Stephen A. Douglas

Stephan A. Douglas was a candidate for President in the 1860 election against Abraham Lincoln. When Lincoln defeated him in electoral votes 180-12 it was one of the greatest upsets of American political history. Interestingly both of the major candidates that year were from Illinois and both had knowledge of the Mormons and some contact with Church leaders.

The History of the Church records the following meeting between Joseph Smith and Mr. Douglas. At the time Judge Douglas was little known. Our account is from the journal of William Clayton who was present at the meal, an account which was published in the 24 September 1856 edition of the Deseret News. It was later published in England in 1859.

May 18th, 1843:--Dined with Judge Stephen A. Douglas, who is presiding at court. After dinner Judge Douglas requested President Smith to give him a history of the Missouri persecution, which he did in a very minute manner for about three hours. He also gave a relation of his journey to Washington city, and his application in behalf of the saints to Mr. Van Buren, the president of the United States, for redress, and Mr. Van Buren's pusillanimous reply--'Gentlemen, your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you;' and the cold, unfeeling manner in which he was treated by most of the senators and representatives in relation to the subject, Clay saying, 'You had better go to Oregon,' and Calhoun shaking his head solemnly, saying, 'It's a nice question--a critical question; but it will not do to agitate it.'

The judge listened with the greatest attention, and then spoke warmly in deprecation of Governor Boggs and the authorities in Missouri, who had taken part in the extermination, and said that any people that would do as the mobs of Missouri had done ought to be brought to judgment; they ought to be punished.

President Smith, in concluding his remarks, said that 'if the government, which receives into its coffers the money of citizens for its public lands, while its officials are rolling in luxury at the expense of its public treasury, cannot protect such citizens in their lives and property, it is an old granny anyhow, and I prophesy in the name of the Lord of Israel, unless the United States redress the wrongs committed upon the saints in the state of Missouri and punish crimes committed by her officers, that in a few years the government will be utterly overthrown and wasted, and there will not be so much as a potsherd left, for their wickedness in permitting the murder of men, women and children and the wholesale plunder and extermination of thousands of her citizens to go unpunished, thereby perpetrating a foul and corroding blot upon the fair fame of this great republic, the very thought of which would have caused the high-minded and patriotic framers of the Constitution of the United States to hide their faces with shame. Judge, you will aspire to the presidency of the United States; and if you ever turn your hand against me or the Latter-day Saints, you will feel the weight of the hand of the Almighty 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. . .

In June of 1857, in a speech in Springfield, Illinios, Judge Douglas turned against the Mormons. The prophecy was now in effect.

Our enemies claim that this prophecy was made up "after the fact". This claim is in the anti-Mormon One Nation Under Gods on page 406, in a book by the Tanners and many others. Yet Judge Douglas didn't turn against the Saints until a year after its publication in the Deseret News and a full four years before he declared for the Presidency!

Incidentally, Judge Douglas died a year after losing the election to Abraham Lincoln at the ripe old age of 48.