The Mormons at the moment were in a strategic position for bargaining for legislative favor. Soured on the Democratic Party by Van Buren’s indifference, they had voted the straight Whig ticket in the election of November 1840, except for one candidate. In order to give their votes to a Democrat, James H. Ralston, who had done the prophet some favors, they scratched the name which happened to be last on the Whig list. The spurned candidate was an obscure young politician named Abraham Lincoln.*
