Monday, August 14, 2023

Stephen A. Douglas' Recollection of Joseph Smith's Prophecy Concerning the Future of His Political Career and of the Whig Party (April 6, 1854)

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:


Resources on Joseph Smith's Prophecies