Charlotte Haven among the Mormons of Nauvoo 1843

Mitt Romney’s bid to become the first American president of the Mormon faith is big news. The press dubbed his Republican race against former Baptist minister Mike Huckabee as a "Holy War." Fundamentalist Republicans argue that Mormonism is not Christianity at all, labeling it a "cult". Romney, in response, says he would not be ruled, as president, by the leaders of the Mormon church, a faith now numbering six million members. Joseph Smith Jr., the founder of the Mormon religion would have been horrified by Romney’s assertion that he "will serve no one religion" if elected. That’s because Smith himself wanted to become the first Mormon president over 160 years ago.

Smith, who began having visions as a teen, reportedly discovered a series of metal tablets in New York written by an ancient American tribe. In 1827 Smith translated the "golden plates" into the Book of Mormon using a mysterious "peep stone". His Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints was founded three years later, and despite persecution of its members, grew rapidly. On January 29, 1844, "The Prophet" Joseph Smith announced his own bid for the presidency. Smith’s goal was not to separate church and state, but to merge politics and religion into one American "theodemocracy." Smith’s bid for the presidency failed, however, and that same year, in 1844, he was arrested for treason and assassinated by a mob while in jail in Carthage, Illinois.

"We never selected our president based on which church he went to. That would be a very sad day if we were ever to do so," Romney told ABC News recently. But despite the candidates view that it is unAmerican to judge a person by his religion, critics have been asking probing questions about Mormonism since its founding days. Among those skeptics was a young woman from Portsmouth, NH named Charlotte Haven (1819 – 1899) who met Joseph Smith and described him candidly in her letters home.

CONTINUE CHARLOTTE HAVEN Among Mormons at Nauvoo