Shattered American Idealism

Abstract

In this chapter Joseph Smith returns to Nauvoo, Illinois, disappointed with his meeting with President Van Buren but hopeful that Elias Higbee can successfully get congressional support for their memorial for redress and reparations. Higbee updates Smith on a three-day hearing of the Mormons’ case before the Senate Judiciary Committee. However, that committee ultimately rules that the federal government has no jurisdiction in the matter and that the Mormons must seek redress from Missouri, the very state that ordered their extermination in 1838. This decision frustrates Smith. With his sense of American idealism shattered, he determines to pursue protection for his people through other legal and political channels.