View source for Question: Was a "forged" prophecy about Stephen A. Douglas added to the ''History of the Church''?

{{FairMormon}}
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==Question: Was a "forged" prophecy about Stephen A. Douglas added to the ''History of the Church''?==
===Joseph Smith prophesied that Stephen A. Douglas would run for the presidency four years before he actually did===

Joseph Smith told Judge Stephen A. Douglas four years before he was nominated for the Presidency of the United States:
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I prophesy in the name of the Lord God of Israel, that unless the United States redress the wrongs committed upon the Saints in the State of Missouri and punish the 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 ever you turn your hand against me or the Latter-day Saints, you will feel the weight of the hand of 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.” (History of the Church, 5:394
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===The claim that this prophecy was added after the fact is frankly false===  

As B.H. Roberts' editorial remark in the ''History of the Church'' noted:

<blockquote>There is, and can be no question about the prophecy preceding the event. The prophecy was first published in the ''Deseret News'' of September 24, 1856. It was afterwards published in England in the Millennial Star, February, 1859. The publication in the Deseret News preceding Douglas' Springfield speech, mentioned above, (June, 1857) by about one year, and about four years before Douglas was nominated for the presidency by the Charleston Democratic convention.<ref>{{HC1|vol=5|start=393}} The ''History'' of the Church notes that the original source was taken "from the journal of William Clayton, who was present," though the prophecy against Douglas is in not the published portions of Clayton's journals (See Cecelia Warner, “The Tanners On Trial,” ''Sunstone: Review'' 4:4/6 (April 1984); Lawrence Foster, “Career Apostates: Reflections on the Works of Jerald and Sandra Tanner,” ''Dialogue'' 17/2 (Summer 1984): 48 and n. 28; James B. Allen, review of ''An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton'', by George D. Smith, ed., ''BYU Studies'' 35/2 (1995): 165–75). It is not known if more material is in the Clayton journals that served as a basis for the complete ''History of the Church'' entry. At any rate, the publication of the prophecy before June 1857 makes the point moot&mdash;the Church was claiming this as a prophecy well before it was fulfilled, and had no reasons before then to attack Douglas if the prophecy was unauthentic.</ref>
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This paper is available in digital form [http://udn.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/deseretnews1&CISOPTR=5346&REC=4&CISOSHOW=5357 on-line].  Screenshots are included in this article.

[[Image:Full page deseret news with Douglas outlined.PNG|frame|center|Page one of ''Deseret News'' (24 Sept 1856). Material on Stephen A. Douglas, at it appears in the ''History of the Church'' is outlined in read.]]
[[Image:Douglas Prophecy.PNG|frame|center|Detail of the Stephen A. Douglas prophecy, printed on 24 September 1856.  This was nearly a year before Douglas would 'turn against' the Saints, and more than four years before he was nominated as President of the United States.]]
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[[Category:One Nation Under Gods]]

[[fi:Kysymys: Lisättiinkö “väärä” profetia Stephen A. Douglasista kirkon historiaan?]]