Yearsley joined the church in 1841 and moved to Nauvoo by 1843, at which time he was ordained an elder. (Smith, Forebearers of Julia Brown and John Heber Yearsley, 244; General Church Recorder, License Record Book, 115.)

Smith, Ramona Y. Forebearers of Julia Brown and John Heber Yearsley. [n.p. : R.Y. Smith, 1981?].

Pratt was born and raised in New York and preached there during several of his missions. (Pratt, Autobiography, 17–26, 327–332.)

Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.

Snow was born and raised in Vermont and served a mission in that state in 1834. (Snow, Journal, 1835–1837, [2]; “Death of Apostle Erastus Snow,” Deseret News [Salt Lake City], 30 May 1888, 312.)

Snow, Erastus. Journals, 1835–1851; 1856–1857. CHL. MS 1329, box 1, fds. 1–3.

Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

Rigdon was born and raised in Pennsylvania and began his ministerial occupation there as a Baptist preacher. (“History of Joseph Smith,” Times and Seasons, 1 May 1843, 4:177; Rigdon, “Life Story of Sidney Rigdon,” 1, 4; see also Van Wagoner, Sidney Rigdon, chap. 3.)

Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

Rigdon, John Wickliff. “Life Story of Sidney Rigdon,” no date. CHL. MS 3451.

Van Wagoner, Richard S. Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994.

Self-promotion for public office was viewed as inappropriate political behavior in the early United States. Presidential candidates traditionally relied on their affiliated political parties and supporters to campaign for them. Although the election of 1840 marked a shift in this tradition because presidential candidates more actively directed the activities of their campaigns, candidates were still expected to refrain from appealing to voters directly. (See Howe, What Hath God Wrought, 571–573; Wilentz, Rise of American Democracy, 85; and Cheathem, Coming of Democracy, 9–11, 143–150.)

Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848. The Oxford History of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Wilentz, Sean. The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005.

Cheathem, Mark R. The Coming of Democracy: Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018.

After the Whig Party expelled President John Tyler from its ranks in 1841, Henry Clay became the frontrunner for the party’s presidential nomination in 1844 with no serious challengers. (Klotter, Henry Clay, 290–291; Howe, What Hath God Wrought, 590–594; McBride, Joseph Smith for President, 75–76.)

Klotter, James C. Henry Clay: The Man Who Would Be President. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848. The Oxford History of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

McBride, Spencer W. Joseph Smith for President: The Prophet, the Assassins, and the Fight for American Religious Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.