President Joseph Smith?

Joseph Smith wrote letters to John Calhoun, Lewis Cass, Richard Johnson, Henry Clay, and Martin Van Buren, the men most frequently mentioned for candidates for President of the United States. He asked each man what his course would be toward the Latter-day saints if he were elected President. It seemed obvious that there was no one the Saints could endorse for the presidency. Joseph and the Twelve Apostles sustained a motion to propose their own ticket with Joseph Smith as their candidate for President. He told them that they would have to send every man in Mauvoo who could speak to campaign and preach the gosple and that he would be among them. "After April Confrence we will have General Confrence all over the nation, and I will attend as many as coveniant. Tell the people that we have had Whig and Democratic Presidents long enough: we want a President of the United States. If I ever get into the Presidential chair, I will protect the people in their rights and liberties." Joseph chose Sidney Rigdon as his VP. On 11 March, a council meeting was held to oganize the political kingdom of God in preporation for the Second Coming. By the end of April, a list of elders and their campaign assignments was published in the Nauvoo Neighbor. It was also decided, in an early May convention, to secure the appointment of delegates from several states to a national convention to be held in Baltimore, Maryland, in July to nominate Joseph Smith for President of the United States.

In contrast to the lawless actions of the anti-Mormon party and the Warsaw Signal, Joseph Smith joined Governor Ford that spring in an effort to establish more cordial relations among the the citizens of western Illinois. By May of 1844 the Latter-Day Saints were once again embroiled in an apparently irreconcilable conflict with their neighbors. There are many reasons for this: politically the Saints were alienated from nearly everyone else in Illinois, other communities were jealous of Nauvoo's economic growth and political autonomy, many people in Illinois feared the power of the Nauvoo Legion, the Masons were disturbed by alleged irregularities of the order in Nauvoo, and there was a general distaste among the people for peculiar Mormon doctrines and practices which had been misrepresented by John C. Bennet and others. Despite these factors, the saints still might have been able to maintain peace if it had not been for the apostacy developing within the Chuch. Unhappily, all signs pointed toward eventuall violence. On 29 May 1844, Thomas Sharp told his readers he "would not be surprised to hear of his [Joseph Smith's] death by violent means in a short time."

On Monday, June 24, at 6:00 AM, Joseph had a chance to say good bye to his familly. At 6:30, Joseph, Hyrum, John Taylor, and fifteen members of the Nauvoo City Council, accompanied by Willard Richards and other friends, on horseback, road to Carthage. Pausing at what had been built of the Nauvoo Temple(it was only half built at the time), Joseph remarked, "This is the loveliest place and the best people under the heavens; little do they know the trials that await them." To the assembled saints, he said, "If we do not go there[to Carthage], the result will be the destruction of this city and it's inhabitants; and I cannot think of my brothers and sisters and their children suffering the scenes of Missouri again in Nauvoo; no, it is better fro your brother, Joseph, to die for his brothers and sisters, for I am willing to die for them. My work is finished."

The Martyrdom

On the humid Thursday of June 27, 1844, around 5:00 PM, Joseph, Hyrum, Willard, and John were sitting in the second floor bedroom, while Joseph was writing his final note to Emma. Meanwhile, John is on the bed singing a favorite song on Joseph, "A Poor Wayfaring Man if Grief." At about 5:14, a mob of over 200 men, with blackened faces, attacked Carthage Jail. They stormed upstairs, passing guards. The guards had been changed only an hour before, and they had all been in on the attack. The first mobster up the stairs was met by the fist of Joseph. The 4 men leaped to the door, attempting to block the assassins. On the road to Carthage, Joseph pleaded with Hyrum 3 times for Hyrum to return to Nauvoo. But Hyrum said, "Joseph, I can not leave you." And it turns out that Hyrum was the first to die in the attack. He was shot through the door, to the left of his nose, going almost all the way through his head. He fell shouting "I am a dead man!" Joseph, noting Hyrum's remorse, came to his aid, leaned over him yelling "Oh dear, brother Hyrum!" John Taylor stated that the sorrowful face that Joseph had was forever imprinted in his mind. Joseph then returned to the door with his six-shooter called the pepper box. He fired six times, which only fires 3 times. He wounds an assailant. John then attempted to jump out the window, but was delayed when a bullet entered his right hip. Mobsters from the ground were also shooting through the window from the ground. A bullet destined for John entered his pocket watch. The force from the bullet knocked him off balance, forcing him back into the room. He was then shot in the left wrist, and then in the left knee. The force from those bullets made him role under the bed. He then was shot in the hip. The floor and the wall was splattered with blood. Joseph, after emptying his gun, CALMLY walked to the middle of the room, and dropped his pistol neer Hyrum's body. He then ran toward the window, and some people say that they heard him yell, "Oh Lord, what shall I do?" He was shot twice from the window, and another time from the door, which added to the force that had to be used to get through the window. Joseph then crashed through the window, and fell to the ground neer the well.Joseph and Hyrum Smith, have been martyred. Willard then took the extremely wounded John into the jail cell, put a couple thick blankets on him, and then covered him with hay to stop the bleeding. He also couldn't relax because he kept waiting for more people to come in and kill them. He said something around,"John, if I die, I want you to be able to live to tell the tale." The next day, their bodies was were gently placed in wagons, covered with branches to shade them from the sun, driven by Willard Richards.
In the same week, Brigham Young was in Boston in the theater above. He was working on Joseph's campaign for the 1844 election against James Polk. He later received a letter from Elder Richards, saying "Joseph and Hyrum are dead." He wept for several hours.
A few hours after the martyrdom, molds of Joseph and Hyrum's faces were made. These same masks are in the Church History Museum. These are perfect copies of Joseph and Hyrum's faces at the time. The masks, however, are slowly falling apart. That's why tiny plastic strings are holding it together. Also, Hyrum's chin had already fallen apart, so it was redone. A copy of both of their masks were made, from which the drawing at the beginning of the blog is baced. Joseph, Hyrum, and Emma's remains are in these granite coffins outside the Joseph Smith Brick Store. Joseph's parents are also buried there, along with Joseph's sons and grandchildren.