In a speech delivered on April 6, 1854, in Washington, Stephen A. Douglas recalled his encounter with Joseph Smith (May 18, 1843) and Joseph's prophecy of Douglas being defeated and the destruction of the Whig Party (note: while Douglas believed it was referring to the near future, most LDS interpreters believe Joseph was referring to Douglas' then-future [as of 1843] attempt to become the president of the USA and eventual destruction of the Whig Party):
You
also say that you consider it your duty to take cognizance of “the moral
bearing of the conflicts of the different political parties.” The moral bearing
of the democratic party, and of the whig party, and of the abolition party are
each to be recognised by your divinely appointed institution; and you then add
that it is your duty “to proclaim in reference thereunto the principle of
inspired truth and obligation.” You propose, through your divinely-appointed
institution, to apply the test of “inspired truth” to each of the political
organizations and to their respective conflicts, and “to reprove, rebuke, and
exhort with all authority and doctrine,” in the name of the great Jehovah. With
all due respect for you, as ministers of the Gospel, I cannot recognize in your
divinely-appointed institution the power either of prophecy or of revelation. I
have never recognised the existence of that power in any man on earth during my
day. Only a few years since, and within the period of your own vivid
recollection, the priesthood of a religious sect, calling themselves Latterday
Saints, claimed for themselves the same right, by virtue of their
divinely-appointed institution, to declare and enforce God’s will on earth in
respect to “all points of moral and religious truth.” They also declared that
it was their duty to recognize “the moral bearing of the conflicts of the
political parties,” and to “proclaim in reference thereunto the principle of inspired
truth and obligation.” When the Mormon prophet proclaimed the principle of agency
of his divinely-appointed institution that it was the decree of heaven that
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS should be beaten, and his opponent elected to Congress in
the Quincy district, the people of that portion of Illinois did not acknowledge
the authority of the prophecy, nor did the result of the election strengthen my
opinion in the validity of his claims.
I
have wandered over distant and extensive portions of the globe, during the past
year, where the successor of Mahomet proclaimed and enforced God’s will on
earth, according to the principles of inspired truth and obligation, as
recorded in the Koran; and, by the potency of his divinely-appointed
institution, held, in the hollow of his hand, and suspended upon his breath,
the lives, the liberties, and the property of millions of men, women, and
children. When within his dominions and surrounded by his bayonets, I had neither
the time nor the disposition to argue the question of his right to “reprove,
rebuke, and exhort, with all authority and doctrine,” in the name of the Almighty!
But, when I set foot on the shores of my native land, under the broad folds of
our national flag, and surrounded by the protecting genius of our American
institutions, I did not feel like recognizing any such rightful authority of
that divinely-appointed institution, in temporal affairs, here or elsewhere. (Letter of Senator Douglas,
Vindicating his character and his position on the Nebraska Bill against the
Assaults Contained in the Proceedings of A Public Meeting Composed of
Twenty-five Clergymen in the city of Chicago," The Washington
Sentinel 2, no. 15 [April 11, 1854]:2)
Further Reading: