I am Ryan McKnight. I'm Kara Santa Maria. I am Christopher Smith. Hi, I'm Andrew Torres. This is

Naked Mormonism. The Serial Mormon History podcast. With Joseph Smith's presidential campaign still

kind of at the early stages, the propaganda

machine of Navu was in full force. As articles circulated, revealing the finer points of the

Mormon Theocratic Kingdom, articles from Navu were devised in response. I offer as an example of this an article that was

published as a letter to the editor of the New York Tribune. This article caused a significant

amount of public attention to be focused on the Mormon kingdom. It is a remarkable article,

but the resulting propaganda and public's response to the article

is even more fascinating to me.

To preface the article, it's almost as if the person was a local of one of the neighboring

towns of Navu.

They had heard the constant rhetoric from the prophet and his cronies and devised an exact

and direct response

to each point that they frequently made. We'll discuss what each of those points are as we go

through the article. It begins, quote, to the editor of the New York Tribune. I take my pen today

to give you some account of the Mormons and their prophet about whom much is said abroad and but little is known.

Well, hang on, let's pause right there.

The very first point that this article attempts to deal with is the economic growth.

The area is experienced as a result of the Mormon refugee crisis. And this was a constant

mainstay of Joe's rhetoric, how industrious the Mormons are, whether it was from the pulpit or

published in the Times and Seasons or published in the Navu neighbor or in letters to people

who are considering migrating to Navu from anywhere else in America or in Europe,

...