Thirty-Six (1841)become its “Learned Professors” were Sidney Rigdon and other Church leaders.
Suspiciously absent from its faculty was Joseph Smith, Jr. That’s right! The only man among
them who had received four years of instruction from four of the most intelligent men ever
to live upon the earth—but whose knowledge and learning would never be accredited by
the world as being worthy of the “honors of men”^20 —WASN’T EVEN ALLOWED TO
TEACH IN THEIR UNIVERSITY! And this was just fine with Joseph. The people would
receive the type of learning they desired: “the lesser portion of the word.”
Because Bennett had never read the Book of Mormon entirely through, he did not know
what it said about worldly education^21 and what happens when people begin to classify
themselves by their riches and chances of learning. But Bennett didn’t care. He received
compensation^22 for being mayor and chancellor; and his aspirations were not yet complete.
The Nauvoo Legion
Bennett’s inaugural speech alsorecommend[ed] the immediate organization of the [Nauvoo] Legion.
Comprising, as it does, the entire military power of our city, with a provision
allowing any citizen of Hancock County to unite by voluntary enrollment.^23His speech emboldened the patriotic sense of duty of the Saints:
The Legion should be all powerful, panoplied with justice and equity, to
consummate the designs of its projectors—at all times ready, as minute men, to
serve the state in such way and manner as may, from time-to-time, be pointed
out by the Governor. You have long sought an opportunity of showing your
attachment to the state government of Illinois—it is now afforded; the Legion
should maintain the constitution and the laws, and be ready at all times for the
public defense. The winged warrior of the air perches upon the pole of
American liberty, and the beast that has the temerity to ruffle her feathers
should be made to feel the power of her talons; and until she ceases to be our
proud national emblem we should not cease to show our attachment to Illinois.
Should the tocsin [sic] of alarm ever be sounded, and the Legion called to the
tented field by our Executive, I hope to see it able, under one of the proudest
mottoes that ever blazed upon a warrior’s shield—Sicut patribus sit Deus nobis;
“as God was with our fathers, so may He be with us”—to fight the battles of
our country, as victors, and as freemen; the juice of the uva, or the spirit of
insubordination should never enter our camp,—but we should stand, ever
stand, as a united people—one and indivisible.^24Joseph Evades the Illinois Governor for a Time
Bennett had not yet arrived in Nauvoo when Joseph gave the speech that the people
later turned into the “White Horse Prophecy“^25 rumor. Joseph had never explained to
Bennett how much he detested the impracticality and prejudice of the U.S. Constitution;
therefore, Joseph’s lack of allegiance to the Illinois Constitution never crossed Bennett’s
mind until later. However, Joseph had brought to Bennett’s attention that the same Governor