The Nauvoo Expositor was a newspaper in Nauvoo, Illinois, United States, that published only one issue, dated June 7, 1844. Its publication, and the destruction of the printing press ordered by Mayor Joseph Smith and the city council, set off a chain of events that led to Smith's arrest for treason and subsequent killing at the hands of a lynch mob.
Smith, leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, had a practice of secretly marrying his followers, including other men's wives. Smith is estimated to have married nearly fifty wives. While promoting polygamy in private, Smith publicly denied the practice of polygamy. In response, a handful of high-ranking church leaders denounced Smith as a fallen prophet, founded a reformed church, and announced plans to publish a newspaper—acts that resulted in their excommunication from Smith's church. Based on their testimony, Smith was indicted on state criminal charges of perjury and "fornication and adultery".
The Nauvoo Expositor, published on June 7, 1844, exposed Smith's practice of polygamy and accused him of promoting polytheism by teaching that church members can become gods."Polygamy, Persecution And Power", The Salt Lake Tribune, June 16, 1996, paragraph 16, 17 Smith and the Nauvoo City Council declared the paper a public nuisance and ordered the press to be destroyed.History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints volume VI (1912), pp. 430-432. The council met on June 8 and June 10 to discuss the matter. The town marshal carried out the order during the evening of June 10.History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints volume VI (1912), p. 432: "The Council passed an ordinance declaring the Nauvoo Expositor a nuisance, and also issued an order to me to abate the said nuisance. I immediately ordered the Marshall to destroy it without delay." – Joseph Smith Smith and other members of the council were charged with inciting a riot; after an arrest warrant was issued for Smith, he declared martial law and mobilized the city militia, the Nauvoo Legion, of which he was the commander-in-chief holding the rank of Lieutenant General. In response, Illinois Governor Thomas Ford raised a militia, peacefully entering Nauvoo to search for Joseph Smith, who had fled the state.
On June 25, after he received guarantees of safety, Smith surrendered on the riot charges expecting to be freed on bail. Once in Carthage, Smith was also charged with treason against Illinois for declaring martial law. Treason, a capital crime, was not a bailable offense. Smith, his brother Hyrum Smith, and other leaders were incarcerated in the Carthage Jail, guarded by only seven men. Though expecting to be rescued by his followers, Smith and Hyrum were killed by a lynch mob on June 27.
Background
In 1830, Joseph Smith, age 24, published the Book of Mormon, which he described as an English translation of ancient golden plates he received from an angel. The same year he organized the Church of Christ, calling it a restoration of the early Christian Church. Members of the church were later called "Latter Day Saints" or "Mormons". Smith and his followers sought to assemble together in a theocratic community under Smith's leadership, or 'Zion', first in Kirtland, Ohio and later in Independence, Missouri.
In 1833, a mob of settlers attacked a Mormon newspaper's printing office, destroyed the press, and tarred and feathered two Mormon leaders. Mormons were driven from Jackson county of Missouri. After losing the 1838 Mormon War, Smith was jailed and his followers were forced out of Missouri.
After Smith escaped custody, he fled to Illinois, where he founded a new settlement that he named Nauvoo. After the Nauvoo City Charter passed both houses of the state legislature, Illinois governor Thomas Carlin signed it into law on December 16, 1840. The charter allowed the Nauvoo city council to pass laws 'not in conflict with the state and federal constitutions'; Chicago and Alton charters had similar provisions. The charter also empowered the Nauvoo Municipal Court to issue writs of habeas corpus. The power would later enable Joseph Smith to elude authorities from Missouri, where he was wanted on charges of treason. Nauvoo was not the only city with such a power; in 1839, Alton had been granted the same power to issue habeas corpus writs.Bushman, p. 412
William Law, a wealthy immigrant from Ireland, and his wife had joined the Church of Christ in 1836 in Canada. In 1839, Law led a group of Canadian LDS members to Nauvoo. In 1841, Joseph Smith chose him to be a member of the First Presidency.Jessee, Dean C., editor The Papers of Joseph Smith Vol. 2, p. 565. He was also a member of the Nauvoo city council.
Francis M. Higbee had joined the church in 1832. In the aftermath of the 1838 Mormon War, Francis Higbee was arraigned along with Smith, in Richmond, Missouri on November 11, 1838. He was released 18 days later. On June 30, 1842, Francis Higbee gave a sworn statement that "Joseph Smith told [him] that John C. Bennett could be easily put aside or drowned, and no person would be the wiser for it". On January 15, 1844, the Nauvoo Municipal Court issued a warrant for Higbee's arrest on the affidavit of Orson Pratt. Chauncey Higbee had also joined the church in 1832. In November 1841, he had been appointed aide-de-camp to Major General John C. Bennett of the Nauvoo Legion.
Origins
Although he had been married since 1827 and polygamy was criminal, Smith had been secretly marrying his followers and faced accusations of adultery.Jenson, A. Historical Record 6 [May 1887]: 233–34.Bushman p. 323: "There is evidence that Joseph was a polygamist by 1835."
On July 17, 1831, Smith dictated a revelation that "foreshadowed" the practice of plural wives. On December 8, former member Ezra Booth publicly alleged that a married member of the church, though fearful of civil authorities, espoused his religious liberty to take a second wife.Ezra Booth, letter dated December 6, 1831, Ohio Star (Ravenna, OH), December 8, 1831. Text at Saints Without Halos, archived from the original on June 7th, 2011. Reprinted in . On March 24, 1832, an Ohio mob stripped Smith naked with an eye to castrate him, but the doctor refused to carry out the procedure at the last minute; some suggest this incident may have stemmed from intimacies with a girl or woman not his wife.Bushman, p.179 In January 1838, original Book of Mormon witness Oliver Cowdery was excommunicated, in part because he "seemed to insinuate" that Smith was guilty of adultery.Cowdery also expressed his concerns of Smith's relationship with Alger, a teenage maid living with the Smiths in Kirtland in a January 1838 letter to his brother Warren: "[We] had some conversation in which in every instance I did not fail to affirm that which I had said was strictly true. A dirty, nasty, filthy affair of his and Fanny Alger's was talked over in which I strictly declared that I had never deserted from the truth in the matter, and as I supposed was admitted by himself."
In 1842, after church leader and Nauvoo mayor John C. Bennett was excommunicated for adultery, Bennett published a book-length exposé revealing Smith's own practice of polygamy. On August 31, a broadsheet was published featuring affidavits defending Joseph Smith from Bennett's charges; among his defenders were William Law, his brother Wilson Law, Francis Higbee and his brother Chauncey Higbee.
In public, Joseph Smith repeatedly denied adultery and polygamy throughout his lifetime. In 2014, the Church admitted Smith had married about 40 of his female followers, including a 14-year-old and others who were already married.Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo quote: "Fragmentary evidence suggests that Joseph Smith acted on the angel’s first command by marrying a plural wife, Fanny Alger, in Kirtland, Ohio, in the mid-1830s. Several Latter-day Saints who had lived in Kirtland reported decades later that Joseph Smith had married Alger, who lived and worked in the Smith household, after he had obtained her consent and that of her parents. Little is known about this marriage."
Other men's wives Joseph Smith ultimately married at least eleven women who were already married, and made proposals to others.https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V29N02_21.pdf
On June 1, 1843, Austin Cowles's daughter Elvira, recently wed to another man, had married Joseph Smith. On September 12, Cowles resigned his seat in the high council. Afterwards, Cowles "was far more outspoken and energetic in his opposition to polygamy than almost any other man in Nauvoo." On July 12, 1843, Joseph Smith dictated a revelation about polygamy. Later that day, Joseph and Hyrum presented it to Joseph's first wife Emma, who rejected it.William Clayton journal:"Wednesday 12th This A.M, I wrote a Revelation consisting of 10 pages on the order of the priesthood, showing the designs in Moses, Abraham, David and Solomon having many wives & concubines &c. After it was wrote Prests. Joseph & Hyrum presented it and read it to [Emma] who said she did not believe a word of it and appeared very rebellious. [Joseph]...appears much troubled about [Emma.]"; ; ; ; On August 12, 1843, Hyrum Smith read Smith's revelation concerning plural marriage to the Nauvoo High Council. On November 5, Smith became sick and was suspected of having been poisoned, perhaps by wife Emma.
Joseph Smith made several proposals to William Law's wife Jane, under the premise that she would enter a polyandrous marriage with Smith.Brodie, p.369 Law's wife later described Smith's proposals, saying that Smith had "asked her to give him half her love; she was at liberty to keep the other half for her husband." Upon learning of the proposal, Law threatened to expose Smith unless he went before the High Council to confess and repent. On January 8, 1844, Smith removed Law from the First Presidency. On February 1, the Times and Seasons announced that Hiram Brown had been excommunicated for preaching polygamy in Michigan.Bushman, p. 527
In early 1844, Dr. Robert D. Foster returned home to find his wife being visited by Joseph Smith. She later confessed that Smith had preached polygamy and attempted to seduce her.
In March 1844, Emma organized a series of meetings, and publicly denounced polygamy as evil and destructive; though she did not directly disclose Smith's secret practice of plural marriage, she insisted that people should heed only what he taught publicly—implicitly challenging his private promulgation of polygamy.
Key Stone Store meeting
In mid-March 1844, Joseph Jackson attempted to recruit two Nauvoo men, Marenus G. Eaton and Abiathar Williams, with stories about "men tied hand and foot and runthrough the heart with a sword, and there heads taken off, and then buried."Bushman, p. 530 The pair attended a meeting in the back room of a grocery store; in attendance were the Laws, the Higbees, and Robert D. Foster.
At the meeting, Robert Foster told about Joseph Smith's attempt to seduce Robert's wife. Chauncey Higbee confirmed the practice of polygamy among Smith and other church leaders. Jackson suggested he had knowledge of a conspiracy to kill the Smiths.Brodie, p.371
Eaton and Williams reported the events of the meeting to Joseph Smith. On March 24, Joseph Smith told his congregation that a group planned to "destroy all the Smith family in a few weeks", naming the members as: Chauncey Higbee, Robert Foster, Joseph Jackson, and William and Wilson Law.Bushman p.531
General conference and exaltation On April 6, Law notified Smith and some members of the Twelve that he desired an investigation before the Church General Conference.Expositor