I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet.
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"If you are ever called to bear a message to the people, do not go without your purse or your scrip, but go forth in the name of the Lord."
"I am a rough stone. The sound of the hammer and chisel is continually upon me. I desire the voice of the Lord to ring in my ears, and I am willing to bear the consequence."
"I have a right to reveal all things, and to teach all things."
"I have done more than any man living to destroy the power of the devil."
"It is our divine destiny to be heirs of eternal life, to become 'priests and kings . . . [and] gods, even the sons of God . . . [and to] dwell in the presence of God . . . forever and ever.'"
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Smith claims to be history's most effective religious leader — surpassing even Jesus, Paul, Peter, and John — by keeping his congregation intact and loyal. He defines success through organizational cohesion: his followers never abandoned him en masse. It's an unfiltered boast about institutional durability, framing spiritual authority through the lens of follower retention rather than doctrine, miracles, or revelation. Leadership, to him, is measured by who stays.
Smith was genuinely charismatic and organizationally brilliant, building the LDS church despite repeated mob violence, imprisonment, and forced expulsions from Missouri. When this speech was delivered in 1844, Nauvoo had grown to rival Chicago in size. Smith was simultaneously practicing polygamy secretly, running for U.S. President, and facing mounting legal threats — yet his core followers held. His unbounded self-conception here mirrors his lifelong pattern of escalating theological and personal ambition.
The 1840s Second Great Awakening produced dozens of new American religious movements that quickly fractured — Millerites collapsed after the failed 1844 prophecy, Shakers dwindled, denominations split over slavery. Against this landscape of religious instability, Smith's cohesive, growing church was a genuine anomaly. He delivered this speech weeks before being murdered by a mob in June 1844, making the triumphant boast about loyalty historically and tragically ironic almost immediately.
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