103-505: Atchison County is the name of two counties in the United States, both named for Missouri Senator David Rice Atchison : Atchison County, Kansas Atchison County, Missouri [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about distinct geographical locations with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
206-579: A competing "reform church" , and in the following month, at the county seat in Carthage , they procured indictments against Smith for perjury (as Smith publicly denied having more than one wife) and polygamy. On June 7, the dissidents published the first (and only) issue of the Nauvoo Expositor , calling for reform within the church but also appealing politically to non-Mormons. The paper alluded to Smith's theocratic aspirations, called for
309-655: A grand jury hearing in Daviess County, Smith and his companions escaped custody, almost certainly with the connivance of the sheriff and guards. Many American newspapers criticized Missouri for the Haun's Mill massacre and the state's expulsion of the Mormons. Illinois then accepted Mormon refugees who gathered along the banks of the Mississippi River , where Smith purchased high-priced, swampy woodland in
412-489: A wooded area near his home, God the Father and Jesus Christ together appeared to him, told him his sins were forgiven, and said that all contemporary churches had "turned aside from the gospel." Smith said he recounted the experience to a Methodist minister, who dismissed the story "with great contempt". According to historian Steven C. Harper, "There is no evidence in the historical record that Joseph Smith told anyone but
515-460: A brigadier general in the Missouri militia, refused to carry out the order. Smith was then sent to a state court for a preliminary hearing , where several of his former allies testified against him. Smith and five others, including Rigdon, were charged with treason, and transferred to the jail at Liberty, Missouri , to await trial. Smith bore his imprisonment stoically. Understanding that he
618-750: A cosmology of many gods. Memorials to Smith include the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City the former Joseph Smith Memorial building on the campus of Brigham Young University as well as the Joseph Smith Building there, a granite obelisk marking Smith's birthplace, and a fifteen-foot-tall bronze statue of Smith in the World Peace Dome in Pune , India. Smith's death resulted in
721-462: A dispute with a federal bureaucrat – he organized the secret Council of Fifty , which was given the authority to decide which national or state laws Mormons should obey, as well as establish its own government for Mormons. Before his death the Council also voted unanimously to elect Smith "Prophet, Priest, and King". The Council was likewise appointed to select a site for a large Mormon settlement in
824-835: A farm or plantation, with labor provided by enslaved African Americans. Atchison's law practice flourished, and his best-known client was Joseph Smith , founder of the Latter Day Saint Movement . Atchison represented Smith in land disputes with non-Mormon settlers in Caldwell County and Daviess County . Alexander William Doniphan joined Atchison's law practice in Liberty in May 1833. The two became fast friends and spent many leisure time hours playing cards, going to horse races, hunting, fishing, and attending social functions and political events. Atchison, already
927-621: A few wealthy and influential converts, including John C. Bennett , the Illinois quartermaster general . Bennett used his connections in the Illinois state legislature to obtain an unusually liberal charter for the new city, which Smith renamed " Nauvoo ". The charter granted the city virtual autonomy, authorized a university, and granted Nauvoo habeas corpus power—which allowed Smith to fend off extradition to Missouri. Though Latter Day Saint authorities controlled Nauvoo's civil government,
1030-450: A higher priesthood. Smith's authority was undermined when Cowdery, Hiram Page , and other church members also claimed to receive revelations. In response, Smith dictated a revelation which clarified his office as a prophet and an apostle , stating that only he had the ability to declare doctrine and scripture for the church. Smith then dispatched Cowdery, Peter Whitmer, and others on a mission to proselytize Native Americans . Cowdery
1133-537: A lawyer, senator, and soldier. Inauguration Day —March 4—fell on a Sunday in 1849, and so president-elect Zachary Taylor did not take the presidential oath of office until the next day. Even so, the term of the outgoing president, James K. Polk , ended at noon on March 4. On March 2, outgoing vice president George M. Dallas relinquished his position as president of the Senate . Congress had previously chosen Atchison as president pro tempore . In 1849, according to
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#17327722954021236-744: A member of the Liberty Blues, a volunteer militia in Missouri, got Doniphan to join. Atchison was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1834. He worked hard for the Platte Purchase , which required Native American tribes to cede land to the United States and extended the northwestern boundary of Missouri to the Missouri River in 1837. When early disputes broke out into the Mormon War of 1838 , Atchison
1339-574: A new round of violence against the Mormons, the Nauvoo City Council declared the newspaper a public nuisance, and Smith ordered the Nauvoo Legion to assist the police force in destroying its printing press . During the council debate, Smith vigorously urged the council to order the press destroyed, not realizing that destroying a newspaper was more likely to incite an attack than any of the newspaper's accusations. Destruction of
1442-537: A new temple. In the weeks and months after Smith and Rigdon arrived at Far West, thousands of Latter Day Saints followed them from Kirtland. Smith encouraged the settlement of land outside Caldwell County, instituting a settlement in Adam-ondi-Ahman , in Daviess County . Political and religious differences between old Missourians and newly arriving Latter Day Saint settlers provoked tensions between
1545-457: A party of Missourians surprised and killed seventeen Mormons in the Haun's Mill massacre . The following day, the Mormons surrendered to 2,500 state troops and agreed to forfeit their property and leave the state. Smith was immediately brought before a military court , accused of treason , and sentenced to be executed the next morning, but Alexander Doniphan , who was Smith's former attorney and
1648-441: A period of "rapid-fire translation". Between April and early June 1829, the two worked full time on the manuscript, then moved to Fayette, New York , where they continued the work at the home of Cowdery's friend, Peter Whitmer . When the narrative described an institutional church and a requirement for baptism , Smith and Cowdery baptized each other. Dictation was completed about July 1, 1829. According to Smith, Moroni took back
1751-667: A plot to overthrow the existing order. For two days, Sumner listed crime, after crime, in detail, complete with documentation by newspapers and letters of the time, showing the tortures and violence by Atchison and his men. Two days later, Atchison gave his own speech, totally unaware as yet that he was exposed on the Senate floor in such a fashion. Atchison's speech was to the Texas men he just met, hired and paid for, Atchison reveals in his speech, by "authorities in Washington". They are about to invade Lawrence, Kansas . Atchison makes
1854-577: A prophet comparable to Moses and Elijah . Several religious denominations identify as the continuation of the church that he organized, including the LDS Church and the Community of Christ . Joseph Smith was born on December 23, 1805, in Vermont , on the border between the villages of South Royalton and Sharon , to Lucy Mack Smith and her husband Joseph Smith Sr. , a merchant and farmer. He
1957-485: A relatively common practice in that time and place. Both his parents and his maternal grandfather reported having visions or dreams that they believed communicated messages from God. Smith said that, although he had become concerned about the welfare of his soul, he was confused by the claims of competing religious denominations. Years later, Smith wrote that he had received a vision that resolved his religious confusion. He said that in 1820, while he had been praying in
2060-531: A repeal of the Nauvoo city charter, and decried his new "doctrines of many Gods". (Smith had recently given his King Follett discourse , in which he said that God was once a man, and that men and women could become gods.) It also attacked Smith's practice of polygamy, implying that he was using religion as a pretext to draw unassuming women to Nauvoo to seduce and marry them. Fearing the Expositor would provoke
2163-484: A revelation announcing that in order to redeem Zion, his followers would have to receive an endowment in the Kirtland Temple , which he and his followers constructed. In March 1836, at the temple's dedication, many who received the endowment reported seeing visions of angels and engaged in prophesying and speaking in tongues. In January 1837, Smith and other churchleaders created a joint stock company , called
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#17327722954022266-786: A succession crisis within the Latter Day Saint movement. He had proposed several ways to choose his successor, but never clarified his preference. The two strongest succession candidates were Young, senior member and president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Rigdon, the senior remaining member of the First Presidency. In a church-wide conference on August 8, most of the Latter Day Saints present elected Young. They eventually left Nauvoo and settled
2369-710: A type of magical supernaturalism common during the period. Smith was said to have an ability to locate lost items by looking into a seer stone, which he also used in treasure hunting, including, beginning in 1825, several unsuccessful attempts to find buried treasure sponsored by Josiah Stowell , a wealthy farmer in Chenango County . In 1826, Smith was brought before a Chenango County court for "glass-looking", or pretending to find lost treasure; Stowell's relatives accused Smith of tricking Stowell and faking an ability to perceive hidden treasure, though Stowell attested that he believed Smith had such abilities. The result of
2472-524: A warrant was issued for Smith's arrest on a charge of banking fraud , he and Rigdon fled for Missouri in January 1838. By 1838, Smith had abandoned plans to redeem Zion in Jackson County, and instead declared the town of Far West, Missouri , in Caldwell County , as the new "Zion". In Missouri, the church also took the name "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints", and construction began on
2575-684: Is now part of Lexington, Kentucky . He was educated at Transylvania University in Lexington. Classmates included five future Democratic senators ( Solomon Downs of Louisiana , Jesse Bright of Indiana , George Wallace Jones of Iowa , Edward Hannegan of Indiana , and Jefferson Davis of Mississippi ). Atchison completed law studies and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1829. In 1830 he moved to Liberty in Clay County in western Missouri, and set up practice there. He also acquired
2678-455: The 1838 Mormon War . Non-Mormon vigilantes raided and burned Mormon farms, while Danites and other Mormons pillaged non-Mormon towns. In the Battle of Crooked River , a group of Mormons attacked the Missouri state militia, mistakenly believing them to be anti-Mormon vigilantes. Governor Lilburn Boggs then ordered that the Mormons be "exterminated or driven from the state". On October 30,
2781-606: The Kansas–Nebraska Act , which embodied this idea, in November 1853. The act was passed and became law in May 1854, establishing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska. Both Douglas and Atchison had believed that Nebraska would be settled by Free-State men from Iowa and Illinois , and Kansas by pro-slavery Missourians and other Southerners, thus preserving the numerical balance between free states and slave states in
2884-580: The Kirtland Safety Society , to act as a quasi-bank; the company issued banknotes partly capitalized by real estate. Smith encouraged his followers to buy the notes, in which he invested heavily himself. The bank failed within a month. As a result, Latter Day Saints in Kirtland suffered extreme high volatility and intense pressure from debt collectors. Smith was held responsible for the failure, and there were widespread defections from
2987-629: The Missouri River to reinforce Price, and defeated Union troops that tried to block his force in the Battle of Liberty . Atchison served in the State Guard through the end of 1861. In March 1862, Union forces in the Trans-Mississippi theater won a decisive victory at Pea Ridge in Arkansas and secured Union control of Missouri. Atchison then resigned from the army over reported strategy arguments with Price and moved to Texas for
3090-488: The Presidential Succession Act of 1792, the Senate president pro tempore immediately followed the vice president in the presidential line of succession . As Dallas's term also ended at noon on the 4th, and as neither Taylor nor vice president-elect Millard Fillmore had been sworn in to office on that day, it was claimed by some of Atchison's friends and colleagues that from March 4–5, 1849, Atchison
3193-680: The Republic of Texas , Oregon , or California (then controlled by Mexico ), where Mormons could live under theocratic law beyond the control of other governments. By early 1844, a rift developed between Smith and a half dozen of his closest associates. Most notably, William Law , his trusted counselor, and Robert Foster, a general of the Nauvoo Legion, disagreed with Smith about how to manage Nauvoo's economy. Both also said that Smith had proposed marriage to their wives. Believing these men were plotting against his life, Smith excommunicated them on April 18, 1844. Law and Foster subsequently formed
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3296-665: The Salt Lake Valley , Utah Territory . Nominal membership in Young's denomination, which became the LDS Church, surpassed 17 million in 2023. Smaller groups followed Rigdon and James J. Strang , who had based his claim on a letter of appointment ostensibly written by Smith but which some scholars believe was forged . Some hundreds followed Lyman Wight to establish a community in Texas. Others followed Alpheus Cutler . Many members of these smaller groups, including most of Smith's family, eventually coalesced in 1860 under
3399-488: The Second Great Awakening , Smith reported experiencing a series of visions. The first of these was in 1820, when he saw "two personages" (whom he eventually described as God the Father and Jesus Christ ). In 1823, he said he was visited by an angel who directed him to a buried book of golden plates inscribed with a Judeo-Christian history of an ancient American civilization. In 1830, Smith published
3502-748: The Whigs to defeat incumbent Benton for re-election. Benton, intending to challenge Atchison in 1854, began to agitate for territorial organization of the area west of Missouri (now the states of Kansas and Nebraska ) so that it could be opened to settlement. To counter this, Atchison proposed that the area be organized and that the section of the Missouri Compromise banning slavery there be repealed in favor of popular sovereignty . Under this plan, settlers in each territory would vote to decide whether they would allow slavery. At Atchison's request, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois introduced
3605-513: The 4th, occurring on Sunday, Gen. Taylor was not inaugurated. He was not inaugurated till Monday, the 5th, at 12 noon. It was then canvassed among Senators whether there was an interregnum (a time during which a country lacks a government). It was plain that there was either an interregnum or I was the President of the United States being chairman of the Senate, having succeeded Judge Mangum of North Carolina. The judge waked me up at 3 o'clock in
3708-755: The Book of Mormon, which he described as an English translation of those plates. The same year he organized the Church of Christ , calling it a restoration of the early Christian Church . Members of the church were later called "Latter Day Saints" or "Mormons". In 1831, Smith and his followers moved west, planning to build a communal Zion in the American heartland. They first gathered in Kirtland, Ohio , and established an outpost in Independence, Missouri , which
3811-574: The Church, and Bennett was elected Nauvoo's first mayor. The early Nauvoo years were a period of doctrinal innovation. Smith introduced baptism for the dead in 1840, and in 1841 construction began on the Nauvoo Temple as a place for recovering lost ancient knowledge. An 1841 revelation promised the restoration of the "fullness of the priesthood"; and in May 1842, Smith inaugurated a revised endowment or "first anointing". The endowment resembled
3914-512: The Democrats in the Missouri legislature were split between him and Benton, while the Whig minority put forward their own man. No senator was elected until January 1857, when James S. Green was chosen. When the first transcontinental railroad was proposed in the 1850s, Atchison called for it to be built along the central route (from St. Louis through Missouri, Kansas, and Utah ), rather than
4017-554: The Kansas Territorial legislature to be elected in March 1855 would be controlled by free-soilers and ban slavery. This was viewed as a breach of faith by Atchison and his supporters. An angry Atchison called on pro-slavery Missourians to uphold slavery by force and "to kill every God-damned abolitionist in the district" if necessary. He recruited an immense mob of heavily armed Missourians, the infamous " Border Ruffians ". On
4120-469: The Latter Day Saint community, Smith was viewed as a prophet, martyred to seal the testimony of his faith. After a public funeral and viewing of the deceased brothers, Smith's widow – who feared hostile non-Mormons might try to desecrate the bodies – had their remains buried at night in a secret location, with substitute coffins filled with sandbags interred in the publicly attested grave. The bodies were later moved and reburied under an outbuilding on
4223-499: The Latter Day Saint movement, Smith's legacy varies between denominations: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and its members consider Smith the founding prophet of their church, on par with Moses and Elijah . Meanwhile, Smith's reputation is ambivalent in the Community of Christ , which continues "honoring his role" in the church's founding history but deemphasizes his human leadership. Conversely, Woolleyite Mormon fundamentalism has deified Smith within
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4326-543: The Latter Day Saint newcomers for both political and religious reasons. Additionally, their rapid growth aroused fears that they would soon constitute a majority in local elections, and thus "rule the county." Tension increased until July 1833, when non-Mormons forcibly evicted the Mormons and destroyed their property. Smith advised his followers to bear the violence patiently until after they had been attacked multiple times, after which they could fight back. Armed bands exchanged fire, killing one Mormon and two non-Mormons, until
4429-490: The Mormons. After an unknown assailant shot and wounded Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs in May 1842, anti-Mormons circulated rumors that Smith's bodyguard, Porter Rockwell , was the gunman. Though the evidence was circumstantial, Boggs ordered Smith's extradition. Certain he would be killed if he ever returned to Missouri, Smith went into hiding twice during the next five months, until the U.S. Attorney for Illinois argued that his extradition would be unconstitutional. (Rockwell
4532-593: The Nauvoo City Council surrendered themselves. Smith initially fled across the Mississippi River, but shortly returned and surrendered to Ford. On June 25, Smith and his brother Hyrum arrived in Carthage to stand trial for inciting a riot. Once the Smiths were in custody, the charges were increased to treason, preventing them from posting bail . John Taylor and Willard Richards voluntarily accompanied
4635-664: The Smith property off the Mississippi River. Members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church), under the direction of then-RLDS Church president Frederick M. Smith (Smith's grandson) searched for, located, and disinterred the Smith brothers' remains in 1928 and reinterred them, along with Smith's wife, in Nauvoo at the Smith Family Cemetery . Modern biographers and scholars – Mormon and non-Mormon alike – agree that Smith
4738-504: The Smiths in Carthage Jail . On June 27, 1844, an armed mob with blackened faces stormed Carthage Jail , where Joseph and Hyrum were being detained. Hyrum, who was trying to secure the door, was killed instantly with a shot to the face. Smith fired three shots from a pepper-box pistol that his friend, Cyrus H. Wheelock , had lent him, wounding three men, before he sprang for the window. (Smith and his companions were staying in
4841-548: The US Senate in December 1845, they chose Atchison as president pro tempore, placing him second in succession for the presidency. He also was responsible for presiding over the Senate when the vice president was absent. At 38, he was a young man with low seniority in the Senate after two years to gain such a position. In 1849 Atchison stepped down as president pro tempore in favor of William R. King . King in turn yielded
4944-569: The United States . This belief, however, is dismissed by most scholars. Atchison, owner of many slaves and a plantation , was a prominent pro-slavery activist and Border Ruffian leader, deeply involved with violence against abolitionists and other free-staters during the " Bleeding Kansas " events that preceded admission of the state to the Union. Atchison was born to William Atchison and his wife in Frogtown (later Kirklevington), which
5047-615: The age of 78. He was buried at Greenlawn Cemetery in Plattsburg, Missouri . His grave marker reads "President of the United States for One Day." Joseph Smith Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805 – June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement . Publishing the Book of Mormon at the age of 24, Smith attracted tens of thousands of followers by
5150-561: The best efforts of Atchison and the Ruffians, Kansas rejected slavery and finally became a free state in 1861. Charles Sumner, in the epic "Crimes Against Kansas" speech on May 19, 1856, exposed Atchison's role in the invasion, tortures, and killings in Kansas. Speaking in the flamboyant style he and others used, lacing his prose with references to Roman history, Sumner compared Atchison to Roman Senator Catiline , who betrayed his country in
5253-653: The church hierarchy. Converts poured into Kirtland. By the summer of 1835, there were fifteen hundred to two thousand Latter Day Saints in the vicinity, many expecting Smith to lead them shortly to the Millennial kingdom. Though his mission to the Native Americans had been a failure, Cowdery and the other missionaries with him were charged with finding a site for "a holy city". They found Jackson County, Missouri . After Smith visited in July 1831, he pronounced
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#17327722954025356-470: The church, including many of Smith's closest advisers. The failure of the bank was one part of a series of internal disputes led to the demise of the Kirtland community. Cowdery had accused Smith of engaging in a sexual relationship with a teenage servant in his home, Fanny Alger . Construction of the Kirtland Temple had only added to the church's debt, and Smith was hounded by creditors. After
5459-486: The city guaranteed religious freedom for its residents. The charter also authorized the Nauvoo Legion , a militia whose actions were limited only by state and federal constitutions. Smith and Bennett became its commanders, and were styled Lieutenant General and Major General respectively. As such, they controlled by far the largest body of armed men in Illinois. Smith appointed Bennett as Assistant President of
5562-455: The couple began boarding with Smith's parents in Manchester. Later that year, when Smith promised to abandon treasure seeking, his father-in-law offered to let the couple live on his property in Harmony and help Smith get started in business. Smith made his last visit to the hill shortly after midnight on September 22, 1827, taking Emma with him. This time, he said he successfully retrieved the plates. Smith said Moroni commanded him not to show
5665-508: The duration of the war. After the war he retired to his farm near Gower . He denied many of his pro-slavery public statements made prior to the Civil War. Then, his retirement cottage outside of Plattsburg, Missouri burned to the ground before his death in 1886. This entailed the complete loss of his library containing books, documents, and letters which documented his role in the Mormon War, Indian affairs, pro-slavery activities, Civil War activities, and other legislation covering his career as
5768-598: The election day, March 30, 1855, Atchison led 5,000 Border Ruffians into Kansas. They seized control of all polling places at gunpoint, cast tens of thousands of fraudulent votes for pro-slavery candidates, and elected a pro-slavery legislature. The outrage was nonetheless accepted by the Federal government. When Territorial Governor Andrew Reeder objected, he was fired by President Franklin Pierce . Despite this show of force, far more free-soilers than pro-slavery settlers migrated to Kansas. There were continual raids and ambushes by both sides in " Bleeding Kansas ". In spite of
5871-401: The end of June, Smith deescalated the confrontation, sought peace with Jackson County's residents, and disbanded Zion's Camp. Nevertheless, Zion's Camp transformed Latter Day Saint leadership because many future church leaders came from among the participants. After the Camp returned to Ohio, Smith drew heavily from its participants to establish various governing bodies in the church. He gave
5974-448: The existence of the golden plates. Harris persuaded Smith to let him take 116 pages of manuscript to Palmyra to show a few family members, including his wife. While Harris had the manuscript in his possession—of which there was no other copy—it was lost. Smith was devastated by this loss, especially since it came at the same time as the death of his first son, who died shortly after birth. Smith said that as punishment for his having lost
6077-593: The frontier hamlet of Independence the "center place" of Zion . For most of the 1830s, the church was effectively based in Ohio. Smith lived there, though he visited Missouri again in early 1832 to prevent a rebellion of prominent church members who believed the church in Missouri was being neglected. Smith's trip was hastened by a mob of Ohio residents who were incensed over the church's presence and Smith's political power. The mob beat Smith and Rigdon unconscious, tarred and feathered them, and left them for dead. In Jackson County, existing Missouri residents resented
6180-482: The golden plates for himself, property they believed should be jointly shared. After they ransacked places where they believed the plates might have been hidden, Smith decided to leave Palmyra. In October 1827, Smith and Emma permanently moved to Harmony, aided by a relatively prosperous neighbor, Martin Harris , who began serving as Smith's scribe in April 1828. Although he and his wife, Lucy, were early supporters of Smith, by June 1828 they began to have doubts about
6283-413: The ground, and speaking in tongues . Rigdon's followers were practicing a form of communalism . Smith brought the Kirtland congregation under his authority and tamed ecstatic outbursts. He had promised church elders that in Kirtland they would receive an endowment of heavenly power, and at the June 1831 general conference , he introduced the greater authority of a High ("Melchizedek") Priesthood to
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#17327722954026386-422: The hamlet of Commerce . He attempted to portray the Mormons as an oppressed minority and unsuccessfully petitioned the federal government for help in obtaining reparations . During the summer of 1839, while Mormons in Illinois suffered from a malaria epidemic, Smith sent Young and other apostles to missions in Europe, where they made numerous converts, many of them poor factory workers. Smith also attracted
6489-519: The hostility of those who remembered the 1826 Chenango County trial. After Cowdery baptized several new church members, Smith's followers were threatened with mob violence. Before Smith could confirm the newly baptized, he was arrested and charged with being a "disorderly person." Although he was acquitted , both he and Cowdery fled to Colesville to escape a gathering mob. Smith later claimed that, probably around this time, Peter , James , and John had appeared to him and had ordained him and Cowdery to
6592-417: The jailer's bedroom, which did not have bars on the windows.) He was shot multiple times before falling out of the window, crying, "Oh Lord my God!" He died shortly after hitting the ground, but was shot several more times by an improvised firing squad before the mob dispersed. Following Smith's death, non-Mormon newspapers were nearly unanimous in portraying Smith as a religious fanatic. Conversely, within
6695-415: The kingdom". Smith also elaborated on his plan for a Millennial kingdom; no longer envisioning the building of Zion in Nauvoo, he viewed Zion as encompassing all of North and South America, with Mormon settlements being " stakes " of Zion's metaphorical tent. Zion also became less a refuge from an impending tribulation than a great building project. In the summer of 1842, Smith revealed a plan to establish
6798-502: The leadership of Joseph Smith III and formed the RLDS Church (Community of Christ), which has about 250,000 members. The first of Smith's wives, Emma Hale, gave birth to nine children during their marriage, five of whom died before the age of two. The eldest, Alvin (born in 1828), died within hours of birth, as did twins Thaddeus and Louisa (born in 1831). When the twins died, the Smiths adopted another set of twins, Julia and Joseph Murdock, whose mother had recently died in childbirth;
6901-500: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Atchison_County&oldid=932699617 " Category : United States county name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages David Rice Atchison American Civil War David Rice Atchison (August 11, 1807 – January 26, 1886)
7004-498: The majority of these in the first-person, saying they were the writings of ancient prophets or expressed the voice of God. His followers accepted his teachings as prophetic and revelatory, and several of these texts were canonized by denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement, which continue to treat them as scripture . Smith's teachings discuss God's nature, cosmology , family structures, political organization, and religious community and authority. Mormons generally regard Smith as
7107-521: The manuscript, Moroni returned, took away the plates, and revoked his ability to translate. During this period, Smith briefly attended Methodist meetings with his wife, until a cousin of hers objected to inclusion of a "practicing necromancer " on the Methodist class roll. Smith said that Moroni returned the plates to him in September 1828, and he then dictated some of the book to his wife Emma. In April 1829 he met Oliver Cowdery , who had also dabbled in folk magic; and with Cowdery as scribe, Smith began
7210-453: The men are to kill and draw blood, told the men they will be "well paid," and encouraged them to plunder from the homes that they invaded. That was after the hundreds of dozens of tortures and killings that Sumner had detailed in his Crimes Against Kansas speech. In other words, things were about to get much worse since Atchison had his hired men from Texas. Atchison's Senate term expired on March 3, 1855. He sought election to another term, but
7313-452: The men promise to kill and "draw blood," and boasts of his flag, which was red in color for "Southern Rights" and the color of blood. They would press "to blood" the spread of slavery into Kansas. He revealed in this speech that the immediate goal of the invasion was to stop the newspaper in Lawrence from publishing anti-slavery material. Atchison's men had made it a crime to publish anti-slavery newspapers in Kansas. Atchison made it clear
7416-674: The millennial Kingdom of God, which would eventually establish theocratic rule over the whole Earth. It was around this time that Smith began secretly marrying additional wives, a practice called plural marriage . He introduced the doctrine to a few of his closest associates, including Bennett, who used it as an excuse to seduce numerous women, wed and unwed. When rumors of polygamy (called "spiritual wifery" by Bennett) got abroad, Smith forced Bennett's resignation as Nauvoo mayor. In retaliation, Bennett left Nauvoo and began publishing sensational accusations against Smith and his followers. By mid-1842, popular opinion in Illinois had turned against
7519-489: The minister of his vision for at least a decade", and Smith might have kept it private because of how uncomfortable that first dismissal was. During the 1830s, Smith orally described the vision to some of his followers, though it was not widely published among Mormons until the 1840s. This vision later grew in importance to Smith's followers, who eventually regarded it as the first event in the restoration of Christ's church to Earth . Smith himself may have originally considered
7622-487: The morning and said jocularly that as I was President of the United States he wanted me to appoint him as secretary of state. I made no pretense to the office, but if I was entitled in it I had one boast to make, that not a woman or a child shed a tear on account of my removing any one from office during my incumbency of the place. A great many such questions are liable to arise under our form of government. Atchison died on January 26, 1886, at his home near Gower, Missouri at
7725-616: The nation. In 1854 Atchison helped found the town of Atchison, Kansas , as a pro-slavery settlement. The town (and county) were named for him. While Southerners supported the idea of settling Kansas, few migrated there. Most free-soilers preferred Kansas to Nebraska. Furthermore, anti-slavery activists throughout the North came to view Kansas as a battleground and formed societies to encourage free-soil settlers to go to Kansas, to ensure there would be enough voters in both Kansas and Nebraska to approve their entry as free states. It appeared as if
7828-544: The new organization dramatically. After Rigdon visited New York, he soon became Smith's primary assistant. With growing opposition in New York, Smith announced a revelation that his followers should gather to Kirtland, Ohio , establish themselves as a people and await word from Cowdery's mission. When Smith moved to Kirtland in January 1831, he encountered a religious culture that included enthusiastic demonstrations of spiritual gifts , including fits and trances, rolling on
7931-462: The newspaper provoked a strident call to arms from Thomas C. Sharp , editor of the Warsaw Signal and longtime critic of Smith. Fearing mob violence, Smith mobilized the Nauvoo Legion on June 18 and declared martial law . Officials in Carthage responded by mobilizing a small detachment of the state militia, and Governor Ford intervened, threatening to raise a larger militia unless Smith and
8034-545: The oath of office before any official acts, the prevailing view is that presidential succession does not depend on the oath. Even supposing that an oath were necessary, Atchison never took it, so he was no more the president than Taylor. In September 1872, Atchison, who never himself claimed that he was technically president, told a reporter for the Plattsburg Lever : It was in this way: Polk went out of office on March 3, 1849, on Saturday at 12 noon. The next day,
8137-530: The office back to Atchison in December 1852, after being elected Vice President of the United States. Atchison continued as president pro tempore until December 1854. As a senator, Atchison was a fervent advocate of slavery and territorial expansion. He supported the annexation of Texas and the U.S.-Mexican War . Atchison and Thomas Hart Benton , Missouri's other senator, became rivals and finally enemies, although both were Democrats. Benton declared himself to be against slavery in 1849. In 1851 Atchison allied with
8240-450: The old settlers forcibly expelled the Latter Day Saints from the county. After petitions to Missouri governor Daniel Dunklin for aid were unsuccessful, Smith organized and led a small paramilitary expedition, called Zion's Camp , to aid the Latter Day Saints in Missouri. As a military endeavor, the expedition was a failure. The men of the expedition were disorganized, suffered from a cholera outbreak and were severely outnumbered. By
8343-587: The plates once Smith finished using them. The completed work, titled the Book of Mormon , was published in Palmyra by printer Egbert Bratt Grandin and was first advertised for sale on March 26, 1830. Less than two weeks later, on April 6, 1830, Smith and his followers formally organized the Church of Christ , and small branches were established in Manchester, Fayette, and Colesville, New York . The Book of Mormon brought Smith regional notoriety and renewed
8446-478: The plates the next morning, but was unsuccessful because Moroni returned and prevented him. He reported that during the next four years he made annual visits to the hill, but, until the fourth and final visit, each time he returned without the plates. Meanwhile, Smith's family faced financial hardship, due in part to the death of his oldest brother Alvin . Family members supplemented their meager farm income by hiring out for odd jobs and working as treasure seekers,
8549-430: The plates to anyone else, but to translate them and publish their translation. He also said the plates were a religious record of Middle-Eastern indigenous Americans and were engraved in an unknown language, called reformed Egyptian . He told associates that he was capable of reading and translating them. Although Smith had abandoned treasure hunting, former associates believed he had double crossed them and had taken
8652-617: The proceeding remains unclear because primary sources report conflicting outcomes. While boarding at the Hale house, located in the township of Harmony (now Oakland ) in Pennsylvania , Smith met and courted Emma Hale . When he proposed marriage, her father, Isaac Hale, objected; he believed Smith had no means to support his daughter. Hale also considered Smith a stranger who appeared "careless" and "not very well educated." Smith and Emma eloped and married on January 18, 1827, after which
8755-492: The right to call out federal troops in its defense. Smith then wrote to the leading presidential candidates, asking what they would do to protect the Mormons. After receiving noncommittal or negative responses, he announced his own independent candidacy for president of the United States , suspended regular proselytizing, and sent out the Quorum of the Twelve and hundreds of other political missionaries. In March 1844 – following
8858-592: The rites of Freemasonry that Smith had observed two months earlier when he had been initiated " at sight " into the Nauvoo Masonic lodge. At first, the endowment was open only to men, who were initiated into a special group called the Anointed Quorum . For women, Smith introduced the Relief Society , a service club and sorority within which Smith predicted women would receive "the keys of
8961-582: The secession crisis in Missouri at the beginning of the American Civil War , Atchison sided with Missouri's pro-Confederate governor, Claiborne Jackson . He was appointed a major general in the Missouri State Guard . Atchison actively recruited State Guardsmen in northern Missouri and served with Guard commander General Sterling Price in the summer campaign of 1861. In September 1861, Atchison led 3,500 State Guard recruits across
9064-458: The southern route (from New Orleans through Texas and New Mexico ). Naturally, his suggested route went through Atchison. Atchison and his law partner Doniphan fell out over politics in 1859–1861, disagreeing on how Missouri should proceed. Atchison favored secession, while Doniphan was torn and would remain for the most part non-committal. Privately Doniphan favored the Union, but found it difficult to oppose his friends and associates. During
9167-457: The time of his death fourteen years later. The religion he founded is followed by millions of global adherents and several churches, the largest of which is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Born in Sharon, Vermont , Smith moved with his family to Western New York , following a series of crop failures in 1816. Living in an area of intense religious revivalism during
9270-487: The two groups, much as they had in Jackson County. By this time, Smith's experiences with mob violence led him to believe that his faith's survival required greater militancy against anti-Mormons . Tensions between the Mormons and the native Missourians escalated quickly until, on August 6, 1838, non-Mormons in Gallatin, Missouri , tried to prevent Mormons from voting, and a brawl ensued. The election day scuffles initiated
9373-453: The vision to be a personal conversion. According to Smith's later accounts, while praying one night in 1823, he was visited by an angel named Moroni . Smith claimed this angel revealed the location of a buried book made of golden plates , as well as other artifacts including a breastplate and a set of interpreters composed of two seer stones set in a frame, which had been hidden in a hill near his home. Smith said he attempted to remove
9476-462: Was acting president of the United States . Historians, constitutional scholars and biographers dismiss the claim. They point out that Atchison's Senate term had also ended on March 4. When the Senate of the new Congress convened on March 5 to allow new senators and the new vice president to take the oath of office, the secretary of the Senate called members to order, as the Senate had no president pro tempore. Although an incoming president must take
9579-467: Was a hotbed of religious enthusiasm during the Second Great Awakening . Between 1817 and 1825, there were several camp meetings and revivals in the Palmyra area. Smith's parents disagreed about religion, but the family was caught up in this excitement. Smith later recounted that he had become interested in religion by age 12, and as a teenager, may have been sympathetic to Methodism . With other family members, he also engaged in religious folk magic ,
9682-759: Was a mid-19th-century Democratic United States Senator from Missouri . He served as president pro tempore of the United States Senate for six years. Atchison served as a major general in the Missouri State Militia in 1838 during Missouri's Mormon War and as a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War under Major General Sterling Price in the Missouri Home Guard. Some of Atchison's associates claimed that for 24 hours—Sunday, March 4, 1849, through noon on Monday—he may have been acting president of
9785-464: Was also assigned the task of locating the site of the New Jerusalem , which was to be "on the borders" of the United States with what was then Indian territory. On their way to Missouri , Cowdery's party passed through northeastern Ohio , where Sidney Rigdon and over a hundred followers of his variety of Campbellite Restorationism converted to the Church of Christ, swelling the ranks of
9888-702: Was appointed a major general in the state militia . He took part in suppressing violence by both sides. Active in the Democratic Party, in 1838 Atchison was re-elected to the Missouri State House of Representatives. In 1841, he was appointed a circuit court judge for the six-county area of the Platte Purchase. In 1843 he was named a county commissioner in Platte County , where he then lived. In October 1843, Atchison
9991-404: Was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy left by the death of Lewis F. Linn . He was the first senator from western Missouri to serve in this position. At age 36, he was the youngest senator from Missouri up to that time. Atchison was re-elected to a full term on his own account in 1849. Atchison was very popular with his fellow Senate Democrats. When the Democrats took control of
10094-428: Was effectively on trial before his own people, many of whom considered him a fallen prophet, he wrote a personal defense and an apology for the activities of his followers. "The keys of the kingdom ", he wrote, "have not been taken away from us". Though he directed his followers to collect and publish their stories of persecution, he also urged them to moderate their antagonism toward non-Mormons. On April 6, 1839, after
10197-468: Was intended to be Zion's "center place". During the 1830s, Smith sent out missionaries, published revelations , and supervised construction of the Kirtland Temple . Because of the collapse of the church-sponsored Kirtland Safety Society , violent skirmishes with non-Mormon Missourians, and the Mormon extermination order , Smith and his followers established a new settlement at Nauvoo, Illinois , of which he
10300-640: Was later tried and acquitted.) In June 1843, enemies of Smith convinced a reluctant Illinois Governor Thomas Ford to extradite Smith to Missouri on an old charge of treason. Two law officers arrested Smith but were intercepted by a party of Mormons before they could reach Missouri. Smith was then released on a writ of habeas corpus from the Nauvoo municipal court. While this ended the Missourians' attempts at extradition, it caused significant political fallout in Illinois. In December 1843, Smith petitioned Congress to make Nauvoo an independent territory with
10403-450: Was one of eleven children. At the age of seven, Smith had a bone infection and, after receiving surgery, used crutches for three years. After an ill-fated business venture and three successive years of crop failures culminating in the 1816 Year Without a Summer , the Smith family left Vermont and moved to Western New York , and took out a mortgage on a 100-acre (40 ha) farm in the townships of Palmyra and Manchester . The region
10506-406: Was one of the most influential, charismatic, and innovative figures in American religious history. In a 2015 compilation of the 100 Most Significant Americans of All Time, Smithsonian ranked Smith first in the category of religious figures. In popular opinion, non-Mormons in the U.S. generally consider Smith a "charlatan, scoundrel, and heretic", while outside the U.S. he is "obscure". Within
10609-555: Was the spiritual and political leader. In 1844, when the Nauvoo Expositor criticized Smith's power and his practice of polygamy , Smith and the Nauvoo City Council ordered the destruction of its printing press , inflaming anti-Mormon sentiment. Fearing an invasion of Nauvoo, Smith rode to Carthage, Illinois , to stand trial, but was shot and killed by a mob that stormed the jailhouse. During his ministry, Smith published numerous documents and texts, many of which he attributed to divine inspiration and revelation from God . He dictated
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