Early newspaper accounts portrayed Mormons poorly

PROVO, Utah -- Stories printed in early 19th century newspapers did little to allay fears about the new Mormon church and the efforts of its members to lead peaceful, productive lives.

In fact, judging by the headlines and story direction, Mormons were thought to be lawbreaking fanatics who could only bring trouble.

So said one of the presenters at the Twelfth Annual Religious Education Student Symposium at BYU Feb. 19.

Sara D. Smith outlined her findings in a paper entitled "More Sinned Against Than Sinning."

Smith researched newspaper stories about the Mormons in the special collections library in the Harold B. Lee Library on campus.

In the National Intelligencer, published in Washington, D.C., from 1800 to 1867, Smith found reports claiming the Mormon people were setting the laws of the land "at naught" and organizing "banditti" to defend themselves.

They were referred to as "deluded fanatics who give loose to their evil passions."

The National Intelligencer collected, reported and summarized the slanted stories, influencing readers on the eastern coast, including lawmakers and politicians.

People outside the church were referred to in the news stories as citizens, while members of the church were always "Mormons."

Headlines declared stories titled "Mormon Difficulties," "Mormon Wars," and "More of the Mormons."

"It is our opinion that the Mormons are the aggressors," said the writer of an Oct. 6, 1838 editorial, referring to an incident where "someone fought with knives and caused trouble" in a thinly veiled report where the writer had already concluded who was at fault.

According to Fawn Brodie’s well documented biography of Joseph Smith, “No Man Knows My History,” Smith told his followers that ‘gentiles’ were not deserving of the same treatment and fairness as latter day saints. This led to many encroachments upon property which made the latter day saints unwelcome.

Exactly.

And it's often what's NOT mentioned by historians when speaking about Mormons' time in Missouri in the 1830s.

Smith, while he was still in Kirtland, Ohio, was even proclaiming that all nations would bow down to the Lds church in a new "scripture" established on Aug. 2, 1833:
"...if Zion doing these things [build a house of the Mormon god & school + obey commandments] she shall prosper, and spread herself and become very glorious, very great, and very terrible. And the nations of the earth shall honor her, and shall say: Surely Zion is the city of our God, and surely Zion cannot fall, neither be moved out of her place... (Lds "scripture" -- Doctrine & Covenants, 97:18-19)

As Smith himself visited Missouri more often, many Missourians didn't like Independence, MO becoming the world-wide HQ military takeover Smith was preaching in Missouri in June 1834:

"And after these lands are purchased, I will hold the armies of Israel guiltless in taking possession of their own lands, which they have previously purchased with their own moneys, and of throwing down the towers of mine enemies that may be upon them, and scattering their watchmen, and avenging me of mine enemies unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. But first let my army become very great, and let it be sanctified before me, that it may become fair as the sun, and clear as the moon, and that her banners may be terrible unto all nations; That the kingdoms of this world may be constrained to acknowledge that the kingdom of Zion is in very deed the kingdom of our God and his Christ; therefore, let us become subject unto her laws." (Lds "scripture," D&C 105: 30-32)

Mormon leaders are still on record as saying:
* The Garden of Eden is in Missouri.
* Smith prophesied that Temple Lot would be built in Independence, MO. (Lds can't build it because it doesn't own the property)
* And the Mormon "jesus" would return starting in Missouri.

(No wonder Missouri's a "show-me" state!!!)

Bennett’s House of Ill Fame
Since Dr. Bennett was a medical doctor who specialized in the diseases of women, it was legitimate for him to go alone into the homes of those who were ill. This gave him opportunity to continue his promiscuity without Joseph being able to know whether or not he was remaining chaste. But Joseph and Hyrum suspected that Bennett had not repented, and asked certain men holding the office of teacher in the priesthood to investigate Bennett’s conduct. Teacher John Taylor (not the apostle by that name) was one of those who did the investigating. He testified under oath:

I held the position of teacher in the original church from September, 1832, until Joseph Smith’s death in 1844.... It was our duty in case we found anybody with more wives than one to report them to the President of the Teachers’ Quorum.... [O]ur instructions were if we found any case of that kind to report it to the President of the Teachers’ Quorum, and the president [of the Teachers’ Quorum] would report them to Hyrum Smith.... [I]t was about that time that John C. Bennett’s secret wife system came to be heard of.... [We] were told to search it out and find what there was to it if we could. That was the way it was, and so I got after him [Bennett], and followed him, and saw him go into a house that did not have a very good reputation. I followed him to the house there in Nauvoo where this secret wife business was practiced,—saw him go into it.

He was said to be a doctor and was going about treating people.... He would go into these houses, and the women there were suspicious women,—did not bear good characters. I heard about his doing this, and I went around to watch him and see if I could not catch him going there. And one evening I traced him and saw him go right into the house. During the time that I was a teacher from 1832 up to 1844, there was no rule or law of the original church that permitted the practice or principle of polygamy. (Abstract of Evidence, 190–191; italics added)

It is important to remember that Hyrum Smith directed the teachers to investigate and report any man who might be found to have “more wives than one”; and also that Teacher Taylor testified that there was no “rule or law” that permitted the practice of polygamy up to 1844—while Joseph and Hyrum were alive.

Teacher John Taylor testified further:

John C. Bennett and a lot of them built an ill-fame house near the Temple in Nauvoo.... After they had built it, John C. Bennett and the Fosters,—I knew all their names at the time, they were the head men of it, after they got it built, they wrote on it in large letters what it was,—a sign declaring what it was, and what it was there for....

The City Council held a council over it, and they considered it was a nuisance to the city.... [The police] took the building, and put it on rollers; and there was a deep gully there, and they pitched the house into it. (ibid.,192; italics added)

One may wonder if this was the house “on the hill” where Francis Higbee visited the French woman who had come to Nauvoo from Warsaw. Dr. Robert Foster, a resident of Nauvoo at the time, declared that Bennett “plead the cause of the house of ill fame in Nauvoo when he was Mayor and the City Council unanimously declared it a public nuisance” (Wasp 1 [October 2, 1842]: 2). The Times and Seasons for November 15, 1841, published a notice of the destruction of the house with the statement, “The city authorities manifest a determination to carry out strictly the temperence ordinances of the city, and in this we wish them ‘God speed’ “ (Times and Seasons 3:599–600).

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