IN JUNE 1843, A SPECIAL TERM OF THE DAVIESS COUNTY, Mis souri, Circuit Court indicted leader Joseph Smith for treason against state of Missouri during Mormon War of 1838.1 After learning of charge from Missouri governor Thomas Reynolds, Illinois governor Thomas Ford issued a warrant for Smith's arrest on June 17, directed that he be delivered to custody of Jackson County, Missouri sheriff Joseph H. Reynolds, whom Governor Reynolds had appointed to convey Smith to Missouri.2 Six days later, on June 23, Harmon T. Wilson, deputy sheriff of Hancock County, Illinois, Sheriff Reynolds arrested Smith near Dixon, Illinois-some 130 miles northeast of Smith's home in Illinois-while he his family were visiting his wife's relatives who lived in area.1 News of arrest touched off a massive rescue effort in Nauvoo that ended with Reynolds Wilson, much against their will, riding with Smith into Nauvoo on June 30 surrounded by his friends supporters. The Nauvoo Municipal Court formally discharged Smith from arrest at a habeas corpus hearing following day, by which time Reynolds Wilson, feeling that they had been deprived of their prisoner illegally, had gone to Carthage, Illinois, to petition Ford to send a detachment of state militia to arrest Smith.4 Ford denied request, Smith remained a free man.5Six weeks later, on August 7, 1843, elections were held in Hancock County (where Nauvoo was located) for U.S. representative for sixth district congressional seat various county offices. During weeks leading up to election, many in area thought Mormons would vote for Whig congressional candidate Cyrus Walker, a lawyer who had helped represent Smith at July habeas corpus hearing in Nauvoo who had received Smiths personal pledge of in upcoming election. Two days before election, however, Smiths brother Hyrum reportedly told a crowd of church members that had revealed to him that Mormons must support Joseph P. Hoge, Walkers Democratic opponent.6 The following day-the day before election-Smith told a similar gathering that he had just learned of Hyrum's testimofnjy that it will be better for this people to vote for hoge, that he never kn[e]w Hiram say he ever had a revelation & it faild. Smith reiterated his personal promise to vote for Walker, but effectively threw behind Hoge: Let God speak, he told congregation, and all men hold their peace.7 The following day Hoge reportedly received about three thousand votes-considered an overwhelming majority by one source-and won election by a mere 574 ballots.8 The Mormons' apparent political capriciousness was not without its consequences. Whig papers were quickly loaded with accounts of wickedness, corruptions, enormities of Nauvoo, Ford remembered, the whigs generally, a part of democrats, determined upon driving Mormons out of State.9Basing their narrative on two main sources, several historians have argued that Mormons' (and especially Smith's) initial pledge to Cyrus Walker Whigs in this election, last-minute switch to Joseph Hoge Democrats, were both a result of events associated with earlier effort to extradite Smith to Missouri. According to this argument, Walker had agreed to represent Smith after his arrest in Dixon in exchange for Smith's in upcoming election. The Mormons later threw their behind Hoge Democrats when they heard that Ford, a Democrat, might send militia to arrest Smith after his release in Nauvoo (as Wilson Reynolds had requested) unless they did so.10 The two sources upon which this interpretation relies are History of Church, written compiled by various clerks historians between June 1839 August 1856, Thomas Ford's 1854 History of Illinois. …