herwise issued, within the city, should be
subject to imprisonment for life, and that the pardoning power
of the Governor of the State was in such case suspended. This
ordinance when published created great astonishment and indignation.
The belief became general that the Mormons were about to set up
for themselves a separate Government wholly independent of that of
the State. This belief was strengthened by the presentation of
a petition to Congress praying for the establishment of a
Territorial Government for Nauvoo and vicinity.

Apparently oblivious of the gathering storm, Joseph Smith early in
1844 committed his crowning act of folly by announcing himself a
candidate for the high office of President of the United States.
Not only this, but as stated by Governor Ford,

"Smith now conceived the idea of making himself a temporal Prince as
well as the spiritual leader of his people. He instituted a new
and select order of the priesthood, the members of which were to
be priests and kings, temporal and spiritual. These were to be
the nobility, the upholders of his throne. He caused himself to
be crowned and anointed king and priest far above all others.
To uphold his pretensions to royalty, he deduced his descent by an
unbroken chain from Joseph, the son of Jacob, and that of his wife
from some other renowned personage of Old Testament history.
The Mormons openly denounced the Government of the United States, as
being utterly corrupt, and about to pass away and be replaced by
the government of God, to be administered by his servant Joseph.
It is at this day certain, also, that about this time, the prophet
instituted an order in the Church called the Danite Band. This
was to be a body-guard about the person of their sovereign, sworn to
obey his commands as those of God himself."

During late years a war of words has been waged within the
Mormon church over the question of the responsibility of the prophet
Joseph for the introduction of polygamy as a cardinal tenet of its
creed. The son of the prophet, it will be remembered, led a revolt
against Brigham Young, soon after the succession of the latter
to the presidency of the Church, and is now at the head of the
Mormon establishment at Plano, Illinois. This branch of the Church
rejects the dogma of polygamy, declaring it to be utterly repugnant
to the divine revelation to Joseph, and to early Mormon belief and
practice.

Upon the contrary, the main body in Utah