What if the weapon that killed Joseph and Hyrum Smith at Carthage Jail wasn't really a gun — but the legal system itself? Most Latter-day Saints have only a vague sense of why Joseph was even in that jail on June 27, 1844. The real story goes back years, and it looks a lot like a conspiracy.
Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, and Stephen Smoot trace "the road to Carthage" — drawing on Carthage Conspiracy by Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill (University of Illinois Press) and Joseph I. Bentley's "Road to Martyrdom: Joseph Smith's Last Legal Cases," along with related work in Sustaining the Law — to show how Joseph's enemies weaponized the courts to pull him out of Nauvoo and keep him in Carthage long enough to kill him.
===Informed Saints Credits===
Produced by The Ancient America Foundation
Producer: Spencer Clark
Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye
In this episode:
- The three Missouri extradition attempts (1841, 1842, 1843) and the Mormon War of 1838 behind them
- How Joseph used habeas corpus — from Magna Carta to the Nauvoo municipal court — to thwart extradition
- The six dissidents (William & Wilson Law, Robert & Charles Foster, Francis & Chauncey Higbee) and their break with Joseph over plural marriage
- "Lawfare" in action — adultery charges, riot charges, and the goal that was never conviction
- Thomas Sharp, the Warsaw Signal, and the open calls for extermination
- The Nauvoo Expositor and the "three polys": polygamy, polytheism, and politics
- Three Expositor myths debunked — suppressing the truth, the First Amendment, and the "neutral truth-teller" pose (the 14th Amendment, 1868, and Near v. Minnesota, 1931)
- Suppressing the paper vs. destroying the press — where the legal overreach actually was
- The exorbitant bail, Governor Ford's empty guarantees, and the last-minute treason charge — and why treason, a non-bailable capital offense, was the whole point
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Primary source
- Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill, Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith (University of Illinois Press)
- Joseph I. Bentley, "Road to Martyrdom: Joseph Smith's Last Legal Cases"
Scholarly sources mentioned in the episode
- Dallin H. Oaks, "Suppressing the Nauvoo Expositor" (in Sustaining the Law)
- Sustaining the Law: Joseph Smith's Legal Encounters (Jane H. Wise / Gordon A. Madsen, eds.) — collected legal-history essays referenced throughout
- Craig L. Foster, article in Interpreter on 19th-century precedents for suppressing newspapers
- Brian C. Hales, on plural marriage and "polygamy insiders" (referenced terminology)
Related background reading
- Near v. Minnesota (1931) — landmark First Amendment / prior-restraint case discussed in the episode
- Richard E. Turley Jr., Ronald W. Walker, and Glen M. Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows (Oxford University Press) — for the later-trauma context the hosts flag
===Discover===
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https://www.discoverbookofmormon.org/
===Content Disclaimer===
The views expressed represent ours alone and do not necessarily reflect the official position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
#JosephSmith #Carthage #BookOfMormon #LDS #ComeFollowMe #ChurchHistory #Nauvoo #LatterDaySaints #DallinHOaks #NauvooExpositor #MormonHistory #HyrumSmith #ThomasFord #FirstAmendment #Hab...
Chapters
- (00:00:00) - When Did the Conspiracy to Murder Joseph Smith Begin?
- (00:02:44) - The Attempt to extradite Joseph Smith back to Missouri
- (00:08:29) - What Happened to Joseph Smith?
- (00:09:42) - How Lawfare Was Used Against Joseph Smith
- (00:16:22) - The Nauvoo Expositor: Polygyny, Political
- (00:18:35) - Myth #3, Joseph Smith Was Violating the First Amendment By
- (00:24:33) - The Nauvoo Expositor Myth
- (00:30:42) - The Contempt to Suppress the Paper
- (00:32:20) - Joseph Smith on the Riot Charge
- (00:34:22) - Joseph Smith Was Put in Carthage Jail for Treason
- (00:35:12) - Treason Charge Against Joseph Smith
- (00:36:30) - The Plot to Keep Joseph Smith in Carthage
