In Salt Lake City utah, this runs about an hour. [applause] thank you. Its a great honor to be here and a great honor to see so many bright faces eager to talk about stuff i am equally eager to talk about with you. Ordering the destruction of the nauvoo, he turns to his secretary, William Clayton who happens to be the secretary of the Sacred Council that had recently been established in nauvoo called the council of 50. He turns to clayton and says i want you to go and burn the secret counsel weve been meeting with over the last few months. They could be understood as treasonous and he was anxious to keep them out of the wrong han hands. They might as well have remained buried because they remained restricted from scholars. It wasnt until they were going to be making it available for the first time in published form. They are kept hidden and secret. Until finally when there were the people that finally got access to the council 50 records some were disappointed by the content. He was being crowned as the king v. Is for all things that were bandied about and while some people were disappointed in these records when they were finally released as the historian of American Religion and politics they were like catnip. What i want to do tonight is highlight some of the different cultural feelings, trajectories that led to that eventful june 1844, why the capital was established and why it was radical and comprised of the people that it was. Why did the states grow to such importance that they felt there only recourse was a Theocratic Society that included its own constitution, its own leader to replace all existing world governments. How do we get to that point. How do a group of otherwise lawfully minded peaceful citizens who reside at around nauvoo come to the conclusion. Its what they do some background to both of these trajectories, lets talk about the political context first. When he thought they arrived on disloyal in 1838, 39, they were religious refugees. They suffered from their perspective the great outrage in the state sanctioned mob and a governor that had ordered the extermination of the forced removal and they had their own reasons why they did that and we can talk more about that in the discussion but at the same time they were refugees in need of help and illinois seemed to be in the right position to help them. They helped ease and first it was as the rival to missouri. Back then they were on the frontier of america. They were representing the different trajectories. Missouri, the slaveowning state. They found that the labor of africanamericans and drawing on the jacksonian policy of the rule and personal liberty. Illinois, by contrast, was a free state. They rejected not only slavery but they also rejected the idea only a Certain Group of people should be in charge and this is a welcomed lots of diverse groups to participate in the political sphere and the sense of democracy in which the politicians tried to cross the port from other marginalized groups. The politicians like abraham lincoln, stephen a. Douglas both of which are serving in the state legislature at the time they arrived in illinois. So the first one come illinois was anxious to prove unlike those in missouri, we know how to take care. This was a state decided between the two Political Parties at the time. On the website we have the democrats, the party of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren championing the rights of the state law and also those that believe in the more enlightened sense of politics. Americas political system the First NationalParty Convention had only taken place in the 1830s. There are a thousand of us believers. Illinois was growing rapidly population wise, so much so that in 1841 the National Government grants illinois three new congressional seats, something we will see take place again after the census here in 2020. We relegate the seats based on population. So now they have these new congressional seats that will need representatives and they are going to want to draw from the different voters there for the mormons are going to be very wanted people. On top of that, the Illinois Legislature in order to take advantage of the population passed a series of legislation in 1840 and 41 that said any of that resided in the state for only six months, so the only criteria to vote is if you are white and if youve been there for six is. That means all of these arrivals are going to be eligible to vote in these new and significant upcoming elections. They were able to take advantage of this society. They have th that culture is une to listen to their interests unwilling to follow their proposals and now they will be forced to listen to what they have to say. The best way to consolidate and be efficient in these activities is to do what we now call block voting. To make sure all these things together in nauvoo are going to go for the same candidates. John taylor that served as an apostle for the church and editor for the newspaper declared pretty explicitly what good would it do nauvoo if half the citizens disenfranchised the other half. We need to pool our resources together. One of my favorite documents is a local mormon residents are writes a letter to his father saying ive never been much of a politician, but i find politics as necessary. There were none more so than stephen douglas. They passed a charter from the charter and they trip over each other with excitement. They were very good at following through. Back in the 1840s america many of you went to vote yesterday. You get your ticket and walk into an individual and check out who you vote for. Its a secret ballot. It wasnt a secret ballot in early america. Voting was dictated by the state law and in illinois that although the common practice of voting vocally meaning you walk into the precinct, there will be a clerk sitting there and you will tell the clerk your name and then you will tell them who you are voting for. To give you an example, there were ten county elections including more governors. Voting in one of the precincts took place in the office of hiram smith to second in command of the church and before this election there is a general conference. He stands up and says we believe that democrats are our friends, and we will support them. Zoom into august 61842 if you live in the precinct, you will march into hiram smiths office where you are meant by those that are just hanging out with and then you will state your name into the clerk will write your name down and mark vitali. We have those records you can see them at the library. I have an image in the book of the 457 people who march into his office that they. Only 11 do not vote in the pattern. The mormons this is their way to make sure to those outside of nauvoo this is a betrayal of the democratic system. There is the majority but where they drew the line was an intervention because they cherished with a call to the personal conscience. The ability of an individual to choose who they want to vote for unfettered by whatever their leaders say. But here you have a leader dictating who they should follow and that means the Person Holding their salvation in their hand is telling them you must vote for this certain candidate and they do so so this seems to be the very example of the type of church and state issue that the american constitution seems to abolish. The move even further than that they started noting politicians to quote the mormon vote they are starting to overlook the actions that seem a bit lets call it innovative to protect joseph smith and others from the justice in missouri. Let me give you an example. He is held on the church for treason and eventually he escapes. Many historians including myself assume they were holding him in jail hostage until they left and then they let him go and wash their hands with him. Of him. But once they settled in nauvoo and if they start to do pretty well, did you ever break up and then see your ex doing well and get that upset . I think thi it is kind of how missouri starts feeling. They havent learned their lessons or thelesson so they art is time to bring him back. So, on three occasions during this period, the missouri governor issues in order meaning we have an arrest warrant for the charge on two different charges at different times. He needs to be returned. The governor of illinois decides my hands are down. Im going to do it. Mormons interpreted this as a direct threat. They believe as soon as joseph sets foot in missouri, hes going to be killed so, we have to take whatever measure we cann to save ousay that now the firss happened, the first extradition day just so happened to have already defended stephen a. Douglas who by this time as a Circuit Court judge in illinois and is a part of the request he tells him why dont you bring the case over to me and i will grant you a bs. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the fancy legal term that drove the life and words, habeas corpus basically means it is a trial that ed adjudicates the officers in this situation to follow the proper protocol. I want to be clear it has no merits on whether a person is guilty or innocent of the crime. Only whether they are arrested. Now stephen a. Douglas through the proper channels grants him a rate of habeas corpus in 1841. Illinois had a law that said if he were granteyou were granted f habeas corpus on the statewide crime, there will automatically be another arrest warrant out for you so you can be properly arrested and tried again. The next year the former missouri governor bush signed the extermination order in 1838 someone tries to kill him in his own home. Initially the word gets out that he dies from the assassination and one of my favorite documents in this period Woodrow Wilson writes in the diary its finally phased his retribution and he actually doodles in the diary. They are pretty happy about this. He comes out of the coma and survives and points his finger at joseph smith and assess i have evidence joseph smith was behind this assassination attempt and so there is the governor inside of the requisition order and the governor find science in order o move him out to missouri. They freak out once again but they learned the Previous Year this works pretty well. The problem is the city charter like any follows proper protocol and this is the only issue the writ of habeas corpus related to the cases that originate within the jurisdiction. Nauvoo in a civil court can only try habeas corpus cases on charges that originate against the wall, does that make sense . But the day that arresting officers arrived to arrest joseph smith, the city court meets and have the new resolution that does two things. One, it grants the Municipal Court authority to try the writ of habeas corpus. From misery, for instance. Second, the city court or the city Council Grants the ability to try the merits of the cases beyond just the arresting process. So these officers arrived and joseph smith kind of hand them his writ of habeas corpus and these officers are befuddled. How do they respond to that so they meet and talk to the governor and meanwhile joseph smith goes into hiding. Because even he realizes that those votes and the City Council Resolution an in Municipal Court habeas corpus ruling wasnt going to hold water. Eventually, once again, he elected officials trying to get more support deciding we are going to ignore the city Council Things happening and we are going to try to free him through the official name is. So, joseph smith was taken before the city court and they find a loophole and grants the freedom the story isnt even over after that. That summer you can imagine how frustrated the officials must be by this point. They say all right, we are going to try this again. So they sent another requisition order. The illinois governor signs another order to release them into the arresting officers pose as mormon missionaries, knock on the door of the family where they are trying to have a quiet vacation. About an aspiring politician. Theyve been supporting the democrats and maybe this is my chance to finally earn the vote. As you can imagine the are like what is going on. Why do we try to figure out what to do, the region in this whole Group Marches them back to nauvoo where they received a military escort and a grand performance as well as with the newspaper calls exquisitely dressed ladies. The officers are put at the head of the table and probably befuddled by this whole situation. And then as you can probably expect, nauvoo Municipal Court grants joseph smith and other writ of habeas corpus. But this time the state authorities kind of ignored that and read him the in the mechanism and the authorities including thomas more, the governor, the democrats decided we dont want to lose them in this town because this lawyer had enabled the escape. We need to win the suppor suppos of the governobackso the governd over that like if you support the democrats in this election, we will allow the habeas corpus policy to stand. Then they had a dilemma because they personally promised to support the candidates but now the democratic governor is even further if they support the democrats. He ends up alienating both. About a couple of weeks before, joseph smith gets up and confuses everyone and says im sorry to break it to you but im no longer a profit. My brother has the birthright. You should listen to him. He later says he said ironically that happened to be the same thing when something turns out to be unpopular. The day before the others another in which he gets up in front of the thousands and says i have had a revelation that they should vote for the democrats. Joseph smith stands up and says im going to vote for cyrus walker because i had a good personal friendship with him, but let me tell you this, he never had a revolution revelation that turned out to be wrong. So through that mechanism he maintains the personal promise and they maintained this prophetic connection between the Regulatory Authority and voting and according to the account from the area, the nauvoo vote for the market by an accoun demt of about 1290. The democratic candidate gets into the office and after that point, however, the Democratic Party as you can imagine is really mad at nauvoo and they are no longer willing to stand up for them. The democrats even though they made out ahead from that, theyve realized that that could change at a moments notice. So they are no longer willing to support the mormons. So, we are moving in the fall and winter, 43 to 44 where they are worried the state Political Parties are no longer going to support them in their missions. Now they start doing another radical profession and send a number to the government to try to protect them including perhaps my favorite episode asking for them to raise an army of 100,000 soldiers and joseph smith in charge. Congress doesnt go for that. Joseph smith and announces the campaign for the presidency with the five leading candidates when they refused to promise to support and i could talk more about the platform during the qanda but eventually feeling that the wall is closing in and the state and National Government is no longer going to protect that interest they are left to where they were before. They come up with a contingency plan. The contingency plan doesnt capture the radical. They gather together in early march and start imagining if we are kicked out of america, where do we go and what do we do ask we might go to texas or oregon. What we will do is we are going to establish a theocratic government that will return of oyster because to them, they look at the world around them and see only chaos and disaster and violence institution. What can bring stability to this world again, only the voice of god. And that is where it originates and i could talk more about that and the constitution they come up with. There were cultural sentiments that were found but would also common throughout america because in the 1840s it was a very divided study we think we have a Divisive Political culture today. We dont have senators hitting each other upside the head like they did in the 1850s. But when america seems to be falling apart during the period you see an increasing number of people whether it is over womens suffrage or antislavery or the workers rights but the point where america falls apart is because they are no longer listening to the divine law of god dictates human equality and so forth. But they give you a couple examples. John brown. If any of you are familiar before he has the raid on Harpers Ferry he writes the constitution to replace the american constitution. He declared it a path to the compact with the devil and the regional constitution that was to replace it. Its the first line of the constitution that says these are based on the divine providence. You see this argument especially in the groups that believe that the american nation is falling apart. Of course they take the sentiment and exercise it and take it to the ninth degree. But i want to emphasize that document they capture a lot of the broad sentiment but tell a larger story in the democratic who. Im running out of time i dont have much time to dig into one issue that is significant here. If this is what is driving the external opposition it is the new domestic arrangement and the theological proposals that cause internal division. It is the proposal while it is impossible to identify the origins i try to argue that it is located in the spring of 41 connected to these other ideas percolating up. Of course we can find these that lay out these desires and lead to something but im also interested in ecology that both defendants and justifies and extends the doctrine of this domestic experimentation. What struck me in reading this book is that the same language they use to propose the radical new political system is the same language he and his followers use to justify their polygamy. But they use one example to get the perspective. Becoming very famous in the tradition had a very controversial time you think they would be quieting down and its not talked about that on the day she giv