Thirty-Nine (1844)many people, including the Mormons. He needed to keep the peace in his state, and
thereby, in control of his political standing as a Governor. Although history has painted
him otherwise, Governor Thomas Ford was Joseph’s Pontius Pilate.^45
Pilate, though seeing no wrong in him, turned Jesus over to the desires of the
people. Similarly, Ford had nothing personal against Joseph, but knew the desires of the
people were to get rid of Joseph Smith, Jr. Ford was fed exaggerated and erroneous
information from his subordinates about the situation in Nauvoo. Joseph had every
means available to determine the true intent of Ford’s heart, but there was no need for
that. Joseph and others desperately appealed to Ford for his help at the eleventh hour
over the brewing situation in Nauvoo, and later in Carthage. Joseph would have never
been allowed to have this access to Ford if he had truly been his enemy.
How Joseph Feels About Those Who Mistook and Forsook Him
LDS Church history is a whitewashed conglomerate of edited facts about the
events that occurred in Nauvoo just before Joseph’s death. Whenever an affidavit, letter,
or journal entry was or has been found that validated the truth that the Saints were
largely involved in Joseph’s demise, the Church somehow changed, suppressed, and
otherwise distorted the facts to the contrary. This biography does not mention by name
the many men, most of whom were once loyal friends, who turned on Joseph and put
their voices behind the conspiracy and collusion to get rid of him.
As a resurrected human, Joseph implicitly expresses his sympathy for all of these
men, knowing that many acted within the morality of their own souls and humanity
type. Joseph further concedes that if he had told the real truth to these men, they would
have abandoned him and possibly killed him earlier than he was.^46 But none is blamed
for their actions or their responses to the stumbling blocks Joseph was mandated to lay
for the people. Most of the men who first began the journey with Joseph were not part of
the group of Saints that eventually took his life.
Martin Harris
Martin Harris did not disappear. Harris was greatly saddened at what had
become of the Book of Mormon that he loved with all of his heart. It seemed to mean
nothing to the Saints of Nauvoo. Yet it remained to Martin’s soul the only thing that ever
proved to him that God was involved and concerned with mortals upon the earth.
Besides Joseph, Martin was the only other fully mortal person alive who knew what the
first part of the translation of the unsealed plates contained, i.e., the “lost 116 pages,”^47
otherwise known as the Book of Lehi.
He knew that the organization of a church with ordinances, temples, and
priesthood leaders was an abomination, and that the lost manuscript of the Book of Lehi
proved this. He had argued with Joseph to allow the contents of the lost manuscript to
be made known. Joseph would not. Martin could never reconcile the things he had
learned as Joseph’s scribe with what Joseph allowed the Church to become. The night
before his death, Joseph smiled to himself as Martin came to his memory—one of the
truest and most genuinely child-like men he had ever met. Martin was without guile in
every sense of the word.