Given the platform of Independent candidate Prophet Joseph Smith, who ran for the Presidency in 1844, it's surprising that Latter Day Saint Mitt Romney should be catching flack for a Massachusetts judge's leniency in allowing a murderer bail .
Mormon missionaries, says Bill Kaufman's fascinating 2004 article in American Enterprise, distributed Smith's views nationally In November 1843, as he ran against Henry Clay, John Calhoun, and Martin Van Buren, on a platform promising "more economy...less taxes" and a "judicious tariff" and to "Break the shackles from the poor black man,"
To enforce his writ he asked for "full power to send an army to suppress mobs," a hardly surprising request given that he asked that voters:
"Petition your state legislatures to pardon every convict in their several penitentiaries,blessing them as they go..."
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