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| | #REDIRECT[[Creation of the Kirtland Safety Society]] |
| ==Criticism==
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| Critics attack Joseph Smith over the Kirtland Safety Society (KSS) on multiple grounds:
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| * they claim the KSS was a "wildcat bank"
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| * they claim that the bank was illegal, and that the Church broke the law by founding it
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| * they claim it was a money-making scheme for Joseph
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| * they claim its failure proves Joseph was not a prophet
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| ===Source(s) of the Criticism===
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| *
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| ==Response==
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| This article will address the above issues, but it necessary to first discuss:
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| * vocabulary often used in discussions of banks and banking
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| * the reason for the formation of the KSS
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| * the status of banks in the 1830s frontier
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| * the way in which the KSS functioned
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| ===Terms and Defintions===
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| ;face value: the money value marked on scrip. For a $20 note, the face value would be $20.
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| ;note: another term for ''scrip''
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| ;redeem: to exchange scrip for specie at the bank
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| ;specie: hard currency, 'official' US money
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| ;scrip: paper money, issued by a bank. An example of KSS scrip can be seen [http://www.mormonmoney.com/Kirtland%20Anti-Bank%20Notes.htm here].
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| ;wildcat bank: a bank established as a money-making scam. Hard currency (specie) would be accepted by the bank, who would issue paper money (scrip). To redeem the scrip, however, one had to travel to the bank (the "home office," so to speak). A wildcat bank would be established in a remote, hard-to-access place (where "the wildcats are"). This sometimes made it difficult to even find the bank, much less bring the scrip to be redeemed for specie. Wildcat banks would sometimes place the name of a town on their notes, but have the bank located somewhere else, making it difficult to track them down. Thus, the bank kept the specie, and the note holder was left with worthless paper which no one would honor, since it could not be redeemed. Such banks usually collapsed quite quickly when it became clear that their notes were not easily redeemed. Their owners tried, presumably, to skip town before the law or the note holders caught up with them.
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| ===Why form a bank?===
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| ===What were banks like at the time?===
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| ===How did the KSS work?===
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| ===Criticisms===
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| ===="Wildcat bank"?====
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| A "wildcat bank" was a financial institution which was placed in a hard-to-access, out-of-the-way place (where "the wildcats were"). This meant that bank scrip
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| ====Illegal?====
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| ====Enriching Joseph?====
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| ====Not a prophet?====
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| ==Conclusion==
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| A summary of the argument against the criticism.
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| ==Further reading==
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| ===FAIR wiki articles===
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| *Links to related articles in the wiki
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| ===FAIR web site===
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| *Links to articles on the FAIR web site; Topical Guide entries go first
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| ===External links===
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| *Scott H. Partridge, [http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cgi-bin/docviewer.exe?CISOROOT=/byustudies&CISOPTR=21938&CISOSHOW=3856 "The Failure of the Kirtland Safety Society,"] ''BYU Studies'' 12:4 (Summer 1972):437–454. [http://gospelink.com/library/doc?doc_id=282115 GospeLink]
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| *Paul Sampson and Larry T. Wimmer, [http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cgi-bin/docviewer.exe?CISOROOT=/byustudies&CISOPTR=21938&CISOSHOW=3857 "The Kirtland Safety Society: The Stock Ledger Book and the Bank Failure,"] ''BYU Studies'' 12:4 (Summer 1972):427–436. [http://gospelink.com/library/doc?doc_id=282114 GospeLink]
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| *Dale W. Adams, [http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cgi-bin/docviewer.exe?CISOROOT=/byustudies&CISOPTR=25601&CISOSHOW=24614 "Chartering the Kirtland Bank,"] ''BYU Studies'' 23:4 (Fall 1983) 467–482. [http://gospelink.com/library/doc?doc_id=282604 GospeLink]
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| *Marvin S. Hill, Keith C. Rooker and Larry T. Wimmer, [http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cgi-bin/docviewer.exe?CISOROOT=/byustudies&CISOPTR=21958&CISOSHOW=6877 "The Kirtland Economy Revisited: A Market Critique of Sectarian Economics,"] ''BYU Studies'' 17:4 (Summer 1977): 389–471. [http://gospelink.com/library/doc?doc_id=282335 GospeLink]
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| *[http://www.mormonmoney.com/ Images of KSS scrip and other "Mormon Money"]
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| ===Printed material===
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| *Printed resources whose text is not available online
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