Below is a transcript of part two of our conversation with CMU Emeritus Professor James Hill:
David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University students and faculty. Last week we learned about the self-proclaimed Mormon King, James Strang. His ambitions went beyond his congregation on Beaver Island. He got elected to the Michigan House of Representatives and brought with him at the time an influential bloc of Mormon voters. The new book by CMU Emeritus Professor James Hill is called The King Must Die. Part 2 of our conversation picks up the story from there…
Was he on somebody's radar at this point? It would seem like he would be getting an awful lot more attention and scrutiny at the time.
James Hill:
Oh, he did. As a matter of fact, in 1851, Millard Fillmore, the president of the United States, you don't hear that name very often, ordered the U.S. attorney to take the USS Michigan warship and travel to Beaver Island and take Strang and some of his other followers and brought them down to Detroit for a federal trial on a number of charges. One of them wanted to be treason, but they tried to trim up the charges from everything from disrupting the mail to trespassing on federal lands, but they saw the danger and brought them to Detroit. He had a trial and his charges were dismissed and he came back to Beaver Island stronger than he was before because now the President of the United States had stepped in and couldn't stop this man.
DN:
How then and when did opposition to or pushback to him, his rule, his proclamation as king, how did that begin to develop prior to he himself being assassinated?
JH:
A couple of things. One of them was that he became an absolute ruler, and as such, he started dictating the lifestyles of everyone. But many people point to his change of position on polygamy, that when he had, he distinguished himself from Brigham Young previously because Brigham Young accepted the polygamy, it wasn't a major thing, but accepted the possibility. And Strang said, No, no, no, that's wrong, that's wrong, that's wrong. And many people who didn't believe in polygamy jumped on board with Strang. But then Strang, once he became king, decided, well, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea as well. And he ended up with five wives and 14 children. And many people who looked at Strang and said, we thought you were an anti-polygamist and you've now become a full-blown one, they began to see a crack in the veneer of what Strang says he was and what he really was.
DN:
Was anything ever documented about the two shooters as to how far does that story go?
JH:
Well David you hit the nail on the head and it's the whole reason why this story I think became important who organized this I mean how can you take a an Armada of armed people from Mackinac Island and from uh Alina Island and uh and (and) how can how can these people come to Beaver Island and set up ferries and and (and) take hundreds of Mormons off the island forever how can this all take place in It stops after his death. No one talks about, well, let's peel this off. What did the president of the United States, why did they sit, why did the president of the United States send a warship on the day that Strang was assassinated to the dock? And why did the captain of that ship beckon the king, King Strang, to come to him? And why was he, why was King Strang shot in front of the ship and no one did anything? I mean, there's presidential questions, there's questions about Mackinac Island and the, (the, the,) of whiskey business and the fishing businesses and how they have been hurt by Strang. There are the Michigan legislators who were upset about how powerful Strang became all of a sudden and started building an empire. But all we talk about in this is, oh, well, two assassins shot him, and I guess that's it. And you realize the outcome of the trial of the two assassins, the two assassins were dismissed. They admitted, and they saw, and everybody saw that they shot Strang, but rather than him being prosecuted for murder, the charges against him were dismissed by a justice of the peace on Mackinac Island, and they were charged $1.25 in court costs and never punished for it.
DN:
You, James Hill, have asked the questions and have raised the possibilities in this book, The King Must Die: The Fall of the Mormon Kingdom on Beaver Island. And Jim, thank you very much for taking all this time to talk with us, and all the best with the book. Thank you.
JH:
Thank you, David.
