{"id":107340,"date":"2024-10-09T00:03:38","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T06:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=107340"},"modified":"2024-10-09T00:03:38","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T06:03:38","slug":"war-and-extermination-is-inevitable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/10\/war-and-extermination-is-inevitable.html","title":{"rendered":"“War and extermination is inevitable!”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"David<\/a>
Thomas Sharp, editor of the \u201cWarsaw Signal,\u201d as (very well) played by David Martinez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the events depicted in Six Days in August<\/em> is the destruction, by order of the Nauvoo City Council, of the dissident Nauvoo Expositor<\/em> newspaper on the evening of 10 June 1844. \u00a0That act was probably among the principal inflammatory factors leading to the eventual incarceration and murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith about two and a half weeks later.<\/p>\n

In the immediate wake of the destruction of the Expositor,<\/i> opponents of Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints throughout Hancock County erupted in fierce outrage. Thomas Sharp, the editor of the Warsaw Signal<\/em>, published an impassioned editorial on the subject, declaring,<\/p>\n

We have only to state, that this is sufficient! War and extermination is inevitable! Citizens ARISE, ONE<\/b> and ALL<\/b>!!!\u2014 Can you stand<\/i> by, and suffer such INFERNAL DEVILS! to rob men of their property and rights, without avenging them? We have no time for comment, every man will make his own. Let it be made with POWDER and BALL!!!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Moreover, critics of the Prophet ever since that time have condemned the suppression of the Expositor<\/em>, pointing to it as irrefutable evidence of Joseph Smith\u2019s dictatorial tendencies and his sheer immoral wickedness.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an easy argument for them to make and a good way for them to score points against Joseph, because our sensibilities in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries are deeply offended \u2014 and quite understandably so \u2014 at the idea of suppressing newspapers. \u00a0But our sensibilities were not the sensibilities of our ancestors just a few generations ago.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve just finished watching an installment of Robert Boylan\u2019s podcast that\u2019s entitled Episode 62: \u201cCraig Foster on the Destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor.<\/em>\u201c<\/a> \u00a0It\u2019s based upon an article that Craig wrote for the Interpreter Foundation back in \u00a02023: \u00a0Craig L. Foster, \u201cTurning Type into Pi: The Destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor <\/em>in Historical Context,\u201d Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em> 58 (2023): 107-126<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Abstract: <\/strong>The destruction of the <\/em>Nauvoo Expositor has been portrayed as an event that stands out as a unique act where Joseph Smith and the Nauvoo City Council suppressed free speech. However, rather than being an anomaly, the destruction of the <\/em>Nauvoo Expositor was historically and socially reflective of society in a volatile period in American history during which time several presses were destroyed and even editors attacked and killed.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Foster shows via numerous examples that the suppression of newspapers and the destruction of their presses \u2014 most often extralegally but sometimes carried out by government agents \u2014 was actually far from rare in mid-nineteenth-century America. \u00a0The measures taken by Mayor Joseph Smith and the Nauvoo City Council occurred in a political and social context that is very different from ours. \u00a0And one of the most surprising elements of the story that Foster tells \u2014 well worth the price of admission! \u2014 is the actual attitude of Governor Thomas Ford toward the suppression of the Expositor<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m reminded of the famous opening line of L.P. Hartley\u2019s 1953 novel The Go-Between<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cThe past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the single most fundamental legal-academic treatment of the episode is Dallin H. Oaks, \u201cThe Suppression of the Nauvoo Expositor,\u201d Utah Law Review<\/em> 9 (1965): 862\u2013903, which was published back when President Oaks was a young law professor at the University of Chicago. \u00a0Much more recently, it has been republished \u2014 and is now available online \u2014 as \u201cLegally Suppressing the Nauvoo Expositor in 1844,\u201d in Gordon A. Madsen, Jeffrey N. Walker, and John W. Welch, eds., Sustaining the Law: Joseph Smith\u2019s Legal Encounters<\/em> (Provo UT: BYU Studies, 2014), 427-459<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Professor Oaks\u2019s conclusions are striking \u2014 to me, at least \u2014 because, while he doesn\u2019t utterly damn the actions of Nauvoo\u2019s mayor and city council in the matter (which might not surprise cynical readers who are aware of President Oaks\u2019s subsequent academic and ecclesiastical life), he also doesn\u2019t let them entirely off the hook:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

A historian friendly to the people of Nauvoo has called the suppression of the Nauvoo Expositor<\/em> \u201cthe grand Mormon mistake.\u201d That its consequences were disastrous to the Mormon leaders and that alternative means might better have been employed cannot be doubted. Nevertheless, the common assumption of historians that the action taken by the city council to suppress the paper as a nuisance was entirely illegal is not well founded. Aside from damages for unnecessary destruction of the press, for which the Nauvoo authorities were unquestionably liable, the remaining actions of the council, including its interpretation of the constitutional guarantee of a free press, can be supported by reference to the law of their day. \u00a0(459)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Joseph<\/a>
One of the collateral benefits of the work that we did on the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s \u201cWitnesses\u201d film project was a relatively brief terrestrial reunion of the Joseph Smith Sr. family, shown here in a still photograph taken on the movie set by James Jordan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 2021 Interpreter Foundation movie Witnesses<\/em><\/a> has been available for viewing at no charge over the past week or so: https:\/\/vimeo.com\/824199556\/ecefc622ed<\/a>. \u00a0That window of opportunity goes until tomorrow, 10 October, when its successor film, Six Days in August<\/em><\/a>, enters into theaters.<\/p>\n

As I write, Six Days in August<\/em> is scheduled for more than ninety theaters in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona, California, Texas, Oregon,Washington, Ohio, Alaska, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Canada. And more theaters are slated to open on 18 October. \u00a0Please go to the official Six Days in August<\/em> website<\/a> to find a theater near you. \u00a0If there is no theater playing the film within a reasonable distance of your location, locate the button on the website marked \u201cDemand It in Your Area\u201d and, well, demand it in your area!<\/em> \u00a0The process will only require a few seconds and, although we can\u2019t absolutely guarantee anything \u2014 theater owners and managers have their agency, after all \u2014 we will try very seriously to get the movie to people who want to see it. \u00a0If you can get friends or neighbors or ward members to request it along with you, that will make our case to local theaters all the more persuasive.<\/p>\n

And, by the way, as yet unconfirmed rumors say that Brigham Young and his wife Mary Ann Angell Young are hoping to attend Brigham Young University\u2019s game against the University of Arizona this coming Saturday. \u00a0(After all, it\u2019s Homecoming weekend!) \u00a0If you\u2019re there, please keep an eye out for them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 One of the events depicted in Six Days in August is the destruction, by order of the Nauvoo City Council, of the dissident Nauvoo Expositor newspaper on the evening of 10 June 1844. \u00a0That act was probably among the principal inflammatory factors leading to the eventual incarceration and murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":106251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[380,2905,788,38055,36905,38058],"class_list":["post-107340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-joseph-smith","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mormon","tag-nauvoo-expositor","tag-thomas-sharp","tag-warsaw-signal"],"yoast_head":"\n"War and extermination is inevitable!"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  One of the events depicted in Six Days in August is the destruction, by order of the Nauvoo City Council, of the dissident Nauvoo Expositor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/10\/war-and-extermination-is-inevitable.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""War and extermination is inevitable!"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  One of the events depicted in Six Days in August is the destruction, by order of the Nauvoo City Council, of the dissident Nauvoo Expositor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/10\/war-and-extermination-is-inevitable.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-09T06:03:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2024\/07\/LYqKGfk6-scaled.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/10\/war-and-extermination-is-inevitable.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/10\/war-and-extermination-is-inevitable.html\",\"name\":\"\\\"War and extermination is inevitable!\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-10-09T06:03:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-09T06:03:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"  One of the events depicted in Six Days in August is the destruction, by order of the Nauvoo City Council, of the dissident Nauvoo Expositor\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/10\/war-and-extermination-is-inevitable.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/10\/war-and-extermination-is-inevitable.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/10\/war-and-extermination-is-inevitable.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"“War and extermination is inevitable!”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"War and extermination is inevitable!\"","description":"  One of the events depicted in Six Days in August is the destruction, by order of the Nauvoo City Council, of the dissident Nauvoo Expositor","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/10\/war-and-extermination-is-inevitable.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"War and extermination is inevitable!\"","og_description":"  One of the events depicted in Six Days in August is the destruction, by order of the Nauvoo City Council, of the dissident Nauvoo Expositor","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/10\/war-and-extermination-is-inevitable.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2024-10-09T06:03:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2024\/07\/LYqKGfk6-scaled.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/10\/war-and-extermination-is-inevitable.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/10\/war-and-extermination-is-inevitable.html","name":"\"War and extermination is inevitable!\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-10-09T06:03:38+00:00","dateModified":"2024-10-09T06:03:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":"  One of the events depicted in Six Days in August is the destruction, by order of the Nauvoo City Council, of the dissident Nauvoo Expositor","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/10\/war-and-extermination-is-inevitable.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/10\/war-and-extermination-is-inevitable.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/10\/war-and-extermination-is-inevitable.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“War and extermination is inevitable!”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}