I am attending a week long education summit at BYU. One of the classes is about the Presidential election in 1844. It seems to have some similarities with our current election.

One of the late entry candidates for President was General Joseph Smith of Illinois. Most of the candidates, like Martin Van Buren, running for re-election, and others, didn’t really answer the problems that existed at the present time. No way to give credibility to the banks (there was a banking problem), not any real discussions about solving the slavery issue, and no foresightedness about increasing the size of the country to the western ocean.

General Joseph Smith tried to get those running for President to address these and other issues, but he was ignored. So he was nominated for the office by his friends and associates. He wrote a platform that answered all these questions. He was for “Manifest Destiny” or an increase in the United States. He was for eliminating slavery before it should come to war. He advised selling the large lands then taken as part of the United States and buying the freedom of the slaves. His bank proposal also made sense.

In addition he was in favor of giving the lands back to the Mormons. Lands that were taken by force and violence by mobs in Missouri.

The rallies for General Joseph Smith in Pennsylvania and Connecticut and other States were drawing great crowds. People were hearing some of the same things they had been thinking. Smith was becoming a possibility for President. Then some mobs formed in Illinois and General Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were both murdered.

James K. Polk latched on to some of Smith’s ideas. Polk was elected President, mainly by the swing state of Illinois. Does that remind you a little bit of today? (Well, except for the murder.)