This is an archived copy of a post written by Conflict Of Justice (conflictofjustice.com). Used with permission: Conflict Of Justice may not agree with any alterations made.
On June 10, 1844, the city council of Nauvoo declared the Nauvoo Expositor newspaper to be a public nuisance and had it destroyed. CES Letter says “Joseph Smith’s destruction” of the newspaper occurred because they had “exposed his polygamy.” Is it true that Joseph Smith destroyed or ordered the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor because they “dared exposed his behavior”?
False
The Nauvoo Expositor was shut down, and Joseph Smith as Mayor of the city certainly was the one how gave the order to shut it down. But no, Joseph Smith did not make the decision to shut down the Nauvoo Expositor. The city council did. Joseph Smith was obligated as mayor to follow through with the city council’s decision. “An ordinance was passed concerning libels. The Council passed an ordinance declaring the Nauvoo Expositor a nuisance, and also issued an order to me to abate the said nuisance. I immediately ordered the Marshal to destroy it without delay.”(Joseph Smith via Douglas O. Linder)
The Decision Was Legal
The city council’s decision was perfectly legal, as the 14th amendment to the Constitution had not yet been passed to apply freedom of press protections to local governments. The city council was free to decide that the newspaper was inciting violence and that it needed to be shut down. After really, after having been illegally expelled so many times from place to place, with all kinds of crimes of murder, rape, and theft inflicted upon them–including the destruction of the Mormon printing press–it should not come to a surprise that at some point the Mormons said “enough persecution.” Enough with the lies, slander, threats, and incitement of violence. When you look at what the newspaper had actually printed, any reasonable government would have shut it down.
Nauvoo Expositor Was Calling For Violence
The reason for closing the newspaper was not polygamy as CES Letter suggests. They said all kinds of things about Joseph Smith, that he was a fallen prophet, that he unjustly meddled in the church’s finances. They lied about about controversial church teachings, and they complained that Joseph Smith held too much theocratic political power. They made specific libelous allegations against him. But what they said was worse than just that. The newspaper’s threats of violence and overall dehumanization of the Mormon community was more dangerous than just their slanderous claims.
The Nauvoo Expositor had been recently founded by Anti-Mormon William Law and his group of apostates who had been disciplined “for adultery, thievery, and other crimes.” Ironically, it a man who had been excommunicated for adultery was accusing church leaders of adultery.
” The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state.”
(Missouri Gov. Lilburn Boggs executive order)
They were clearly inciting violence when they defended the genocidal expulsion of Mormons from Missouri, and defended the murders, rapes, extermination, and violence that Mormons had received in Missouri due to the genocidal extermination order against them. The newspaper:
The Nauvoo Expositor:
- Called Joseph Smith “pernicious and diabolical… blood thirsty and murderous.”
- Declared William Law’s excommunication “null and void.” They declared they were “resolved” to restore him into the church presidency leadership and threatened Joseph Smith: “beware lest the unjust measure you meet to your brethren, he again meeted out to you.” After having just accused Joseph Smith of being murderous, this was clearly a violent threat against his life.
- Threatened to use “weapons of our warfare” against “principalities and power” they deemed corrupt. Again, another clear threat of violence.
- Threatened the “overthrow of the Church.”
- Alleged Joseph Smith guilty of “abominations and whoredoms… tyranny and oppression… enormities of crimes.”
- Accused Joseph Smith of circumventing the “law of the land.”
- Alleged that Mormon missionaries were guilty of “the laws of our country” for the doctrines they preached, and called for them to have their preaching licenses revoked. Remember, this was a time when violence was often carried out against Mormon missionaries and this newspaper placed them in greater danger.
- Alleged Joseph Smith created an “inquisitorial department” within the church similar to the Catholic Church inquisition courts. Again, a specific libelous accusation.
- Specifically alleged that “females” were victims of a “deep-laid and fatal scheme… with a penalty of death attached” if they refused to become “his (Joseph’s) Spiritual wife,” crushing vulnerable women and leading them to an “untimely grave… robbed of that which nothing but death can restore.” Basically, they were accusing Joseph Smith of rape and murder.
- Falsely alleged “monies and property” raised by Mormons for building the temple were not “applied as the donors expected, but have been used for speculative purposes, by Joseph, to gull the saints.” False allegations that the Nauvoo House was used “for other purposes” than what donors expected, insinuating that it was used for prostitution.
- Declared dance halls and theaters should be closed because they promoted “vice and debauchery.”
- Declared that Mormons were “amenable to the laws of the land” that led to the extermination order against them in Missouri. In other words, Mormons deserved their extermination. Mormons were being “hostile” and “at variance with the true spirit of Christianity” to receive “the just demands” of this punishment, and nobody should “screen them from” the its effects.
Widespread Genocide Of Mormons
“Our blood boils while we refer to these blood thirsty and murderous propensities of men, or rather demons in human shape.”
(Nauvoo Expositor on Mormons)
Demons In Human Shape – The Nauvoo Expositor said all Mormons were complicit with Joseph Smith’s diabolical deeds, including murder. They called Mormons “demons in human shape” rather than people, as they called for people to stop “screening” Mormons from Missouri’s extermination order.
In a little-known chapter of the United States’ dark history, a genocidal order was passed by the pro-slavery governor of Missouri. Mormons were routinely murdered, arrested, raped, and stolen from. The Nauvoo Expositor said all of this in just their first print, and already they were stoking this frequent violence. There had already been sixteen recent acts of mob violence due to incendiary newspapers. If left to continue spreading threats, widespread mob violence was sure to ignite in Nauvoo. The fact that William Law and his adulterous apostates whipped up mobs and assassinated Joseph Smith soon after the destruction of the printing press shows that this fear was sound.
Here is the entire quote of the Nauvoo Expositor accusing Joseph Smith of murder and dehumanizing all Mormons as “demons in human shape”:
“We have received the last number of the “Warsaw Signal;” it is rich with anti-Mormon matter, both editorial and communicated. Among other things it contains a lengthy letter from J. H. Jackson, giving some items in relation to his connection with the “Mormon Prophet,” as also his reasons for the same. It will be perceived that many of the most dark and damnable crimes that ever darkened human character, which have hitherto been to the public, a matter of rumor and suspicion , are now reduced to indisputable facts. We have reason to believe, from our acquaintance with Mr. Jackson, and our own observation, that the statements he makes are true; and in view of these facts, we ask, in the name of heaven, where is the safety of our lives and liberties, when placed at the disposal of such heaven daring, hell deserving, God forsaken villains. Our blood boils while we refer to these blood thirsty and murderous propensities of men, or rather demons in human shape, who, not satisfied with practising their dupes upon a credulous and superstitious people, must wreak their vengeance upon any who may dare to come in contact with them. We deplore the desperate state of things to which we are necessarily brought, but, we say to our friends, “keep cool,” and the whole tale will be told. We fully believe in bringing these iniquities and enormities to light, and let the majesty of violated law, and the voice of injured innocence and contemned public opinion, speak in tones of thunder to these miscreants.”
(Nauvoo Expositor, 1844)
The fact that Anti-Mormons today defend this disgusting newspaper shows that not much has changed.It is alright when a mob destroys a Mormon printing press, but when those Mormons start thinking that Missoui’s genocide was unjust and that Mormons are people instead of demons, well then it’s time to gather up the lynch mob and teach them a lesson! It is truly sickening to see CES Letter take this mob violence and genocide and turn it against Mormons. Suddenly, we are covering up our secret adultery if we take action to defend ourselves from genocidal propaganda.
Hyrum Smith’s Account Of Missouri Genocide – Hyrum Smith and others detailed in court testimony some of the Missouri persecution that the Nauvoo Expositor supported. They were killing and raping entire communities and feeding the flesh of the dead to Mormon prisoners: “They immediately commenced making aggressions upon the citizens called “Mormons,” taking away their hogs and cattle and threatening them with extermination or utter extinction, saying that they had a cannon, and there should be no compromise only at its mouth. They frequently took men, women and children prisoners, whipping them and lacerating their bodies with hickory withes, and tying them to trees and depriving them of food until they were compelled to gnaw the bark from the trees to which they were bound, in order to sustain life; treating them in the most cruel manner they could invent or think of, and doing everything they could to excite the indignation of the “Mormon” people to rescue them, in order that they might make that a pretext for an accusation for the breach of the law, and that they might the better excite the prejudice of the populace, and thereby get aid and assistance to carry out their hellish purposes of extermination…. Bogart, who was a Methodist preacher and a captain over a militia company of fifty soldiers, but who had added to this number out of the surrounding counties about one hundred more, which made his force about one hundred and fifty strong, was stationed at Crooked creek, sending out his scouting parties, taking men, women and children prisoners, driving off cattle, hogs and horses, entering into every house on Log and Long creeks, rifling their houses of their most precious articles, such as money, bedding and clothing, taking all their old muskets and their rifles, or military implements, threatening the people with instant death, if they did not deliver up all their precious things and enter into a covenant to leave the state or go into the city of Far West by the next morning, saying that they “calculated to drive the people into Far West, and then drive them to hell.” Gillium also was doing the same on the northwest side of Far West; and Sashiel Woods, a Presbyterian minister, was the leader of the mob in Daviess county; and a very noted man of the same society was the leader of the mob in Carroll county. And they were also sending out their scouting parties, robbing and pillaging houses, driving away hogs, horses and cattle, taking men, women and children and carrying them off, threatening their lives, and subjecting them to all manner of abuses that they could invent or think of…. The people of De Wit were obliged to leave their homes and go into Far West, but did not do so until after many of them had starved to death for want of proper sustenance, and several died on the road there, and were buried by the wayside, without a coffin or a funeral ceremony; and the distress, sufferings, and privations of the people cannot be expressed. All the scattered families of the “Mormon” people, with but few exceptions, in all the counties, except Daviess, were driven into Far West. This only increased their distress, for many thousands who were driven there had no habitations or houses to shelter them, and were huddled together, some in tents and others under blankets, while others had no shelter from the inclemency of the weather. Nearly two months the people had been in this awful state of consternation; many of them had been killed, whilst others had been whipped until they had to swathe up their bowels to prevent them from falling out…. We learned that several persons had been killed by some of the soldiers who were under the command of General Lucas. One Mr. Carey had his brains knocked out by the breech of a gun, and he lay bleeding several hours; but his family were not permitted to approach him, nor any one else allowed to administer relief to him whilst he lay upon the ground in the agonies of death… Another man, of the name of John Tanner, was knocked on the head at the same time, and his skull laid bare to the width of a man’s hand; and he lay, to all appearances, in the agonies of death for several hours; but by the permission of General Doniphan, his friends brought him out of the camp; and with good nursing, he slowly recovered, and is now living… There was another man, whose name is Powell, who was beat on the head with the breech of a gun until his skull was fractured, and his brains ran out in two or three places. He is now alive and resides in this [Hancock] county, but has lost the use of his senses. Several persons of his family were also left for dead, but have since recovered…. The messenger informed us that he himself, with a few others, fled into the thickets, which preserved them from the massacre; and on the following morning they returned and collected the dead bodies of the people, and cast them into a well; and there were upwards of 20 who were dead or mortally wounded; and there are several of the wounded now [1843] living in this city [Nauvoo]… On the next day, the soldiers were permitted to patrol the streets, of Far West to abuse and insult the people at their leisure, and enter into houses and pillage them, and ravish the women, taking away every gun and every other kind of arms or military implements… They tantalized us and boasted of their great achievements at Haun’s Mills and at other places, telling us how many houses they had burned, and how many sheep, cattle, and hogs they had driven off belonging to the “Mormons,” and how many rapes they had committed, and what squealing and kicking there was among the d——b——s, saying that they lashed one woman upon one of the damned “Mormon” meeting benches, tying her hands and her feet fast, and sixteen of them abused her as much as they had a mind to, and then left her bound and exposed in that distressed condition… Governor Boggs and Generals Clark, Lucas, Wilson, and Gillium, also Austin A. King, have committed treason upon the citizens of Missouri, and did violate the Constitution of the United States, and also the constitution and laws of the state of Missouri, and did exile and expel, at the point of the bayonet, some twelve or fourteen thousand inhabitants from the state, and did murder a large number of men, women and children in cold blood, and in the most horrid and cruel manner possible; and the whole of it was caused by religious bigotry and persecution, because the “Mormons” dared to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences… We were also subjected to the necessity of eating human flesh for the space of five days or go without food, except a little coffee or a little corn-bread. The latter I chose in preference to the former. We none of us partook of the flesh, except Lyman Wight. We also heard the guard which was placed over us making sport of us, saying they had fed us on “Mormon” beef.” (History of the Church vol. 3 p.404)
This is what Anti-Mormons are defending? Are you serious?
CES Letter Logical Fallacies
| Falsehood | CES Letter says “Joseph’s destruction” of the newspaper “started the chain of events that led to Joseph’s death.” This is not really fair to say. Yes, the Anti-Mormon mobs were angry that their incendiary newspaper was shut down and that they murdered Joseph Smith soon after, but Joseph Smith’s actions did not start this chain of events. William Law started the chain of events when he started printing libel and violent threats. CES Letter says the Nauvoo Expositor “dared expose his behavior.” Really? So is CES Letter saying all the newspaper’s allegations were true? The allegation that Missouri’s genocide was legally and morally justified was true? |
| Repetition | CES Letter repeats this argument on p. 33. Redundancy: “Joseph’s destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor… which printing press destruction” |
| Affirming The Consequent | CES Letter says the events at Carthage resulted from his destroying the expose of his polygamy, suggesting that the polygamy allegations were correct because the printing press was destroyed after alleging them. |
| Non Sequitur | If Nauvoo’s city council was wrong about the Nauvoo Expositor inciting violence, why did shutting it down lead to mobs of people murdering Joseph Smith and inflicting massive violence upon Mormons? Doesn’t that instead show that they were right? It’s like saying Abraham Lincoln’s assassination is proof that he was wrong to fight the Civil War, or that Christ’s crucifixion was proof that He was guilty of their accusations against him. |
Appeal To Emotion – We see CES Letter make an emotional argument here, whereas we saw intellectual arguments against the Book of Mormon and Book of Abraham. In this argument, they imply the allegations of Joseph Smith’s perversions are correct because he tried to cover it up. He destroyed a newspaper that reported about him. Silencing one’s critics is evidence of one’s guilt, is it not?
Well, when we read what the newspaper actually wrote, we get a fuller picture. They were saying he was guilty of murder, guilty of fraud, guilty of adultery. They threatened to destroy the church and use weapons of war against Mormons. They provoked violence by saying Mormons deserved the persecution and “extermination order,” the genocide, they had received in Missouri.
If this isn’t disturbing enough, compare the rhetoric in the Nauvoo Expositor with Anti-Mormon rhetoric today. It’s the pretty much the same. The same modus operandi. In the general, Anti-Mormons allege financial misdeeds in the church like the Nauvoo Expositor did. They allege preying on young women like the Nauvoo Expositor did. They allege a secret church inquisition committee like the Nauvoo Expositor did. The same insinuation that Joseph Smith had his death coming because of his “behavior.” On and on and on and on. The same rhetoric never changes, it just updates through the years. I find the similar accusations and similar logic remarkable, considering how dehumanizing and incendiary the Nauvoo Expositor was. They called Joseph Smith and Mormons a non-human, a “demon in human shape.” It doesn’t get more dehumanizing than that. They said Mormons deserved the genocidal extermination they received in Missouri. It is very telling that today’s Anti-Mormons generally defend this newspaper and follow the same modus operandi.
Big Lie – This is where the rhetoric of today’s Anti-Mormons becomes truly dangerous. We are talking about dehumanizing propaganda, instigation of mob violence, justifying the systematic killings of people under government internment, justifying intolerance and persecution, and justifying the genocide of an entire religious group.
We are talking about the greatest kind of evil the world has ever seen. And we see which side Anti-Mormons fall on, which modus operandi they adopt.
In the polygamy arguments, CES Letter approaches marriage from our modern society’s definition, ignore all historical context, and perpetuate the big lie that eternal sealings in the temple were the same as a civil marriage with a physical relationship. If Joseph Smith was a prophet, why did he destroy a newspaper? Well, he didn’t! But people are much more likely to believe CES Letter‘s narrative because they connected the dots out on their own, subconsciously. They are also more likely to believe the evidences for that deduction. One lie leads to another.
Why do so many “pro-equality” activists, good progressives who say people should be free to marry whoever they love, condemn Mormons for their history with polygamy? The same Anti-Mormons who attack us for the old history of polygamy also endorse “progressive” ideas about marriage and love. Shouldn’t polygamy be on their list of marriages that deserve equality? Well yes, it should, and this is why Anti-Mormons spin polygamy as something that coerces and manipulates women into subjugation. Lately, this narrative has become evens easier as there really are crazy cults that actually do victimize and force people to marry, criminals like Warren Jeffs.
This is why the previous narrative about women being victimized is so important, and why this argument’s narrative about suppressing freedom of speech is so important. As we can see with the Nauvoo Expositor, opponents in the media have trumpeted this narrative since the beginning. In the 1800’s, American newspapers were putting out story after story about how women in Utah were treated as “slaves.” It led to the federal government for the first time registering all marriages, controlling the definition of marriage, and jailing Mormons who did not fit that definition. Still today, Mormons are persecuted as some kind of oppressive patriarchy that victimized women. This narrative gives opponents justification for attacking Mormons while claiming to be “pro-equality.”
Attack On Family – The key component is the claim that men are victimizing women. This frame of ‘predator versus victim’ leads us to a Marxist ideology. Marxism is all about protecting victims from the predators. Marxists think the biggest miracle about mankind is that we evolved to the top of the food chain without ever becoming predators of other animals. Economically, Marxists protect working classes from a predator class. Marxism is all about protecting the vulnerable from those seeking unequal advantage–and all about keeping people weak in order to keep them reliant on a benevolent dictator for safety.
A major part of Marxism is the deconstruction of masculinity. They seek to pick positive masculine traits that propagate the ideology, such as the gusto to fight for the cause, and eliminate “toxic masculine” traits such as the desire to marry and have children in a traditional family. They think traditional families are evil because men contribute labor to the economy while women are “subjugated” as mothers and do not perform labor. The ideal for Marxists is a state where men and women are completely equal working bees and children are grown and raised by the benevolent dictator state. Nobody is preying on anybody.
The narrative that women are coerced into marriage because of Christianity comes straight from Karl Marx, and it is nothing but an attack on the traditional family. CES Letter‘s appeal to emotion is not only about attacking the church. It is about replacing the testimony of a gospel with. Marxists believe females are oppressed by men in a giant class struggle that hinders their economic output. Polygamy in the Mormon church was problem for Marxists because the higher law of eternal marriage is the perfect example of “inequality” that Marxists hate.
CES Letter can get away with this Big Lie because it is the consensus among so many fake scholars that Joseph Smith had carnal relations, and because it takes so long to actually investigate the evidence. People are too lazy to actually look through all the historical documents. Even mainstream church apologists are beaten down by all of the accusations and have give way to the big lie. They are too tired defending against it. They let CESLetter get away with the lie. Even if you don’t believe the allegations, just this association frames Joseph Smith as a creep.
| See also: | CES Letter Contradiction Strategy |
Contradiction Strategy – We could see the intellectual tricks and sophistry CES Letter used to portray Joseph Smith as a fraud in their arguments about the Book of Mormon and Book of Abraham. Well, even if that were all true and he were a fraud, so what? Aren’t Mormons still nice people who make the world a better place? The powerful thing with these polygamy arguments is that CES Letter tells you why Mormonism is still evil: it victimizes women and takes away free speech. This is easy rhetoric for them to push, as the internet is filled with all kinds of false rumors about Mormon polygamy and because the fake news media labels modern-day polygamist cultists as “Mormon”. It is easy to just repeat claims over and over, not give any evidence, and make the issue personal through manipulative repetition.
Total Hypocrisy From Anti-Mormons – This argument appeals to the universal value of free speech. It appeals to the heart of the United States constitution, implying that Mormons were violating the most basic laws of the land. Of course, that isn’t true. The truth is Mormons were having their most basic freedoms violated on a routine basis, and they finally said “enough is enough.” Stop the violence, stop the killing.
The LDS church teaches men to love and respect women. The LDS church teaches everyone to exercise free agency and not coerce or be coerced into anything. It is a liberating gospel and empowering for all classes, races, and sexes of people. We must not allow these slanderous lies to split men and women in the church. The principle of eternal marriage is a great blessing to each of us, and it strengthens family and society. We can avoid the pitfalls and perils that plague modern western society if we hold true to these covenants and standards.
Meanwhile, the top Anti-Mormons are trying to have Mormon leaders arrested because of their religious beliefs. Some things never change, do they? Unbelievable.Complete answers to CES Letter questions about Mormons: