Joseph Smith Prophesies Stephen A. Douglas Will Aspire to the Presidency and Fall — Fulfilled Exactly

In May 1843, Joseph Smith met with Stephen A. Douglas, then a rising Illinois politician. In front of witnesses, Joseph said to Douglas:

"Judge, you will aspire to the Presidency of the United States; and if you ever turn your hand against me or the Latter-day Saints, you will feel the weight of the hand of Almighty God upon you; and you will live to see and know that I have testified the truth to you; for the conversation of this day will stick to you through life."

Douglas did aspire to the presidency and was one of the front-runners going into the 1860 election. But in 1857 he turned sharply against the LDS people in a Senate speech, calling for the repeal of Utah's territorial status and harsh suppression of the Saints. His popular support immediately began to collapse. He lost the 1860 Democratic presidential nomination to a split, then lost the general election to Abraham Lincoln — and died in June 1861 at age 48.

Many who remembered Joseph's 1843 prophecy attributed Douglas's stunning fall directly to it.