Table of Contents Early Trends in Anti-Mormon Literature, 1840—1843 Erin Hitchcock, Undergraduate Joseph Mullin Prize Winner 1 “The Maiden Tribute of Modem Babylon”: Sex, Vice, and Prostitution in Victorian London Julie Oppermann 15 Book Review: The Straight State KaceyCalahane 33 Shepherds, Vampires, Guilty Cats, and Buffalo Bill: A Historiography of Discourse SheriL. Kennedy 37 What is to be done.. .and who is going to do it? Historical Interpretations of the Relevance of Marxism Gregoty Sherman 48 Shifting Dynamite: An Anarchistoriography from Haymarket to Sacco and Vanzefti Max Speare 64 The Reform of Control and the Folsom Prison Riot of 1927 Brendan Byron 77 Republican Education and Gender Ideology in Post-Revolutionary America Sarah Dodson 95 “We Are Not Merely Soldiers—We Are Citizens”: Baltimore’s Volunteer Militias and the Contested Republicanism of the 1790s Sean Gallagher, Graduate Joseph Mullin Prize Winner ill Doing What Comes Naturally: Olympias as Mother, Regent, and Royal Woman Lisa Jackson 128 American Conservatism in the Modem Era Chris Schwandt 139 Doubling Down on a Bottle ofGin: An Analysis of the Trial of Harry Brolasid as a Representation of the Growth of Crime and Corruption in San Francisco during the Prohibition Era RusselIL. Weber 151 Early Trends in Anti-Mormon Literature, 1840—1843 Erin Hitchcock Erin Hitchcock is in the process of earning her Bachelor of Arts from San Francisco State University in American History. Her scholarly interests include American colonial history, American religious identity, and the origins and evolution of The Church ofJesus Christ ofLatter Day Saints. On June 27, 1844, Joseph Smith Jr., founder and prophet of the Monnon Church, was assassinated while he awaited trial for treason against the state of Illinois.’ On the afternoon of June 27, an angry mob gathered to “[blacken] their faces with mud and gunpowder.” This group of one hundred to two hundred men then proceeded to launch an armed assault on the chamber where Smith and his brother Hyrum were being held.2 As Smith attempted to escape imminent death through the upstairs window of his cell, he was felled by gunshots fired by assailants from inside and outside of the jail; his alleged last words as he succumbed to his wounds beside a well near the prison were a cry to the God many felt he had forsaken through his religious improprieties.3 And yet, contrary to their leader’s alleged deviance, Smith’s city of Nauvoo, a bastion of the faith he had spearheaded and a spiritual gathering place for thousands of Mormon believers, rivaled Chicago in size at the moment of his assassination.4 Smith’s dying cry of “0 Lord, My God!” resonated with his followers long after what many perceived as his martyrdom for a sacred cause.5 Joseph Smith Jr. was clearly a controversial figure in American religious history; while he inspired many to believe in his divine revelations, he also attracted a host of outraged adversaries, determined to stamp out his eccentric attempts to re-brand Christianity in America. This paper analyzes some of the recurring themes that appear in anti- Mormon literature between the years of 1840 and 1843. In doing so, it attempts to provide a clearer picture of the major grievances directed at the Church during its formative years. By shedding light on these grievances, I hope to ‘Joseph Bentley, “Martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith,” Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 1992 ed., s.v. (New York: Macmillan, 1992), accessed May 22, 2013, http://contentdm.lib.byu.edulcdm/reflcollection/EoMJidJ39O4. 2 Ibid. ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Early Trends in Anti-Mormon Literature 3 better establish the nature of early anti-Mormonism and demonstrate how it centered on a series of common complaints and defamatory strategies. Supported by my analysis of several anti-Mormon pamphlets and newspaper articles, I will argue that opposition to the Church took three primary forms. Firstly, the Church was contested on the grounds of its threat to secular society. For many, signs of this danger were evident in the Church’s peculiar practice of isolating its communities from the public gaze. Concern over the church’s ability to incite violence and indoctrinate its members against the greater interests of government institutions was also prevalent. Secondly, a major theme arose in the form of religious opposition to the Mormon movement. This religious conflict was made evident in contemporary literature through the rejection of both unconventional Mormon beliefs and the Church’s claims that Mormonism represented the truest form of Christianity. Lastly, anti-Mormon rhetoric took the form of a personal defamation campaign against Joseph Smith Jr; detractors made great efforts to discredit Smith’s moral character as well as his prophetic visions. Martin Harris, Smith’s closest associate throughout Smith’s translation of the Mormon Bible from a set of mystical golden plates, was also targeted in an effort to cast doubt upon the credibility of the religion’s origins. When it comes to the topic of anti-Mormonism, a few key arguments regarding its nature are evident in the historical literature. Certain schools of thought attribute resistance to the Mormon movement to the sociopolitical climate of Jacksonian America. At the time of Mormonism’s arrival on the religious scene, Americans had warmed to the idea of a society unified around the concepts of popular sovereignty and republican idealism.6 Historians such as David Brion Davis, argue convincingly that the source of some of the most vehement anti-Mormon rhetoric emerged from a deep-seated fear that Mormons meant to subvert the very core of American democratic values by refusing to participate in mainstream society and encouraging the fragmentation of national loyalties.7 This perspective alleges that the seeds of anti-Mormonism took root largely within government institutions as a result of insecurities regarding the Mormon Church’s ability to influence the political direction of America. A rapidly growing religion with theocratic ambitions and isolationist tendencies posed a challenge to the emerging identity of a nation, which was striving to create a sense of unity around the “noble heritage of republican ideals.”8 Historians such as Terryl Givens take a slightly different angle on the origins of anti-Mormonism. In The Viper on the Hearth, Givens argues that the conflict between Mormons and non-Mormons had distinctly “religious roots.”9 6 Joel Silby, National Development & Sectional Crisis, 1815—1860 (New York: Random House, 1970), 179. David Brion Davis, ‘Some Themes of Counter-Subversion: An Analysis of Anti- Masonic, Anti-Catholic, and Anti-Mormon Literature,’ The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 47, no. 2 (1960): 206. 8 Silby, 178. Terryl Givens, The Viper on the Hearth.’ Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 6. VOLUME XXIII 2014 4 Erin Hitchcock Rather than dismissing secular concerns altogether, Givens analyzes anti Monnon sentiments within their contemporary social and political contexts, but attempts to place a greater emphasis on the challenges the Church posed to established religions. He states that many of the earliest accusations leveled at Mormons revolved around the “church’s religious peculiarity based on ongoing revelation and additional scripture.”0 Mormon religious writings did indeed emulate the Christian Bible. Several passages from the Book of Mormon appeared to be exaggerated or amended versions of familiar Biblical stories, and one section (The Book of Moses) revealed obvious similarities to the scripture found in Genesis.lt Viper on the Hearth also examines the shift that occurred with regard to the perception of Monnonism’s religious credibility in mid-nineteenth-century American society. Givens argues that Mormonism, although initially perceived as a religion with some unsettling eccentricities, eventually transitioned into the realm of full-fledged heresy. 12 This development occurred primarily as a result of the Mormon Church’s tendency to take excessive liberties with its interpretation of traditional Christianity and the holy concepts Christians upheld as irrefutable truth. As Givens states, these unprecedented innovations represented a “reconceptualiz[ation] of the sacred that [was] not amenable to Christian orthodoxy.”3 Givens’s school of thought also emphasizes the spiritual tension that existed between Mormonism and prominent Protestant denominations in nineteenth-century America. As churches struggled to maintain the loyalty of their congregations during a period of intense spiritual revival and identity seeking, the successful missionary efforts of the Mormons and their self-purported “monopoly on the path to salvation” was a threat to an already destabilized religious order. 14 J. Spencer Fluhman further elaborates on the concept of Mormonism’s threat to Protestant churches in his book, A Peculiar People. He argues that anti- Mormon sentiments arose largely as a result of insecurity on behalf of disestablished churches that had been weakened by the American Revolution and the lack of government funding.’5 As many formerly powerful Protestant institutions lay in a state of turmoil, religious expressionism flourished and gave rise to an unpredictable environment of spiritual innovation.’6 When Mormonism emerged from these tumultuous circumstances, it’s unique yet disconcertingly familiar precepts challenged the established foundation of conventional Christianity, which found its own foundation at a distinct

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