Actually the enmity against the Mormons was widespread and dangerous. Those who took Joseph’s campaign seriously saw him as an evil symbol of the union of church and state, and others suspected that he would eventually renounce his candidacy and declare for a popular candidate. The Masons, annoyed at rumors of corruption of the Masonic ritual in the Mormon lodges (which now numbered five, three in Nauvoo and two in Iowa) and furious at Joseph’s refusal to send the lodge records to Springfield for inspection, were determined to revoke the dispensations and declare all the Mormon lodges
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