Who Was the Better Leader of the Mormons: Smith or Young?

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Who was the better leader of the Mormons: Smith or Young? Joseph Smith was an important religious figure who founded Mormonism. He was faithful, driven, and a strong speaker, but was easily tempered. Joseph Smith had his successes and failures, and after his death Brigham Young became the new Mormon leader, who also made great contributions to the Mormon movement, but just as Joseph Smith he had his failures. Despite Brigham Young’s failures I believe he responded better than Joseph Smith. This is because Young came to a solution for his problems while Smith ran away from them. Joseph Smiths main concern was to increase the population of the Mormon society, which was successful as he was a great preacher. Although this religion was a good idea to many people it took great offense to other religions such as Christianity, which was spread right throughout America. He also introduced polygamy which most people believed to be a sin. His hatred for slavery also made the people of Missouri angry as it was a slave owning state. Many of these aspects led him to be hated from Kirtland to Nauvoo with no intention to resolve any of the problems which then Brigham Young had to face. Brigham Young had great organizational and better fear inducing skills. Once Joseph Smith died he was able to take complete control much like a dictator does when an unloved monarch dies or is deposed of. However, there were still a lot of members who left. This was a problem for Young. Hence he focused more on the structure and support of the Mormons to protect them and reestablished confidence in those who stayed, particularly as they were chased by mobs of non-Mormons, rather than following up Smiths concern of the number of Mormon members. Brigham Young had the difficult task of leading the Mormons out of the United States where they were severely disliked by other religions due to Smith’s
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