The fulfillment of a prophecy by Joseph Smith, regarding Stephen A. Douglas
Following are a few thoughts concerning the prophecy made by Joseph Smith about Stephen A. Douglas.
Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois was a self-made man of tremendous energy, a masterful politician, and an unrivaled debater. He came from a Vermont farm to the new western country, as a very young man, and rose rapidly through minor offides to a judgeship in the Supreme Court of Illinois. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1843, and to the United States Senate in 1846. Although then but thirty-seven years of age, Douglas immediately assumed an important place in the Senate, through his brilliant power of debate. He was soon recognized as the leader of the Democratic party in the north, and after the death of Calhoun, Clay, and Webster, he became the foremost figure in American public life.
Douglas was one of the politicians who invited the Mormons to come to Illinois in 1839 and 1840. Eventually an intimate and friendly relationship developed between Douglas and the Prophet Joseph Smith. On one occasion the judge and the prophet had a long and important meeting, during which the story of the expulsion of the Latter-day Saints from Missouri was told to the judge. This interview occupied fully three hours, and brought forth words of condemnation for the state officials of Missouri by Mr. Douglas.
The meeting, both cordial and friendly, terminated rather dramatically by the prophet making this remarkable prediction concerning Mr. Douglas: “Judge, you will aspire to the presidency of the United States; if you ever turn your hand against me or the Latter-day Saints, you will feel the weight of the hand of Almighty God upon you; and you will live to see and know that I have testified the truth to you, for the conversation of this day will stick to you through life.” This prophecy was made on the 18th day of May, 1843. William Clayton was present on the occasion, adn to him we are indebted for the record of the incident. This was published in the Deseret News, in the yar of 1856.
Douglas, while campaigning in 1857 for nomination to be U.S. president, made the following statements about the Mormons: A) Nine-tenths of the inhabitants of Utah are foreign-born. They refuse to become citizens, or to recognize the government of the United States as permanent authority. B) Mormons are bound by horrible oaths, and they maintain allegiance to Brigham Young as paramount to that of the United States. C) This alien government of Brigham Young is forming an alliance with the Indian tribes, inciting them to hostility and organizing bands of ‘destroying angels’. D) The knife must be applied to this pestiferous, disgusting cancer which is gnawing into the very vitals of the body politic. It must be cut out by the roots and seared over by the red hot iron of stern, unflinching law.” In 1860, at the great conventions which were to nominate candidates for the most important presidential election in our history, Douglas received the Democratic nomination and it seemed very likely that that party would certainly take the election in November.
Douglas and Lincoln stumped the country together. Their debates were epoch-making of themselves. But when the returns of that November 6th election were all canvassed, Lincoln ws found to have received 180 votes of the electoral college while Douglas receive but 12. Missouri and New Jersey were the only states that voted for Douglas. Twenty days less than one year after his nomination by the Democratic convention, while yet in the prime of his manhood, 48 years of age, Stephen A. Douglas died at his home in Chicago, a disappointed and broken-hearted man.
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