Item Detail
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26997
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9
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0
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English
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Extradition, the Mormons, and the Election of 1843
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Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society
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Summer 2016
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109
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2
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Urbana, IL
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University of Illinois Press; Illinois State Historical Society
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127-147
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Andrew Hedges offers a new interpretation of the Mormons' surprising support of Joseph P. Hoge, the 1843 Democratic candidate for U.S. representative in Illinois' sixth congressional district. That decision was fraught with enormous consequence. In the wake of the Mormon vote for the Democrat Hoge, the area's Whig party turned against the religious group, a momentous shift in local attitudes that spawned conflict and eventual expulsion of the Mormons out of western Illinois. The tradition explanation of the 1843 election is that the Mormons thew their support to the Democrat to prevent Governor Thomas Ford, also a Democrat, from sending he militia to Nauvoo to arrest Joseph Smith, and extradite the Mormon leader to Missouri to face charges of state treason. However, Hedges contends that this narrative relies on the "uncritical acceptance of late sources." Sources more contemporary to the election of 1843 reveal a longer-term story of deliberate political calculation by Joseph Smith and his allies. [Editor's summary]
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In Sacred Loneliness: The Documents
Joseph Smith for President : The Prophet, the Assassins, and the Fight for American Religious Freedom
Joseph Smith’s Kingdom of God : The Council of Fifty and the Mormon Challenge to American Democratic Politics
Kingdom of Nauvoo : The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier
Missourian Efforts to Extradite Joseph Smith and the Ethics of Governor Thomas Reynolds of Missouri
The Habeas Corpus Protection of Joseph Smith from Missouri Arrest Requisitions
The Joseph Smith Papers, Documents, Vol. 12: March 1843 - July 1843
The Joseph Smith Papers Documents, Volume 13: August-December 1843
Untouchable: Joseph Smith's Use of the Law As Catalyst for Assassination