[5] In his campaign platform, Smith proposed to gradually end slavery, to reduce the size of Congress, to re-establish a national bank, to annex Texas, California, and Oregon, to reform prisons, and to authorize the federal government to protect the liberties of Latter Day Saints and other minorities.

Motivations that have been cited for Smith's candidacy include wanting to give the Saints a candidate they could support in good conscience; avoiding a political party fiasco between the Whigs and Democrats in Illinois; publicizing the Latter Day Saint cause to help obtain redress for Church members' lost property in Missouri; and bringing the tenets of the church and the political ideas of its prophet to the attention of the nation.

[8] Smith wrote in his journal, "There is oratory enough in the church to carry me into the presidential chair on the first slide" and "When I look into the Eastern papers and see how popular I am, I am afraid I shall be president.

[9] In 1843, Smith sent letters to John C. Calhoun, Lewis Cass, Richard Mentor Johnson, Henry Clay, and Martin Van Buren, the five leading contenders for the presidency, inquiring about their plans for ending the persecution that the Mormons were suffering in Missouri.

Electioneers included Wilford Woodruff, Franklin D. Richards, Heber C. Kimball, Moses Tracy and his wife Nancy, John D. Lee, Ezra T. Benson, Norton Jacob, James Burgess, Edson Barney, George Miller, Joseph Holbrook, and David Pettegrew, among others.

[6] In a change from the strongly anti-abolitionist stance that he had previously adopted,[17] Smith proposed the abolition of slavery by the year 1850 through compensated emancipation funded with revenue from the sale of public lands, and with the savings from cutting the salaries of members of the United States Congress from $8/day to $2/day.

[11] Smith also called for a reduction in the size of the United States House of Representatives to two members per million of population, believing that a smaller body would "do more business than the army that now occupy the halls of the national legislature."

More generally, he warned, "No honest man can doubt for a moment but the glory of American liberty is on the wane" and exhorted the people, "Curtail the officers of government in pay, number, and power".

Praising the vision of the "respected and venerable Thomas Jefferson", he remarked, "what a beautiful prospect an innocent, virtuous nation presents to the sage's eye where there is space for enterprise, hands for industry, heads for heroes, and hearts for moral greatness.

Smith suggested reforming criminals through "reason and friendship" and wrote, "Petition your State legislatures to pardon every convict in their several penitentiaries, blessing them as they go, and saying to them, in the name of the Lord, Go thy way, and sin no more.

[11] Smith called for a day when "the neighbor from any State or from any country, of whatever color, clime, or tongue, could rejoice when he put his foot on the sacred soil of freedom, and exclaim, The very name of 'American' is fraught with friendship!"

Smith suggested as an alternative accepting into the union Texas, California, and Oregon, as well as other countries, with the consent of the peoples concerned, including any Indians inhabiting the land.

He remarked:[11] And when a neighboring realm petitioned to join the union of the sons of liberty, my voice would be come—yea, come, Texas; come, Mexico; come, Canada; and come, all the world: let us be brethren, let us be one great family, and let there be a universal peace.