page_title: Joseph Smith 1844 presidential campaign
section_title: Platform
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph Smith 1844 presidential campaign / Platform
caption_attribution_description: English: William W. Phelps, author of "Praise to the Man".
context_page_description: The campaign of Latter Day Saint movement founder Joseph Smith and his vice presidential running mate, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints First Presidency first counselor Sidney Rigdon, took place in 1844. The United States presidential election of that year was scheduled for 1 November to 4 December, but Smith was killed in Carthage, Illinois, on 27 June. Smith was the first Latter Day Saint to seek the presidency, and the first American presidential candidate to be killed.
  In 1844, Smith was the mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois, which was the second most populous city in Illinois with 12,000 residents. Latter Day Saint leaders requested that adherents vote in a bloc behind candidates endorsed by church leaders. As a result, the city's Latter Day Saint residents held the balance of power between the Democrats and Whigs in state elections. Smith also commanded a quasi-public military force, the Nauvoo Legion, that with 2,500 men was almost one-third the size of the U.S. Army.
context_section_description: Smith's platform was published in the pamphlet "Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States", which his electioneers distributed and presented in public and private meetings, and read to congregations of the church and the general public.
  In a change from the strongly anti-abolitionist stance that he had previously adopted, Smith proposed the abolition of slavery by the year 1850 through compensated emancipation funded with revenue from the sale of public lands, and with the savings from cutting the salaries of members of the United States Congress from $8/day to $2/day. Smith explained, "The Southern people are hospitable and noble. They will help to rid so free a country of every vestige of slavery, whenever they are assured of an equivalent for their property." Smith's compensated emancipation proposal was reportedly well received in Kentucky.
  Although Smith warned, "Speculators will urge a national bank as a savior of credit and comfort," he also put forward his own proposal for a national bank, which would operate on a principle of full-reserve banking. The mother bank's capital stock would be owned by the federal government, and the branch banks' would be owned by their respective states. The officers and directors would be elected annually by the people. Smith proposed the adoption of a "judicious tariff" to protect agriculture, manufactures, navigation, and commerce.
  Smith also called for a reduction in the size of the United States House of Representatives to two members per million of population, believing that a smaller body would "do more business than the army that now occupy the halls of the national legislature." More generally, he warned, "No honest man can doubt for a moment but the glory of American liberty is on the wane" and exhorted the people, "Curtail the officers of government in pay, number, and power". He argued, "More economy in the national and state governments would make less taxes among the people". Praising the vision of the "respected and venerable Thomas Jefferson", he remarked, "what a beautiful prospect an innocent, virtuous nation presents to the sage's eye where there is space for enterprise, hands for industry, heads for heroes, and hearts for moral greatness."
  Smith advocated reforming the penal system by mostly abolishing prisons, including debtor's prisons, and using the buildings for "seminaries of learning" so that intelligence would banish barbarism. Smith suggested reforming criminals through "reason and friendship" and wrote, "Petition your State legislatures to pardon every convict in their several penitentiaries, blessing them as they go, and saying to them, in the name of the Lord, Go thy way, and sin no more. Advise your legislators, when they make laws for larceny, burglary, or any felony, to make the penalty applicable to work upon roads, public works, or any place where the culprit can be taught more wisdom and more virtue, and become more enlightened." Smith advocated elimination of courts martial, proposing that deserters instead be given their pay and dishonorably discharged, never again to merit the nation's trust.
  Smith called for a day when "the neighbor from any State or from any country, of whatever color, clime, or tongue, could rejoice when he put his foot on the sacred soil of freedom, and exclaim, The very name of 'American' is fraught with friendship!" With regard to territories that opted to remain outside the federal union, Smith opined that "wisdom would direct no tangling alliance". Smith suggested as an alternative accepting into the union Texas, California, and Oregon, as well as other countries, with the consent of the peoples concerned, including any Indians inhabiting the land. He remarked:
  And when a neighboring realm petitioned to join the union of the sons of liberty, my voice would be come—yea, come, Texas; come, Mexico; come, Canada; and come, all the world: let us be brethren, let us be one great family, and let there be a universal peace. Abolish the cruel custom of prisons (except certain cases), penitentiaries, 
caption: The campaign's theodemocratic platform was the result of a collaboration between Smith, W.W. Phelps (pictured), and possibly John M. Bernhisel.
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