Difference between revisions of "Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Nauvoo Polygamy/Chapter 6"

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||Joseph was "arrested for violating freedom of the press."
 
||Joseph was "arrested for violating freedom of the press."
 
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*This is presentism, and highly anachronistic—again, likely intended to bias a modern audience against someone who would threaten a cherished modern conception of liberty.
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*[[.././/Presentism#.22Freedom_of_the_press.22]]
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*As two legal scholars note:
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*[[Nauvoo Expositor]]
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*"However, in 1844, freedom of the press did not have the broad meaning we attach to it today. Early constitutional guarantees of a free press were meant only to prevent prior restraints on publications in the form of licensing and censorship. They provided no protection to those who abused their freedom by publishing irresponsible and defamatory statements and, in fact, the Illinois Constitution specifically provided that editors should be "responsible for the abuse of that liberty."
 
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*"The legal authority the city council relied on for its action—Black-stone's Commentaries-supported this view. Liberty of the press, it said, consisted only "in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter when published" (Blackstone 2:113). At the time of the Expositor incident, the Illinois Supreme Court had not interpreted its state constitutional guarantee, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in construing that state's constitutional provision (upon which the Illinois provision was based), explained the scope of the guarantee as follows: "Publish as you please in the first instance without control; but you are answerable both to the community and the individual, if you proceed to unwarrantable lengths .... The common weal is not interested in such a communication except to suppress it" (Respublica v. Dennie, Yeates 4:267, 269-70; italics added).
 
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*Thus, the law of the day supported the council in taking some action against the Expositor's publishers."
 
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*Joseph was arrested on a charge of riot for the destruction of the Expositor, not a freedom of the press issue.  He posted bail for this charge, and was rearrested on the capital charge of treason.  Smith ignores all the scholarship on this issue, save for a dismissive (and inadequate) footnote several pages later.
 
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*[See also p. 435.]
 
 
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*No source provided.
 
*No source provided.
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{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Expositor}}
 
{{EndClaimsTable}}
 
{{EndClaimsTable}}
  
 
==Endnotes==
 
==Endnotes==
 
#{{note|gds1}} {{Dialogue1|author=George D. Smith|article=Nauvoo Roots of Mormon Polygamy, 1841–46: A Preliminary Demographic Report|vol=27|num=1|date=Spring 1994|start=26}}
 
#{{note|gds1}} {{Dialogue1|author=George D. Smith|article=Nauvoo Roots of Mormon Polygamy, 1841–46: A Preliminary Demographic Report|vol=27|num=1|date=Spring 1994|start=26}}

Revision as of 16:03, 23 December 2008


Chapter 5
A FAIR Analysis of:
Criticism of Mormonism/Books
A work by author: George D. Smith
 Chapter 7
Page Claim Response Author's sources

356

 "Efforts to suppress the story of Nauvoo until the 1852 announcement [of polygamy in Utah] restricted the breadth and depth of the records that were kept.
  • No source provided.

Censorship of Church History (edit)

356

 After 1890 the church tried to "phase out a practice the prophet had mandated as essential to salvation."
  • No source provided.

Necessary for salvation? (edit)

  • See also ch. Preface: xiv
  • See also ch. 1: 6
  • See also ch. 2: 55
  • See also ch. 6: 356

356

 "Official accounts" of plural marriage have been "redacted."
  • No source provided.

Censorship of Church History (edit)

364-365

 Joseph and Brigham admitted that the practice of polygamy meant they were "free to go beyond the normal 'bounds'" and "the normal rules governing social interaction had not applied to" Joseph.
  • The author misconstrues and misrepresents the statements cited.
  • GLS FARMS paper
  • Maybe wiki? Bounds and plural marriage
  • Brigham Young Manuscript History, Feb 16, 1849, LDS Archives.

366

 "Elizabeth [Whitney] was arranging conjugal visits between her daughter, Sarah Ann, and [Joseph]…."
  • No source provided.

Whitney "love letter" (edit)

392

 The author has a subsection in "How Plural Marriage Worked," entitled "Female subordination."
  • No sources provided.

400

 "Joseph Lee Robinson put it bluntly: 'There are some on this stand that would cut my throat or take my hearts blood,' he said, if he told them what God had revealed to him.
  • The statement comes from the Joseph Robinson journal, but the statement is not from Robinson—it is from Joseph Smith. The author recognized this in an earlier article.[1]
  •  Citation error
  • Robinson Journal, 24, Utah State Historical Society Library.

408

 "Joseph had already fled three states under pressure that arose, in part, from suspicious relationships with young women."
  • Fanny Alger certainly caused problems in Ohio. There is no good evidence, however, that Joseph had "woman problems" in New York or Missouri.
  • No source provided.

408

 Joseph was "arrested for violating freedom of the press."
  • No source provided.

Nauvoo Expositor (edit)

  • See also ch. Preface: xii
  • See also ch. 4: 285
  • See also ch. 6: 408
  • See also ch. 7: 435

Endnotes

  1. [note]  George D. Smith, "Nauvoo Roots of Mormon Polygamy, 1841–46: A Preliminary Demographic Report," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 27 no. 1 (Spring 1994), 26.
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