Mormons and Presidents: Quincy Adams - Tyler

#6 John Quincy Adams (1825-1829)

The "Mormon" Church did not yet exist during the time of the second Adams presidency, but it was during the course of that four years that Joseph Smith married his first (and only legally recognized) wife, Emma Hale, and received the Golden Plats (1). Former President Adams did however interact with the Latter-day Saints in 1844, when in his capacity as a member of the House of Representatives, he twice meet with Apostles Orson Pratt and John E. Page, to discus their entirety for federal government intervention in the deteriorating situation in Illinois. He was apparently at least somewhat sympathetic, but unable to provide any real assistance. Joseph Smith was per portably a fan of the former president, and had instructed Elder Pratt to make a point of seeing him when in Washington as an envoy for the Church.

#7 Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)

Andrew Jackson was the President of the United States at the time of the organization of the Church, first printing of the Book of Mormon, and many other important events in the history of the Latter-day Saint movement. A Church owned newspaper in Ohio endorsed Jackson’s re-election in 1832, and most Mormons were Jackson supporters. When Church members where driven out of Jackson County, Missouri (2), by their enemies in 1834, they sent an appeal to the President as instructed by divine revelation (3). The president, in accordance with the "States Rights" legal thinking of the time, was unable to intervene without a direct request to do so by the state government, though apparently he felt such exclusions were an undue limitation on his power. Some of President Jackson’s economic policy’s may have been indirectly at fault for the later failure of the Kirtland Savings Society in 1837.

#8 Martin Van Buren (1837-1841)

President Van Buren holds a place of particular disrepute in the Mormon consciousness. In the fall of 1839 Joseph Smith and a small party traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with as many influential politicians as they could to seek redress for the Mormons being driven from the state of Missouri. The President meet with Smith twice, and on his second visit gave this famous replay to the Saint’s request: "Gentlemen, your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you... If I take up for you I shall lose the vote of Missouri."

Ironically Van Buren lost the Missouri vote, and the national vote, in his attempt at re-election in 1840. Joseph Smith purportedly cast a curse on Van Buren that he never again be elected to public office, which he never was, despite an attempted run again for the presidency in 1844. Most of Van Buren’s temple work was intentionally delayed for decades on account of his treatment to the Latter-day Saints. Though in all fairness, had Van Buren attempted to interfere with the state of Missouri in the matter of Mormon redress, it would likely have erupted into a big political mess on account of the "States Rights" political philosophy then so tightly held to, especially by slave states.

#9 William Henry Harrison (1841)

Do to frustration with the Van Buren administration, Joseph Smith led the Latter-day Saints in supporting Harrison’s 1840 candidacy for the presidency, this despite the fact that Mormons had voted against him in large numbers during his 1836 run for that office. Section 124 of the Doctrine and Covenants consists of a "solemn proclamation directed towards various leaders including ‘the honorable President-Elect’"(4), and entreats them to come to the aid of the Saints as they prepare for the Second Coming of Christ. Joseph Smith’s campaign literature for his quixotic and short lived 1844 run for the presidency (5), contains great praise for the late President, implying that had he lived much good would have come from his administration.

#10 John Tyler (1841-1845)

Tyler was the President of the United States at the time of Joseph Smiths martyrdom in June of 1844. The president had a number of interactions with the Latter-day Saints both in letters and in person, and some interesting anecdotes about these are contained in Winder’s book, my favorite of which is that Karl G. Masser (6) taught piano lessons to two of (then ex-president) Tayler’s daughters to help finance his mission. Tyler, like his predecessors, did not intervene to help the Latter-day Saints despite several entireties to do so. Joseph Smith predicted in may of 1844 that Tyler would not win the presidency that year, in June of 1844 the President was denied the Democratic nomination and mounted a third-party bid to retain his office, this ultimately failed.

1. Both events occurring in 1827.

2. Named for the siting president.

3. D&C 101: 86-89

4. Winder, Michael K.; ‘Presidents and Prophets’, Covenant Communications Inc.; American Fork, Utah; 2007. Page 56.

5. It would be easy to see Joseph Smith’s attempted run for the presidency as evidence of delusion or megalomania. However it can be viewed as something akin to similar "hopeless" efforts by candidates like Ralph Nader or Pat Buchanan, designed more to bring attention to a certain cause or set of issues, then to really win the office. The campaign was cut short by Joseph’s martyrdom in June of that year.

6. Karl G. Masser was an educator and the first German convert to Mormonism. He later served as the first president of Brigham Young Academy, later Brigham Young University.