Joseph Smith

During most of the 1830s, Smith lived in Kirtland, Ohio, which remained the headquarters of his church until a banking scandal in 1837 forced him and the other church members in Ohio to join the Latter Day Saints in Missouri. There, tensions between church members and non-Mormons escalated into the 1838 Mormon War, leading to Smith's imprisonment and an executive order by Missouri's governor expelling Latter Day Saints from the state. After escaping from custody, Smith and his followers settled in Nauvoo, Illinois.

Disaffected associates and critics accused him of practicing polygamy, which he publicly denied, and aspiring to create a theocracy. He ran for President of the United States in 1844, and during the campaign, his part in the Nauvoo City Council's decision to suppress a local newspaper that had published accusations against Smith led to his assassination by a mob of non-Mormons.

Smith's legacy includes several religious denominations with total adherents numbering in the millions, who share a belief in Jesus but which vary in their acceptance of each other and of traditional Christianity. Smith's followers consider him a prophet and believe some of his revelations are sacred texts on par with the Bible.

Life

Early years

Many years later, Smith reported that in 1820, when he was fourteen, he had experienced a theophany, an appearance of God to man, an event commonly referred to by Latter Day Saints as the First Vision. Smith eventually recorded several accounts of this vision,^[2] and the version that was later canonized by the LDS Church was first publicly revealed in 1838.^[3]

Smith said that he had been concerned about what denomination to join and prayed in a nearby woods (now often called the Sacred Grove). There he had a vision in which he saw God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ as two separate, glorious, resurrected beings of flesh and bone. They told him that no contemporary church was correct in its teachings, and that he should join none of them.^[4]

According to Smith, he reported his vision to a local minister, who pronounced it "of the devil," because (Smith said) the minister believed "there were no such things as visions or revelations in these days; that all such things had ceased with the apostles, and there would never be any more of them." Smith recounted (although with no external confirmation) that he was soon the object of much persecution and reviling in his neighborhood, for maintaining that he had seen a vision.^[5]

Meanwhile Smith participated in a "craze for treasure hunting."^[6] Beginning as a youth in the early 1820s, Smith was paid to act as what was called a "seer", using seer stones in (mostly unsuccessful) attempts to locate lost items and buried treasure.^[7] Smith's contemporaries describe his process for finding treasure as placing the stone in a white stovepipe hat, putting his face over the hat to block the light, and then "seeing" the information in the reflections of the stone.^[8] His preferred stone, which some said he also used later to translate the golden plates, was chocolate-colored and about the size of an egg,^[9] found in a deep well he helped dig for one of his neighbors.^[10]

During this period Smith said he experienced a visitation from an angel named Moroni^[11] who directed him to a long-buried book, inscribed on golden plates, which contained a record of God's dealings with ancient Israelite inhabitants of the Americas. This record, along with other artifacts (including a breastplate and what Smith referred to as the Urim and Thummim), was buried in a hill near his home. On September 22, 1827, Smith said that after four years of waiting and preparation, the angel allowed him to take possession of the plates and other artifacts. Almost immediately thereafter local people tried to discover where the plates were hidden.^[12]

Smith left his family farm in October 1825 and was hired by Josiah Stowall, of nearby Chenango county, to search for a Spanish silver mine by gazing at seer stones.^[13] In March 1826, Smith was charged with being a "disorderly person and an impostor" by a court in nearby Bainbridge.^[14] Smith also met Emma Hale during this period and married her on January 18, 1827.

1827 to 1830: Organizing the Church

Smith and his wife moved to Harmony, Pennsylvania, with the financial assistance of an honest, prosperous, but superstitious neighbor Martin Harris.^[15] Smith told a few family members and associates, including Harris, that he had translated some of the Reformed Egyptian text from the Golden plates and suggested that Harris take a sample of the characters to several well-known scholars, including Columbia College professor Charles Anthon.^[16] Convinced in his own mind that the characters were genuine, Harris acted as Smith's scribe while Smith translated the golden plates by examining the Urim and Thummim or seer stones in the bottom of his hat.^[17]

In June 1828, after completing the first 116 pages of the translation, Smith reluctantly allowed Harris to take the manuscript to Palmyra to show his skeptical wife Lucy. When Harris returned, long overdue, he told Smith that the manuscript had disappeared. About the same time, Smith's wife Emma gave birth to a stillborn son. Smith, understandably distraught over losing both his child and the manuscript,^[18] then dictated to Emma his first written revelation, which rebuked him for losing the manuscript pages but assigned most of the blame to Harris.^[19] The revelation assured Smith that if he repented, God would restore the interpreters that the angel had taken away. ^[20] During this period, Smith also may have briefly joined a Methodist inquirers' class in Harmony. ^[21]

Lucy Mack Smith said that her son received the interpreters again on September 22, 1828, and he slowly resumed translating with Emma taking the dictation. The pace of the translation greatly increased, however, after April 7, 1829, when Oliver Cowdery arrived in Harmony. Cowdery was a school teacher whose family, like Joseph's, had engaged in treasure seeking and other magical practices,^[22] and Cowdery had taken an interest in Smith's story while in Palmyra.^[23] Smith dictated most of the Book of Mormon to Cowdery between early April and late June.^[24] In later years, both men testified that during this period they had been ordained by John the Baptist and then had baptized each other in the Susquehanna River.^[25]

In early June 1829, Smith and Cowdery moved to Fayette, New York to complete the translation, and Smith began to seek converts. As Richard Bushman has written, when people believed, "they did not just subscribe to the book; they were baptized." But as Joseph "began to seek converts the question of credibility had to be addressed again. Joseph knew his story was unbelievable."^[26] He finally had a revelation that others, known today as the Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses, would bear testimony to the existence of the plates—which they did on unknown dates and at unknown locations sometime in early July 1829.^[27] Finally, the Book of Mormon was published in Palmyra on March 26, 1830 by printer E. B. Grandin. Martin Harris financed the publication by mortgaging his farm.^[28]

On April 6, 1830, Joseph Smith and his followers formally organized as the Church of Christ,^[29] and small branches were established in Palmyra, Fayette, and Colesville, New York. There was strong opposition to the church, and in late June, Smith was again brought to court but acquitted.^[30] Perhaps it was during this period that Smith and Cowdery later said that they received a visitation from Peter, James, and John, three apostles of Jesus, who appeared to them in order to restore the Melchizedek priesthood, which they said contained the necessary authority to restore Christ's church.^[31]

In July 1831, Smith revealed that the church would establish a "City of Zion" in Native American territory near Missouri.^[32] In anticipation, Smith dispatched missionaries, led by Oliver Cowdery, to the area. On their way, they converted a group of Disciples of Christ adherents in Kirtland, Ohio led by Sidney Rigdon. To avoid growing opposition in New York, Smith moved the headquarters of the church to Kirtland.^[33]

1831 to 1834: Kirtland

Sidney Rigdon's supporters more than doubled the number of Latter Day Saints, and when the comparatively well-educated and oratorically gifted Rigdon became Smith's closest adviser, he aroused the resentment of some of Smith's earliest followers.^[34] The Kirtland saints also exhibited unusual spiritual gifts such as loud prophesying, speaking in unknown tongues, swinging from house joists, and rolling on the ground. With some difficulty, Joseph managed to check the most extreme forms of religious enthusiasm.^[35]

Although in Ohio Joseph and his family had to live as guests in other people's homes, this period saw a prolific increase in Smith's revelations. Following the completion of the Book of Mormon, Smith rarely any longer used his seer stone; and later "translations" were not based on purported ancient writings. He now received supernatural direction "whether a text lay before him or not."^[36] From the early 1830s came the Book of Moses (which included a long passage about the biblical Enoch) as well as an attempt to revise the Bible.^[37] Smith also collected his earlier revelations, which believers had already begun to treat as sacred texts, and published them in 1833 as the Book of Commandments (later, the Doctrine and Covenants).^[38]

In early 1831, revelations instructed Joseph to organize a new social system, called the United Order, in preparation for the coming millennium. Members were required to "consecrate" their property to the church so that "every man may receive according as he stands in need."^[39] As Richard Bushman has written, "The experiment was a failure, and the two-year existence of the system was about average for the various communal experiments being undertaken in the period."^[40]

By 1832, the twenty-six-year-old Smith led an organization of about thousand followers. Not only were the burdens of his office beyond his experience, some disaffected former followers accused Smith of dictatorial ambition, deceiving the credulous, and the intent to take their frontier property.^[41] On March 24, they encouraged a mob to drag Smith and Rigdon from their beds and beat them unconscious. Joseph was tarred and feathered and narrowly escaped being castrated.^[42] The attack encouraged Joseph to accelerate a trip to Missouri.^[43]

In the summer of 1831, Smith had received a revelation that the eventual Zion for Latter Day Saints would be in Independence, Missouri, at the time a ragged village of no more than twenty dwellings.^[44] During his 1832 visit, Joseph had to dampen hard feelings among his subordinates there, but he was also able to found the first Mormon newspaper, the Evening and Morning Star, at the time the westernmost newspaper in the United States.^[45]

The rough pioneers of Missouri found Joseph's prophecies about Zion threatening.^[46] They tarred and feathered two church leaders, and vigilantes destroyed Mormon homes, effectively forcing the Saints to move to Clay County.^[47] Smith tried to organize a military response from Kirtland—a revelation had told him that "the redemption of Zion must needs come by power"—but the trek of what came to be called Zion's Camp ended with nothing accomplished.^[48]

For the next several years, Smith's attention was split between Ohio and Missouri, but his family lived in Kirtland. There, under his direction, the Saints sacrificed to build a stone temple. For a few months after its completion in early 1836, this first temple was the scene of visions, angelic visitations, prophesying, speaking and singing in tongues, and other spiritual experiences.^[49] But economically the Kirtland temple was "a disaster," money that might have been used for the City of Zion was channeled into a costly building project. Both Smith and his church went deeply in debt, and Smith was "hounded by his creditors ever after."^[50]

After the dedication of the Kirtland temple, Smith's life "descended into a tangle of intrigue and conflict."^[51] Following his death in 1844, both friend and foe agreed that sometime during this period Joseph privately married Fanny Alger, a serving girl in the Smith household, as a plural wife, a relationship that Oliver Cowdery referred to in 1838 as a "dirty, nasty, filthy affair."^[52]

After the Saints were driven from Jackson County, Missouri, Joseph was "stunned for months, scarcely knowing what to do."^[53] In August 1836, he received a revelation that there was "much treasure" in Salem, Massachusetts. Hoping he might find it with his seer stone, he and his closest associates left the financially troubled Kirtland community for the East. By September they were back in Kirtland; they returned with no treasure.^[54]

A more common expedient for raising money on the frontier was wildcat banking. Smith did not have enough capital to obtain a state charter, but he printed notes anyway and circulated them in January 1837. The Kirtland Safety Society failed within a month. The notes had Smith's signature on them, and he was personally blamed for the fiasco. The onset of a nationwide panic in 1837 also encouraged creditors to pursue their debtors vigorously.^[55] Many Latter Day Saints, including prominent leaders who had invested in the banking scheme, became disaffected and either left the church or were excommunicated.^[56] There were even a couple of unseemly rows in the temple, including one occasion on which guns and knives were drawn.^[57] When a leading apostle, David Patten, raised insulting questions, Joseph slapped him in the face and kicked him into the yard.^[58] After a warrant was issued for Smith's arrest on the charge of bank fraud, Smith and Rigdon fled Kirtland for Missouri on the night of January 12, 1838.^[59]

1835 to 1838: Missouri

After being forced from Clay County, the Missouri Saints had established themselves slightly north and east in Caldwell and Daviess Counties. Mormons from New York, Ohio, and Canada streamed to this frontier territory, and Joseph encouraged the pioneers "with a revelation promising to 'make solitary places to bud and to blossom, and to bring forth in abundance.'"^[60] Smith even called the new settlement around Far West, the "church in Zion,"^[61] "implying that Far West was to take the place of Independence."^[62]

The Missouri period was marked by many instances of violent conflict and legal difficulties for Smith and his followers. The Latter Day Saints and non-Mormons in Missouri were, in general, fundamentally very different people. Local leaders and residents saw the Latter Day Saint community as a threat to their property and their political control due to the church practice of voting 'en bloc. The tension was further fueled by the church belief that Jackson County, Missouri, and the surrounding lands would become a "promised land" to the Latter Day Saints as they purchased property and built settlements, and that God would give them the land and dissenters would be 'plucked out'. The Latter Day Saints began migrating to Missouri after Smith stated that Missouri would be the future center of the New Jerusalem. After the church leadership left Kirtland in 1838, the Saints from Kirtland followed them to Missouri increasing the church's numbers, which confirmed the fears of the local leaders and residents that the Mormons would dominate Missouri politics.

Later in 1838, many non-Mormon residents of Missouri, and the LDS settlers engaged in an ongoing conflict often referred to as the Mormon War. After several skirmishes, the Battle of Crooked River (which involved Missouri state militia troops and a group of Latter Day Saints) occurred. There is considerable debate as to whether the Latter Day Saints knew their opponents were government officials.

Many reports of this battle (some claimed that half of the militia's men had been lost, when in fact they had suffered only one casualty), as well as affidavits by ex-Mormons that Mormons were planning to burn both Liberty and Richmond, Missouri, made their way to Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs. Boggs issued an executive order in response on 27 October 1838, known as the "Extermination Order". It stated that the Mormon community had "made war upon the people of this State" and that "the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace".^[63]^[64] The Extermination Order was not officially rescinded until 1976 by Missouri Governor Christopher S. Bond.

Soon afterward, the 2,500 troops from the state militia converged on the Saint's headquarters at Far West. They raided Far West, ransacked and burned many homes,and killed several people. Smith and several other Church leaders were brought into the Missouri Militia by Colonel George M. Hinkle. Hinkle then handed the prisoners over to General Lucas. They were held at Liberty Jail, and spent several months in captivity. They were later transferred to a jail in Columbia, Missouri.

The legality of Boggs' "Extermination Order" was debated in the legislature, but its objectives were achieved. Most of the Latter Day Saint community in Missouri had either immediately left or been forced out by the spring of 1839.

Life in Nauvoo, Illinois

After escaping Missouri in 1839, Smith and his followers regrouped. They established a new headquarters in a town on the banks of the Mississippi River, called Commerce, in Hancock County, Illinois, which they renamed Nauvoo. They were granted a charter by the state of Illinois, and Nauvoo was quickly built up by the faithful, including many new arrivals. The Nauvoo city charter authorized independent municipal courts, the foundation of a university and the establishment of a militia unit known as the "Nauvoo Legion." These and other institutions gave the Latter Day Saints a considerable degree of autonomy.

Construction of a new temple in Nauvoo began in the autumn of 1840. It was significantly larger and more grandiose than the one left behind in Kirtland, as it was intended for different functions (member endowments and baptisms) than the first temple (which could be used for large gatherings). The cornerstones were laid during a conference on April 6, 1841. Although Smith was instrumental in its completion, it was not finished until more than five years after Smith's death. It was dedicated on May 1, 1846, well after Nauvoo citizens had begun abandoning the city for points west (the first significant exodus occurred in February 1846). Approximately four months afterward, Nauvoo had been abandoned by the majority of its citizens under threats of mob action.

Joseph Smith broke with short-time church member Dr. John C. Bennett in 1841 over the public scandal that arose when Bennett's 'spiritual wifery' conduct became known, and Nauvoo "rocked with tales that connected Joseph with Bennett's scandals."^[66] Bennett accused Smith of subsequently introducing new code words for polygamy — 'celestial marriage', 'plurality of wives', 'spiritual wifeism' — to conceal the controversial practice^[67], which Smith and the leadership of the church publicly denied in statement after statement, endorsed by whole councils of the church. In April 1844, Joseph Smith referred to polygamy as "John C. Bennett's spiritual wife system" and warned "if any man writes to you, or preaches to you, doctrines contrary to the Bible, the Book of Mormon, or the book of Doctrine and Covenants, set him down as an imposter." Smith mused

Published allegations of adultery against Sarah Pratt and Bennett appeared in local and church publications^[69] with signed affidavits from her neighbors Stephen and Zeruiah Goddard and others. Dr. Robert D. Foster made the following allegation against Bennett and Pratt:

Pratt later claimed that Zeruiah Goddard told her these testimonies were made under threat from Joseph's brother Hyrum Smith:

The author Richard S. Van Wagoner concluded that the adultery charges against Sarah Pratt are "highly improbable" and could "be dismissed as slander."^[72] In addition to Sarah Pratt, Van Wagoner states that Nancy Rigdon and Martha Brotherton, "also suffered slanderous attacks because they exposed the Church's private polygamy posture."^[73] Orson Pratt stood by his wife Sarah in preference to the denials of Smith, who told his disciple Orson that "If [Orson] did believe his wife and follow her suggestions he would go to hell".^[74] Wilford Woodruff stated that "Dr. John Cook Bennett was the ruin of Orson Pratt".^[75] Van Wagoner and Walker note that, on August 20, 1842, "after four days of fruitless efforts at reconciliation, the Twelve excommunicated Pratt for 'insubordination' and Sarah for 'adultery'".^[76]

Sidney Rigdon wrote a letter to the Messenger and Advocate in 1844 condemning the church's Quorum of the Twelve and their alleged connection to polygamy,

Smith purportedly received the 1843 polygamy revelation on July 12^[88], although this was not published until 1852 in Utah. Smith taught doctrines which he claimed were practiced in the early Christian church such as Baptism for the dead. He also is purported to have introduced other teachings and ordinances such as the Endowment,^[89] and "the principle" of plural marriage^[90] neither of which are found in mainstream Christianity. Smith continued to publicly condemn polygamy and in May 1844 referred to those accusing him of practicing it as "perjurers".^[91]

Nauvoo Expositor and Death

Disaffected Mormons in Nauvoo published the Nauvoo Expositor newspaper on 7 June 1844, which was contained polygamy allegations against Smith, which Smith denied publicly, and his exercise of political power.^[92] The Nauvoo city council and its leader, Nauvoo Mayor Joseph Smith, voted on 1844-06-10 to declare the paper a public nuisance and ordered the paper's printing press destroyed.^[93]^[94]^[95]^[96]^[97]^[98] This action was seen as an illegal violation of freedom of the press. Violent threats were made against Smith and the Mormon community in Nauvoo. Warrants from outside Nauvoo were brought in against Smith. Smith declared martial law on June 18, causing Illinois Governor Thomas Ford to charge Smith and his brother Hyrum with treason against the state of Illinois. Smith submitted to incarceration in Carthage. Smith's brother, Hyrum, and eight of his associates including John Taylor and Willard Richards, accompanied him to the jail.^[99] The Governor had promised Smith protection and a fair trial.^[100]^[101]

On June 27, 1844, an armed group of about 200 men stormed the jail, and went to Smith's cell. After a brief struggle, the group was able to open fire on Smith and his associates. Hyrum Smith was shot in the face, and died immediately. As the mob burst through the doorway, Joseph Smith, who had earlier been given a six-shooter by Elder Cyrus H. Wheelock,^[102] managed to fire three shots at the mob in attempts to drive them away from the door.^[103] Richards was unharmed, while Taylor was shot several times, but survived. (One of the bullets may have glanced off the pocket watch in his left breast pocket.^[104]^[105]) Smith, however, was shot multiple times while trying to escape by jumping out of an open window. After he fell from the window, he was shot several more times, killing him. He was 38 years of age.

Smith and his brother were initially buried below the Smith Homestead in Nauvoo. They were later disinterred in 1928 on the orders of Smith's grandson Frederick M. Smith, then President of the RLDS Church, and reburied along with Smiths' wife Emma in a location thought to be safer from Mississippi flooding.^[106]^[107]

Family and children

Emma Smith and other known or alleged wives

Smith met Emma Hale in 1825 when he boarded with the Hales while he was employed in a company hoping to unearth buried treasure. Although the company was unsuccessful, Smith returned to Harmony several times seeking Emma's hand. Isaac Hale, Emma's father, refused to allow the marriage so the couple eloped across the state line to South Bainbridge, New York, present day Afton, New York, and were married on 18 January 1827, by the Village of Afton, New York Justice of the Peace. The couple initially moved to the home of Smith's parents on the edge of Manchester Township near Palmyra.

Historians agree that Smith taught that polygamy was a divine commandment, and practiced it personally, by many accounts marrying dozens of women before his death.^[108]^[109] During Smith's life he publicly preached and wrote against the doctrine of plural marriage.^[110]^[111]^[112] The church's scripture, penned by Smith, mentioned polygamy in the 1835 and 1844 Doctrine and Covenants,

Affidavits and testimony of many individuals, made after Smith's death, indicate that many of the plural marriages were performed by Smith before his death in 1844,^[90]^[114] among them two fourteen year old girls,^[115]^[90]^[116] and several women in their 50's. Numerous early converts, including Brigham Young,^[117] who claimed to have married Lightner to Smith,^[118]^[119] Orson Pratt, and Lyman Johnson, asserted that Joseph Smith was teaching plural marriage as early as 1831 or 1832. Smith purportedly received the 1843 polygamy revelation, proclaimed in 1852 by Brigham Young,^[120]^[121] but Young was unable to produce the original document and declared that Emma Smith had burned it.^[122] To this Emma Smith replied that she had never seen such a document, and added concerning the story that she had destroyed the original: "It is false in all its parts, made out of whole cloth, without any foundation in truth."^[123] The revelation was codified in Mormon canon by Young in 1876 as part of the LDS Church Doctrine and Covenants 132, but rejected by the RLDS Church as not having been written by Smith.^[124]^[125] The text of the revelation states that Christ commands the practice of polygamy or plural marriage in a “new and an everlasting covenant” and declares that anyone who rejects the new practices will suffer damnation and will not “be permitted to enter into my glory.”^[126] There is also an alleged polygamy revelation that Smith received in 1831.^[127]^[128]^[129]^[130]^[131] Accusations of polygamy by disapproving Mormons were published in the Nauvoo Expositor in 1844.^[92] Smith responded to the polygamy accusations by again publicly denying them and declaring the paper a public nuisance and ordered the paper's printing press destroyed.^[93]^[132]^[96]^[97]^[95]^[133] Smith's subsequent arrest and murder by a mob prompted church members to leave the area, eventually leading to the Mormon Exodus to Utah in 1846–47.

Children

During the early portion of their marriage, Joseph and Emma Smith had the following children:

No alleged children of Joseph Smith, Jr. born to women other than Emma Smith has ever been proven, though the question of Smith's progeny from his alleged polygamous wives has been raised since his death. Several alleged Smith descendants have been identified but highly accurate DNA tests have in 2007 eliminated four candidates^[135]^[136]^[137] though research into this history is complicated by the facts that Y-DNA genetic testing for non-male lines is not possible, and two candidates died as infants.^[137] Smith was accused by Sarah Pratt in an 1886 interview with "vitriolic anti-Mormon journalist W. Wyl"^[138]of allowing John C. Bennett, a medical doctor, to perform abortions on polygamous wives who were officially single, which she alleged limited Smith's progeny from these wives.^[139]^[140] She based this on statements made to her by Bennett.^[141] Orson Pratt, Sarah Pratt's husband, considered Bennett a liar: "J.C. Bennett has published lies concerning myself & family & the people with which I am connected....His book I have read with the greatest disgust. No candid honest man can or will believe it. He has disgraced himself in eyes of all civilized society who will despise his very name,"^[72] whereas Sarah Pratt herself said, "[I] know that the principle statements in John C. Bennett's book on Mormonism are true."^[77]

Major teachings

During his adult life — from the time he began translating the Book of Mormon in 1827 until his death in 1844 — Smith introduced a large number of religious teachings. Although a number of his teachings are similar to doctrines circulating during his lifetime, several are unique to Smith.

Nearly all Smith's teachings had some root in the King James Version of the Bible, or his interpretation or elaboration of it. However, he believed in other scripture, and that in some instances, the Bible was translated incorrectly.^[142] Thus, he restored temples, orders of priesthood, and other elements of the Bible that he felt had been wrongly abandoned by most of Christianity as part of a Great Apostasy. Much of this restoration is presented in the Doctrine and Covenants, which is described as modern scripture.

In many cases, Smith's doctrines or interpretations of the Bible, as well as his own revelations, placed him at odds with mainstream Christianity. For example, he publicly rejected mainstream Christianity's long-standing formulation of the Trinity as recorded in the 4th century Nicene Creed.^[143]

Legacy

Immediate reaction

Smith's death created a crisis for the Latter Day Saints. Their charismatic founder was dead and their hierarchy was scattered on missionary efforts and in support of Smith's presidential campaign. Brigham Young recorded in his journal his initial concern after Smith's murder: "The first thing which I thought of was, whether Joseph had taken the keys of the kingdom with him from the earth." Without the keys of the kingdom, that is, the appropriate Priesthood authority, Young recognized the possibility that, according to the church's doctrine and Smith's own teachings, the church lacked a divinely-sanctioned leader.

Because of ongoing tensions, the state legislature revoked Nauvoo's city charter and it was disincorporated. All protection, public services, self-government and other public benefits were revoked. Those who lived in the former City of Nauvoo referred to it as the City of Joseph—he being its founder—after this time, until the city was again granted a charter. Without official defenses, city residents continued to be persecuted by opponents, leading Young to consider other areas for settlement, including Texas, California, Iowa, and the Great Basin region.

Succession

Smith left ambiguous or contradictory succession instructions that led to arguments and disagreements among the church's members and leadership, several of whom claimed rights to leadership.

An August 8, 1844 conference which established Young's leadership is the source of an oft-repeated legend. Multiple journal and eyewitness accounts from those who followed Young state that when Young spoke regarding the claims of succession by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, he appeared to look or sound like the late Smith. Although many of these accounts were written years after the event, there were contemporary records. Historian D. Michael Quinn wrote:

Most Latter Day Saints followed Young, but some aligned with other various people claiming to be Smith's successor. Some waited for Smith's son, Joseph Smith III, to assume leadership of the church despite his young age at the death of his father. The church had published a revelation in 1841 stating "I say unto my servant Joseph, In thee, and in thy seed, shall the kindred of the earth be blessed",^[146] and this was widely interpreted as endorsing the concept of Lineal Succession. Documentary evidence indicates also that Smith set apart his son as his successor at various private meetings and public gatherings, including Liberty^[147] and Nauvoo.^[148] Indeed, Brigham Young assured the bulk of Smith's followers as late as 1860 that young Joseph would eventually take his father's place.^[149] That year, on April 6, the younger Smith became leader of what was to later be incorporated as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now called the Community of Christ church) in the Midwest, made up of scattered church members not having journeyed west with Young, including Smith's widow Emma and two of Joseph III's brothers. Smith III stated at the conference:

Adherents of the denominations originating from Joseph Smith's teachings currently number between thirteen and fourteen million. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the largest denomination with reported membership of over 13 million.^[151]^[152] The second largest is the Community of Christ, formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), with about 250,000 members. Other groups who follow Smith's teachings have membership numbering from dozens to the tens of thousands.^[153]

Many of these smaller groups were spread throughout the midwestern United States, especially in Independence, Missouri, and several remain viable as religious groups. Issues relating to the succession crisis are still the subject of discussion and debate.

In the modern media

Contents