Historian says Joseph Smith’s 1844 presidential bid relied on bloc voting in Nauvoo, Illinois

Historian Benjamin Park discusses Joseph Smith’s 1844 presidential campaign in an excerpt from The Salt Lake Tribune’s Mormon Land podcast. Smith, the founder of the church, ran for the United States presidency in the 1844 election. One Salt Lake Tribune report describes the bid as a protest candidacy, launched after persecution from neighbors drove the growing band of Latter-day Saints from state to state. A Meridian Magazine article analyzes the question of why Smith ran, drawing on Spencer W. McBride’s book *Joseph Smith for President*.

The sources describe a long history of expulsion. The Latter-day Saints were driven from their homes in Missouri, and then driven again. One report says they were forced out of Missouri by an extermination order issued by Gov. Lilburn Boggs, and that they arrived in Illinois as refugees. The Meridian article describes the Haun’s Mill massacre, in which at least 19 people were killed. It says the attackers were a division of the state militia, some two hundred strong, led by Nehemiah Comstock, who had assured protection to the people of Haun’s Mill the day before. In Nauvoo in 1843, Hyrum Smith gave a sworn statement about the persecutions before the municipal court.

Once in Illinois, the Latter-day Saints found a state that was, according to the Tribune excerpt, flooded with recent migrants. The Democrats and Whigs both lobbied to win Mormon votes. By 1843, the report says, the Mormons had burned bridges with both parties. They had also petitioned the five presidential candidates, who gave answers the report describes as insufficient. Church leaders had sought redress from the federal government and were rebuffed before Smith launched his campaign, according to both Tribune reports.

One Tribune headline describes the campaign as relying on bloc voting in Nauvoo, Illinois. The supplied text does not explain how that claim is supported, so it is reported here as the headline’s characterization rather than as a confirmed finding.

Smith’s platform, as the first Tribune report describes it, proposed that the United States annex Texas and sell its public lands to new settlers. The proceeds, the report says, would be used to pay off enslavers and emancipate the enslaved. The later Tribune piece says Smith’s motive seemed to be to speak up for the voiceless, religious minorities and others (Proverbs 31:8-9).

Park says Smith’s presidential platform could be viewed today as both progressive and conservative.