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Mormonism and Wikipedia/Joseph Smith, Jr./Death: Difference between revisions
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=An analysis of Wikipedia article "Joseph Smith, Jr." (Version 19 May 2009)=


=== Death (Section Version 1/8/2010)===
==Reviews of previous revisions of this section==
{{Main|Death of Joseph Smith, Jr.}}
{{SummaryItem
|link=/051909
|subject=19 May 2009
|summary=A review of this section as it appeared in Wikipedia on 19 May 2009.
}}


===Reviews of previous revisions of this section===
==Section review==
[[/051909|19 May 2009]]
=== Death {{WikipediaUpdate|9/3/2011}} ===


====Dissent in Nauvoo====
{{BeginWikipediaTable|link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith,_Jr.|section=Dissent_in_Nauvoo|article=Joseph Smith, Jr.}}
===== =====
===== =====
||
{{IndexClaimItemShort
Smith faced growing opposition among his former supporters in Nauvoo, and he "was stunned by the defections of loyal followers."
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
||
|claim=
*Bushman (2005), 527.
Smith and his brother Hyrum were held in [[Carthage Jail]] on charges of treason.
||
|authorsources=<br>
#Joseph and Hyrum were accompanied in jail by [[John Taylor (Mormon)]] and Dr. [[Willard Richards]], who were not prisoners.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
|-
|


===== =====
===== =====
||
{{IndexClaimItemShort
Chief among the dissidents was [[William Law (Latter Day Saints)|William Law]], Smith's second counselor in the [[First Presidency]], who was well respected in the Mormon community.
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
||
|claim=
*Ostlings, 14. Law had taken Hyrum Smith's place in the First Presidency as second counselor. Brodie calls Law one of Smith's "ablest and most courageous men." Brodie, 368. Law had been one of the few Saints to arrive in Nauvoo with capital; and he and his brother Wilson had purchased a considerable amount of land and constructed flour and lumber mills. Bushman (2005), 528. Brodie notes that Law came from Canada "a wealthy man" and had fostered "more than anyone else the sorely needed industrialization of the city." Brodie, 368.
On June 27, 1844, an armed group with blackened faces stormed the jail and killed Hyrum instantly with a shot to the face.
||
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=550}} ("Hyrum was the first to fall. A ball through the door struck him on the left side of the nose, throwing him to the floor.")
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
|-
|


===== =====
===== =====
||
{{IndexClaimItemShort
Law's disagreement with Smith was partly economic.
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
||
|claim=
*Law paid his workers in cash, but Smith "operated on [[scrip]], credit, and tithed labor." Law was also convinced that Smith was misappropriating money donated by church members to complete the Nauvoo House hotel in order to buy land and sell it to converts at a profit. Ostlings, 14; Brodie, 368.
Smith fired a [[pepper-box]] pistol that had been smuggled into the prison,
||
|authorsources=<br>
*The statement regarding methods of payment is from Ostlings, 14.
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=393}} ("Joseph discharging all six barrels down the passageway. Three of them missed fire, but the other three found marks."); {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|2005|p=549}} (Smith received a smuggled six-shooter, and passed along a single-shot pistol to Hyrum).
*The statement regarding Law's suspicions regarding the funds used to build the Nauvoo House comes from Brodie, 368. Brodie states, "Law became convinced, whether rightly or wrongly, that Joseph was using the funds donated for the hotel to buy more land, which he then sold for a generous profit to new converts." Brodie, however, provides no citation or source for this statement.
|authorsources=<br>
|-
#
|
}}
 
===== =====
||
But the most significant difference between the two was Law's opposition to plural marriage. Law and others gave testimonies at the county seat in [[Carthage, Illinois|Carthage]] that resulted in three indictments being brought against Smith, including one accusing him of polygamy. There is even evidence that Smith propositioned the wives of both Law and his associate Robert D. Foster.
||
*Ostlings, 14.
*On the legal issues, see Edwin Brown Firmage and Richard Collin Mangrum, ''Zion in the Courts: A Legal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900'' (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 106-113.
||
*"...there is evidence that at some point Smith propositioned the wives of both Law and Foster." {{CriticalWork:Ostling:Mormon America|pages=14}}
*The Ostlings cite the following works:
**{{CriticalWork:Quinn:Mormon Hierarchy|pages=124-132, 137-141, 642-645}}
**Newell and Avery, ''Mormon Enigma'', pp. 167-168, 177-178, 180-182.
**{{CriticalWork:Brodie:No Man Knows|pages=340, 343, 368-375}}
**Arrington and Bitton, ''The Story of the Latter-day Saints'', pp. 191-193.
**{{CriticalWork:Van Wagoner:Mormon Polygamy|pages=63-71}}
|-
|
===== =====
||
On May 26, just a few weeks before his death, Smith spoke before a large crowd of the Saints in front of the uncompleted temple and once again denied having any more than one wife.
||
*Smith stated "I had not been married scarcely five minutes, and made one proclamation of the Gospel, before it was reported that I had seven wives....I have rattled chains before in a dungeon for truth's sake. I am innocent of all these charges, and you can bear witness of my innocence, for you know me yourselves....What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one. I am the same man, and as innocent as I was fourteen years ago; and I can prove them all perjurers."''Address of the Prophet—His Testimony Against the Dissenters at Nauvoo'', History of the Church, Period I, 6:408–412. Referring to Law, Smith stated "This new holy prophet has gone to Carthage and swore that I had told him that I was guilty of adultery. This spiritual wifeism! Why, a man dares not speak or wink, for fear of being accused of this". ''History of the Church'', 6:410–411. Bushman argues that, while to Smith's enemies "the speech was blatant hypocrisy", in Smith's mind "priesthood plural marriage was based on another principle than polygamy." Bushman (2005), 538
||
*The cited source, Bushman, states that Joseph's "main point as always was that he was not committing adultery, nor was he practicing 'spiritual wifeism,' another name for polygamy. To Joseph's enemies, the speech was blatant hypocrisy, but in his own mind, priesthood plural marriage was based on another principle than polygamy." (Bushman, p. 538)
*{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Polygamy#Hiding_the_Truth.3F|l1=Hiding the truth about polygamy}}
{{EndTable}}
 
====''Nauvoo Expositor'' (Section Version 1/9/2010)====
{{BeginWikipediaTable|link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith,_Jr.|section=Dissent_in_Nauvoo|article=Joseph Smith, Jr.}}
===== =====
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Unlike earlier dissenters Law had enough money to buy a printing press and publish a newspaper called the ''[[Nauvoo Expositor]]''. Its only edition, published on June 7, 1844, contained affidavits testifying that the signers had heard Smith read a revelation giving every man the privilege of marrying ten virgins. The paper also attacked the attempt to "christianize a world by political schemes and intrigue" and denounced "false doctrines" such as "doctrines of many Gods," which, the paper said, Smith had recently revealed in his [[King Follett discourse]]. The newspaper also refused to "acknowledge any man as king or lawgiver to the church."
||
*{{cite article | title = Nauvoo Expositor | date = 1844-06-07 | author = [[William Law (Latter Day Saints)|William Law]] | work = [[Nauvoo Expositor]] | url = http://www.solomonspalding.com/docs/exposit1.htm | name="autogenerated8">{{Harvnb|Marquardt|2005}};{{Harvnb|Marquardt|1999}}, p. 312}}
||
*{{WikipediaOR}}The citation is to a primary source, the ''Nauvoo Expositor''. There is no citation supporting the phrase "unlike earlier dissenters Law had enough money to buy a printing press..." The wiki editor is interpreting the primary source, without the benefit of a secondary source per Wikipedia rules.
*{{Detail|Primary sources/Nauvoo Expositor Full Text}}
|-
|
 
===== =====
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Smith declared the ''Expositor'' a "nuisance." On June 10, the Nauvoo city council passed an ordinance about libels; and Smith, as mayor, ordered the city marshal to destroy the paper.
||
*Bushman, 540; {{Harvnb|Marquardt|2005}};{{Harvnb|Marquardt|1999}}, 312;L. Clark writes that Hyrum's statement "appeared in the [[Nauvoo Neighbor|Nauvoo ''Neighbor'']] of June 19, 1844, but was omitted from the History of the Church" ({{Harvnb|Clark|1968}}); {{Harvnb|La Rue|1919}}; {{Harvnb|LDS Church|1912}}. The council met on June 8 and June 10 to discuss the matter; {{cite web | title=The Destruction of the "Nauvoo Expositor"—Proceedings of the Nauvoo City Council and Mayor | url=http://byustudies2.byu.edu/hc/6/22.html}}
||
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{Detail|Nauvoo Expositor}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Martyrdom/Joseph fired a gun}}
|-
|


===== =====
===== =====
||
{{IndexClaimItemShort
Press, type, and newspapers were dragged into the street and burned. Smith argued that destroying the paper would lessen the possibility of anti-Mormon settlers attacking Nauvoo; but he "failed to see that suppression of the paper was far more likely to arouse a mob than the libels. It was a fatal mistake."
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
||
|claim=
*Bushman, 541.
then "sprang to the window" before being shot several times. He died shortly after falling to the ground.
||
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=393–94}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*See: [[Nauvoo Expositor]]
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Martyrdom/Masonic cry of distress}}
|-
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=Fawn Brodie|work=No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith}}
|


===== =====
||
When the destruction of the ''Expositor'' was reported to Smith's journalistic enemy [[Thomas C. Sharp]], his ''[[Warsaw Signal]]'' published a hysterical call to action: "Citizens arise, one and all!!! Can you stand by, and suffer such Infernal Devils! to rob men of their property and rights without avenging them. We have no time for comment, every man will make his own. Let it be made with Powder and Ball!!!"
||
*''Warsaw Signal'', June 14, 1844.
||
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*See [[Nauvoo Expositor]]
|-
|


===== =====
===== =====
||
{{IndexClaimItemShort
Nauvoo Mormons feared reprisals from the non-Mormons, and non-Mormons were apprehensive about the Nauvoo Legion, especially after Smith, fearing for his life, declared martial law on June 18. Illinois Governor [[Thomas Ford (politician)|Thomas Ford]], desperately trying to prevent civil war, then mobilized the state militia.
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
||
|claim=
*Ostlings, 16.
Smith was buried in Nauvoo.
||
|authorsources=<br>
*"Mormons feared anti-Mormon retaliation. Local non-Mormons feared the Nauvoo Legion. Smith also feared for his life. On June 18, he declared martial law and mobilized the Legion. Non-Mormons pressured Governor Thomas Ford to mobilize the state militia." {{CriticalWork:Ostling:Mormon America|pages=16}}
#Arrington and Bitton, 82; Remini, 174-75.
|-
|authorsources=<br>
|
#
 
}}
===== =====
||
The governor promised Smith that he would provide protection if Smith would stand trial at [[Carthage, Illinois|Carthage]] for the destruction of the newspaper. Smith ordered the Legion to disarm but then fled across the Mississippi to Iowa. Emma warned Joseph that Nauvoo residents believed he had left due to cowardice and that they feared reprisals from local mobs. Smith returned to Illinois on June 23, gave himself up, and was taken to Carthage to stand trial.
||
*Ostlings, 17; Bushman, 546. Eight Mormon leaders accompanied Smith to Carthage: Hyrum Smith, [[John Taylor (1808-1887)|John Taylor]], [[Willard Richards]], [[John P. Greene]], Stephen Markham, [[Dan Jones (Mormon)|Dan Jones]], John S. Fullmer, Dr. Southwick, and Lorenzo D. Wasson. [http://byustudies2.byu.edu/hc/6/31.html] All of Smith's associates left the jail, except his brother Hyrum, Richards and Taylor.
||
*{{CriticalWork:Ostling:Mormon America|pages=17}}
{{EndTable}}
 
====Assassination (Section Version 1/9/2010)====
{{BeginWikipediaTable|link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith,_Jr.|section=|article=Joseph Smith, Jr.}}
===== =====
||
Smith and three other Mormon prisoners were held in Carthage Jail in an upstairs room without bars. Both [[Hyrum Smith|Hyrum]] and Joseph Smith had pistols that had been smuggled in by friends. On June 27, 1844, an armed group of men with blackened faces stormed the jail. As the mob broke into the room, Hyrum was shot in the face and killed.
||
*Bushman, 550: "Hyrum was the first to fall.  A ball through the door struck him on the left side of the nose, throwing him to the floor."
|-
|
===== =====
||
Smith pulled the trigger of his [[pepper-box]] six times, firing into the hall and wounding three men, but the mob continued to fire at Smith and the other Mormons.
||
*Brodie, 393: "Joseph now discharged all six barrels down the passageway. Three of them missed fire, but the other three found marks." Bushman, 550. Richards was unharmed. Taylor was shot several times, but survived. (One of the bullets glanced off his pocket watch.){{cite book |last=Taylor |first=John |title=Witness to the Martyrdom |pages=91, 114–115}};{{cite book |last=Leanord |first=Glen |title=A Place of Peace, a People of Promise |origyear=2002 |origmonth= |publisher=Deseret Book |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |language= |isbn= |oclc= |doi= |id= |pages= |chapter= |chapterurl= |quote=Taylor, close behind the Prophet, had been using Markham's ‘rascal-beater’ to knock against the muskets and bayonets thrusting into the room.}}
||
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Martyrdom/Hiding Joseph's gun|Joseph Smith/Martyrdom/Joseph fired a gun}}
|-
|


===== =====
===== =====
||
{{IndexClaimItemShort
Smith prepared to jump from the second floor window, but was hit by a ball from the door, causing him to fall out the window. On the ground he stirred a bit; four men fired and killed him.
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
||
|claim=
*Brodie, 393-94. Bushman has a slightly different scenario, "A ball from the doorway struck his hip, and a shot from the outside entered his chest.  Another hit under the heart and a fourth his collarbone.  He fell outward crying, "''O Lord my God!''" Landing on his left side, he struggled to sit up against the curb of a well and died within seconds."
Five men were tried for his murder; all were [[acquitted]].
||
|authorsources=<br>
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=552}}.
*{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Martyrdom/Masonic cry of distress}}
|authorsources=<br>
{{EndTable}}
#
 
}}
=== Aftermath (Section Version 1/9/2010)===
{{BeginWikipediaTable|link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith,_Jr.|section=Aftermath|article=Joseph Smith, Jr.}}
===== =====
||
Certain the Mormons would retaliate, the people of Carthage deserted their town by nightfall. But the Mormons had been shattered by the loss of their leader.  The bodies of Joseph and Hyrum were brought back to Nauvoo, and thousands of mourners filed by their coffins. Fearing desecration of the graves, church leaders decided to bury the men in the basement of the unfinished [[Nauvoo House]]. The coffins were filled with bags of sand and buried in the cemetery following a public funeral.
||
*Arrington and Bitton, 82; Remini, 174-75. The remains were disinterred in 1928 on the orders of Smith's grandson [[Frederick M. Smith]], then President of the RLDS Church, and reburied along with Smith's wife [[Emma Smith|Emma]] in a location thought to be safer from Mississippi flooding. http://farms.byu.edu/publications/bookschapter.php?bookid=&chapid=264 Black, S.E. ''The Tomb of Joseph'', from ''The Disciple as Witness: Essays on Latter-day Saint History and Doctrine in Honor of Richard Lloyd Anderson'', The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 61–86. [http://www.cofchrist.org/history/Cemetery.asp Our History - Smith Family Cemetery, Community of Christ].
||
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
|-
|
===== =====
||
Charges were brought against five accused leaders of the mob that had killed Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and they stood trial in May 1845. The defense argued that no individuals could be held responsible because the assassins were carrying out the will of the people.  The jury, which included no Mormons, acquitted the defendants.
||
*Bushman (2005), 552.
||
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
{{EndTable}}


==References==
{{To_learn_more_box:anti-Mormon_literature_and_Wikipedia}}
{{WikipediaRefList:Joseph Smith, Jr.}}


==Further reading==
{{MormonismAndWikipedia}}


{{suggestions}}
{{Endnotes sources}}

Latest revision as of 07:05, 31 May 2024

An analysis of Wikipedia article "Joseph Smith"



1839 - 1844
A FairMormon Analysis of Wikipedia: "Joseph Smith"
 A work by a collaboration of authors (Link to Wikipedia article here) 		Distinctive views and teachings
The name Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. Wikipedia content is copied and made available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Reviews of previous revisions of this section

19 May 2009

Summary: A review of this section as it appeared in Wikipedia on 19 May 2009.

Section review

Death  Updated 9/3/2011

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Smith and his brother Hyrum were held in Carthage Jail on charges of treason.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

On June 27, 1844, an armed group with blackened faces stormed the jail and killed Hyrum instantly with a shot to the face.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Smith fired a pepper-box pistol that had been smuggled into the prison,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

then "sprang to the window" before being shot several times. He died shortly after falling to the ground.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response


The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Smith was buried in Nauvoo.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Five men were tried for his murder; all were acquitted.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources
Wikipedia and anti-Mormon literature
Key sources
  • Roger Nicholson, "Mormonism and Wikipedia: The Church History That 'Anyone Can Edit'," Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 1/8 (14 September 2012). [151–190] link
Wiki links
Online
Navigators


Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.
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