Item Detail
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33077
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0
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31
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English
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Slavery, Early Latter-day Saint Constitutionalism, and the Limits of the Right to Petition
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Journal of Mormon History
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July 2023
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49
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3
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47-102
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"In this article I argue that the slavery debates, and specifically the southern response to perceived threats to slavery, contributed to the shape of early Latter-day Saint constitutionalism and petitioning, the failure of their petitioning, and to the Saints’ ultimate appeal to a divine extraconstitutionalism. The Saints’ ideas about the Constitution and the constitutional right of petitioning evolved in relationship to persecution that church members in Missouri endured, which resulted, in part, due to Missourian anxieties aboutperceived antislavery sentiment among Smith’s followers. News of the persecution sparked new revelations, which directed Smith’s followers to appeal to the Constitution for the rights it promised to secure, even as the revelations also indicated the limitations of that appeal. As Smith and his coreligionists received and fulfilled the command to petition at both the local and national levels, broad political developments constrained their efforts. The growing debates over slavery—and especially the backlash to the antislavery petition campaign—enervated their own petition efforts, which taught them that constitutional appeals meant little without governing bodies to enforce them or to offer redress for the violation of constitutional rights." [Author]
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A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church, Volume One, 1830-1847
An Appeal to the American People
"Armed men are coming from the state of Missouri" : Federalism, Interstate Affairs, and Joseph Smith's Final Attempt to Secure Federal Intervention in Nauvoo
Documents, Volume 4: April 1834-September 1835
Documents, Volume 6: February 1838-August 1839
Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons, or Latter-day Saints from the State of Missouri, under the 'Exterminating Order'
General Smith’s Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States
History of the Late Persecution Inflicted by the State of Missouri Upon the Mormons
Joseph Smith Jr. : Reappraisals After Two Centuries
Joseph Smith : Rough Stone Rolling
Kingdom of Nauvoo : The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier
Mormon Redress Petitions : Documents of the 1833-1838 Missouri Conflict
Quest for Refuge : The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism
Religion of a Different Color : Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness
Saints, Slaves, and Blacks : The Changing Place of Black People within Mormonism
Storming the Nation : The Unknown Contributions of Joseph Smith’s Political Missionaries
Terrible Revolution : Latter-day Saints and the American Apocalypse
The Joseph Smith Papers : Administrative Records, Council of Fifty, Minutes, March 1844–January 1846
The Joseph Smith Papers, Documents, Vol. 12: March 1843 - July 1843
The Joseph Smith Papers : Documents, Volume 10 : May–August 1842
The Joseph Smith Papers Documents, Volume 13: August-December 1843
The Joseph Smith Papers : Documents, Volume 1: July 1828-June 1831
The Joseph Smith Papers : Documents, Volume 2 : July 1831–January 1833
The Joseph Smith Papers : Documents, Volume 3 : February 1833-March 1834
The Joseph Smith Papers : Documents, Volume 5 : October 1835–January 1838
The Joseph Smith Papers : Documents, Volume 7 : September 1839–January 1841
The Joseph Smith Papers : Histories. Volume 2, Assigned Histories, 1831-1847
The Mormon Question : Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America
Unpopular Sovereignty : Mormons and the Federal Management of Early Utah Territory
Zion in America : The Origins of Mormon Constitutionalism
Zion Rising : Joseph Smith's Early Social and Political Thought