{"title":"3. Precarious Protestant Democracy: Mormon and Catholic Conceptions of Democratic Rule in the 1840s","authors":"B. Park","doi":"10.1515/9781501716744-008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501716744-008","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":426031,"journal":{"name":"Contingent Citizens","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116720904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Contingent CitizensPub Date : 2020-06-15DOI: 10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0013
{"title":"Mormons at Midcentury","authors":"","doi":"10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0013","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter describes the American national mood in the middle of the twentieth century that made things feel so welcoming for Latter-day Saints. It highlights the golden era of Mormonism that happened between the end of World War II and the end of John F. Kennedy's presidency. It also talks about the era of the 1950s when Latter-day Saints may have felt that they were in step with the wider American culture. The chapter analyzes the press's treatment of Mormonism at mid-century that implies an underlying message that the matters of politics trumped matters of theology. It discusses American journalists that were writing about Mormons in 1947, which was the year that marked the centennial of the Latter-day Saints' epic trek west to their new Great Basin home.","PeriodicalId":426031,"journal":{"name":"Contingent Citizens","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132395802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Contingent CitizensPub Date : 2020-06-15DOI: 10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0003
{"title":"“Many Think This Is a Hoax”","authors":"","doi":"10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses the issue on religious liberty that drove Joseph Smith into the 1844 presidential election. It explains how Joseph Smith wrapped his call for a federal government that is empowered to protect the citizenship rights of religious minority groups in a seven-point platform aimed at sweeping political and social reform. It also describes how Joseph Smith advocated for the reestablishment of the national bank, the end of the burgeoning penitentiary system, the territorial expansion of the United States throughout North America, and the abolition of slavery. The chapter investigates how newspapers focused on Joseph Smith as a leader of a rising religious group that deemed to be fanatical by mainstream Protestants. It discusses the ecclesiastical position of Joseph Smith's presidential candidacy that might influence the way the American public viewed him.","PeriodicalId":426031,"journal":{"name":"Contingent Citizens","volume":"641 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131823362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Contingent CitizensPub Date : 2020-06-15DOI: 10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0002
{"title":"“Some Little Necromancy”","authors":"","doi":"10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter looks into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that was labeled “Salem Witchcraftism,” “hocus pocus,” and “superstition” in its first decade. It analyzes the political dissent against Mormonism, which shared an antipathy with anti-Shakerism that purported superstition and magic. It also mentions Ann Lee, the Shaker founder, who was referred to as a “fortune teller” and Joseph Smith Jr. who was branded as “very expert in the arts of necromancy.” The chapter explores the propensity of critics to accuse Mormons of superstition and magical practice and associate that accusation with an enmity toward republicanism. It talks about the so-called alternative religions of the early republic routinely faced charges of being both superstitious and dangerous to democracy.","PeriodicalId":426031,"journal":{"name":"Contingent Citizens","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133335150","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Contingent CitizensPub Date : 2020-06-15DOI: 10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0012
{"title":"Ambiguous Allegiances and Divided Sovereignty","authors":"","doi":"10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0012","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter recounts the Mormons' uneven relationship with the US government throughout the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the middle of the nineteenth century. It traces back how Mormons faced the greatest persecution at the hands of Americans and came closest to political independence, developing separate and semiautonomous economic, political, and military institutions, and relocating to the Great Basin. It also describes the Mormon settlement, political authority, economic development, and relations with the Great Basin's Native populations that threatened to disrupt US claims to the region. The chapter highlights anti-Mormon prejudice and the Mormons' continued suspicion of government officials and non-Mormons. It also talks about the military conflict that erupted between the US federal government and the Mormons in 1857.","PeriodicalId":426031,"journal":{"name":"Contingent Citizens","volume":"182 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131627135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"10. “Rather Than Recognize This Wretched Imposture”: Edward Everett, Rational Religion, and the Territory of Utah/Deseret","authors":"","doi":"10.1515/9781501716744-017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501716744-017","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":426031,"journal":{"name":"Contingent Citizens","volume":"47 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126742010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Contingent CitizensPub Date : 2020-06-15DOI: 10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0004
{"title":"Precarious Protestant Democracy","authors":"","doi":"10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter recounts the nativist revolt in Philadelphia that laid siege to the Irish Catholic population and describes the riot that was stirred by leaders of the mob when they declared that they must defend America from “the bloody hand of the Pope.” It analyzes how both the Mormon and Catholic communities were considered outcasts from America's Protestant society. It also explores why many Americans in the nineteenth century perceive Catholics and Mormons as a direct threat to the nation's democratic order, while members of both denominations proclaimed that the nation's Protestant majority had failed to protect their rights as minority groups. The chapter places Mormonism's political actions during the 1840s within the context of Catholicism's similar struggle, which took place around the same time. It focuses on electoral politics as well as controversial forms of sovereignty, especially Mormonism's Council of Fifty.","PeriodicalId":426031,"journal":{"name":"Contingent Citizens","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128677553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Contingent CitizensPub Date : 2020-06-15DOI: 10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0014
{"title":"The Historic Conflicts of Our Time","authors":"","doi":"10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0014","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter talks about Ezra Taft Benson who commenced work as secretary of agriculture in the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration in 1953, while serving as one of the twelve apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It describes Benson as a central figure in postwar American politics who represented the confluence and conflict between the various stripes of Mormon and American conservatism. It also discusses how Benson was the subject of national media interest and scrutiny in the 1950s and 1960. The chapter points out how Benson often took clear and controversially conservative positions on many of the historic conflicts of the twentieth century, such as anticommunism, the women's movement, international and domestic conflicts, and the culture wars. It traces American public representations of Mormonism by looking at Benson as a media filter.","PeriodicalId":426031,"journal":{"name":"Contingent Citizens","volume":"1611 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130984039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}