Vol. 9, No. 9, 1992

Articles on Mormonism

by Marsha Norton

Contributing Writer

Leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) often try to rewrite history to suit their purpose.

One example involves Brigham Young, the second President of the LDS Church. He worked to impress upon the members of the Mormon Church the virtues of their founding president, Joseph Smith. On July 11, 1852 (eight years after Joseph Smith's death), Young told the LDS people:

"Joseph Smith was not killed because he was deserving of it, nor because he was a wicked man; but because he was a virtuous man.

"I know that to be so, as well as I know that the sun now shines. I know for myself that Joseph Smith was the subject of forty-eight law-suits, and most of them I witnessed with my own eyes; but not one action could ever be made to bear against him.

"No law or constitutional right did he ever violate. He was innocent and virtuous; he kept the law of his country, and lived above it" (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, pp. 40-41).

Despite Young's boasting of Joseph Smith's character, the LDS History of the Church records Joseph Smith's actions to violate the First Amendment right to freedom of the press.

As Mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois, Joseph Smith issued the following order:

"To the Marshal of said City, greetings.

"You are here commanded to destroy the printing press from whence issues the Nauvoo Expositor, and the type of said printing establishment in the street, and burn all the Expositors and libelous handbills found in said establishment; and if resistance be offered to your execution of this order by the owners or others, demolish the house; and if anyone threatens you or the mayor or the officers of the city, arrest those who threaten you, and fail not to execute this order without delay, and make due return hereon.

"By order of the City Council, Joseph Smith, Mayor" (Vol. 6, p. 448).

In part because of Joseph Smith's demolition of the printing press and the Nauvoo Expositor, he was jailed at Carthage, Illinois. History records that Smith was killed in a gun fight at this jail on 27 June 1844 (History of the Church, Vol. 7, p. 103).

If Smith had been the virtuous leader that upheld constitutional rights as Young proclaimed to LDS Church members, Smith's death would not have been an indirect result of infringement of the First Amendment right.