FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Kirtland Safety Society
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Criticism
Critics attack Joseph Smith over the Kirtland Safety Society (KSS) on multiple grounds:
- they claim the KSS was a "wildcat bank"
- they claim that the bank was illegal, and that the Church broke the law by founding it
- they claim it was a money-making scheme for Joseph
- they claim its failure proves Joseph was not a prophet
Source(s) of the Criticism
Response
This article will address the above issues, but it necessary to first discuss:
- vocabulary often used in discussions of banks and banking
- the reason for the formation of the KSS
- the status of banks in the 1830s frontier
- the way in which the KSS functioned
Terms and Defintions
- face value
- the money value marked on scrip. For a $20 note, the face value would be $20.
- specie
- hard currency, 'official' US money
- scrip
- paper money, issued by a bank. An example of KSS scrip can be seen here.
Why form a bank?
What were banks like at the time?
How did the KSS work?
Criticisms
"Wildcat bank"?
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
Illegal?
Enriching Joseph?
Not a prophet?
Conclusion
A summary of the argument against the criticism.
Further reading
FAIR wiki articles
- Links to related articles in the wiki
FAIR web site
- Links to articles on the FAIR web site; Topical Guide entries go first
External links
- Scott H. Partridge, "The Failure of the Kirtland Safety Society," BYU Studies 12:4 (Summer 1972):437–454. GospeLink
- Paul Sampson and Larry T. Wimmer, "The Kirtland Safety Society: The Stock Ledger Book and the Bank Failure," BYU Studies 12:4 (Summer 1972):427–436. GospeLink
- Dale W. Adams, "Chartering the Kirtland Bank," BYU Studies 23:4 (Fall 1983) 467–482. GospeLink
- Marvin S. Hill, Keith C. Rooker and Larry T. Wimmer, "The Kirtland Economy Revisited: A Market Critique of Sectarian Economics," BYU Studies 17:4 (Summer 1977): 389–471. GospeLink
- Images of KSS scrip and other "Mormon Money"
Printed material
- Printed resources whose text is not available online