E58: The Death of the Prophet

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:12)
We spent the last several episodes leading you up to this moment, one of the most dramatic moments in all of Mormon history, what Mormons call the martyrdom.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:21)
I hope you've said your morning prayers, drink your protein drink and got your stretching in because you're going to need it for this one.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:29)
For most of Joseph Smith's life, he was inspiring one group of people while pissing off everyone else. He had several themes for his life and this was one of them.
But for this episode, you will need your security blankie because big spoiler here, Joseph Smith dies at the end of the episode.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:44)
What? Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:05)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:07)
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** (2:34)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:39)
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** (2:47)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:11)
So, Joseph Smith didn't love what his old pals at the Navajo Expositor were putting out. After Smith orders to have the printing press destroyed, William Law and Robert Foster go to Carthage to secure a warrant against Joseph Smith. And if you're lost already, press stop, back up, and start at the Navu Expositor episodes, because they really are the preamble to what we're talking about.
Remember old Thomas Sharp at the Warsaw Signal? This situation handed Sharp everything he needed, and finally the moral ambiguity to hate the Mormons was right out the door.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:47)
War and extermination is inevitable. Let comments be made with powder and ball, you know, that kind of thing.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:53)
So this whole episode is going to take place in just a few days of June of 1844 We've been working hard to get you caught up on the last few months of Joseph Smith's life. It's crazy time. And again, if you're just starting Cold Turkey on this one, back up a few episodes and get the whole gist. But we have Thomas Sharp, famous anti-Mormon from Warsaw, stirring up the locals with his newspaper.
June 13th and the following days, they hold several rallies with very, very angry anti-Mormons. Some might even call them mobs. And ironically, Thomas Sharp used arguments that were a bit, I don't know, in my opinion, pot kettle. He asked the angry crowd, quote, when our political rights are gone and legal remedies fail, what shall we do?
What can we do but throw ourselves for protection on the arm, which God and nature intended every man should use as a last resort, end quote. So basically saying violence because, and God's ordained violence because the law won't protect us.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:53)
What else are you going to do? You don't have any other options.
And the best part of it is, he tells the crowd not to act out of prejudice or hatred, but out of a sense of liberty. This is perhaps why the anti-Mormon groups felt like they weren't a mob, but they were acting out of for a righteous cause. Now, where have we seen people breaking the law for righteous causes before? It sounds so familiar.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (5:14)
So familiar. Like, I've heard this story before.
So Smith responds to all of that, and on June 18th, he calls out the Nauvoo Legion. War is on, b-words. The Legion is called. Thomas Sharp is rallying the troops. There's a lot of angry people surrounding Illinois.
And then Joseph Smith does something that gets him into trouble. As Professor Historian Brother Ben Park said, Joseph Smith calls on martial law, and this was kind of a legally questionable act.

**Bryan Buchanan** (5:44)
And this sermon, which is sometimes called his last public sermon, it isn't, we'll get there in a minute, it's a pretty well remembered scene.
You've undoubtedly seen this painting. He's up on the stage, he's in his uniform, talking to the Nauvoo Legion in, let's say, bold themes.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (5:59)
Gold epaulettes.

**Bryan Buchanan** (6:00)
Gold epaulettes.
William Clayton's account has him calling on Constitution-loving dudes from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean to get their butts to Nauvoo and defend the Mormons. And then he concludes by telling them, quote, If we die, die like men of God and secure a glorious resurrection. It's a little dramatic, wasn't it? Now, William Clayton is writing all this after, spoiler, Joseph Smith is killed, so all of the standard cautions apply there.