the Warsaw signal on May 8th, this is what it reported. Well, at last, the Mormons are added amongst themselves in good earnest, a new church has been organized and we understand that a press will soon be procured. So this was even before they released the prospectus. So clearly, these um conspirators were in contact with the writers of the Warsaw signal who were some of the main ones calling for the destruction of N of Nauvoo and the death of Jo Smith. We’ll get to that later.

[02:00:05] So they were conspiring also, which is f we understand that soon a press will be procured and a paper started which will be devoted to the building up of the cause of the SECAR and to an exposition of Joe Smith’s enormities and malpractices. The creed of the new church differs but little from the old. They acknowledge the authority of the book of Mormon Doctrine and covenants, et cetera. And only, and the only essential difference being in relation to the inspiration of Joe Smith, the SECAR believe that Joe was a prophet, but that he has now fallen from grace. They have a new prophet who is William Law. Ok. So many things here. And um I’m gonna keep reading before I go into some of them, the members of the new church are among the most intelligent and respectable of the Mormon body. Yeah. The Fosters the Higby Joseph Jackson for just a few examples the laws like, and it is said that you’ll, you’ll notice that with the um with the Warsaw signal, anyone who speaks against, well, with all of these, anyone who speaks against Joseph Smith is the most respectable possible. Anyone who speaks for him is a deplorable character and it is said that their number is already quite respectable on Sunday, last law preached in Nauvoo and in the severest terms, denounced Smith for his arbitrary and immoral conduct. Something was something that this breach will soon be healed. But we are inclined to believe that the disaffected have gone so far as to preclude the possibility of retreat. Sure it is, they cannot retreat honorably. So this for one thing gives so much more context and understanding to Joseph Smith’s 20 May 26th speech where he talks about the new holy prophet William Law. Hopefully I’ll go into that speech more in the next um in the next part. But I didn’t know, you know, I didn’t know fully what that meant. The new holy prophet of the new church and their claims that they, well, first of all, I think it’s amazing to see that even before the succession crisis, there was already a challenge to, to play to displace Joseph Smith. Isn’t that interesting? And um hopefully, also this demonstrates the complexity of the conspirators plans. Their intent was clear. They wanted to depose and replace Joseph and Hyrum. They wanted to be the heads of the church and the city. Remember law was already one of its most wealthy and powerful citizens. Several members of this conspiracy were um involved in city government. The editor of the Nauvoo expositor was on the city council. He um actually wasn’t a member of the church, but he was a member of the city council while being the editor for a newspaper that was calling for the destruction of the city like he had sworn, you know, to be a part of the government, you have to swear allegiance to protect the government and he was trying to destroy the City Charter. So talk about treason. Right. Well, we actually, we actually will talk about treason later on when we get to the episode, if we do the episode on the assassinations of Joseph Hyrum, because that plays into it. But just want to cover a little bit more of this, that I think is very interesting talking about the massive hypocrisy here, right? Because so all of these men had no problem with anything that Joseph Smith was doing when they were part of it, right? Like law starts decrying Joseph using ha habeas corpus to avoid um being, being arrested, right? He, that’s one of the big things he’s saying against him. But in 42 he helped hide Joseph Smith repeatedly. He helped him use the government to accomplish his purposes. He has all of this problem with the blending of church and state that a church leader is also in a government position and yet he’s trying to overthrow the government. He’s one of the leading citizens and he’s setting himself up as the head of the church. Like every single thing they’re accusing Joseph Smith of doing is actually what they themselves want to do. And I would argue that they would actually be the real desperate when we see everything that Joseph had done compared to what these men have done with whatever power and influence they had, we can see really the difference between these characters. And so anyway, I think it is fascinating. Also, I want to respond to the um claim that they made that I see as merely tactic that they believed in everything, everything about the church, except that Joseph was a falling prophet, so everything he’s restored was true, but they now needed to hold his position, right? That also is like blown out the window from, well, everything we know about them, but also including the fact that as soon as their church failed to get all of the converts that they wanted, none of them had any use for Mormonism from that time forth. Nothing but to, to cry it in the harshest terms. Yeah, either persecuted, intense, tensely, um try to um rob from it to steal from it as we see going forward or um or say nothing about it except extremely negative things. So even their claim that they believed all of it, except that Joseph Smith,

[02:04:57] I think was nothing more than a tactic to try to get the people living in Nauvoo on their side instead of they were trying to usurp Joseph’s position is what it really came down to. So, um I, ok, I wanted to go into the rest of these, but I am realizing this is already a really long episode and I actually have quite a bit more to do. And so, um, next, I’m going to talk about what was happening in the newspapers and then talk a little bit more about this. But I think I’m gonna save it for part two and I’ll just split it up a little differently. So we’ll get into those next questions about why the expositor was destroyed. And, um, and we’ll go from there in the next episode as well. So, thank you so much. I’m sorry to leave you hanging. But hopefully you’ll appreciate the break and we will continue next time now for the scoop about William Law’s diary. So when I first heard that William Law had a diary, I hadn’t done nearly as much research on him as I have done now, but I still was like, whoa wait, that’s huge. How did I not know about that? I did some searching and found that it wasn’t available online but that it was held in special collections at BYU. So I was so excited. I was going to go read William Law’s diary. I immediately made an appointment and drove down to read it and I was shocked when all they brought was one green folder with 14 very slightly aged type written pages. What was this? Why was it kept in special collections? Reading it carefully, took less than 15 minutes. The first entry is January 1st 1844 and the last is January 28th, 1844. So it covers exactly the last six months of Joseph Smith’s life. My first impression was that this was very clearly written for an audience. It wasn’t just a journal for William’s own record or an opportunity for him to work out his feelings. It very, very much was meant to be published. So let me give you one example from the first entry, fearful and terrible. Yet most distressing have been the scenes through which we have passed during the last few months. The recollect recollection paralyzes the nerves chills the currents of the heart and drives the brain almost to madness. Had it not been for the goodness of God, surely we had been lost, overwhelmed, swallow down in the vortex of in of iniquity. So yeah, that’s, that’s the beginning of the journal. If you read much from the time period, this fits right in with the with all of the over the top language used in this sort of indignation papers. It’s similar to the voice of innocence or the many newspaper articles written at the time. So my first assumption was that this quote diary was must have been an intentionally, must have been intentionally written, not as a personal record, but as a tool to provide evidence against Joseph, like um similar to an unhappy spouse, starting a dishonest journal a few months before filing for divorce to try to get a better settlement. Those types of diaries that are clearly made only for that purpose and only started right before the split record, no other details of life other than the grievances against the person, they are to be used against. Those generally are not viewed as terri terribly reliable. And that was my thought with this diary. Um Then there were even still, there were some very strange things about it that made it seem not legitimate for many reasons. I won’t go into them all now. But plus what were these random typed pages that was, they were kept in a folder marked William Law Diary with the creation date 1844 kept in special collections at by us library. So in case anyone doesn’t just automatically know they didn’t have typewriters in 1844. Clearly, what I was reading was not created in 1844. So I actually spent the majority of my time at BYU on my laptop trying to figure out what in the world this was, I found an extremely helpful article written by Ben Park whose book Nauvoo I had recently read and it answered a ton of questions. Of course, it will be linked below. So you guys the type written pages in special collections at BYU are actually the only thing we have. That’s the only thing anyone has ever seen of this quote diary. So here’s the story Lyndon Cook wrote a biography of William Law that was published in 1994. And it includes the transcript of this diary. And that’s the first time it was ever published, he, he wrote a paper in 82 as well that he seems to draw on it from. So maybe he had it before then, but 94 is when it was published and he has never made any public statement about it. He’s never explained where it came from or what it is or how he got it or anything according to Ben Park.

[02:10:04] Word on the street is that he got the transcript from a family member, a law family member. But even Lyndon Cook has never seen the original. So that is the story behind this source. It goes on a little bit more because I, I want to make it clear. I’m not accusing Lyndon Cook of anything other than what I’m, I guess accusing also Ben Park of which is just so desperately wanting the source that they will won’t think critically about it. So here’s the story behind it that they used to say no, maybe it is legitimate. Apparently there are some notes and Leonard Arrington’s papers. So Leonard Arrington was the church historian and he, his collection of papers is up at us U and he left there are some notes in that about a phone call he had with a woman who he believed was married to the great grandson of William Law. So this woman’s husband’s grandfather, um he believes to be or he thinks might be William Law’s son, but he’s not sure at all and they might have papers in their collection that they might be able to get access to, but they don’t want anything shared. So, this wife, this great granddaughter in law is thinking maybe she could find a way to get access to it without her husband and family knowing. And Arrington tells her, don’t do anything dishonest. And then there’s no follow up from there. That’s the last thing we hear about it until it suddenly appears in Cook’s book. And so, um, anyway, that’s the story behind it. I believe Lyndon Cook was working on the project clear back then and was involved with La Arrington, but we don’t know anything more about it. And so this is what I mean by the motivated reasoning, they so desperately want it to be true that they utilize it. Here’s how Ben Park talks about it. He does admit that quote, the diary seems too good to be true. But then he goes on to say, despite my serious reservations, I confess, I decided to make more than limited use in my book, Kingdom of Nauvoo, because Law’s voice is so central to the story. So do you hear that? That is how church history is done. It’s we really want this source to be true. So we’re just going to assume that it is true and then write it in our narrative as if it is true. So that’s, um he’s, he refers to limited use because the church, I mean, the um Joseph Smith papers, historians decided to make limited use of it whatever that means in their narratives. They also in incorporate found in this very suspect journal. So my feeling is someone should have really told Mark Hoffman who by the way was in full steam when all of this was happening in case anybody wants to claim, no, there couldn’t possibly be forgeries out there. Someone should have told him that you don’t even need to go to the effort of making old appearing documents in order to add news discovered sources to shape the church history narrative. It’s good enough to just have a transcript of a document that you claim really exists. So this is how we are getting our church history narrative and historians write it into their narratives as if it’s factual history and then everyone spouts it as if this is already known, it’s perfectly well established. You’re ridiculous to disagree with it. It’s so frustrating. This is how it happens. So I have to say I already did definitely have my issues with it. But it wasn’t until I did more research on law that I came to the solid conclusion that there is absolutely no way that this is a legitimate document. And I have to say historians should absolutely have come to this conclusion long before I did, if they were willing to do their job and think critically about this. So let’s just go over a few things for, for one thing, the diary doesn’t include anything about Joseph actually propositioning Jane. We still don’t get a date. We don’t get to hear William tell us that this happened. Don’t you think that that would be something worth recording in your diary if you actually were a journal keeper? And so all we have about Joseph propositioning Jane is this one is one obscure statement that it happened. I’ll read it in a minute. Also, William Law wrote a newspaper. This diary, as I said, was very clearly written to be published and he was scrambling to get all of those letter, all of those articles written for the paper that he mostly writ wrote on his own. Wouldn’t this diary have been the perfect thing to include, it would have been the best thing in the entire paper. And in addition, when he is writing a paper decrying all of the crimes and sins of Joseph Smith, don’t you think he might include his outrage that Joseph had actually propositioned his wife. Strange that he omits that little tidbit from the newspaper he’s writing to try to implicate Joseph Smith for anything he possibly can. So, um but it goes further than that. So I’m going to read the one the thing about in his diary, his supposed diary that implicates Joseph Smith. It’s very interesting and I would say rather amusing. I told him the person coming. I can’t remember if it was Sidney Rigdon, I believe, trying to make peace.

[02:15:31] I told him that if they wanted peace, they could have it on the following conditions that Joseph Smith would acknowledge publicly that he had taught and practiced the doctrine of the plurality of wives that he brought a revelation, supporting the doctrine and that he should own the whole whole system, revelation and all to be from hell to acknowledge also that and this part is crossed out. He had lately endeavored to seduce my wife and had found her a virtuous woman. Then it goes on the persecution against me and my friends was unjust. And um this, yeah, this is all we have. This is exactly what it is. The one transcript we have has that part crossed out. And so I have to say this is so juicy, they are trying to imply that love wrote that. But then he changed his mind and wanted it hidden. It’s, it’s just so perfect. It’s so great. This is the best thing ever. This is even better than if he hadn’t included it or if he had he included it. But then either he or someone along the line wanted to hide it and cross it out. Ok? You guys, this is what it looks like when you want to redact something. When you don’t want it known. We have plenty of examples from William Clayton’s journal of what redactions actually look like. At least the part of William Clayton’s journal that we have access to, right? So this, this is like it’s the juiciest thing possible. It’s just so great and this is all it is. This is all we have. So I was planning to save these sources for the next episode. I don’t want this to be a spoiler, but there’s still plenty. I’m s I’m still saving and I I just need to read from these. So in 1887 William Law wrote a letter to the author of the latest defamatory book about Joseph Smith and it was his letter. They ended up having some interaction and he wrote three letters and all of them were published in the Daily Tribune in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, July 3rd, 1887. So these didn’t just appear out of a desk or you know, come um just be published in a book in 94. These we actually know happened and we have them contemporaneous from when they happened. This is the reason that William Law wrote his letter. He tells the author on page 108 you speak of swapping wives and state that you had it from one who knows. Now let me say to you that I never heard of it till I read it in your book. Your informant must have been deceived or willfully lied to you, Joseph Smith never proposed anything of the kind to me or my wife. He’s quite adamant about it. That’s, that’s his own. That’s William Law’s own statement in response to this to this claim that was written in this book. And then, um, it’s repeated several other times. He also ended up giving an interview to that same writer in that same year that was also published. And um, I’ll just quote his son who also gives an interview. His son, Tommy Law, who was speaking of, his mother says, what his said about Joseph having made an attempt on her is not true. In such a case, my father would have not, would not have started a paper against him. He would have shot his head off. And I think that’s probably a pretty true statement if Joseph Smith were propositioning your wife and from all accounts, William and Jane did have a wonderful marriage, they stayed married their entire lives. And other than the implications of adultery that he confessed to while sick, there aren’t any other aspersions on their marriage that I have seen. And William Law, as I said, wrote a paper to bring down Joseph Smith and yet in all of their interactions and heated exchanges and all of the accusations flying around. Guess what’s never there anywhere, anything about Joseph Smith propositioning Jane um Jane Law. And so I think that this should be also put to bed. If anyone still wants to argue that William L’s diary should be taken seriously. I have some really old cool documents to sell to you. I think Well, go ahead and make your comments. I want to hear your thoughts if you believe that this diary should be included in the Joseph Smith narrative or that it proves that Joseph was a polygamist and that he tried to seduce. I really do look forward to hearing your comments. There are other highly problematic William Law sources like the one where we get the claim that William Law, that um William Law’s son saw he and Joseph hugging and embracing and crying together. William begging Joseph in tears not to do it. Don’t take this course. And Joseph tearfully responding that he had no other choice. The Lord required it. Yeah, we can get into those sources as well, but we’ll save that for another day. Thanks again and I’ll see you next time.

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132 Problems: Revisiting Mormon Polygamy

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