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Joseph Smith no longer a murder suspect...
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Joseph Smith no longer a murder suspect...

Item # 709240 ·
NILES' NATIONAL REGISTER, Baltimore, Jan. 21, 1843 

* Mormons - Mormonism
* Joseph Smith cleared of murder
* Millerites Movement 

A back page report about "Joe Smith" notes in part: "...This personage, who lately surrendered himself at Springfield, Illinois in obedience to the requisition of the governor of Missouri, on a charge of being accessary to the attempted assassination of ex-governor Boggs...was discharged... from custody of the ground that he is not a fugitive from justice, & consequently not the subject of surrender to the authorities of another state...".
Also on the back page is a tongue-in-cheek item on the Millerites, noting: "...We must believe, as the only mode of reconciling these things with the human understanding, that the legislature of Illinois are Millerites; and, as they end of the world occurs in 1843, there is no necessity for raising a revenue...".
Sixteen pages, 8 1/2 by 12 inches, very nice condition.

Background: The January 21, 1843 back-page report highlights two notable historical events: the legal discharge of Latter-day Saints founder Joseph Smith in Springfield, Illinois, and a satirical commentary on the apocalyptic Millerite movement. Surrendering under a Missouri extradition warrant that accused him of being an accessory to the attempted assassination of ex-Governor Lilburn Boggs, Smith was cleared by U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Pope, who established an important legal precedent by ruling that Smith could not be extradited as a "fugitive from justice" because he was physically present in Illinois when the crime occurred. Sharing the page was a satirical item poking fun at Illinois's severe financial debt following the Panic of 1837; the piece dryly joked that the state legislature’s failure to pass revenue measures could only mean lawmakers had joined William Miller's apocalyptic movement—reasoning that if the world was scheduled to end in 1843 as Miller predicted, collecting tax revenue was entirely unnecessary.

As noted in Wikipedia, this title: "...(was) one of the most widely-circulated magazines in the United States...Devoted primarily to politics...considered an important source for the history of the period."

Item from last month's catalog - #368 - released for July, 2026

Category: Pre-Civil War
Price
$56
100% Authentic: Original printing, never a reproduction.