Joseph Smith for President by Spencer W. McBride

Joseph Smith for President by Spencer W. McBride

Author:Spencer W. McBride [McBride, Spencer W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2021-04-13T04:00:00+00:00


“A Faithful Advocate and Defender of the Constitution”

Smith and the Council of Fifty quickly realized that they could not count on the newspaper media to cover Smith’s campaign—at least, not without prompting. During the same April 25 meeting in which the council determined to dispatch electioneering missionaries, Smith’s brother, William, “motioned that the Eastern Cities be advised to establish a weekly periodical in each, to advocate the claims of . . . Joseph Smith for the presidential chair.” Sidney Rigdon amended the motion to expand its geographic scope by replacing “Eastern Cities” with “every where in the United States.” Ultimately, Joseph Smith concluded that the motion should advise Latter-day Saints to establish political newspapers in “all other principle cities in the East, West, North and South and every other place practicable.”50

The impetus of William Smith’s motion in the Council of Fifty was almost certainly a conference of Mormons in New York City earlier that month. William Smith had presided at this meeting on April 2–3, in which those assembled considered the publication of a newspaper in support of Smith and his campaign. The conference approved the plan and appointed a four-person committee to oversee the operation.51 William Smith returned to Nauvoo, and the committee promptly went to work. Henry J. Doremus, a physician and member of New York City’s Mormon congregation, purchased a press and the type. The committee then secured a space for their printing operation on Spruce Street in Lower Manhattan, a street nicknamed “printers row” for the abundance of newspapers produced on it. On May 18, just six weeks after the campaign newspaper was first discussed, the first issue of The Prophet came off the press.52

The editors wrote in The Prophet’s prospectus that the paper was “an advocacy and herald of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints.” While published content would also include reports on “Agriculture, Commerce, and Manufacture, as well as to the Foreign and Domestic News of the Day,” the political goals of the paper were front and center. The Prophet would “be a faithful advocate and defender of the Constitution of the United States.”53 Of course, a cursory perusal of the newspaper’s columns would reveal to readers that by advocating and defending the Constitution, the paper’s editors meant promoting the candidacy and platform of Joseph Smith.

The Prophet was initially edited by committee, but after releasing the first few issues, financial trouble necessitated a change in the newspaper’s ownership. New York–based church member Sam Brannan assumed control of the printing operation and its debts. With the help of William Smith and others, Brannan ensured that the paper’s weekly issues continued uninterrupted.54

For Brannan, owning and editing The Prophet combined his religious devotion with his professional ambitions. In the annals of American history Brannan is best remembered for his role in the California Gold Rush of 1848. Among other things, he was the founder and proprietor of the California Star, the first newspaper to publish news of the discovery of gold near Sacramento.55 However, the path to Brannan’s notoriety began with his work as a Mormon printer.



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