Joseph did err, however, in his appraisal of his vote0getting capacity. Nauvoo now had a population of some 12,000 Mormons, and the surrounding countryside contained about a third as many more.[57] But there was so much optimistic talk about stupendous conversions in the States and in England that most of the citizens of Nauvoo talked in terms of 100,000 to 200,000 adherents to the faith. Joseph flung these figures about in his campaign speeches, estimating in a letter to Henry Clay that his people numbered 20o,ooo.f
