Joseph Smith

Personal Statement: I am Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or more popularly today known mormonism. During the Second Great Awakening in America, I had some visions from God. These visions eventually led me to a set of buried golden plates that had the whole foundation of my religion on them. The stories that they held told of an ancient American civilization that believed and worshiped Jesus Christ hundreds of years before he was even born. After discovering these plates at a young age, I annually visited the site of these plates where I met with an angel. I finally realized that I had to publish these works and set up a church to worship these ideas. Over the years, I moved from New York, to Ohio, to Missouri, and then to Nauvoo, Illinois where I finally found the right place to establish this religion.

Issues and Solutions: In the city of Nauvoo, I was very involved and influential in local politics, in fact I had a presidential campaign, which was ultimately unsuccessful. Economically, I supported high tariffs and a strong federal and central bank in order to support American business. Socially, I believed that slavery was wrong and should have been abolished. Also, I believed in a strong theocratic government to be the ideal way to govern a nation.

Relationship to others: I would probably most want to sit with Brigham Young who carried on the LDS faith after I died. He expanded it to its current home in Utah. I would probably not want to sit by Quaker religious reformers namely someone like Angelina Grimke.