Candidate for President Summary and Analysis

Joseph Smith could not find peace, even in his beautiful city of Nauvoo. John C. Bennett plotted with Lilburn Boggs to have him extradited on some charge back to Missouri. They used old charges of treason that had sent Joseph fleeing from Missouri in 1839. They sent sheriffs to arrest Joseph. These men took Joseph without charging him, and rushed him under armed guard to Dixon. A call went out to save Joseph from the kidnapping. Additionally, when Joseph was locked in an upper room of a pub, he called out the window with a voice that had carried to thousands in open-air meetings. The villagers of Dixon came to the pub and insisted that Joseph be given a fair hearing.

A Whig attorney, Cyrus Walker, happened to be in Dixon, and agreed to defend the prophet for...