View source for Criticism of Mormonism/Books/The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power/Chapter 4

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|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power/Chapter 4
|H=Response to claims made in "Chapter 4: The Kingdom of God in Nauvoo, Illinois"
|T=[[../../|The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power]]
|A=D. Michael Quinn
|<=[[../Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]
|>=[[../Chapter 5|Chapter 5]]
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|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power/Chapter 4
|H=Response to claims made in "Chapter 4: The Kingdom of God in Nauvoo, Illinois" by D. Michael Quinn
|S=
|L1=Response to claim: 141 - "Smith sent an order...to Major-General Jonathan Dunham to lead the Nauvoo Legion in a military attack on Carthage "immediately" to free the prisoners"
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==Response to claim: 141 - "Smith sent an order...to Major-General Jonathan Dunham to lead the Nauvoo Legion in a military attack on Carthage "immediately" to free the prisoners"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power
|claim=The morning of 27 July, Smith sent an order (in his own handwriting) to Major-General Jonathan Dunham to lead the Nauvoo Legion in a military attack on Carthage "immediately" to free the prisoners. Dunham realized that such an assault by the Nauvoo Legion would result in two blood baths—one in Carthage and another when anti-Mormons (and probably the Illinois militia) retaliated by laying siege to Nauvoo for insurrection. To avoid civil war and the destruction of Nauvoo's population, Dunham refused to obey the order and did not notify Smith of his decision. One of his lieutenants, a former Danite, later complained that Dunham "did not let a single mortal know that he had received such orders." 
|authorsources=<br>
#"Joseph Smith to Jonathan Dunham, 27 June 1844, in Jessee, ''Personal Writings of Joseph Smith'', xxv, 616-17 [this is a forgery]; {{HC1|vol=6|start=529}} referred to this order but neither quoted nor summarized it....Allen J. Stout journal, 13; also T. B. H. Stenhouse, ''The Rocky Mountain Saints''...,164n, told the incident without naming Dunham."
}}
{{disinformation|
|falsehood=The cited document is a Hofmann forgery, as had been known for several years prior to publication. See [[#179|p. 179]] where Quinn also cites this forged document as genuine.
|facts=In the 1997 version, Quinn removes this claim.  However, the 1998 CD-ROM collection ''New Mormon Studies CD-ROM'' from Signature Books still contains the error, though the collection is copyrighted 1998.
}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph order Jonathan Dunham, head of the Nauvoo legion, to rescue him?}}

{{endnotes sources}}

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