Nauvoo mayor turned accuser
John C. Bennett
1804–1867
1 topic · 2 dated events
Their part in each topic
Joseph Smith's Plural Marriage
Nauvoo mayor turned accuser
Mayor of Nauvoo and assistant to the First Presidency until his fall in May 1842 amid charges of sexual misconduct, after which he published a series of exposés naming women he said Joseph Smith had approached, and printed the letter to Nancy Rigdon now called the Happiness Letter. His accuracy on names and dates is often good and his framing is hostile, which is why every camp uses him selectively.
In the timeline
2 events across 1 topics, chronological. Only events this person was actually part of — present at, responsible for, or the subject of — not every event where the name comes up.
Nancy Rigdon refuses, and the Happiness Letter is written
According to Bennett's account, Joseph Smith took Sidney Rigdon's unmarried daughter Nancy into a room, locked the door, and told her he had had an affection for her for several years and wished that she should be his. She refused. A letter followed containing the lines, That which is wrong under one circumstance, may be, and often is, right under another, and, Whatever God requires is right, no matter what it is. Bennett printed the letter in the Sangamo Journal on 19 August 1842; church leaders answered with an affidavit from Stephen Markham impugning Nancy Rigdon's character, Nauvoo citizens published counter-affidavits calling Markham a liar, and on 3 September The Wasp carried a notice, said to be authorised by Joseph Smith, effectively withdrawing it.
John C. Bennett falls
Bennett resigned as mayor of Nauvoo amid allegations of illicit intercourse with women and signed an affidavit stating that he never knew Joseph Smith to teach that illicit intercourse with females was justifiable. He was excommunicated and by summer was publishing letters in the Springfield Sangamo Journal naming women he said Joseph had approached, using the term spiritual wifery.
Appears alongside
People who share the most dated events with John C. Bennett.
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