Yeppers. That’s what I’m sayin.’
Since United States Senator Orrin Hatch, a faithful Mormon, announced his candidacy in 1999 for the office of President of the United States, there has been growing interest in how he views the U.S. Constitution and one of Joseph Smith’s little known prophecies. In the Salt Lake Tribune, Nov. 11, 1999, there was an article titled, “Did Hatch Allude To LDS Prophecy?” The article stated:
Sen. Orrin Hatch has denied his Republican presidential campaign is motivated by a longing to fulfill an obscure Mormon myth. But during an interview with a Mormon Church-owned radio station this week he borrowed the exact phrasing of the apocalyptic belief.
According to the so-called “White Horse Prophecy,” the U.S. Constitution will be hanging by a thread and a church elder from Zion will ride in on a metaphorical white horse and save it.
Utah’s senior senator . . . complained that Democrats’ political correctness will be the ruin of the country.
“They tolerate everything that’s bad, and they’re intolerant of everything that’s good. Religious freedom is going to go down the drain, too,” Hatch said. “I’ve never seen it worse than this, where the Constitution literally is hanging by a thread.”
. . . Wright [the radio interviewer], also a Mormon said Hatch clearly was “talking to his folks” in the church audience and his use of the phrase was the buzz of the station afterward.
After Orrin came Romney - then it looks like Huntsman might be next. They’re pushing for it.
I am fully expecting the LDS to “flood” the runs for the WH soon. Romney, Huntsman, and Ried (dem) along with perhaps a few othes, hoping one will “stick”.
*Utah’s senior senator . . . complained that Democrats’ political correctness will be the ruin of the country.*
I wonder how he feels about Harry Reid?
Joseph Smith for President
In 1844 the Council of Fifty decided to run Joseph Smith for the presidency of the United States. Klaus J. Hansen said that “the Council of Fifty, while seriously contemplating the possibility of emigration, also considered a rather spectacular alternative, namely, to run its leader for the presidency of the United States in the campaign of 1844.... Smith and the Council of Fifty seems to have taken the election quite seriously, much more so, indeed, than both Mormons and anti-Mormons have heretofore suspected” (Quest for Empire, p.74).
The elders of the church were actually called to electioneer for Joseph Smith. At a special meeting of the elders on April 9, 1844, Brigham Young declared: “It is now time to have a President of the United States. Elders will be sent to preach the Gospel and electioneer” (History of the Church, vol. 6, p.322). At the same meeting Heber C. Kimball affirmed: “... we design to send Elders to all the different States to get up meetings and protracted meetings, and electioneer for Joseph to be the next President” (Ibid., p.325). Mormon writer John J. Stewart refers to those who were sent to campaign as a “vast force of political missionaries” (Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet, p.209).
Under the date of January 29, 1844, this statement is attributed to Joseph Smith in the History of the Church, “If you attempt to accomplish this, you must send every man in the city who is able to speak in public throughout the land to electioneer.... There is oratory enough in the Church to carry me into the presidential chair the first slide” (vol. 6, p.188).
On March 7, 1844, Joseph Smith was reported to have said: “When I get hold of the Eastern papers, and see how popular I am, I am afraid myself that I shall be elected...” (History of the Church, vol. 6, p.243).
The fact that Joseph Smith would allow himself to be crowned king shows that he was driven by the idea of gaining power. It is very possible that Smith seriously believed that he would become president and that he would rule as king over the people of the United States. The attempt by Joseph Smith to become president seems to have been a treasonous plot to bring the United States Government under the rule of the priesthood. Klaus J. Hansen observed: “But what if, through a bold stroke, he could capture the United States for the Kingdom? The Council of Fifty thought there might be a chance and nominated the Mormon prophet for the Presidency of the United States” (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Autumn 1966, p.67).
George Miller, who had been a member of the Council of Fifty, recorded in a letter dated June 28, 1855:
It was further determined in Council that all the elders should set out on missions to all the States to get up an electorial [sic] ticket, and do everything in our power to have Joseph elected president. If we succeeded in making a majority of the voters converts to our faith, and elected Joseph president, in such an event the dominion of the Kingdom would be forever established in the United States; and if not successful, we could fall back on Texas, and be a kingdom notwithstanding (Letter by George Miller, as quoted in Joseph Smith and World Government, by Hyrum Andrus, 1963, p.54).
Instead of going to Texas the Mormons settled in the Great Salt Lake valley. Hyrum Andrus admits that Smith had even “considered the alternative of establishing the Saints in the capacity of an independent nation, should all other alternatives fail” (Ibid., p.60).
Before the election Joseph Smith was assassinated. Thus he was unable to establish the kingdom he had planned.
Jerald and Sandra Tanner, The Changing World of Mormonism, Joseph Smith Chapter 17, P 457)