User:RogerNicholson/Nauvoo Polygamy/Bloc voting note

Reference note: bloc voting

"That the Mormons considered their bloc voting defensive in nature is apparent from Joseph Smith's remark to Governor Thomas Ford that the Mormons 'were driven to union in their elections by persecution, and not by my influence; and that the 'Mormons' acted on the most perfect principle of liberty in all their movements.' (See History of the Church, 5:232. Volume 5 link Mormon belief that the right to vote to protect their interests (whether in a bloc or not) was an American right is reflected in ELias Higbee's letter to Joseph Smith written from Washington, D.C. in January, 1840. History of the Church, 4:85-86. Volume 4 link" - Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill, Carthage Conspiracy, the Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1979), 24 n. 14. ISBN 025200762X.