SUDDEN DAY: A Companion Essay

Songs from the Nauvoo Expositor

Walking Through the Album for Those Who Cannot Hear

“The remedy can never be applied, unless the disease is known.” — Nauvoo Expositor, June 7, 1844

Introduction: One Newspaper, One Day, One Story

On June 7, 1844, a group of former believers published a single issue of a newspaper in Nauvoo, Illinois. Three days later, it was destroyed by order of the man it exposed. Seventeen days after that, he was dead. The newspaper was the Nauvoo Expositor. The man was Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

This album tells that story. But more than that, it gives voice to people who have been silent for 180 years—the whistleblowers who risked everything to speak, and the women whose suffering was documented but whose names were largely erased from history.

This essay is written for those who cannot hear the music. It walks through each of the seventeen songs, explaining their historical sources, their emotional arcs, and their place in the larger narrative. By the end, you will know the story as fully as if you had heard every note.

But first, you need to understand the world in which this newspaper was published—and why the words of these whistleblowers still matter 180 years later.

Nauvoo in 1844

By the spring of 1844, Nauvoo, Illinois was one of the largest cities in the state, rivaling Chicago in population. What had been a swampy bend in the Mississippi River just five years earlier was now a thriving city of approximately 12,000 people—nearly all of them members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who had gathered there following their expulsion from Missouri in 1838-39.

The city operated under an unusually broad charter granted by the Illinois legislature in December 1840. This charter gave Nauvoo:

• Its own court system with expansive habeas corpus authority
• Its own militia—the Nauvoo Legion—with approximately 3,000 men, making it one of the largest military forces in the United States
• Broad municipal powers that effectively made the city self-governing
• A university (on paper, at least)

At the head of this city-state stood Joseph Smith. He was simultaneously:

• Prophet, Seer, and Revelator of the Church
• Mayor of Nauvoo
• Lieutenant General of the Nauvoo Legion
• Chief Justice of the Municipal Court
• And, as of January 1844, a candidate for President of the United States

No other American had ever held such a concentration of religious, civic, military, and political power. The Expositor writers would call this “preposterous and absurd.” It was also dangerous.

Within this structure of power, certain things were being taught in secret that contradicted public doctrine. Plural marriage was being practiced while being publicly denied. Theological innovations—the doctrine of many gods, the potential for God himself to fall—were being shared in inner circles while the rank-and-file members heard traditional Christian teachings. Financial arrangements enriched leadership while converts who had sacrificed everything to gather to Zion found themselves impoverished.

The whistleblowers who published the Expositor had seen all of this from the inside. They had participated in the structure. They had believed in the mission. And they had reached a breaking point.

Why Their Words Matter Today

The patterns documented in the Expositor are not unique to one religion or one century. They appear wherever power concentrates without accountability:

The silencing of internal critics. Those who raise concerns are tried in secret, excommunicated without hearings, and erased from the community. The Expositor documented this happening to William Law, Wilson Law, and Jane Law—cut off by a council “unknown to the Church” without being present or notified.

The weaponization of divine authority. “God has revealed that you are mine.” When divine sanction is claimed for personal desires, there is no appeal. Refuse and face damnation. Submit and face destruction. The Expositor documented women trapped in exactly this bind.

The impossible choice. The doctrine that women who refused plural marriage—or who refused to allow their husbands to take plural wives—would be “under condemnation before God” created a situation where every door led to damnation. This bind exists wherever absolute authority meets vulnerable people.

Financial exploitation wrapped in spiritual language. “Sacrifice and gather.” “Sell everything and come to Zion.” The wealth flows in and is “swallowed up by the one great throat, from whence there is no return.” The Expositor documented converts being sold land at “tenfold advance” and ending up “in a worse condition than that from which they had just emigrated.”

The destruction of the messenger. When truth threatens power, power destroys the messenger. They burned the press. They scattered the type. They thought they had won. But “you cannot burn a story. You cannot burn a name.”

These patterns repeat in religious institutions, corporations, governments, and movements. The faces change. The mechanisms don’t. The Expositor’s thesis applies everywhere:

“The remedy can never be applied, unless the disease is known.”

This album makes the disease known. By amplifying testimonies from 1844, it illuminates patterns that persist today. The specific content is historical. The underlying dynamics are universal.

But first, you need to understand who was speaking.

The Whistleblowers

The publishers of the Nauvoo Expositor were not outsiders or enemies. They were the inner circle:

William Law had served as Second Counselor in the First Presidency—Joseph Smith’s right hand in church governance. He had access to the highest levels of leadership and had witnessed the introduction of secret doctrines firsthand.

Jane Law, William’s wife, had been propositioned by Joseph Smith himself to become a plural wife. She refused. Her sworn affidavit in the Expositor documented what she had witnessed, including the teaching that women who did not allow their husbands to take plural wives “should be under condemnation before God.”

Austin Cowles was First Counselor to the Nauvoo Stake President and a member of the High Council. He was present when Hyrum Smith (Joseph’s brother and the Church Patriarch) read aloud a revelation authorizing plural marriage. His affidavit detailed exactly what that revelation contained: “the doctrine of a plurality of wives, or marrying virgins.”

Wilson Law, William’s brother, was a brigadier general in the Nauvoo Legion—the city’s militia of approximately 3,000 men.

Francis M. Higbee was a former missionary whose letter “To the Citizens of Hancock County” called for political action against the concentration of power in Nauvoo.

Robert D. Foster was a Nauvoo surgeon and Justice of the Peace.

Charles A. Foster, Robert’s brother, and Charles Ivins, a High Priest, rounded out the group of publishers.

These were not disgruntled outsiders making accusations from ignorance. These were people who had stood at the center of power and seen what was being taught in secret while being denied in public.

Why They Spoke

The Expositor’s preamble explains their reasoning in language that still resonates:

“It is with the greatest solicitude for the salvation of the Human Family, and of our own souls, that we have this day assembled.”

They published not for revenge, but because they believed souls were at stake—including their own. They had tried other approaches first:

“Many of us have sought a reformation in the church, without a public exposition of the enormities of crimes practiced by its leaders, thinking that if they would hearken to counsel, and shew fruit meet for repentance, it would be as acceptable with God.”

They had gone to Joseph Smith privately. They had pleaded for change. They had hoped he would repent:

“We have called upon him to repent, and as soon as he shewed fruits meet for repentance, we stood ready to seize him by the hand of fellowship.”

But their efforts were rejected:

“But our petitions were treated with contempt; and in many cases the petitioner spurned from their presence.”

Joseph Smith’s response, according to the Expositor, was defiant:

“If he had sinned, and was guilty of the charges we would charge him with, he would not make acknowledgment, but would rather be damned; for it would detract from his dignity.”

He would rather be damned than admit wrongdoing. And so the whistleblowers concluded:

“Forbearance has ceased to be a virtue, and hope of reformation vain.”

This phrase—“forbearance has ceased to be a virtue"—becomes the title and thesis of the album’s second track. The whistleblowers had been patient. They had been faithful. They had tried to fix things from within. When that failed, they went public.

What They Documented

The Expositor contained:

1. A Preamble explaining their reasons and documenting the treatment of women who were coerced into plural marriage

2. Fifteen Resolutions outlining their positions on church-state separation, prophetic authority, and doctrine

3. Sworn Affidavits from William Law, Jane Law, and Austin Cowles detailing what they had witnessed

4. Francis Higbee’s Letter calling on citizens of Hancock County to vote against the concentration of power

5. Editorial Content exposing financial exploitation and charter abuses

The document is remarkable for its specificity. These were not vague accusations. These were sworn statements from named witnesses who knew they might die for speaking.

What Happened Next

Three days after publication, on June 10, 1844, the Nauvoo City Council declared the Expositor a “public nuisance.” Joseph Smith, as mayor, signed an order for its destruction. A city marshal and approximately 100 men marched to the Expositor office, removed the printing press, dragged it into the street, scattered the type, and burned the remaining copies of the newspaper.

The next day, William Law was warned of a conspiracy to kill him and the other publishers. On June 12, they fled Nauvoo with their families, abandoning property, homes, and everything they had built.

The destruction of the press led to charges against Joseph Smith for inciting a riot. Under pressure from Illinois Governor Thomas Ford, Joseph surrendered and was taken to Carthage Jail. On June 27, 1844—twenty days after the Expositor published—a mob stormed the jail and killed Joseph and his brother Hyrum.

The publishers survived—barely. William Law later reflected: “What saved me from death in 1844 was, 1, my caution; 2, the devotion of my detectives and 3, Joseph himself.” He lived to be 82 years old. In 1887, forty-three years after those events, an elderly William Law agreed to be interviewed. His eyes filled with tears as he explained why he had published the Expositor: “I wanted to show them… that I had not been in a fraud willingly.”

The Expositor itself survived in preserved copies. Its content has been studied by historians for 180 years. And now, it has been set to music.

The Album’s Methodology

Every lyric in this album is drawn from the Nauvoo Expositor or verified historical record. When the Expositor says “thunder-struck,” the album says “thunder-struck.” When the Expositor says “the one great throat,” the album says “the one great throat.” When the Expositor says “sudden day,” the album says “sudden day.”

This is not interpretation. This is amplification.

The power of this album lies in its documentary integrity. We are not making accusations. We are singing what people swore under oath 180 years ago. The witnesses did the work. We gave them a melody.

The Structure

The album is organized into five acts plus an epilogue:

• Act I: The Awakening (Tracks 1-3) — Who spoke and why
• Act II: The Women (Tracks 4-7) — What happened to the victims
• Act III: The Revelations (Tracks 8-10) — What was taught in secret
• Act IV: The Power (Tracks 11-13) — How control was maintained
• Act V: The Reckoning (Tracks 14-16) — The silencing that wasn’t
• Epilogue (Track 17) — The question that remains

Each act builds on the last, moving from the whistleblowers’ decision to speak, through the women’s devastating experiences, into the secret doctrines themselves, then the machinery of power that enabled the abuse, and finally to the destruction of the press and the survival of truth.

Let us walk through each song.

ACT I: THE AWAKENING

Who spoke and why

The first act introduces the whistleblowers, explains why they broke their silence after years of patience, and reveals the central lie that finally pushed them to publish.

Track 1: “June 7, 1844”

The Album Opener

The album begins with the date itself—the day the Expositor published its first and only issue. This song establishes who is speaking, what is at stake, and what the album’s central thesis will be.

The Sound

Imagine cinematic Americana folk—acoustic guitar and strings building slowly from a solemn opening to an anthemic declaration. Male vocals carry the weight of men who know they may not survive what they are about to do.

The Story

The song opens with the Expositor’s own words:

“It is with the greatest solicitude for the salvation of the Human Family, and of our own souls, that we have this day assembled.”

This is not a casual publication. This is a sacred act. These men are assembled before God and humanity to speak what they believe must be spoken.

The verses establish their unique position:

“No man knows better than we do / The rise, the fall, the history / We stood beside him in the beginning / We saw what he became”

This is the inner circle speaking. William Law had been Joseph Smith’s right hand. Austin Cowles had sat in the High Council. They didn’t learn about these things secondhand. They witnessed them.

The song introduces two key phrases that will echo throughout the album. First:

“Forbearance has ceased to be a virtue / And hope of reformation… vain”

This explains the timing. They didn’t publish at the first sign of trouble. They waited. They pleaded. They tried private reformation. Only when Joseph refused—when he said he would “rather be damned” than admit wrongdoing—did they conclude that patience had become complicity.

Second, the album’s thesis:

“The remedy cannot be applied / Unless the disease is known”

This is why they are speaking. The disease—the abuse, the lies, the exploitation—cannot be cured if it remains hidden. Making the disease known is the first step toward healing.

The chorus names the cost:

“We hazard everything we have / Our property, our very lives”

They knew what they were risking. The Expositor’s preamble acknowledged they were “hazarding every earthly blessing, particularly property, and probably life itself.” They published anyway.

The song ends with the thesis repeated as a declaration: “The disease is known.” And then the album unfolds to reveal exactly what that disease was.

Historical Grounding

This song draws primarily from the Expositor’s Preamble, using direct quotes wherever possible:

• “It is with the greatest solicitude for the salvation of the Human Family”
• “No man or set of men can be more thoroughly acquainted with its rise, its organization, and its history”
• “We rely upon the arm of Jehovah, the Supreme Arbiter of the world”
• “Forbearance has ceased to be a virtue, and hope of reformation vain”
• “We are aware… that we are hazarding every earthly blessing, particularly property, and probably life itself”
• “The remedy can never be applied, unless the disease is known”

Track 2: “Forbearance”

The Whistleblowers’ Manifesto

If the first track asks “Who is speaking?”, the second track asks “Why now?” This song explains the breaking point—the moment when patience became impossible.

The Sound

Folk rock with building intensity. The song starts with quiet, almost weary verses describing their attempts at private reformation, then builds through mounting frustration to righteous anger by the final chorus. Stomping rhythm. Raw emotion.

The Story

The song opens with their first approach:

“We sought a reformation / Without a public word / We thought if he would listen / Repentance would be heard”

They tried to handle this privately. They didn’t want a public scandal. They wanted change.

“We came to him in private / We pleaded and we prayed / We said we’d seize his hand in fellowship / If he would turn away”

This is not the language of enemies. This is the language of people who loved someone and wanted to save him—and the church—from destruction.

But their petitions were rejected:

“Our petitions were treated with contempt / The petitioner spurned from his door”

And Joseph’s response was defiant:

“He said he’d rather be damned / Than lose his dignity”

This is the heart of the song. Joseph Smith, according to the Expositor, refused to acknowledge wrongdoing because it would “detract from his dignity.” Pride over repentance. Image over integrity.

The verses include some of Joseph’s most damning statements as recorded by the Expositor:

“He said that we would go to Hell / Together, him and us / And there we’d cast the Devil out / And make a heaven of the dust”

And:

“He said that Hell’s an agreeable place / Not what the fools suppose”

Note that word: “fools.” According to the Expositor, Joseph called his own followers “this world of fools.” He was mocking the doctrine he preached publicly.

The bridge asks the moral question that must have haunted them:

“How long should righteous men stay silent? / How long endure the lie? / When the wolf stands at the pulpit / And the sheep begin to die?”

The “wolf in sheep’s clothing” imagery comes directly from the Expositor: “Lo! the wolf is in the fold, arrayed in sheep’s clothing, and is spreading death and devastation among the saints.”

The final chorus resolves into declaration:

“Forbearance has ceased to be a virtue! / So let the truth be known!”

They had been patient. They had been faithful. They had tried everything else. Now they were going public.

Historical Grounding

Key sources:

• “Many of us have sought a reformation in the church, without a public exposition”
• “We have called upon him to repent, and as soon as he shewed fruits meet for repentance, we stood ready to seize him by the hand of fellowship”
• “Our petitions were treated with contempt; and in many cases the petitioner spurned from their presence”
• “He would not make acknowledgment, but would rather be damned; for it would detract from his dignity”
• “He often replied, that we would all go to Hell together, and convert it into a heaven, by casting the Devil out”
• “Hell is by no means the place this world of fools suppose it to be, but on the contrary, it is quite an agreeable place”
• “The wolf is in the fold, arrayed in sheep’s clothing”

Track 3: “Seven Wives”

The Public Lie Exposed

The first two songs established who was speaking and why they went public. The third song names the specific lie that broke their patience: Joseph Smith’s public denial of polygamy while secretly practicing it.

The Sound

Dark folk with a sardonic edge. Minor key, sparse arrangement—just acoustic guitar and voice. The tone is bitter, almost mocking, because the lie was so brazen.

The Story

On May 26, 1844—just twelve days before the Expositor published—Joseph Smith stood at a pulpit in Nauvoo and delivered a public denial:

“What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one. I am the same man, and as innocent as I was fourteen years ago; and I can prove them all perjurers.”

The song opens with this scene:

“He stood up at the pulpit / The congregation hushed / He said what a thing it is / To be accused of such”

And then the denial:

“Seven wives, they say I have / When I can only find one / I am the same man I always was / As innocent as I’ve ever been”

The congregation would have believed him. Most of them didn’t know about the secret practices. But sitting in that congregation were people who knew the truth: William Law, who had read the revelation on plural marriage. Jane Law, who had been propositioned by Joseph himself. Austin Cowles, who had heard the revelation read aloud in the High Council.

The chorus captures their reaction:

“Seven wives / When I can only find one / Taught in secret / Denied in the sun / We sat there and we listened / To the lie fall from his tongue”

“Taught in secret, denied openly” is the Expositor’s own summary of the polygamy practice.

The verses document what they actually knew:

“But we had read the revelation / Hyrum read it to the council / It authorized the number ten / And sealed them for eternity”

Jane Law’s affidavit stated that the revelation “authorized some to have to the number of ten” wives. Historical records now suggest Joseph had 30-40 plural wives by 1844. The Expositor documented ten. Even that was devastating when contrasted with “I can only find one.”

The bridge names the witnesses:

“Jane Law read it with her own eyes / Austin Cowles heard it read aloud / William knew it in his bones / When the Prophet came for his wife”

These were not rumors. These were sworn testimonies from named witnesses who had seen the documents and heard the teachings.

The song ends with Joseph’s own words echoing as bitter irony:

“I can prove them all perjurers…”

He couldn’t. They could prove him a liar.

Historical Grounding

Key sources:

• Joseph Smith’s May 26, 1844 sermon (documented in contemporary accounts)
• Jane Law’s affidavit: “I read the revelation… it authorized some to have to the number of ten”
• Austin Cowles’ affidavit: “Hyrum Smith did in the High Council… introduce what he said was a revelation”
• The Expositor’s characterization: “taught secretly, and denied openly”

Album Position

With “Seven Wives,” Act I is complete. The listener now knows:

• These are insiders speaking (Track 1)
• They tried private reformation first and were rejected (Track 2)
• The central lie was Joseph’s public denial of polygamy while secretly practicing it (Track 3)

The listener is now prepared for Act II: What happened to the women.

ACT II: THE WOMEN

What happened to the victims

The heart of the album. Four songs trace the arc of a woman’s experience: hope, horror, devastation, and—in one case—defiance.

The Expositor’s Preamble contains an extended passage describing what happened to women who were recruited into plural marriage. This act gives those women voice.

Understanding What the Expositor Documented

Before walking through the individual songs, it’s important to understand the scope of what the Expositor writers witnessed and documented.

The Preamble describes a systematic process—what we might today call a grooming pipeline:

Step 1: Recruitment. Missionaries traveled to “foreign climes,” particularly the British Isles, preaching the restored gospel. Women were “induced, by the sound of the gospel, to forsake friends” and emigrate to America. Between 1839 and 1846, approximately 4,000 British converts made this journey.

Step 2: Sacrifice. Converts sold their possessions—the Expositor mentions women selling their “mother’s ring"—to pay for passage across the Atlantic. They typically sailed from Liverpool to New Orleans, then traveled up the Mississippi River to Nauvoo. They arrived with little more than what they could carry.

Step 3: Grooming. New arrivals were “visited by some of the Strikers, for we know not what else to call them.” These were members tasked with preparing converts for further “revelations.” They were told to “hold on and be faithful, for there are great blessings awaiting the righteous; and that God has great mysteries in store for those who love the lord, and cling to brother Joseph.”

Step 4: The Summons. Eventually, the woman would be “notified that Brother Joseph will see them soon, and reveal the mysteries of Heaven to their full understanding, which seldom fails to inspire them with new confidence in the Prophet, as well as a great anxiety to know what God has laid up in store for them.”

Step 5: The Secret Room. The meeting took place “at some insulated point, or at some particularly described place on the bank of the Mississippi, or at some room, which wears upon its front—Positively NO Admittance.”

Step 6: The Death Oath. Before hearing what Joseph had to say, the woman was “sworn in one of the most solemn manners, to never divulge what is revealed to them, with a penalty of death attached.”

Step 7: The Proposition. Joseph would reveal “that God Almighty has revealed it to him, that she should be his (Joseph’s) Spiritual wife; for it was right anciently, and God will tolerate it again.”

Step 8: The Response. “She is thunder-struck, faints recovers, and refuses.”

Step 9: The Damnation. “The Prophet damns her if she rejects.”

Step 10: The Calculation. “She thinks of the great sacrifice and of the many thousand miles she has traveled over sea and land, that she might save her soul from pending ruin.”

Step 11: The Surrender. “And replies, God’s will be done and not mine.”

Step 12: The Cover-Up. “They are sent away for a time, until all is well; after which they return, as from a long visit.”

Step 13: The Destruction. “Dry sorrow drinks her blood, until her enfeebled frame sinks under the burden.”

Step 14: The Death. “You will be told of some wintry chill, of some casual indisposition that laid her low! But no one knows of the mental malady that previously sapped her strength.”

This was documented in 1844 by people who had witnessed it. The songs in Act II follow this progression—but through the woman’s voice rather than as external observation.

Track 4: “Ten Thousand Miles”

The Journey to Zion

Before we can understand what was taken from these women, we must understand what they sacrificed to get there.

The Sound

Folk ballad with Celtic influence—violin, acoustic guitar, female vocals. The sound echoes the British Isles, where many converts originated. The song starts hopeful and gradually darkens, ending on foreboding.

The Story

The Expositor describes women who came from “foreign climes, and in countries to us unknown, even in the most distant regions of the Eastern hemisphere.” Between 1839 and 1846, approximately 4,000 British converts emigrated to Nauvoo, sailing from Liverpool to New Orleans and traveling up the Mississippi River.

The song tells one woman’s story:

“I heard them preach of Zion / A city built on light / They said that God was calling / From across the sea”

She heard missionaries. She believed. She converted.

“I sold my mother’s ring / I said goodbye to friends / I packed my life in one small trunk / And walked down to the shore”

The sacrifice was total. Everything she owned. Everyone she knew. All left behind for the promise of salvation.

The chorus captures both the hope and the sacrifice:

“Ten thousand miles to save my soul / Ten thousand miles to Zion / I left behind the only world I knew / Ten thousand miles to glory / Ten thousand miles alone / God was waiting on the other side / Or so they told me”

That final line—“Or so they told me"—plants the first seed of doubt without being heavy-handed.

When she arrives, she is welcomed by what the Expositor calls “the Strikers"—members tasked with preparing new arrivals for further “revelations”:

“When I reached the river city / They welcomed me with smiles / They said hold fast, be faithful / Great blessings wait for you”

The Expositor describes this grooming process: new converts were “visited by some of the Strikers… and are requested to hold on and be faithful, for there are great blessings awaiting the righteous.”

The bridge sets up the next song:

“They said the Prophet wished to see me / To reveal the mysteries of heaven / I thought that I would learn of God / I did not know what waited”

The final chorus turns ominous:

“Ten thousand miles to save my soul / Ten thousand miles to Zion / I left behind the only world I knew / Ten thousand miles… / Ten thousand miles… / And no way home”

She has crossed an ocean. She has nothing left. She has no one to turn to. She is completely vulnerable.

And she has just been summoned to see the Prophet.

Historical Grounding

Key sources:

• “Many females in foreign climes, and in countries to us unknown, even in the most distant regions of the Eastern hemisphere, have been induced, by the sound of the gospel, to forsake friends, and embark upon a voyage across waters that lie stretched over the greater portion of the globe”
• “She thinks of the great sacrifice and of the many thousand miles she has traveled over sea and land, that she might save her soul from pending ruin”
• “They are visited by some of the Strikers… and are requested to hold on and be faithful, for there are great blessings awaiting the righteous”
• “Brother Joseph will see them soon, and reveal the mysteries of Heaven to their full understanding”

Track 5: “Positively No Admittance”

The Secret Room

The emotional core of the album. This song tells what happened when the woman from “Ten Thousand Miles” answered the Prophet’s summons.

The Sound

Dark folk at its sparsest. Acoustic guitar and cello only. Female vocals, intimate and devastating. The song should feel like walls closing in.

The Story

The Expositor describes secret meetings held in specific locations:

“Meet brother Joseph… at some insulated point, or at some particularly described place on the bank of the Mississippi, or at some room, which wears upon its front–Positively NO Admittance.”

The title itself comes from the sign on the door. “Positively NO Admittance.” A room set aside for secret meetings. A room where women would learn what “great blessings” awaited them.

The song opens there:

“A room beside the river / A warning on the door / They swore me into silence / With death if I should tell”

The death oath was real. The Expositor states that women were “sworn in one of the most solemn manners, to never divulge what is revealed to them, with a penalty of death attached.”

Consider what this means. Before she even knows what she’s about to hear, she has been bound to silence under threat of death. She cannot seek counsel. She cannot tell friends. She cannot compare notes with other women who may have experienced the same thing. She is isolated by oath before the proposition is even made.

Then the proposition:

“He said God had revealed it / That I belonged to him / That David and Solomon / Had many wives before”

This is the exact language of the revelation: “God Almighty has revealed it to him, that she should be his Spiritual wife; for it was right anciently, and God will tolerate it again.” The biblical justification—David and Solomon—appears repeatedly in the documents.

The theology is crucial. This wasn’t presented as Joseph’s desire. It was presented as God’s command. Joseph was merely the messenger. To refuse Joseph was to refuse God. To refuse God was damnation.

The pre-chorus captures the trap:

“Positively no admittance / Positively no escape”

The sign on the door becomes a metaphor. No one else can enter. No one can help. And she cannot leave—not really, not without damnation.

And then the central verse, using the Expositor’s own word:

“Thunder-struck / I fainted, I refused / He damned me if I turned away”

“Thunder-struck” is the Expositor’s exact term: “She is thunder-struck, faints recovers, and refuses. The Prophet damns her if she rejects.”

This sequence is important. Her first response is refusal. She says no. And he damns her—pronounces divine condemnation upon her for refusing.

The impossible calculation:

“I thought of all the miles / Everything I gave / And I whispered / God’s will be done… not mine”

The Expositor documents this surrender: “She thinks of the great sacrifice and of the many thousand miles she has traveled over sea and land, that she might save her soul from pending ruin, and replies, God’s will be done and not mine.”

The phrase “God’s will be done, not mine” echoes Jesus in Gethsemane. It’s the language of ultimate submission to divine will. But here it’s been weaponized—used to coerce a woman into something she has already refused.

She has no resources. No family nearby. No way home. No way to talk to anyone about what’s happening. She has been told that God commands this. She has been told that refusing means damnation. She has already given up everything to be here.

What choice does she have?

The song includes a verse that names the theological trap explicitly:

“What remains when God himself / Is the weapon that they use? / When heaven’s gate swings shut on you / No matter what you choose?”

This is the heart of the coercion. It’s not physical force (though the death oath implies that possibility). It’s theological force. God himself has been weaponized against her. Every door leads to damnation.

Jane Law’s affidavit documented that women who refused would be “under condemnation before God.” So:

• Refuse the Prophet? Damned by his word.
• Allow your husband plural wives? Damned if you don’t, per Jane Law’s testimony.
• Refuse to become a plural wife? Damned by the revelation.
• Accept? Robbed of “that which nothing but death can restore.”

There was no winning. The theological cage was complete.

The song ends in surrender. No resolution. The outro fades on:

“God’s will be done… / Not mine…”

Why This Song Matters

This is not ancient history. The pattern of using divine authority to override consent appears in every generation, in every religious tradition that claims prophetic authority. The specifics change. The dynamic doesn’t.

“God told me you are mine.” “God revealed that we should be together.” “If you refuse, you’re refusing God.”

The theological cage constructed in 1844 has been rebuilt countless times since. Understanding how it works—how consent is made impossible when divine authority backs human desire—is the first step toward dismantling it.

Historical Grounding

Key sources:

• “At some room, which wears upon its front—Positively NO Admittance”
• “Sworn in one of the most solemn manners, to never divulge what is revealed to them, with a penalty of death attached”
• “God Almighty has revealed it to him, that she should be his Spiritual wife”
• “David and Solomon had many wives, yet in this they sinned not”
• “She is thunder-struck, faints recovers, and refuses”
• “The Prophet damns her if she rejects”
• “She thinks of the great sacrifice and of the many thousand miles she has traveled… and replies, God’s will be done and not mine”

Track 6: “The Tender Tree”

The Aftermath

The previous song ended in surrender. This song shows what happened after.

The Sound

The sparsest arrangement on the album. Acoustic guitar and cello, fading to almost nothing by the end. The song itself withers as it plays.

The Story

The Expositor’s Preamble contains some of the most devastating prose in the entire document—an extended metaphor describing what happened to women after they were coerced. This song draws almost entirely from that language.

“They sent me far away / Until the talk died down / I came back like a stranger / As from a long visit”

The Expositor: “They are sent away for a time, until all is well; after which they return, as from a long visit.”

The women were disappeared until the scandal faded. Then they returned—changed.

“My heart a fortress / Captured, sacked, and left / The charm of life has ended / The desire has failed”

The Expositor: “Her heart is like some fortress that has been captured, sacked, abandoned, and left desolate… the desire of the heart has failed—the great charm of existence is at an end.”

The chorus uses the Expositor’s central metaphor:

“I am the tender tree / The pride and beauty of the grove / Graceful in form / Bright in leaf / But the worm preys at my heart / And I am withering”

The Expositor: “She is like some tender tree, the pride and beauty of the grove—graceful in its form, bright in its foliage, but with the worm praying at its heart; we find it withered when it should be most luxuriant.”

The physical devastation:

“My rest is broken now / Sleep poisoned by dreams / Dry sorrow drinks my blood / Until my body sinks”

The Expositor: “Her rest is broken. The sweet refreshment of sleep is poisoned by melancholy dreams; dry sorrow drinks her blood, until her enfeebled frame sinks.”

“Dry sorrow drinks her blood” is an extraordinary phrase. The Expositor writers were documenting what we might now recognize as trauma, depression, and psychological collapse.

When these women died, the cover story was ready:

“They’ll say it was a chill / Some casual disease / But no one knows the malady / That made me easy prey”

The Expositor: “You will be told of some wintry chill, of some casual indisposition that laid her low! But no one knows of the mental malady that previously sapped her strength.”

The bridge quotes the Expositor almost verbatim:

“Robbed of what only death restores / Shedding leaf by leaf / I fall in the stillness of the forest / And no one knows the cause”

And then the song turns to a specific woman—one mentioned in the Expositor:

“A departed spirit / Cries out for vengeance / From the silence of the grave”

The Expositor: “A departed spirit, once the resident of St. Louis, shall yet cry aloud for vengeance.”

This was a real woman. We don’t know her name. She was erased from history. She died, and they said it was “some wintry chill.” This song is her voice, 180 years later.

Historical Grounding

This song is almost entirely direct quotation, restructured into singable lines:

• “Sent away for a time, until all is well; after which they return, as from a long visit”
• “Her heart is like some fortress that has been captured, sacked, abandoned, and left desolate”
• “The desire of the heart has failed—the great charm of existence is at an end”
• “She is like some tender tree, the pride and beauty of the grove—graceful in its form, bright in its foliage, but with the worm praying at its heart”
• “Her rest is broken. The sweet refreshment of sleep is poisoned by melancholy dreams; dry sorrow drinks her blood, until her enfeebled frame sinks”
• “You will be told of some wintry chill, of some casual indisposition that laid her low! But no one knows of the mental malady”
• “Robbed of that which nothing but death can restore”
• “It falls in the stillness of the forest”
• “A departed spirit, once the resident of St. Louis, shall yet cry aloud for vengeance”

Track 7: “Under Condemnation”

The Theological Trap—and Defiance

The previous three songs traced one arc: hope, horror, devastation. This song steps back to explain the theological mechanism that enabled it all—and then shows one woman who fought back.

The Sound

Dark Americana that builds from ominous to defiant. Organ undertones give it religious weight. The song starts trapped and ends triumphant.

The Story

Jane Law’s affidavit documented a devastating teaching:

“Those women who would not allow their husbands to have more wives than one should be under condemnation before God.”

The song opens with this trap:

“They said it was a revelation / Straight from the throne of God / That wives who would not allow it / Should stand condemned”

Women weren’t just being pressured to become plural wives themselves. They were being told that if they didn’t allow their husbands to take plural wives, they would be damned.

The impossible bind:

“Condemned before the Almighty / For saying no to a man / Condemned for keeping a promise / Made at your own wedding day”

Fidelity to your marriage vow became grounds for damnation.

The chorus names the trap:

“Under condemnation / If I refuse / Under condemnation / If I hold true / Damned if I stay silent / Damned if I speak / Under condemnation / Either way I’m beat”

There was no escape within the theological framework. Every door led to damnation.

But then the song turns. The bridge names a woman who refused:

“But Jane Law read those words / And Jane Law said no / Jane Law stood beside her husband / When they told her she should go”

Jane Law actually refused Joseph Smith’s advances. She actually testified publicly. She actually stood with her husband William when they published the Expositor. She didn’t submit. She fought back.

The final chorus transforms from despair to defiance:

“Under condemnation? / Then let me be condemned! / Under condemnation? / I will not pretend! / You can damn me to your hell / You can strip me of my name / But I will not bow to blasphemy / Dressed up as heaven’s claim!”

This isn’t wish fulfillment. This is history. Jane Law refused. She testified. She survived. The defiant ending is earned.

Historical Grounding

Key sources:

• Jane Law’s affidavit: “Those women who would not allow their husbands to have more wives than one should be under condemnation before God”
• “The Prophet damns her if she rejects”
• Jane Law’s actual refusal and public testimony

Album Position

With “Under Condemnation,” Act II is complete. The listener has experienced:

• The sacrifice and hope of the journey (Track 4)
• The horror of the coercion (Track 5)
• The devastation of the aftermath (Track 6)
• The theological trap—and one woman’s defiance (Track 7)

The arc moves from hope to horror to devastation to defiance. Not all women submitted. Jane Law said no. This is why Act II doesn’t end in despair.

ACT III: THE REVELATIONS

What was taught in secret

The previous act showed what the secret doctrines did to people. This act shows what those doctrines were. Three songs lay bare the teachings: plural marriage, polytheism, and financial exploitation.

Track 8: “The Revelation”

Austin Cowles’ Testimony

This song puts a witness on the stand: Austin Cowles, First Counselor to the Nauvoo Stake President and High Council member, who heard the revelation on plural marriage read aloud.

The Sound

Folk with a testimonial quality—deliberate pacing, serious tone, acoustic guitar carrying the weight of courtroom testimony. Male vocals deliver the words as sworn statement.

The Story

The song is first-person testimony:

“I sat in the High Council / When Hyrum took the stand / He said he had a revelation / Given by the Prophet’s hand”

Austin Cowles’ affidavit: “The Patriarch, Hyrum Smith, did in the High Council, of which I was a member, introduce what he said was a revelation given through the Prophet.”

“He read it to the council / Every man sat still as stone / The doctrine of a plurality / Of wives to call your own”

Cowles listed exactly what the revelation contained:

“More wives than one, it said / In this world and the next / Virgins for the marrying / By prophetic pretext”

From Cowles’ affidavit: “the doctrine of a plurality of wives, or marrying virgins” and “more wives than one at a time, in this world and in the world to come.”

The biblical justification:

“David and Solomon were justified”

From the revelation: “David and Solomon having many wives, yet in this they sinned not save in the matter of Uriah.”

And the doctrine of immunity:

“Sealed to eternal life / Against all sins but one / The shedding of innocent blood / Or consenting it be done”

From Cowles: “the sealing up of persons to eternal life, against all sins, save that of shedding innocent blood or of consenting thereto.”

This sealing doctrine is crucial. Those who were sealed could be forgiven “all sins” except murder. This created theological impunity.

The chorus captures Cowles’ moral crisis:

“I heard it read aloud / And I could not say amen”

In LDS practice, “amen” signifies agreement and ratification. Cowles heard the revelation and could not affirm it.

The bridge voices what Cowles must have wrestled with:

“I was called to teach the gospel / I was called to save souls / But I dared not teach such doctrine / I dared not play this role”

His affidavit concludes simply: “I dared not teach or administer such laws.”

Historical Grounding

Austin Cowles’ affidavit is the primary source for this entire song:

• “The Patriarch, Hyrum Smith, did in the High Council, of which I was a member, introduce what he said was a revelation given through the Prophet”
• “The doctrine of a plurality of wives, or marrying virgins”
• “More wives than one at a time, in this world and in the world to come”
• “David and Solomon having many wives, yet in this they sinned not save in the matter of Uriah”
• “The sealing up of persons to eternal life, against all sins, save that of shedding innocent blood or of consenting thereto”
• “I dared not teach or administer such laws”

Track 9: “Many Gods”

The Polytheism Doctrine

The previous song documented the plural marriage revelation. This song exposes another secret teaching: the doctrine of many gods.

The Sound

Progressive folk that builds in complexity, mirroring the vertigo of the doctrine itself. The arrangement expands outward as the teaching unfolds, then contracts to firm rejection.

The Story

The Expositor described “the doctrine of many Gods, one of the most direful in its effects that has characterized the world for many centuries.”

This wasn’t monotheism. This was a hierarchy of gods:

“They taught us there were many gods / Above the God we knew / Innumerable thrones in heaven / And our God was subject too”

The Expositor: “We have been taught also that there were innumerable gods as much above the God that presides over this universe, as he is above us.”

And this God could fall:

“If He varies from the law / He’ll be cast down, they said He will”

The Expositor: “If he varies from the law unto which he is subjected, he, with all his creatures, will be cast down as was Lucifer.”

The pre-chorus asks the devastating question:

“Cast down as Lucifer was cast / From heights we cannot see / What kind of God can fall from grace? / What kind of God can cease to be?”

For Christians who believed in an eternal, unchanging God, this was heresy. The God they worshipped could be dethroned? Could cease to be God?

The chorus captures the response:

“They spoke of God / In ways I cannot bear / Impious and irreverent / As if He was not there”

The Expositor: “speaking of God in an impious and irreverent manner.”

The bridge connects back to the convert experience:

“This is not the faith I crossed the ocean for / This is not the Christ who died to save”

The women in Act II came for Christianity. What they found was something else entirely.

The final chorus rejects the doctrine firmly:

“Many gods? / I answer: One / Many thrones? / There’s only One”

Historical Grounding

Key sources:

• “The doctrine of many Gods, one of the most direful in its effects”
• “Innumerable gods as much above the God that presides over this universe, as he is above us”
• “If he varies from the law unto which he is subjected, he, with all his creatures, will be cast down as was Lucifer”
• “Speaking of God in an impious and irreverent manner”
• “We do not want to be partakers in doctrines so damnable”

Track 10: “The Great Throat”

Financial Exploitation

The previous two songs covered theological innovations. This song exposes the financial scheme: how the “gathering” doctrine was used to exploit converts.

The Sound

Blues-influenced folk with a sardonic edge. This is a con being exposed, and the tone reflects it—wry, bitter, almost darkly comic because the scheme was so brazen.

The Story

The Expositor documented how the gathering doctrine was weaponized for profit:

“They preached the gathering in haste / Sacrifice and come / Sell everything you have back home / And bring the money when you run”

Converts were urged to sell their possessions and bring their wealth to Zion. When they arrived:

“They bought the land for pennies / Sold it back for ten times more / And every dollar that you carried in / Went walking out their door”

The Expositor: “buying the lands in the vicinity and selling again to them at tenfold advance.”

The chorus uses the Expositor’s devastating metaphor:

“Down the great throat / From whence there’s no return / Down the great throat / Where all your savings burn”

The Expositor: “the wealth which is brought into the place is swallowed up by the one great throat, from whence there is no return.”

“The great throat” is an extraordinary image. Wealth flowed into Nauvoo and disappeared into leadership’s hands—never to be seen again.

The song documents what the Expositor found when they looked for church property:

“We looked for property belonging / To the church we built with blood / We found the temple standing / And nothing else but mud”

The Expositor: “we do not know of any property which in reality belongs to the Church (except the Temple).”

Despite years of tithing and sacrifice, the only church property was the temple. Everything else had been absorbed “by the one great throat.”

The bridge connects to Act II:

“Ten thousand miles you traveled / Ten thousand miles to Zion / You sold your mother’s ring / You came here to be lions / But they were selling you a dream / At tenfold what it cost”

The same women who crossed oceans for God were then financially drained. The spiritual and financial exploitation happened to the same people.

The result:

“In a very short time you’re worse / Than before you saw the light”

The Expositor: “in a very short time, they are reduced to a worse condition than that from which they had just emigrated.”

They crossed the world to improve their circumstances. They ended up worse off than before.

Historical Grounding

Key sources:

• “The gathering in haste, and by sacrifice, as taught by Joseph Smith and others, for the purpose of enabling them to sell property at most exorbitant prices”
• “Buying the lands in the vicinity and selling again to them at tenfold advance”
• “The wealth which is brought into the place is swallowed up by the one great throat, from whence there is no return”
• “We do not know of any property which in reality belongs to the Church (except the Temple)”
• “In a very short time, they are reduced to a worse condition than that from which they had just emigrated”

Album Position

With “The Great Throat,” Act III is complete. The listener now knows what was taught in secret:

• Plural marriage, sealed for eternity, with biblical justification (Track 8)
• Many gods, with our God subject to law and capable of falling (Track 9)
• Financial exploitation through the gathering doctrine (Track 10)

Spiritual exploitation. Theological innovation. Financial extraction. The trifecta of the “disease” the Expositor documented.

ACT IV: THE POWER

How control was maintained

The previous acts showed the abuses. This act shows the machinery that enabled them: the concentration of authority, the silencing of dissent, and the charter that made Nauvoo effectively above the law.

Track 11: “King and Lawgiver”

Political Ambitions

This song names the accumulation of power that enabled everything else.

The Sound

Anthemic folk rock with protest song energy. Acoustic guitar building to full band by the final chorus. Drums entering. The sound of a rally, a declaration.

The Story

By 1844, Joseph Smith simultaneously held:

• Prophet and President of the Church
• Mayor of Nauvoo
• Lieutenant General of the Nauvoo Legion (approximately 3,000 men)
• Presidential candidate for the United States

The song opens with this accumulation:

“He stands as Prophet of the church / He sits as Mayor of the town / He rides as General of the Legion / And now he wants the nation’s crown”

No other American had ever held such a concentration of religious, civic, military, and political power.

The Expositor’s Resolution 3 declared:

“We disapprobate and discountenance every attempt to unite church and state”

The song uses this language:

“We disapprobate, we discountenance / Every attempt to unite / The power of God with the power of man / Is a tyranny in plain sight”

Resolution 12 provided the song’s title and central declaration:

“We will not acknowledge any man as king or lawgiver to the church; for Christ is our only king and law-giver”

The chorus declares:

“We will not acknowledge any man / As king and lawgiver to the church / Christ is our only king / Christ alone we serve”

The bridge commits to democratic action:

“We pledge ourselves to put him down / Not by violence but by vote / To strip the political power / From around the prophet’s throat”

The Expositor’s solution was electoral, not revolutionary. They wanted to use the August 1844 elections to elect officials who would reform or repeal the Nauvoo Charter.

Historical Grounding

Key sources:

• Resolution 12: “We will not acknowledge any man as king or lawgiver to the church; for Christ is our only king and law-giver”
• Resolution 3: “We disapprobate and discountenance every attempt to unite church and state”
• “The attempt at Political power and influence, which we verily believe to be preposterous and absurd”

Track 12: “The Inquisition”

The Secret Trial

This song documents how internal dissent was silenced: through secret trials without the accused present.

The Sound

Dark folk with building dread. Sparse arrangement growing to accusatory intensity. Minor key. The sound of walls closing in.

The Story

On April 18, 1844—seven weeks before the Expositor published—a church council met in secret:

“On a Thursday evening in April / A council met in secret session / Unknown to the church they served / They passed their condemnation”

The Expositor: “On thursday evening, the 18th of April, there was a council called, unknown to the Church, which tried, condemned, and cut off brothers Wm. Law, Wilson Law, and sister Law.”

William, Wilson, and Jane Law were excommunicated without being present, without being notified, without a hearing:

“Our law condemnest no man / Until he has been heard / But they were tried and sentenced / Without a single word”

The Expositor: “our law condemnest no man until he is heard.”

The song uses the Expositor’s explicit comparison to the Spanish Inquisition:

“The Inquisition has returned / In Nauvoo on the river / What Innocent and Dominic began / Joseph Smith delivers”

The Expositor: “Joseph Smith has established an inquisition, which, if it is suffered to exist, will prove more formidable and terrible… than ever the Spanish inquisition did to heretics.”

Pope Innocent III had authorized the Inquisition. Dominic de Guzmán founded the Dominican Order that carried it out. The Expositor placed Joseph Smith in this lineage of religious tyranny.

The bridge warns:

“If this is suffered to exist / Then no one here is safe / Today they came for William Law / Tomorrow for your faith”

Anyone could be next. The secret trial created institutional terror.

Historical Grounding

Key sources:

• “On thursday evening, the 18th of April, there was a council called, unknown to the Church, which tried, condemned, and cut off brothers Wm. Law, Wilson Law, and sister Law”
• “Our law condemnest no man until he is heard”
• “Joseph Smith has established an inquisition, which, if it is suffered to exist, will prove more formidable and terrible… than ever the Spanish inquisition did to heretics”
• Reference to “Innocent III of Rome, and father Dominic”

Track 13: “Habeas Corpus”

Charter Abuses

The Nauvoo city charter gave the city extraordinary powers—including habeas corpus authority that effectively placed Nauvoo above federal law. This song exposes that abuse.

The Sound

Driving folk rock, urgent tempo. Journalistic energy. The sound of an exposé.

The Story

Habeas corpus—“you shall have the body"—is the right requiring authorities to bring a prisoner before a court and justify their detention. The Nauvoo Charter granted the city’s municipal court broad habeas corpus authority. Joseph Smith, as mayor, used this to release prisoners held on federal warrants.

“A man runs from the federal law / A warrant on his head / He crosses into Nauvoo / And the warrant’s good as dead”

The Expositor documented cases of fugitives from federal justice being released through Nauvoo’s court system.

The city council had passed an ordinance granting jurisdiction over any arrest made within city limits:

“The city council passed a law / That any man arrested here / Falls under Nauvoo’s jurisdiction / No matter why he’s near”

The Expositor’s prediction:

“A sink of refuge they have built / For every offender who can pay”

The Expositor: “Nauvoo will become a sink of refuge for every offender who can carry in spoils enough to buy protection.”

The bridge addresses the federal government directly:

“Will the federal government be quiescent? / Will they let their laws be defied?”

The Expositor: “the constituted authorities of the federal government be quiescent under such circumstances, and allow the paramount laws of the Union to be set at defiance.”

The constitutional question:

“If the law means nothing in Nauvoo / Then the law means nothing at all / And every charter that protects a tyrant / Is a crack in the Republic’s wall”

Historical Grounding

Key sources:

• “The city council… have granted the Municipal Court of Nauvoo jurisdiction in all cases of arrests made in said city”
• “Nauvoo will become a sink of refuge for every offender who can carry in spoils enough to buy protection”
• “The constituted authorities of the federal government be quiescent under such circumstances, and allow the paramount laws of the Union to be set at defiance”

Album Position

With “Habeas Corpus,” Act IV is complete. The listener now understands how power was maintained:

• Concentration of religious, civic, military, and political authority (Track 11)
• Silencing internal dissent through secret trials (Track 12)
• Blocking external accountability through charter abuse (Track 13)

The system was complete: unchecked authority enabled unchecked abuse.

ACT V: THE RECKONING

The silencing that wasn’t

The final act of the main album. A rallying cry, a burning, and the survival of truth.

Track 14: “Citizens of Hancock County”

Francis Higbee’s Rallying Cry

The Expositor included a letter from Francis Higbee calling citizens of Hancock County to action. This song adapts that letter into a rally.

The Sound

Rousing Americana, building throughout to full anthem. The sound of a political rally, a call to arms—through the ballot box.

The Story

Francis Higbee’s letter “To the Citizens of Hancock County” called for political action against the concentration of power:

“Citizens of Hancock County / Hear me now, I call to you / The tyrant sits upon his throne / And what will you do?”

His rhetoric was incendiary:

“Since the days of Nero and Caligula / There has not walked the earth / A blacker or a baser scoundrel”

The Expositor: “one of the blackest and basest scoundrels that has appeared upon the stage of human existence since the days of Nero, and Caligula.”

But his solution was democratic:

“The August election approaches / Prepare for the dreadful conflict now / Not with rifles, not with sabers / But with the ballot and the vow”

The Expositor: “prepare for the dreadful conflict in August.”

The “dreadful conflict” was the election, not armed uprising. They wanted to vote him out.

The chorus uses Higbee’s most stirring language:

“Citizens arise! / Arise in the majesty of your strength! / Sweep the influence of tyrants / From the face of this good land / As with the breath of heaven”

The Expositor: “arise in the majesty of our strength and sweep the influence of tyrants and miscreants from the face of the land, as with the breath of heaven.”

Historical Grounding

Key sources from Francis Higbee’s letter:

• “Arise in the majesty of our strength and sweep the influence of tyrants and miscreants from the face of the land, as with the breath of heaven”
• “Prepare for the dreadful conflict in August”
• “One of the blackest and basest scoundrels that has appeared upon the stage of human existence since the days of Nero, and Caligula”
• “We therefore call upon you to come to the rescue”

Track 15: “The Burning”

June 10, 1844

Three days after the Expositor published, the press was destroyed. This song documents that moment and its consequences.

The Sound

Cinematic folk building to dramatic climax. Male and female vocals together. Strings and percussion. The album’s emotional peak.

The Story

“Three days after the press had run / The council met at night / The Mayor declared a nuisance / What we had printed in the light”

On June 10, 1844, the Nauvoo City Council declared the Expositor a “public nuisance.” Joseph Smith, as mayor, signed the destruction order.

“One hundred men marched to the shop / Under the marshal’s command / They pulled the press into the street / By order of his hand”

A city marshal and approximately 100 men removed the press, scattered the type, and burned the remaining copies.

The chorus names the central irony:

“The burning, the burning / They set the truth on fire / The burning, the burning / They built a funeral pyre / Scattered type like ashes / Papers turned to flame / But you cannot burn a story / You cannot burn a name”

The attempt to silence amplified. The destruction of the press led directly to the events at Carthage.

“But seventeen days later / At Carthage they would fall / The men who burned the paper / Had written on the wall”

June 10 to June 27 = seventeen days. The destruction of the press → riot charges → Carthage → death.

The bridge names the paradox:

“They wanted silence / They got a martyrdom / They wanted the story buried / But the story had just begun”

Joseph Smith became a martyr. But so did the truth he tried to suppress.

The outro whispers the Expositor’s own prophecy:

“Lo, it is sudden day…”

Historical Grounding

The destruction of the press is documented historical fact. The timeline:

• June 7, 1844 - Expositor published
• June 10, 1844 - Press destroyed
• June 27, 1844 - Joseph and Hyrum Smith killed at Carthage

The Expositor’s prophecy: “Men solace themselves by saying the facts slumber in the dark caverns of midnight. But Lo! it is sudden day, and the dark deeds of foul fiends shall be exposed from the house-tops.”

Track 16: “Sudden Day”

The Truth Survives

The album’s finale. The destruction is over. The fires have died. What remains?

The Sound

Sweeping folk that builds from ashes to triumph. Both voices together. Full arrangement by the final chorus. Orchestral elements. Then resolving to quiet—not bombast, but hope.

The Story

The song opens with the Expositor’s prophecy:

“They said the facts would slumber / In the dark caverns of midnight / They said if they scattered the type / The words would lose their might”

But:

“They burned the press on the river / They thought they’d won the war / But lo, it is sudden day / And we’re singing what they swore”

180 years later, we’re still telling the story. The scattered type is being sung.

The chorus declares:

“Sudden day / The dark deeds shall be known / Sudden day / From the house-tops it is shown / You can scatter the type / You can burn the page / But the story finds a voice / In every age”

The song callbacks to every earlier track:

“Jane Law still says no” (Track 7) “Austin Cowles dares not teach” (Track 8) “The great throat still swallows” (Track 10)

These aren’t just historical figures. Their testimonies live on.

The bridge states the album’s thesis one final time:

“The remedy can never be applied / Unless the disease is known / So we sing what they testified / We carry what they’ve sown”

And the purpose:

“For everyone who crossed the ocean / For everyone who died unnamed / For every tender tree that withered / We will not let them be ashamed”

This is why the album exists. To carry the testimony forward. To name the unnamed. To ensure the Expositor doesn’t die in history.

The outro resolves to quiet hope:

“Lo… it is sudden day… / The disease is known… / The remedy applied…”

Historical Grounding

The Expositor’s prophecy provides the song’s structure:

• “Men solace themselves by saying the facts slumber in the dark caverns of midnight. But Lo! it is sudden day, and the dark deeds of foul fiends shall be exposed from the house-tops”
• “A departed spirit, once the resident of St. Louis, shall yet cry aloud for vengeance”
• “The remedy can never be applied, unless the disease is known”

EPILOGUE

Track 17: “1890”

The Question That Remains

The main album ends with triumph: the truth survived. But this epilogue asks an uncomfortable question: Is the story over?

A Different Kind of Song

This track stands apart from the rest of the album. The main sixteen songs are grounded in 1844—every lyric traceable to the Nauvoo Expositor or verified historical events. This epilogue breaks that frame.

It speaks in a modern voice about modern realities. It uses a contemporary sound—spare, questioning, unresolved—rather than the folk and Americana idiom of the main album. It belongs to the present, not the past.

This separation is intentional. The historical integrity of the main album remains intact. The epilogue is clearly labeled as something different—a coda, a contemporary reflection, a set of questions that the historical material raises but cannot answer.

The Sound

Contemporary folk—distinctly modern, breaking from the period idiom of the main album. Sparse. Questioning. Unresolved. Just voice and guitar, with the questions echoing into silence.

The Story

In 1890, under federal pressure, LDS President Wilford Woodruff issued the Manifesto declaring an end to plural marriage. The federal government had seized church assets under the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887. Men were being imprisoned for polygamy. The institutional survival of the church was at stake.

The Manifesto worked—politically. The church regained its assets. Utah eventually achieved statehood in 1896. The public practice of polygamy ended in the mainline church.

But:

“In 1890 they signed a paper / Said the practice was done / But the revelation’s still in the book / Still doctrine for everyone”

Doctrine and Covenants Section 132—the revelation on plural marriage that Austin Cowles heard read aloud in the High Council—was never removed from LDS scripture. It remains canon today. Every Latter-day Saint has access to it. The practice ended. The doctrine didn’t.

This distinction matters theologically. If D&C 132 is still scripture, then plural marriage is still celestial law—even if its earthly practice has been suspended. The revelation hasn’t been repudiated. It’s been paused.

“They sealed the men to multiple wives / In temples across the land / ‘For time’ was ended, ’eternity’ wasn’t / Do you understand?”

The mainline LDS church still practices what is called “celestial polygamy"—men can be sealed to multiple women in the temple (for eternity) if their previous wife has died. A widower who remarries in the temple will be sealed to both wives for eternity. He will, in LDS theology, have two wives in the celestial kingdom.

A widow, by contrast, cannot be sealed to a second husband unless she cancels her sealing to the first. She must choose one eternal husband. Men need not choose.

This asymmetry reveals that the underlying doctrine never changed. Plural marriage in eternity continues. Only the earthly timing has been suspended.

“In the mountains they still practice / What the mainline church denies / The fundamentalists kept the faith / While the rest learned compromise”

Multiple fundamentalist groups continue to practice plural marriage today. The largest include:

The FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), which was led by Warren Jeffs until his imprisonment in 2011 for sexual assault of minors. The community has been the subject of numerous investigations, prosecutions, and journalistic accounts documenting systematic abuse.

The Apostolic United Brethren (AUB), estimated at 7,500-10,000 members, centered in the Salt Lake Valley and surrounding areas.

The Kingston Group (Latter Day Church of Christ), which practices both plural marriage and consanguineous marriage (marriage between relatives).

These groups claim theological continuity with the original Latter-day Saint movement. From their perspective, they kept the faith. The mainline church compromised under government pressure. The revelation was never wrong—the mainline church simply lost the courage to follow it.

This isn’t ancient history. These communities exist today. Women and children continue to be coerced into plural marriages. The tender trees continue to wither.

The bridge asks the question that faithful members of the mainline church typically avoid:

“Could it come back? / If a prophet said the word? / Could it come back? / Would the faithful say they heard?”

This question is theologically valid within the LDS framework. The church teaches that prophets receive continuing revelation from God. D&C 132 was received as revelation. It has never been formally repudiated—only the practice was suspended.

If a future prophet announced that God had reinstated the earthly practice of plural marriage, what would happen? The theological framework for obedience already exists:

• Prophets speak for God
• D&C 132 is still canonized scripture
• The doctrine was never declared false
• Obedience to prophetic revelation is a core teaching

The song doesn’t answer the question. It raises it. And by raising it, it invites listeners to consider what they would do—and why.

“Section 132 still says / ‘If ye abide not that covenant / Then are ye damned’ / It’s still there / It’s still canon / It’s still waiting”

D&C 132:4 reads: “For behold, I reveal unto you a new and an everlasting covenant; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory.”

This scripture is still in the LDS canon. It still says what it says. The church’s current position is that the earthly practice has been suspended by prophetic authority—not that the scripture was wrong or that the revelation was false.

The song ends unresolved:

“The disease is known / But is it cured? / Or just waiting / Behind the door?”

And the final whispered lines:

“Still scripture… / Still sealed… / Still…”

The door doesn’t close. The word “still” hangs in the air, incomplete. Because the question is incomplete. Because we don’t know the answer.

Why This Epilogue Exists

The main album is a historical document set to music. It tells the story of 1844 with complete fidelity to primary sources. It ends with triumph: “Lo, it is sudden day.”

But the Expositor’s story doesn’t end in 1844. The revelation documented in the Expositor is still scripture. The fundamentalist groups that practice plural marriage today claim continuity with the original doctrine. The patterns of coercion documented in 1844 continue in communities across the American West.

To end the album at “Sudden Day” would be triumphant but incomplete. Yes, the truth survived. Yes, the disease was made known. But is the remedy fully applied? Is the disease cured?

The epilogue doesn’t provide answers. It provides questions. The discomfort is intentional. If the questions make you uncomfortable, good. Sit with that discomfort. Ask yourself why.

The disease is known.

But is it cured?

What the Album Does Not Do

It’s worth noting what this album consciously avoids.

It does not attack. The album doesn’t mock, ridicule, or demonize. It documents. It amplifies testimony. It lets the primary sources speak. The whistleblowers of 1844 were not interested in destruction—they wanted reformation. The album honors that spirit.

It does not preach. The album doesn’t tell listeners what to conclude. It presents what the Expositor documented and trusts listeners to draw their own conclusions. The evidence speaks for itself.

It does not claim to be comprehensive. The album tells the story of the Expositor—not the full history of early Mormonism, plural marriage, or Joseph Smith. Many topics are left untouched because they weren’t documented in the Expositor. The scope is intentionally limited to what the primary sources support.

It does not embellish. When the Expositor uses a word, the album uses that word. When the Expositor is silent on something, the album is silent too. The methodology is documentary, not dramatic.

It does not resolve. The epilogue ends on an unresolved question. The main album ends with triumph, but the epilogue reopens the wound. This is intentional—because the story isn’t resolved. The question “is it cured?” doesn’t have an answer yet.

The Power of Amplification

The Expositor was published once and destroyed. Its print run was small. Most of the copies burned. For 180 years, it has been a document studied by historians and researchers—available but not widely known.

This album changes that. By setting the Expositor’s testimonies to music, it makes them memorable. It makes them singable. It makes them shareable in ways that a historical document is not.

Music carries testimony differently than text. You can read “dry sorrow drinks her blood” and understand the words. But when you hear it sung—when a woman’s voice carries that phrase on melody and the music makes you feel the weight of it—the testimony enters differently. It doesn’t just inform. It moves.

The Expositor writers couldn’t have imagined that their words would be sung. But they wrote testimony that was worth singing. They found phrases that resonate 180 years later because they captured something true about the human experience of coercion, betrayal, courage, and survival.

The album is not an improvement on the Expositor. It is an amplification. It makes the existing testimony louder, more accessible, more enduring. The witnesses did the work. We gave them a megaphone.

Conclusion: The Remedy Applied

You have now walked through seventeen songs drawn from a newspaper that published once and was destroyed.

The Power of Primary Sources

What makes this album different from other artistic treatments of controversial religious history is its methodology: every lyric traces to the Nauvoo Expositor or verified historical record.

This isn’t interpretation. It isn’t accusation. It’s amplification.

When the album says “thunder-struck,” that’s the Expositor’s word. When it says “dry sorrow drinks her blood,” that’s the Expositor’s phrase. When it says “the one great throat, from whence there is no return,” that’s the Expositor’s metaphor. When it says “sudden day,” that’s the Expositor’s prophecy.

The whistleblowers of 1844 did the work. They gathered evidence. They signed sworn affidavits. They documented what they had witnessed knowing it could cost them their lives. We simply gave their words a melody.

This methodology matters because it makes the album historically unassailable. Critics cannot accuse the songs of fabrication or exaggeration—every claim can be traced to named witnesses who swore under oath. The primary sources speak for themselves.

The album asks listeners not to trust the songwriter, but to trust the documents. Read the Expositor. Compare it to the lyrics. The alignment is exact because the alignment is intentional.

What Happened to the Publishers

The whistleblowers hazarded everything—“particularly property, and probably life itself"—and survived to see their testimony outlast the man who tried to silence them.

William Law escaped Nauvoo on June 12, 1844, after being warned of a conspiracy against his life. He settled first in Burlington, Iowa Territory, then moved to Hampton, Illinois, and later to Jo Daviess County. He never returned to Mormonism, but neither did he spend his life attacking it. He lived quietly as a farmer and physician. In 1887, at age 78, he agreed to be interviewed about the events of 1844. His eyes filled with tears as he explained why he had published the Expositor: “I wanted to show them… that I had not been in a fraud willingly.” He died on January 19, 1892, at age 82.

Jane Law stood beside her husband throughout the ordeal. She had refused Joseph Smith’s advances. She had signed a sworn affidavit documenting what she witnessed. She fled Nauvoo with William and their children. She lived to see her testimony preserved and studied.

Austin Cowles “dared not teach or administer such laws.” His affidavit documenting what Hyrum Smith read in the High Council became a crucial primary source for understanding the secret revelation on plural marriage.

Chauncey L. Higbee went on to a distinguished legal and political career. He served in the Illinois House of Representatives (1854), the Illinois Senate (1858-1861), and as a circuit court judge (1861) and appellate court judge (1877). A school in Pittsfield, Illinois was named after him. He died on December 7, 1884, at age 63.

Francis M. Higbee, whose rallying cry to the “Citizens of Hancock County” became Track 14, settled in Pleasant Hill, Pike County, Illinois.

They survived. They scattered across Illinois and Iowa. They built new lives. But they never recanted. The Expositor remained their testimony—a document they had signed knowing the cost, preserved for 180 years.

The Women Who Were Silenced

The women whose stories fill Act II were real. We know some of their names.

Jane Law refused Joseph Smith’s advances and testified publicly in the Expositor. She represents the possibility of resistance—proof that not all women submitted, that some found the courage to say no and fight back.

But most of the women the Expositor describes remain nameless. They were “sent away for a time, until all is well,” returning “as from a long visit.” Their suffering was documented but their identities were obscured.

One is mentioned specifically: “A departed spirit, once the resident of St. Louis, shall yet cry aloud for vengeance.”

We don’t know her name. We never will. She was erased from history. She crossed an ocean to glorify God. She was summoned to a secret room. She was coerced or she was destroyed—we don’t know which. She died, and they said it was “some wintry chill, some casual indisposition.”

She was “robbed of that which nothing but death can restore.”

This album gives her a voice. Through “The Tender Tree” and “Sudden Day,” she finally gets to “cry aloud.” Not for vengeance through violence, but for vengeance through truth.

The Patterns That Persist

The specific events of 1844 are history. But the patterns the Expositor documented are not confined to one time or place. They appear wherever power accumulates without accountability:

The insider who becomes an outsider. William Law was Second Counselor in the First Presidency—as close to the center of power as anyone could be. When he raised concerns, he was excommunicated in a secret trial without being present. This pattern repeats in every institution where loyalty is prized over integrity.

The death oath that enforces silence. Women were “sworn in one of the most solemn manners, to never divulge what is revealed to them, with a penalty of death attached.” NDAs, confidentiality agreements, and threats of spiritual or social death serve the same function today.

The divine sanction that overrides consent. “God has revealed that you are mine.” When authority claims divine backing, there is no appeal to higher power. The authority becomes the highest power. This dynamic appears in every authoritarian system that wraps itself in spiritual language.

The impossible bind. Damned if you refuse. Damned if you don’t. Silenced either way. This bind traps people in systems of abuse because every exit appears blocked.

The financial extraction wrapped in spiritual language. “Sacrifice and gather.” The wealth flows in, swallowed by the “great throat” from whence there is no return. Every religious grift follows this pattern.

The destruction of the messenger. They burned the press. They thought they had silenced the message. They created a martyr instead. Truth, once documented, has a way of surviving the attempts to suppress it.

The Expositor writers couldn’t have known that their newspaper would be studied 180 years later. They couldn’t have known that their sworn statements would be sung. They published anyway—because truth mattered more than safety, and silence had become complicity.

The Remedy Applied

The Expositor’s final line was both warning and promise:

“The remedy can never be applied, unless the disease is known.”

For 180 years, the Expositor has made the disease known. Historians have studied it. Researchers have cited it. The affidavits have been analyzed and cross-referenced.

But there’s a difference between knowing and hearing—between reading a document and feeling its weight in your chest.

This album makes the disease known in a different way. Through melody. Through arrangement. Through the emotional arc of seventeen songs that carry you from determination through horror through devastation through fire and into sudden day.

The remedy is being applied. One song at a time. One listener at a time. One person at a time who hears these testimonies and understands—not just intellectually, but in their bones—what was done and why it mattered that someone spoke.

The Expositor writers couldn’t have known their words would be sung. But they wrote anyway. They documented anyway. They testified anyway.

We carry what they sowed.

Lo, it is sudden day.

Appendix: Track Listing with Sources

Appendix: Key Phrases from the Expositor

The following phrases appear in the Nauvoo Expositor and recur throughout the album. Each is a direct quote that has been preserved in the lyrics:

“Forbearance has ceased to be a virtue” — The moment when patience became complicity, when silence became sin. This phrase captures the moral decision point that led to publication.

“We hazard everything we have” — The whistleblowers’ acknowledgment that they were risking their property, their standing, and potentially their lives by speaking.

“The remedy can never be applied, unless the disease is known” — The album’s thesis. Truth must precede healing. Exposure must precede reform.

“Thunder-struck” — The Expositor’s word for the women’s reaction to being propositioned. It captures the overwhelming shock of the moment.

“God’s will be done, not mine” — The language of surrender, echoing Jesus in Gethsemane, here used by women coerced into accepting something they had already refused.

“Positively NO Admittance” — The sign on the door of the secret room. It becomes a metaphor for the trap: no one else could enter, and she could not leave.

“The tender tree” — The Expositor’s metaphor for women destroyed by the system: “graceful in its form, bright in its foliage, but with the worm praying at its heart.”

“Dry sorrow drinks her blood” — The devastating phrase describing the aftermath of coercion: the slow draining away of life and hope.

“Robbed of that which nothing but death can restore” — What was taken from these women could never be returned in this life.

“Sent away for a time, until all is well” — The cover-up mechanism. Women were disappeared until the scandal faded, then returned “as from a long visit.”

“A departed spirit… shall yet cry aloud for vengeance” — The St. Louis woman whose death was documented but whose name was lost. This album is her cry.

“The one great throat, from whence there is no return” — The Expositor’s metaphor for financial exploitation: wealth flowing in and disappearing into leadership’s control.

“King and lawgiver” — Resolution 12’s declaration that “we will not acknowledge any man as king or lawgiver to the church; for Christ is our only king and law-giver.”

“Disapprobate and discountenance” — The formal language of Resolution 3, rejecting “every attempt to unite church and state.”

“The wolf is in the fold, arrayed in sheep’s clothing” — Biblical imagery applied to Joseph Smith, warning that a predator stood at the pulpit.

“Lo! it is sudden day” — The Expositor’s prophecy that truth would emerge despite attempts to suppress it. This phrase becomes the album’s title and closing declaration.

Appendix: How to Listen

If you have the ability to hear the album, here are suggestions for how to experience it:

First Listen: Straight through. The album is structured as a narrative arc. Hear it from beginning to end without stopping. Let the emotional journey carry you from Act I’s determination through Act II’s devastation through Act III’s documentation through Act IV’s alarm through Act V’s fire and resolution.

Second Listen: With the lyrics. Follow along with the lyric documents. Notice how closely the songs track the Expositor’s language. See the phrases preserved, the testimonies amplified.

Third Listen: With this essay. Pause between songs. Read the historical context for each track. Understand what you’re hearing and why it matters.

Act II alone. The four songs of Act II form a complete emotional journey and can stand alone as a suite. Journey, coercion, devastation, defiance. This is the heart of the album.

The Epilogue separately. Track 17 is intentionally set apart from the main album. It breaks the historical frame and speaks in a modern voice. Listen to the main sixteen songs first, then return to the epilogue when you’re ready to ask uncomfortable questions about the present.

Appendix: For Further Reading

The Primary Source: The full text of the Nauvoo Expositor (June 7, 1844) is available online at the FAIR Latter-day Saints website’s primary sources section. This includes:

• The Preamble (describing the reasons for publication and the treatment of women)
• Fifteen Resolutions (policy positions on church-state separation and prophetic authority)
• Affidavit of William Law
• Affidavit of Jane Law
• Affidavit of Austin Cowles
• “To the Citizens of Hancock County” by Francis M. Higbee
• Editorial content on charter abuses and financial exploitation

On William Law: The 1887 interview with William Law, conducted by Wilhelm Wyl, provides firsthand testimony about the events of 1844 from one of the key participants. Law was 78 years old at the time of the interview and provided detailed recollections of his break with Joseph Smith.

On the Historical Context: Numerous academic histories cover the Nauvoo period, including the practice of plural marriage, the concentration of power, and the events leading to the destruction of the Expositor press. The field continues to develop as new sources become available and historians reexamine existing evidence.

On Contemporary Fundamentalism: Journalistic accounts and academic studies document the practices of fundamentalist Mormon groups that continue to practice plural marriage today. These communities are not fictional or historical—they exist now, and understanding their practices illuminates how the patterns documented in 1844 persist.

A Final Word

You have walked through an album drawn from a newspaper that existed for three days before it was destroyed.

The men who published it knew they might die for speaking. They published anyway. William Law later wept explaining why: “I wanted to show them… that I had not been in a fraud willingly.”

The women whose stories fill Act II never asked to have their suffering documented. But the Expositor writers saw what was happening and refused to stay silent. They named the disease so the remedy could be applied.

180 years later, we are still applying the remedy. One song at a time. One listener at a time. One person at a time who hears these testimonies and understands.

The patterns documented in the Expositor are not confined to 1844 or to one religious tradition. They appear wherever power concentrates without accountability. Wherever divine authority is claimed to override consent. Wherever institutions protect themselves at the expense of the vulnerable. Wherever truth-tellers are silenced and witnesses are erased.

The Expositor’s thesis applies everywhere:

“The remedy can never be applied, unless the disease is known.”

Now you know the disease.

What will you do with that knowledge?

“Men solace themselves by saying the facts slumber in the dark caverns of midnight. But Lo! it is sudden day, and the dark deeds of foul fiends shall be exposed from the house-tops.”

— Nauvoo Expositor, June 7, 1844

The disease is known.

The remedy is being applied.

Lo, it is sudden day.