Joseph Smith Killed by his 1st Counselor...
Joseph Smith’s murder
Salt Lake Tribune -- 6-27-2014
Smith in the state court at Carthage, and Smith was
arrested. He gave himself up amid promises by then-Illinois Gov. Thomas Ford
that he would be safe. "It was kind of a biblical story," Beam says,
"with people begging him not to go."…Newspaper writers often used
"cut-throat language," he the
writer, who is not Mormon, says in an interview…"Here’s a guy who believed
in the American Constitution and the country’s institutions like courts,"
Beam says. "And here’s a country that’s always talking about the freedom
of religion. Yet he was essentially killed for talking about his
religion."
And
Smith was not just gunned down by a mob of hooligans, Beam says. His murderers
included "a prominent newspaper editor, a state senator, a justice of the
peace, two regimental military commanders, and men who just a few months before
were faithful members of Joseph’s church...‘respectable set of men.’ "
…Several former Mormons, including William and Wilson Law, published an edition
of the Nauvoo Expositor, detailing Smith’s secret polygamous relationships – including
allegations that he had approached William Law’s wife and some teenage girls.
Smith
was outraged by the paper and ordered the press the Laws had purchased to be
destroyed, and the order was carried out. The Laws filed a claim against says,
and described Mormons as "an unscrupulous, schismatic religious
people."
An
armed mob was just one of the "critical weapons" at the opponents’
disposal, Bushman says.
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