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Difference between revisions of "Joseph Smith/Martyrdom/Nauvoo Legion to rescue Joseph"
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| − | Brodie says that Stout's story "is confirmed" by Stenhouse, but Stenhouse mentions no names. | + | Brodie says that Stout's story "is confirmed" by Stenhouse, but Stenhouse mentions no names.{{ref|quinn.194}} |
===New wrinkle: Hofmann forgeries=== | ===New wrinkle: Hofmann forgeries=== | ||
Revision as of 12:08, 6 January 2009
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This page is based on an answer to a question submitted to the FAIR web site, or a frequently asked question.
Contents
Question
- Critics claim that Joseph Smith was panicking at Carthage Jail, and wrote an order to Jonathan Dunham (head of the Nauvoo legion), telling him to attack the jail and "save him at all costs" (Brodie, 392). What can you tell me about this?
Source(s) of the Criticism
- Richard Abanes, One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003), 199, 547-548n131-132 ( Index of claims )
- Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), 392. ( Index of claims )
- D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 141, 179.
Response
The critics and their sources
There are two basic 'streams' of this theory.
Origins: Brodie
The first derives from Fawn Brodie (1945):
Other authors have followed Brodie. Abanes (One Nation Under Gods), for example, merely quotes Brodie as his source.
Brodie's evidence derives from two sources:
- Allen J. Stout, manuscript journal, 1815-89, p. 13.
- T.B.H. Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints: a full and complete history of the Mormons, from the first vision of Joseph Smith to the last courtship of Brigham Young (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1873), 164n..
Brodie says that Stout's story "is confirmed" by Stenhouse, but Stenhouse mentions no names.[1]
New wrinkle: Hofmann forgeries
The second evidential stream draws on the first, but adds a new wrinkle. This wrinkle is one of the Hofmann forgeries.[2] Mark Hofmann forged the supposed letter from Joseph to Dunham, and it was published in a collection of Joseph's personal writings before the forgery was discovered. The forged document reads:
Despite the fact that the document is a forgery, some historians have continued to use it. For example, D. Michael Quinn uses it as evidence, and cites the Jessee transcript of the letter (cited above):
Conclusion
Endnotes
- [note] Allen D. Roberts, "'The Truth is the Most Important Thing': The New Mormon History According to Mark Hofmann," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 20 no. 4 (Winter 1987), 92.
Further reading
FAIR wiki articles
FAIR web site
- FairMormon Topical Guide: Martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith FairMormon link
External links
Printed material
- Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill, Carthage Conspiracy, the Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1979), 1. ISBN 025200762X. (Key source)