feb 4, 1844 - Joseph Smith becomes a Presidential Candidate

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Subsequently he calls a higher percentage of Electioneer Missionaries as has ever been called as missionaries in the history of the church. They had pamphlets of his political views. He advocated creating a "theodemocracy".

"Smith favored a strong central bank and high tariffs to protect American business and agriculture. He disfavored imprisonment of convicts except for murder, preferring efforts to reform criminals through labor; he also opposed courts-martial for military deserters. He supported capital punishment but opposed hanging, preferring execution by firing squad or beheading.[308]

On the issue of slavery, Smith took different positions.[309] Initially he opposed it, but during the mid-1830s when the Mormons were settling in Missouri (a slave state), Smith cautiously justified slavery in an anti-abolitionist essay.[310] Then in the early 1840s, after Mormons had been expelled from Missouri, he once again opposed slavery. During his presidential campaign of 1844, he proposed ending slavery by 1850 and compensating slaveholders for their loss." --Wikipedia

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