E27: John C. and the Church Key

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:20)
Raise your hand if you're a tomato promoter, poultry wizard, mayor, doctor, brigadier general, university chancellor, assistant president of the LDS church, mason, and proponent of spiritual life, right? Anyone? Anyone have all of those talents? Oh, wait, I see a hand in the back. What's your name, young man? John C. Bennett?
Oh, well, welcome to the podcast, little guy.
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:03)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:04)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion. This isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:31)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:36)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts, and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:45)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.
On November 28th, 1839, Joseph Smith and his buddy Elias Higby galloped into the nation's capital, Washington, DC after traveling hard on a month-long journey from Nauvoo. Where was Amtrak when he needed it? What would follow the next three months was an attempt by Smith and his friends to get the president of the United States to stand behind the Mormons and sanction their cause. We already talked about this at the beginning of the season, but I want you to think about how unusual it is to imagine this scenario in a modern-day setting. You can't have somebody like Jim Harmston or, God forbid, Warren Jeffs, men who felt like their religious movements were being threatened by outsiders just roll up to the White House and ask to speak to the president. Actually, I think Jim Harmston rolling up to the White House and talking with Trump, the COVID-positive Donald J. Trump, can you imagine these guys just rolling up to the White House and asking to speak to the president?
That's exactly what happened with Joseph Smith and his buddies. Higby and Smith met with President Martin Van Buren, boo-wiz, on November 29th, 1839, and then again in February of the next year.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:17)
Why were they there? Well, our favorite topic, religious persecution, of course. They wanted to redress for the suffering that the Mormons had experienced in Missouri, and it was pretty bad. A lot of bad stuff happened. Smith was so confident in his cause and apparently in America's government that he felt completely comfortable seeking the help of the President of the United States of America. So during their February meeting, Van Buren made an apocryphal declaration. It is said that Van Buren told the Mormons, three times in the mirror, gentlemen, your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you. If I take up for you, I shall lose the vote of Missouri.
So what's the difference between a blessing and a curse? What about a prophecy? Because Joseph Smith did one of those things as he left DC in a tiff. On my way home, Joseph Smith would write, I did not fail to proclaim the iniquity and insolence of Martin Van Buren toward myself and an injured people, and may he never be elected again to any office of trust or power.
Whether curse or prophetic vision, Van Buren would lose to William Henry Harrison, the Whig candidate in the election of 1840 If only it would have helped those pesky Mormons.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:34)
Oh, no, that wasn't even the bad thing that happened to him. Later, when Wilfred Woodruff goes to do all the temple work for the presidents, he doesn't do Martin Van Buren because he sucks.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:45)
Really? I don't think I knew that.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:47)
Sorry, Martin.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:49)
Also, if you're keeping track of the prophecy, revelations come true board, I believe we're at number three so far.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:56)
Civil War is definitely just the top of that board. So yeah, all this power and excitement expected to come out of Washington, DC ended up with a big...
After this, Smith's confidence in the protection of the federal government began deteriorating just as fast as many of his friendships in Nauvoo. Smith would try to get more involved politically, and when he got tired of the system, decided to just create his own.
Just two years after that giant lemon of a meeting, Joseph Smith took matters into his own hands. He declared himself Mayor of Nauvoo, taking over for his good buddy, Mr. John C. This was only just the beginning of a pattern that still continues today, where Mormonism began organizing not only a religious kingdom, but a political kingdom as well. The thinking went something like this. If the American leaders were too dumb to see the sheer coolness of Mormonism, they were either wicked or blind and either way couldn't be trusted. So Mormons, just like with everything else, had to step in and do government the right way.