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Date: July 01, 2020 08:57PM
(posted by Steve Benson originally under the title “Lyin' While Dyin': Even in His Last Letter to Emma, Joseph Smith, True to Form, Deceived His Wife About His True Intents,” Recovery from Mormonism Ford, August 16, 2012)
Trapped in Carthage jail as a now-captured fugitive from justice, historian Richard Abanes describes Joseph Smith's desperate mindset as he faced the frightening specter of his encroaching death:
"Smith understood all too well the seriousness of his situation. . . . He seemed to sense that he had but a few hours to live.
"'Dear Emma,' he began [in a P.S., in his own handwriting, on June 27, 1844, the morning of his demise]. 'I am very much resigned to my lot, knowing I am justified and have done the best that could be done. Give my love to the children and all my friends. . . and all who inquire after me; and as for treason, I know that I have not committed any and they cannot prove one appearance of anything of the kind. So you need not have any fears that any harm can happen to us on that score.
"'May God bless you all. Amen.'"
In a second postcript to the same letter, Smith told Emma:
"20 minutes to 10--I just learned that the Governor [of Illiinois] is about to disband his troops--all but a guard to protect us and the peace--and come himself to Nauuvoo and deliver a speech to the people. This is right, as I suppose."
What Smith told Emma about what he "supposed was right" was anything but--and Smith proved it by his last, desperate, futile efforts to defeat his own death.
_____
--Lyin' About Going Out Like a Lamb--
Joseph Smith was in no mood to die peaceably or quietly. To the contrary, as Mormon authors Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery note:
"This was ominous news [that of standing down the local Carthage milita], for in disbanding the Carthage Greys the governor left that anti-Mormon unit without any legal military supervison."
Given that foreboding turn of events, Smith most likely knew the jig was up. A telling indication that, indeed, bad news was brewing for him: Smith's friends had, one by one, been forced out of the Carthage jailhouse at bayonet point, leaving only him, his brother Hyrum, Willard Richards and John Taylor behind.
Uh-oh. Circle the wagons, boys. Things are about to get deadly.
To be sure, things were increasingly not looking good for Smith living a long life. Having correctly surmised that fact, just how "resigned" was he supposedly to his "lot," as he had disingenuously described it to Emma?
Apparently, not that much.
If Smith had been embracing his own death with open, Jesus-awaiting arms, why did he then waste little time calling in the cavalry?
Again, Abanes:
"Soon after finishing [his note to Emma], Joseph scribbled another message, addressed to Jonathan Dunham, telling him to bring the Nauvoo Legion in order to 'break the jail, and save him at all costs.'" As Mormon historian Donna Hill writes, "Horsemen were sent off at once with the message but for some unknown reason Dunham never received, or in any case never acted upon, [Smith's] request."
Smith, who had claimed to Emma that he was calmly accepting his fate, certainly was acting like he didn't believe a word of it.
When, for instance, Smith passed Hyrum a pistol for use against their anticipated attackers, Hyrum took it "under protest," saying, "I hate to use such things or see them used." Smith, however, responded, "So do I. But we may have to defend ourselves."
Even Dallin H. Oaks admits that "[i]n Carthage jail on the morning of June 27, 1844, Joseph Smith wrote a letter to his wife, reassuring her that if there was an attack, some of the militia would remain loyal. Later, he and Hyrum entertained several visitors, including Cyrus H. Wheelock, who, fearing an attack on the jail, slipped a pistol into Joseph's pocket."
Does that sound like a meek little lamb in a jam to you?
Then, when push finally came to shove, Smith shoved his self-vaunted lamb-ish caricature completely out the window and went it alone.
Abanes writes further (relying heavily on Brodie's account):
"[Upon hearing] loud noises, shouts and several shots being fired just outside the door that led into the jailhouse," Smith and the others quickly threw themselves against the door, but were forced back as musket balls ripped through the wooden panel. The door flew open and immediately several shots rang out.
"Hyrum was struck in the face and stumbled backward, crying out: 'I am a dead man!'" [Brodie is more graphic in her description of events: "As the door was forced open, three of the prisoners jumped nimbly to the left. But Hyrum was caught by fire from one of the half-dozen muzzles pointing evilly toward the doorway. The first ball struck him in the nose and he stumbled backward crying, 'I am a dead man!' As he was falling, three more caught him ffom the door and a fourth ball from the window shattered his left side"].
Back to Abanes on that peaceable pistol-packing lamb, otherwise known as Joseph Smith:
"[Smith]--who had been smuggled a six-shooter [a pepper-box pistol snuck in to him by Wheelock who had concealed it under his overcoat, prompting Smith to give Hyrum a single-barreled pistol that had been given to Smith earlier by another Mormon visitor]--fired all of his rounds at the door, severely wounding the man who had just killed his brother."
At this point, things were quickly going to hell in a handbasket as waves of hot lead filled the room from floor to ceiling, so Smith tried to make a one-man break for it:
". . . Joseph retreated, throwing his gun at the assailants and lunging for the second-story window in a vain attempt to escape. Just then, two musket balls hit Smith in the back as he leapt from the window. Another hit him from the outside as shots rang out He lurched forward, desperately yelling out the first four words of the Masonic call of distress: 'Oh, Lord my God.' (The entire Masonic call for distress is 'Oh Lord, my God. Is there no help for a widow's son?').
(Let it be paranthetically noted here that Oaks, in his sanitized version of events, fails to mention Smith's dying words, hollered from the jailhouse window that day in the form of a Mormon Mason Mayday).
Back to Smith's final moments, as laid out by Abanes, with further assistance from Brodie:
"For a few moments he just swung there helplessly from the sill as the mob watched. Levi Williams shouted, 'Shoot him! God damn him! Shoot the damned rascal!' But before anyone could fire, SMith dropped to the ground, still alive, but not for long.
"'But [still] no one shot. William Daniels, who was standing petrified at the sight, heard him cry: 'Oh Lord, my God!' and watched him drop to the ground. He twisted as he fell, landing on his right shoulder and back, and then rolled over on his face.
"One of the militia, barefooted and bareheaded, grinning through his black paint, leaped forward and dragged him against the well-curb in the yard. The prophet stirred a little and opened his eyes. There was no terror in them, but whether the calmness was from resignation or unconsciousness one cannot know.
"Colonel WIlliams now ordered four men to fire at him. As the balls struck, he cringed a little and fell forward on his face.' (Smith reportedly also had a bayonet run through him by one of the vigilantes [as claimed by] Samuel Williams, second lieutenant to the Carthage Militia, letter to John Prickett, July 10, 1844, reprinted in John E. Hallwas and Roger D. Launius, 'Cultures in Conflict,' p. 225)."
Does this sound like a man who said in his last letter to his first wife that he was "very much resigned to my lot"?
Decide for yourselves, as you read this, also courtesy of Brodie:
"Joseph had a six-shooter . . . , which had been smuggled in by friends the previous day. . . . . All four men sprung against the door, but retreated when the first ball penetrated the thick panel. . . .
"Joseph . . . discharged all six barrels down the passageway. Three of them missed fire, but the other three found marks. One of the wounded rushed back down the stairs, his arm a mass of blood and mangled flesh. 'Are you badly hurt?' someone shouted. 'Yes, my arm is all shot to pieces by Old Joe,' he screamed, 'but I don't care; I've got revenge; I shot Hyrum!'
"When his pistol was empty, Joseph flung it on the floor crying, 'There, defend yourself as well as you can,' and sprang to the window [only Joseph and Hyrum were armed with guns; the other two men were left to fend off the bullets with nothing but canes]. He [Smith] looked out upon a hundred bayonets gleaming dully in the murky light that seeped through the heavy storm clouds. Behind every bayonet there was a hideously painted face, and it must have seemed to him as if hell itself had vomited up this apparition.
"It is said by some who saw him that he gave the Masonic signal of distress and cried out: 'Is there no help for the widow's son?' (Zina Huntington Jacobs, one of Joseph's wives, said in later years in a public address: 'I am the widow of a Master Mason who, when leaping from the window of Carthage jail, pierced with bullets, made the Masonic sign of distress. . . ., ' [from] 'Latter-Day Saints Biographical Encyclopedia,' vol. 1, p. 668)."
The account by Newell and Avery describes Smith's not-so resigned attitude that demonstrated his decidedly unlamb-like resistance to any "sheep-to-the-slaughter" approach in the face of his looming doom:
" . . . [G]uards on the front steps [of Carthage jail] fired toward the attackers, who were less than 20 feet away, yet not one was hit (indicating that they must have know what was going on]. With no further resistance, the intruders threw the guards to the ground and started up the stairs. . . .
"Joseph and Hyrum grabbed for hidden guns, then the four bolted the door and held it. Unable to gain entry, the mob fired through the wood. A bullet hit Hyrum on the left side of his nose, shattering bone and flesh and knocking him backward to the floor, 'I am a dead man!' he cried, as another bullet entered his head from under his chin."
From Mormon historian Donna Hill's description of Smith's death-defiant last stand:
"It was shortly after 5 o'clock when the prisoners heard a scuffle downstairs at the door followed by a shout for surrender and three or four shots. Willard Richards dashed to the window and saw the armed men surroundng the jail.
"In a moment men were heard on the stairs. Joseph sprang for his six-shooter and Hyrum for his single-barreled pistol. Taylor grabbed Markham's great 'rascal beater' which he had left for the prisoners. Richards snatched a hickory cane and the two men threw themselves against the door. Balls whistled up the stairway. The raiders tried to shove in. Richards, a great heavy man who weighed over 300 pounds, braced himself against the door and he and Taylor tried to deflect the barrels of the muskets with their canes. Balls were fired into the room, lodging in the walls and ceiling. Swearing and shouting, more men crowded up the stairway and pushed against the door. When Hyrum stood back to aim his pistol, a shot through the panel of the door struck the left side of his nose and he fell moaning, 'I am a dead man.'
"Joseph leaned over his brother and cried, 'Oh, dear brother Hyrum!'' Seeing that he was dead, Joseph jumped up, threw open the door and emptied his six-shooter into the passageway. The gun missed fire once or twice but reports had it that Joseph wounded three or four men and that he slipped his fist through the door and punched a young man from Warsaw in the neck.
"An account written for the 'Atlantic Monthly' some years later commented upon Joseph's courage, saying that he stood by the jamb of the door and fired four shots, bringing his man down every time. According to that report, he shot an Irishman named Wills in the arm; a Southerner from the Mississippi bottom named Gallagher . . . in the face, a gawky youth from Bear Creek named Voorhees . . . in the shoulder and another man whom the reporter did not care to name because he was six feet two in moccasins. . . . It was, said that account, 'a handsome fight.'
"The shots made the conspirators pause only a moment. . . .
"Joseph threw down his empty gun. His friends said that he thought the others would be spared if he drew off the fire by leaping through the window [which sounds like a faith-promoting rumor, given that Smith was about to shout out a coded distress cry to Masons mob members down below, begging that they spare his life].
"He sprang to the sill. He was shot from the door and through the window from outside. He swayed a moment on the window ledge with one arm and leg dangling. With a cry of 'Oh Lord, my God!' he fell to the ground. Accounts do not agree about the precise moment of his death. One witness, Thomas Dixon, who was close enough to see blood on Joseph's trousers as he was hanging in the window, said he raised himself against the well curb and died instantly. Various accounts had it that Joseph's body was stabbed with a bayonet or otherwise molested but this was refuted by two close witnesses."
From Newell and Avery:
"Joseph opened the door a crack and fired until the gun chamber clicked empty. Bullets from outside the window sprayed the room. . . .
"Joseph leaped for the window as a mob burst through the door, pinning Richards behind it. Two bullets penetrated Joseph's back as a third entered his chest. With a cry of 'Oh Lord, my God!' he lurched through the window, hung on the sill for a moment, then pluummeted to the ground below. . . . A witness said Joseph raised himself partly up against the side of a well, then slumped over dead."
Up until shortly before he died in a hail of bullets, Smith was under the grand delusion that the Nauvoo Legion would loyally ride to his rescue. He held to this gravity-free view within the context of his bellicose belief that Mormons would surely and swiftly crush all oppressors. Barely a week before he was shot to death in his thwarted jailbreak at Carthage, Smith, as the madhatter mayor of Nauvoo, made this wild prophesy, published the next day in the "Nauvoo Neighbor":
"I . . ., in behalf of the Municipal Court of Nauvoo, warn the lawless not to be precipitate in any interference in our affairs, for as sure as there is a God in heaven, WE SHALL RIDE TRIUMPHANT OVER ALL OPPRESSION."
Mormon history researchers Jerald and Sandra Tanner make this post-mortem observation about Smith's dead-end retreat from reality that ended up killing him and seriously messing with the lives of his followers:
"Just eight days after Joseph Smith made this prophecy he was murdered in the Carthage jail and before two years had elapsed the Mormons were driven from Illinois. There is some evidence that just before his death Joseph Smith sent for the Nauvoo Legion to rescue him from the Carthage jail.
"Harold Schindler states:
"'Because [Governor] Ford had permitted Joseph to use the debtor's apartment in [the Carthage] jail and allowed several of the prophet's friends access to him, it was possible to smuggle messages out of Carthage. Realizing time was precious, Joseph dictated a note to Major-General Jonathan Dunham ordering him to call out the [Nauvoo] Legion and march on the jail immediately.
"'Dunham received the communication in Nauvoo but failed to carry out the command. One of the Legionnaires, Allen Stout, said, 'Dunham did not let a single man or mortal know that he had received such orders and we were kept in the city under arms not knowing but all was well.' (Orrin Porter Rockwell: "Man of God, Son of Thunder," p. 130)"
Mormon history researcher and writer, D. Michael Quinn, reports on why a cool-headed Dunham deliberately chose not to carry out Smith's kooky command to dispatch the Nauvoo Legion to Carthage for a Smith emergency extraction:
"The morning of 27 June [1844], Smith sent an order (in his own handwriting) to Major-General Jonathan Dunham to lead the Nauvoo Legion in a military attack on Carthage 'immediately' to free the prisoners.
"Dunham realized that such an assault by the Nauvoo Legion would result in two blood baths--one in Carthage and another when anti-Mormons (and probably the Illinois militia) retaliated by laying siege to Nauvoo for insurrection.
"To avoid civil war and destruction of Nauvoo’s population, Dunham refused to obey the order and did not notify Smith of his decision. One of his lieutenants, a former Danite, later complained that Dunham 'did not let a single mortal know that he had received such orders.'"
So, on the afternoon of 27 July 1844, at approximately 5 o'clock, a force exceeding more than 250 men marched on Carthage jail. Informed of their advance by a nervous jailer, Smith responded: “Don’t trouble yourself. They have come to rescue me.”
If only.
_____
--Conclusion: Joseph Smith Didn't Want to Die and Certainly Didn't Act like a Calm, Slaughterhouse-Bound Lamb When He Did--
Three days before he was gunned down, Smith and several of his Nauvoo City Council cohorts finally agreed to turn themselves over to Illinois state authority, after having been on the lam since Smith ordered the unconstitutional destruction of the "Nauvoo Expositor," a newspaper that exposed an array of Smith's illegal activities, lies and cover-ups.
Hill recounts the scene:
Pleading with him to surrender to Illinois governor Thomas Ford was Smith's wife, Emma. Smith--having been accused of cowardice by followers who likened him To "the shepherd who ran away when the wolves attacked and left his sheep to be devoured"--asked his older brother Hyrum what they should do,
Hyrum replied, "Let us go back and give ourselves up."
Smith responded, "We shall be butchered."
Hyrum answered, "The Lord is in it. If we live or die, we shall be reconciled to our fate."
Hill paints what happened next:
"The weather had cleared and it was a balmy, sunny day. A number of people wrote that Joseph told them as he passed that he was going like a lamb to the slaughter. According to Eliza R.Snow, he added, 'But I am as calm as a summer's morning; I have a conscience void of offense towards God, and towards all men; I shall die innocent and it shall yet said of me--he was murdered in cold blood.'"
Hold your coffin-pulling horses, there, Joseph. Hill further reports--this time with a telling twist--that it's not as sacred as you make it seem:
"Another version of [Smith's] parting words was carried in the Smith family. Joseph's niece Mary, daughter of [Smith's] brother Samuel, wrote to her cousin Ina, daughter of Don Carlos, that when Joseph was leaving for Carthage, he told his mother that he would never return alive and added, "I go as a lamb to the slaughter but if my death will atone for any faults I have committed during my lifetime, I am willing to die."
That's the spirit, Joseph. At least you confessed to your mom the truth, instead of lying like you did to your wife Emma in that letter:
'Dear Emma--I am very much resigned to my lot, knowing I am justified and have done the best that could be done. Give my love to the children and all my friends. . . and all who inquire after me; and as for treason, I know that I have not committed any and they cannot prove one appearance of anything of the kind. So you need not have any fears that any harm can happen to us on that score."
Right.
If you were so resigned to your lot, Joe, then why did you fight so hard, pistol a-blazin,' on your last day alive to stay alive?
"Resigned," my eye. You didn't want to die and were pleading to your dying breath for your Masonic band of brothers in that mob to come save you.
After all, in the end they were all you had, since your Nauvoo Legion never showed up.
Lamb.
Sham
What a Flim-Flam Man.
_____
Sources:
Richard Abanes, " One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church," Chapter 9, "March to Martyrdom," p. 199
Fawn Brodie, "No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet," Chapter 27, "Carthage," pp. 391, 394
Donna Hill, "Joseph Smith: The First Mormon," Chapter 14, "The Prophet Surrenders," and Chapter 15, "Martyrdom," pp. 402-03, 413-16
H. Michael Marquardt, "The Rise of Mormonism: 1816-1844," Chapter 27, "Tragedy: Death of a Prophet," p. 634
Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery, "Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith," Chapter 13, "A Final Farewell," pp. 192-95
Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin J. Hill, "Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith," Chapter 2, "Murder . . . by Reputable Set of Men," p. 20
D. Michael Quinn, "Mormon Hierarchy: Origins Power," p. 141
Jerald and Sandra Tanner, "Mormonism: Shadow or Reality?," under "Like a Lamb?," pp. 258-59