The Succession Crisis in the Latter Day Saint movement occurred after the assassination of the movement's founder, Joseph Smith, Jr. on June 27, 1844. This was a significant event in the History of the Latter Day Saint movement which precipitated several permanent schisms.
Background
Joseph Smith Jr. was the prime mover among six men who organized the Latter Day Saint Church of Christ (Mormonism) in 1830. Between that time and his death in 1844, both that church and Smith's role within it evolved. Prior to the formal establishment of the church, Smith claimed for himself the titles of "seer" and "prophet." Additionally he was the "translator" of the Book of Mormon. In time, these titles were combined and Smith was known by the title: "Prophet, Seer, Revelator and Translator."
Because the church was "organized" rather than legally "incorporated," its property needed to be held in trust by a trustee. Smith also became the church's Trustee-in-Trust .
Initially, the highest leadership position in the church was that of "elder," and church elders were sometimes called "apostles." Smith's initial title in the church was "First Elder." Church co-founder, Oliver Cowdery, was given the title "Second Elder." In March of 1832, Smith created a quorum of three presidents known as the First Presidency. Smith became President of the First Presidency — a title which became associated with the office of "President of the Church" — presidents Sidney Rigdon and Jesse Gause became Smith's counsellors in the First Presidency.
On December 18, 1833, Smith created the office of "Patriarch over the Church" and ordained his father, Joseph Sr. to the fill the role. The "Presiding Patriarch" (as the office came to be called) often presided over church meetings and was sometimes sustained at church conferences ahead of any other church officers.
On February 17, 1834, Smith created a High Council in Kirtland, Ohio. This body consisted of Twelve men, headed by the First Presidency. This High Council took on the role of chief judicial and legislative body of the local church and handled such things as excommunication trials and approval of all church spending. This High Council became subordinate to the High Council of Zion, which was organized in Far West, Jackson County, Missouri Later, when other High Councils were established in newly formed stakes of the Church, the High Council of Zion (first Kirtland, then Far West, Missouri and finally Nauvoo, Illinois) took on a role of "presiding" over the lesser High Councils. (Cases tried in the High Councils of outlying stakes were regularly appealed to the Presiding High Council). Most Latter Day Saint historians view the High Council of Zion not the same as a Stake High Council, as there is no "Stake" at the "center place" of Zion, and Zion, and its branch of the Church (sometimes referred to as The Church of the Firstborn or the Church of Enoch) would preside over other branches of the Church. During this time, High Council members were ordained high priests, but not given any priesthood keys.
In 1835, Smith created an additional "Traveling High Council" of twelve men, ordained to the office of Apostle to oversee the missionary work of the church. Thomas B. Marsh was made president of this council which, in practice, was initially subordinate to the Presiding High Council of Zion. For example, in 1838, when vacancies arose in the Traveling High Council, it was the Presiding High Council at Far West which voted on and filled the vacancies. Later, as the Traveling High Council evolved and began to be known as the Quorum of the Twelve apostles, it acquired equal status with the Presiding High Council and both were subordinated to the First Presidency. When the High Council of Zion was dissolved after the Church was expelled from Missouri, the Quorum of Twelve Apostles took its current leadership role within the Church and were given keys of the priesthood, something no other High Council was given previously.
Finally, in 1844, Smith created the Council of Fifty to be the "living constitution" of the "Kingdom," which, in turn, sustained Smith as "Prophet, Priest and King." This council consisted of both Church members and non-Mormons who were prominent in the Nauvoo area. Smith also created the Anointed Quorum, an inner group of strong and trusted Church members (both male and female) who recieved Temple endowments and "the fulness of the priesthood" from Smith. Others who were given priesthood keys include those who served in the First Presidency, the Quorum of Three Witnesses, the Associate President of the Church, Hyrum Smith, and earlier, the Presidency of the Church in Zion, which included David Whitmer and W.W. Phelps.
The 1844 Succession
At the time of his murder, Smith thus held the roles: "Prophet, Seer, Revelator, and Translator," "President of the Church," "President of the First Presidency," "Trustee-in-Trust" of the Church, and "Prophet, Priest and King" of the "Kingdom." It was unclear if all of these offices should be held together by any one successor and it was equally unclear who such a successor should be.
Theoretical Successors
Following Smith's murder, it was not immediately clear to Latter Day Saints who would lead the church. Some, including Illinois governor Thomas Ford, predicted that the movement would dissolve.
Contemporary statements of Church leaders indicate that had Smith's brother Hyrum survived, he would have been the successor. Hyrum had been ordained Associate President and Presiding Patriarch of the church, and the successor of Oliver Cowdery, who had been excommunicated. (See Times and Seasons, 2 (1 June 1841): 128; cf. Doctrine and Covenants 124:94-95). Hyrum, however, had been killed in Carthage, Illinois with Joseph Smith. Regarding Hyrum, Brigham Young stated:
- "Did Joseph Smith ordain any man to take his place. He did. Who was it? It was Hyrum, but Hyrum fell a martyr before Joseph did. If Hyrum had lived he would have acted for Joseph." (Times and Season, 5 [Oct. 15, 1844]: 683.)
Following the principle of lineal succession, Smith's younger brother Samuel was the next potential candidate in line. Sometime between June 23-27, 1844, Smith reportedly stated that "if he and Hyrum were taken away, Samuel H. Smith would be his successor" (Smith, An Intimate Chronicle, p. 138; William Clayton Diary, typescript, 12 Jul. 1844, original in First Presidency's Archives). However, Samuel died suddenly on July 13, 1844, just days after Joseph and Hyrum were killed. Although rumors that Samuel was poisoned persisted for many years, some scholars today suggest that his symptoms are more consistent with a type of pnuemonia-type sickness caused by stress and shock. The last of the surviving Smith brothers, William, initially only claimed the right to succeed his brothers as Presiding Patriarch. Much later, after breaking with several Latter Day Saint factions, he exercised his own claim to the presidency of the church, with little result.
Joseph Smith Jr. also seems to have given indications that one of his sons would succeed him. Several church leaders later claimed that on April 22, 1839, and August 27, 1834, Joseph Smith indicated his eldest son, Joseph Smith III, would be his successor. (See Roger Launius, Joseph Smith III: Pragmatic Prophet.) At the time of Smith's death, however, Joseph Smith III was eleven years old — far too young to lead the church. Similarly, in April 1844, Joseph Smith had reportedly prophesied his unborn child would be a son who was to be named "David" and would eventually become "president and king of Israel". (See Valery Tippetts Avery, From Mission to Madness: The Last Son of the Mormon Prophet.) (In the 1980s, Mark Hofmann, forged a copy of a Patriarchal Blessing given to Joseph Smith III, naming the young Joseph as Smith's successor. Although this document was a forgery, it was based on contemporary reports of such a blessing.)
Had they not been previously excommunicated, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer might also have had credible claims to be Smith's successor. Oliver Cowdery had been the "Second Elder" of the church after Joseph Smith, and until the time of his excommunication held the keys of the dispensation with Joseph. In addition, he had been with Smith at all the important events of early Mormonism. Like Hyrum later, Joseph Smith had ordained Cowdery as the Associate President, and had given him authority "to assist in presiding over the whole Church and to officiate in the absence of the President" (Manuscript History of the Church, Book A-1, p. 11, Church Archives). However, Cowdery had been excommunicated on April 12, 1838. (Cannon and Cook, Far West Record, pp. 162-171).
Whitmer had been ordained President of the High Council in Zion (Jackson County, Missouri), and Joseph had blessed him on July 7, 1834, "to be a leader or a prophet to this Church, which (ordination) was on condition that he (J. Smith, Jr) did not live to God himself" (Cannon and Cook, Far West Record, p. 151). Upon forming the High Council in Jackson County, Smith had stated that "if he should be taken away that he had accomplished the great work which the Lord had laid before him, and that which he had desired of the Lord, and that he now had done his duty in organizing the High Council, through which Council the will of the Lord might be known." (Cannon and Cook, Far West Record, pp. 71-72). Whitmer, however, had been excommunicated on April 13, 1838. (Id., pp. 176-178).
Immediate Successors
Joseph Smith's death left a number of important church leaders, councils and quorums, many of which had overlapping and/or evolving functions.
The highest executive council of the church was the First Presidency. The death of both Joseph and Hyrum Smith left Sidney Rigdon as the only surviving member of the First Presidency. As early as April 19, 1834, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery had "laid hands upon bro. Sidney [Rigdon] and confirmed upon him the blessings of wisdom and knowledge to preside over the Church in the absence of brother Joseph" (Joseph Smith Diary, 19 Apr. 1834, Church Archives; Jessee, Papers of Joseph Smith, vol. 2, pp. 31-32). In the Spring of 1844, Joseph Smith had begun running a third-party candidacy to be elected President of the United States. Sidney Rigdon was nominated as Smith's Vice Presidential running mate and had moved to Pennsylvania to establish legal residency there. (The U.S. Constitution dictates that the President and Vice President must come from separate states.) Upon receiving word of Smith's death, Rigdon claimed to receive a revelation calling him to succeed Smith as "guardian" of the church and he hurriedly returned to Nauvoo to exercise his claim.
After the First Presidency, the (Presiding) Nauvoo High Council was the church's chief legislative and judicial council. Nauvoo Stake President William Marks was president of the High Council. Smith's widow, Emma urged Marks to succeed Smith as President and Trustee-in-Trust of the church, but Marks supported the claims of Rigdon.
The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were originally ordained to be traveling ministers, and had been delegated leadership of outlying areas of the world in which no "stakes" — local congregations — were established. In 1835, Smith had stated, "[t]he twelve apostles have no right to go into Zion or any of its stakes where there is a regular high council established, to regulate any matter pertaining thereto" (Minutes of a Grand High Council, 2 May 1835, in Patriarchal Blessing Book, p. 2, Church Archives). In later years, however, Smith had given the Quorum a greater role in governing the Church, and Quorum President Brigham Young became one of Smith's closest confidants. Long after Smith's death, members of the Twelve in Utah claimed that Smith gave them a "last charge" on March 26, 1844, in which he stated, "I roll the burden and responsibility of leading this church off from my shoulders on to yours. Now, round up your shoulders and stand under it like men; for the Lord is going to let me rest awhile" (Undated certificate of the Twelve Apostles, Brigham Young Papers, Church Archives). The accuracy of this "last charge", and the question of whether the charge was directed specifically to the Quorum of the Twelve, are in dispute. Another witness recalled that the "last charge" was given during a meeting of the Council of Fifty and was directed to the "Quorum of the Twelve and others who were encircled about him", which seems to have included others in addition to the Twelve. (See Autobiography of Benjamin F. Johnson, p. 96, who was a member of the Council of Fifty but not the Quorum of the Twelve.) It has been suggested that the "charge" was directed to the Council of Fifty or possibly the Anointed Quorum, both of which included the Twelve as its members. (See, e.g., Lyle G. Brown, The Holy Order in Nauvoo, unpublished )
Conference of August 8, 1844
At the time of Smith's death, Rigdon, Young and many other church leaders were on "political missions," canvassing for Smith's presidential bid. When they returned to Nauvoo, a public meeting was organized on August 8, 1844, to discuss the succession.
Ridgon spoke first to the assembled. He had already suggested he had the right to lead the church as a "guardian" and wanted the conference to confirm that role. To back his claim, Rigdon cited his long relationship with Smith, and the fact that he was the senior surviving member of the First Presidency. Rigdon also argued that Smith had sent him to Pennsylvania to prevent the entire presidency from being killed in the ongoing conflict.
After Rigdon spoke for ninety minutes, Young called for a recess of two and a half hours. In his diary, Young's counselor, Heber C. Kimball, recorded that during this recess, he "pay[e]d Emma one thousand dollars in cash" before Young spoke. Historian D. Michael Quinn has suggested this was an attempt to sway Emma’s opinion and influence. Others have suggested that giving money to Emma in this way was a common practice.
When the conference resumed, Young emphasized the idea that no man could ever replace Joseph Smith. But, he stated that the Quorum of the Twelve retained all the "keys of the priesthood" that Smith had held. He answered Rigdon’s proposal to be named "guardian" by suggesting that Rigdon and Smith had become estranged in recent years. Rather than have a single guardian, Young proposed that the Quorum of the Twelve be named the church's First Presidency. Rigdon declined an offer to rebut Young, asking W. W. Phelps to speak for him. Instead Phelps spoke in favor of Young's proposal.
The assembled church members were then asked to vote either to accept Rigdon as church guardian or to set the Twelve as guardians over the church. The overwhelming majority voted in favor of the latter, squarely defeating Rigdon.
Many Latter Day Saints recalled long after this event that as Young spoke, he appeared to them to look and/or sound like the late Joseph Smith. The story of this "transfiguration" is often repeated and has become a piece of Mormon folklore. Whatever happened at the time, Young quickly took control of the apparatus of the church in Nauvoo, including the church's property and newspapers.
After his victory, Young argued that because the Twelve were now the First Presidency, Rigdon out to resume his role as "counselor" by being a counselor to the Twelve. Rigdon, meanwhile, did not abandon his claims and began organizing supporters in Nauvoo. These activities were discovered by Young who excommunicated Rigdon. Rigdon, claiming that Young's supporters had threatened his life, fled from Nauvoo and established a separate organization of the church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania which excommunicated Young and most of the Twelve.
In the general conference of October, 1844, the Quorum of Twelve Apostles presided as the church’s highest authority for the first time. Young announced that he had the power of revelation, and his leadership was supported by a sustaining vote of those present.
The Claims of James J. Strang
While these events were going on in Nauvoo, another successor of Smith began to exercise his claim in the church's outlying branches in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. Although he was a relatively recent convert, James J. Strang posed a strong and initially quite successful challenge to the claims of Young and Rigdon. Strang was a Mormon elder charged with establishing a stake or a place of refuge in Wisconsin, should the Mormons be forced to abandon their headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois. He possessed a letter, known as the Letter of Appointment. This letter, purported written by Smith prior to his death, appointed Strang to be Smith's successor as church president. Strang also claimed that at the moment of Smith's death, he was visited by angels who ordained him to be Smith's successor.
Strang's claim appealed to many Latter Day Saints who had been attracted to early Mormonism's doctrines of continung revelation through the mouth of a living prophet. In the August 8, 1844 Conference, Young had emphasized that no single man could succeed the prophet Joseph Smith. Young subsequently used the Times and Seasons to announce to the church, "You no longer have a prophet, but you have apostles." Strang, by contrast, announced that there was, indeed, a new Mormon prophet to succeed Smith. Strang claimed to commune with angels and he also found and translated supposedly ancient records engraved upon metal plates, just as Smith had.
Many prominent Latter Day Saints believed in the Letter of Appointment and accepted Strang as Mormonism's second "Prophet, Seer, Reveletor and Translator." These included the early church's Presiding Patriarch (and Apostle) William Smith (Joseph's only surviving brother), Book of Mormon witness Martin Harris, Presiding Stake President William Marks, Presiding Bishop and Trustee-in-Trust George Miller, Apostle John E. Page, former Apostle William E. McLellin and many others, including Joseph Smith's mother, Lucy Mack Smith.
Strang established a separate church organization in Voree, Wisconsin and called upon the Latter Day Saints to gather there. He and his hierarchy were excommunicated by Young's hierarchy and vice-versa.
Aftermath
The largest group of Latter Day Saints accepted the leadership of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, either immediately or within the following two decades. In 1846, this group began to migrate west, settling in the Great Basin in what is now Utah. In 1847, Brigham Young succeded in creating a new First Presidency, which cemented his authority as president of what is now known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and numbers in excess of twelve million members. Over time, his succession became a precedent. At the death of each president of this church, the First Presidency is dissolved and the President of the Quorum of the Twelve becomes the new church president.
Sidney Rigdon's church dissolved a few years after its organization, but it was reorganized as the Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite) in 1862 and contines to this day.
James J. Strang's leadership was based predominately on his claim to be a prophet called by God. When he was mortally wounded by assassins in 1856, he refused to name a successor, leaving the matter in God's hands. When no prophet appeared, the bulk of his church dissolved, but a few loyal congregations remain today.
Many Latter Day Saints, including Strang, believed that one or more of Joseph Smith's sons would eventually lead the church. Even Brigham Young may have recognized the patrilineal right of succession for Smith’s sons. Decades after Smith’s murder, Young made apparently earnest entreaties to Smith’s sons, Joseph Smith III and David Hyrum Smith, to join his church's hierarchy.
Both Smiths were, however, profoundly opposed to a number of practices, especially plural marriage, and neither ever took any position in Young's organization. Eventually, many Latter Day Saints in the Midwest coalesced behind the leadership of William Marks and others. In the late 1850s, they proposed the creation of a New Organization of the church and asked Joseph Smith III to be their president. Joseph III refused to lead any church unless he felt inspired to do so. By 1860, he reported that he had received such inspiration and he became Prophet/President of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Today, this denomination (now called the Community of Christ) is the second-largest Latter Day Saint denomination consisting of 250,000 members.
There were several other Latter Day Saint branches in Bloomington, Crow Creek, Half Moon Prarie, and Eagle Creek, Illinois, and Vermillion, Indiana, each left leaderless after the 1844 succession crisis. In 1863, these groups united under the leadership of Granville Hedrick . This group inherited the name "Church of Christ" and became known popularly as the Hedrickites. Today, this small church has ownership of the temple site in Independence, Missouri, and is commonly known as the Temple Lot Mormons.
