An assassination 180 years ago

It was June 27, 1844, when a young man (aged 38) was running for president of the United States. His name was Joseph Smith, Jr. Many historians falsely attribute his slaying to his stance on plural marriage (polygamy). While that was a part of it, it was by no means the real causation.

This was some 16 years before Abraham Lincoln’s platform. Smith had his own plan for buying the freedom of slaves. He advocated religious freedom, sound money in gold or silver, and the proper education of schoolchildren.

Brigham Young and other apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were campaigning for Joseph Smith’s presidential campaign. They did not hear the news until August 1844 and rushed back to Nauvoo, Illinois.

One thing all of us might ask today is: What if this assassination had not taken place? Would Smith have been elected president of the United States? Imagine that.

I have family near Grand Coulee. Are today’s politicians focusing on the public good? Building and maintaining more dams and reservoirs, retaining American-owned farmland (and prohibiting extensive foreign ownership of vital American companies and services), providing young people a sustainable pathway to earning a good living — be it trade school or community service? Almost nobody hears of AmeriCorps or even the Peace Corps anymore. When I go to the Wal-Mart anymore, I see throngs of young people in their 20s and 30s that are covered in tattoos, some reeking of tobacco or booze, etc. We are getting a whole generation that would be deemed unfit for military service, not because of how they look, but because of their lack of basic skills and lack of wanting synergy in their lives.

That is why we must remember that awful assassination which took place 180 years ago.

Sincerely,

James A. Marples

Longview, Texas