The relationship between early Mormons and the United States was fraught with anxiety and hostility, exacerbated by events such as the assassination of Mormon leaders, their exile from Missouri and Illinois, military occupation of Utah, and a national campaign against plural marriage. Nineteenth-century Latter-day Saints anticipated apocalyptic events that would overthrow corrupt governments, especially the U.S. government. The "White Horse Prophecy" described an impending American apocalypse as a "terrible revolution" that would leave the land without a supreme government. Mormons envisioned divine deliverance through plagues, natural disasters, invasions, and civil unrest, believing these violent upheavals would lead to a national rebirth, safeguarding the U.S. Constitution and ending their oppression. Christopher James Blythe examines the theme of apocalypticism in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, focusing on the laity's writings and visions. The church hierarchy's responses to these prophecies fostered a form of separatist nationalism in the nineteenth century. However, after Utah's statehood, church leaders aimed to assimilate into national norms, leading them to downplay apocalyptic visions as liabilities. Ultimately, Blythe argues that while the apocalyptic emphasis persisted in modified forms within mainstream culture, separatist radical beliefs remained at the folk level.
