Quest for Refuge:
The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism

Marvin S. Hill

Signature Books; Salt Lake City, Utah
© 1989 by Signature Books.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Wanted: A Refuge for the Unconverted, Religiously Disoriented, and Poor 2. "A Principle Means in the Hands of God" 3. "I Say Unto You, Be One"—Social Unity and Economic Equality 4. Establishing a Theocratic Government 5. "In a Military Spirit" 6. "Everything God Does Is to Aggrandize His Kingdom" 7. Appeal to a "Higher Authority" 8. "To the Wilderness for Safety and Refuge" Author

3.

"I Say Unto You, Be One"—
Social Unity and Economic Equality

The Book of Mormon convinced Mormons that God could reveal his will to them through their prophet-seer and that thereby they could achieve a godly life in their social, economic, and political affairs. Behind the resulting experimentalism was a quest for cultural unity erected upon a religious base.¹ The meager sources of early Mormonism in New York reveal little of the depth and breadth in the Mormon search for social seamlessness which would later become so apparent. It is clear, however, that some of the Mormon emigrants who fled New York for Kirtland, Ohio, pooled their material wealth on the eve of departure. A resident of Waterloo indicated that not everyone was cooperative: "Two of the most responsible Mormonites…demurred to the divine command…requiring them to sell their property and put into the common fund.…A requisition of twelve hundred dollars, in cash, it is said was made upon one of these gentlemen…the Lord having need of it."² The injunction in question, given in January, had commanded the church to "Be one, and if ye are not one, ye are not mine."³ What was in New York a command to fill a temporary economic need would become in Ohio, [p.32] Missouri, and Illinois a fundamental preoccupation expressing the most basic attitudes of the Mormon people.

The first Mormons in Ohio were Oliver Cowdery and three other missionaries sent westward to convert the American Indians. Eber D. Howe, editor of the Painesville Telegraph, took notice of them in November 1830, writing that they were "bound for the regions beyond the Mississippi, where [Joseph Smith] contemplates founding a 'City of Refuge' for his followers, and converting the Indians under his prophetic authority."⁴

Cowdery and company had already visited Sidney Rigdon at Mentor, Ohio, and converted him and some of his Campbellite followers.⁵ They then went to Kirtland and baptized twenty or thirty more.⁶ Travelling to New York, Rigdon succeeded in persuading Joseph Smith that the Ohio region would be a fertile missionary field. He was right, for by February 1831 several hundred new members had been added there.⁷

Parley P. Pratt, one of the four missionaries, described this phenomenal success which they initially enjoyed:

The interest and excitement now became general in Kirtland, and in all the region round about. The people thronged to us night and day, insomuch that we had no time for rest and retirement. Meetings were convened in different neighborhoods, and multitudes came together soliciting our attendance; while thousands flocked about us daily; some to be taught, some for curiosity, some to obey the gospel, and some to dispute or resist it.⁸

The reasons for the unusual success in the Western Reserve of Ohio were many. Pratt's determination to see his old mentor, Rigdon, provided the missionaries with an unusually receptive audience.⁹ Most northern Ohioans were originally from New England and had endured a heavy barrage of revivalistic preaching before and after they moved west.¹⁰ Millennialist expectations were pervasive, and sectarian discord in the region had likewise been strong. Many were dissatisfied with the after effects.¹¹ The Disciples of Christ had made significant progress in spreading restorationism in the area before the Mormons came, and the rich religious soil became even more fertile for the planting of Mormonism.¹²

What set Mormons apart was their announcement of new revelation from heaven through a prophet and seer, the promise of impending fulfillment of prophecy, and of miracles as signs of the Millennium which would surely follow.¹³ Rigdon found the prophetic [p.33] theme especially convincing: "The Scriptures informed us of perilous and distressing times, great judgments that should come in the last days, and destructions upon the wicked: and now God had sent along his servants to inform us of the time."¹⁴ John Corrill, who joined the Mormon church in January 1831, said that what persuaded him, aside from Rigdon's baptism, was that in "every age (according to the scriptures) God continued to send prophets to the people."¹⁵

Mormon teachings seemed in harmony with the Bible. According to Corrill,

The Mormons believe in the same God, and in the same Saviour, and the same Gospel that other professors do, and they believe as firmly in the Scripture of the Old Testaments as any other people. They look upon their new revelations only as bringing about the fulfillment of the Bible. The main difference between them and other professors of the Gospel is, that they believe rather more firmly in the promises of God, especially those that require great faith for their fulfillment.¹⁶

One observer who attended the first Mormon meetings in Kirtland said they took place in the schoolhouse or at different residences and that the initial prayer meetings were "generally decently conducted" but rather informal. But, he continued, once the spiritual power came, bedlam broke out.¹⁷ Enthusiasm among the Kirtland converts for prophecies and other spiritual gifts quickly reached a high pitch.¹⁸ After the missionaries departed and Rigdon went to New York, the excitement intensified. One writer observed:

A scene of the wildest enthusiasm was exhibited, chiefly, however, among the young people: they would fall, as without strength, roll upon the floor, and, so mad were they that even the females were seen in a cold winter day, lying under the bare canopy of heaven with no couch or pillow but the fleecy snow. At other times they exhibited all the apish actions imaginable, making grimaces both horrid and ridiculous.…At other times they are taken with a fit of jabbering which they neither understood themselves nor any body else, and this they call speaking foreign languages by divine inspiration.¹⁹

Another witness added, "Young men and women would rush to the corner, fall in a promiscuous heap, others laid on bed[s] indiscriminately, others talked Indian."²⁰

Franklin D. Richards, who was first contacted by Mormons in the East in 1831, recalled the experience of speaking in tongues:

[p.34] You have sometimes been impressed with overwhelming Emotions upon you and attempt to say something and could not, that is just the way the spirit works, you say something even if you do not know anything about it and find out that it was something that ought to be proper and right.… If a man goes out to preach and not had a good education, he naturally feels backward and diffident as if he could not,—then by faith the Spirit comes upon him, he talks things he never knew of before both edifying and profitable to people.…The ways of the spirit are not as mens ways it is wonderful [and] marvelously singular.²¹

For some Saints, the passion they felt for their new faith was greater than their ability to express. There was, however, an uneasiness among many that the spiritual manifestations had gotten out of control.²²

Philo Dibble described Joseph Smith's reaction when he arrived in Kirtland in February 1831. "When the prophet…saw the false spirits which caused jumping, shouting, falling down, he said, 'God has sent me here, and the devil must leave, or I will.'"²³ In late March, Smith wrote to his brother Hyrum that "the devil had made many attempts to overthrow them, it has been a serious job but the Lord is with us."²⁴

The gift of prophecy which appeared frequently also concerned Smith.²⁵ Some so endowed seemed to threaten the emerging hierarchical order in the church. Among these was a woman named Hubble, who professed to be a prophetess "and to have many revelations and knew that the Book of Mormon was true; and that she would become a teacher in the Church of Christ. She appeared very sanctimonious and deceived some, who were not able to detect her in her hypocrisy."²⁶ Hubble's manifestations caused the prophet to remind the Saints through a revelation that "there is none other [but Joseph Smith] appointed unto you to receive commandments and revelations." Should the prophet err, the revelation continued, "he shall not have power except to appoint another in his stead."²⁷

Yet the spiritual excesses and the frequent appearance of aspiring prophets in the mold of village seers continued, and the fundamental unity of the church was endangered. In May the prophet finally took steps to curb these tendencies. He informed through revelation that whatever "doth not edify is not of God, and is darkness."²⁸ Spiritual manifestations must match the mind and mood of the priesthood or be rejected. The prophet explained, "If you behold a spirit manifested that you cannot understand, and you [p.35] receive not that spirit, ye shall ask of the Father in the name of Jesus; and if he not give unto you that spirit, then you may know that it is not of God."²⁹

Some of the brethren who had formulated their own style of spiritual enlightenment and were now censured left the church. George Albert Smith recalled that "among the number was Wycom Clark; he got a revelation that he was to be a prophet—that he was the true revelator; and himself, Northrop Sweet and four other individuals retired from the Church, and organized the 'Pure Church of Christ.'…John Noah, another of this class, assumed to be prophet, and in consequence thereof was expelled from the church."30 But Mormons did not easily lose their fervor for spiritual gifts nor their faith in itinerant prophets. They still longed for a great bestowal of the power of God, even though the prophet had placed limits on the mode of expression a manifestation might assume, and spontaneous seers were disapproved. In time, however, the antipluralism of the Saints would override their passion for spontaneous spirituality and village prophets. Their spiritual modes would become standardized and limited within an increasingly organized and hierarchical institution.

In 1854 LDS apostle Orson Pratt explained how important the matter of social harmony was to Latter-day Saints. "The command to 'Be one,'" he said, "embraces all other commands. There is no law, statute, ordinance, covenant, nor blessing, but what was instituted to make the Saints one."³¹ His statement came after years of persecution and hardship endured by Mormons in Missouri, Illinois, and early Utah, although in the beginning years in Ohio the search for communal unity and homogeneity was already absorbing Mormon interests. In fleeing New York the Saints were not only escaping persecution but also a divided and wicked Babylon.³² They were convinced that to escape the debilitating secularizing tendencies of sectarian pluralism, they must live apart from the Gentiles.³³ In so doing they did not intend to take flight from the world permanently but to inherit it eventually as their own.³⁴ First, however, they would have to dedicate themselves totally to God's will and God's law.³⁵

Even this early they believed that to achieve complete commitment to God, they must have a theocratic government. Before they left New York the Lord had promised, "In time ye shall have no king nor ruler, for I will be your king and watch over you—wherefore, hear my voice and follow me, and ye shall be a free people, and ye shall have no laws but my laws, when I come."³⁶ Expecting that the [p.36] time was near, in February 1831 twelve elders assembled as commanded in Ohio, and there the law that was to govern the Saints in the New Jerusalem was given.³⁷ The law provided a number of moral imperatives similar to the Ten Commandments and instructed that those who would not obey the law were to be cast out.³⁸ But the Lord cautioned, "Thou shalt observe to keep the mysteries of the kingdom unto thyself."³⁹ The new millennial precepts outlined by the Lord included what became known as the "Law of Consecration and Stewardship":⁴⁰

And behold, thou shalt consecrate all thy properties, that which thou hast unto me, with a covenant and a deed which can not be broken; and they shall be laid before the bishop of my church.…

And it shall come to pass, that the bishop of my church, after he has received the properties of my church, that it can not be taken from the church, he shall appoint every man a steward over his own property, or that which he has received, inasmuch as it [is] sufficient for himself and family:

And the residue shall be kept to administer to him who has not, that every man may receive according as he stands in need:

And the residue shall be kept in my storehouse, to administer to the poor and needy…and for the purpose of purchasing lands, and the building up of the New Jerusalem.⁴¹

The Law of Consecration was partly a result of the Mormon attempt to recreate the New Testament church.⁴² Orson Pratt explained that in the ancient church the Saints had consecrated all to the Lord and were equal temporally. The "same order of things must exist in the Zion of the latter-days," he said, "or else the inhabitants thereof never will be one."⁴³ In Pratt's view, the ultimate purpose was unity. Thus the Saints' experiment in communitarianism was closely related to their flight from sectarian conflict and the pluralism which engendered it. Pratt made this clear by insisting that "an inequality in property is the root and foundation of innumerable evils, it tends to division, and to keep asunder the social feelings."⁴⁴ He added emphatically, "It is the great barrier erected by the devil to prevent that unity and oneness which the Gospel requires."⁴⁵

Consecration had a practical purpose. It required church members already in Kirtland to share their land with immigrants coming from New York and provided funds for more land.⁴⁶ As a result, the New Yorkers were able to settle on a farm at Thompson⁴⁷ called [p.37] "the church farm," the land being partly donated by church members.⁴⁸ The Saints at Thompson had instituted their own community of goods, but this arrangement was subsequently forbidden in favor of deeding property to the church in return for a lease.⁴⁹ When one of the Thompson members who had consecrated a large amount of land withdrew and took legal action to recover his property, most of the New York Saints packed up and headed for Missouri.⁵⁰

The bishop was to determine in consultation with each member how much property should be leased to each member. The residue of property went into a common storehouse to care for the poor or finance church business, including the needs of church officials.⁵¹ The embarrassment of having a "hireling clergy" was thus avoided.52 As historian Leonard J. Arrington notes, this law curbed unequal accumulation among the Saints, yet allowed room for individual initiative and responsibility.⁵³ The Law of Consecration then was not so much opposed to individual enterprise as it was to social cleavages which accompany the unequal distribution of wealth. Social cohesiveness was the intent of the law, but securing the Saints' complete cooperation was difficult.

Bishop Edward Partridge went from branch to branch in Ohio, trying to persuade members that consecration was the Lord's way. But not all congregations would receive the law. John Whitmer said that one of the difficulties was that the Saints outside Kirtland were too widely scattered and too few in number. Further, many converts had come into the church too hastily. They anticipated having common ownership but little understood the demands of individual responsibility imposed.⁵⁴ And those who did have property were not always willing to part with it.

This was the case with some new converts at Hiram, twenty miles south of Kirtland. The prophet went to live among these members in September 1831.⁵⁵ Many had been attracted by Smith's prophetic calling and by a miracle he had performed in curing the lame arm of a Mrs. Johnson.⁵⁶ But most were unprepared for the demands made upon them by consecration. According to Symonds Ryder, a Campbellite converted by witnessing the fulfillment of Mormon prophecy,⁵⁷ they were told in a revelation that they were to sell their farms and give the proceeds to the church. "This was too much for the Hiramites," Ryder commented, "and they left the Mormonites faster than they had ever joined them."⁵⁸

[p.38] In October a storehouse-commissary was established under the direction of Newel K. Whitney.⁵⁹ Meanwhile Joseph Smith was readying his revelations for publication, anticipating that under the stewardship principle the profits would pay for maintaining his family as well as those of Oliver Cowdery, Rigdon, and several of the Whitmers.⁶⁰ Even the lowliest church officials, including the teachers, priests, and elders, were to have access to the storehouse when they were in the Lord's service.⁶¹ The job of maintaining the storehouse quickly became a burdensome one, and in 1832 the management of the storehouse and the whole consecration system was put under a central board composed of several men, including Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Martin Harris, and Oliver Cowdery.⁶² The new board would manage consecration matters simultaneously in Missouri as well as Kirtland.⁶³ They also formed the United Firm, which used funds to purchase a steam sawmill, a tannery, a printing press, and more land. Most of these enterprises proved to be unprofitable, and the firm would not be a financial success.⁶⁴ After the Mormons were driven out of Jackson County, Missouri, the firm was dissolved in 1834.⁶⁵

Smith first proposed the United Firm in a revelation given in March 1832. This revelation explained the reason behind this consolidation of church funds: "That ye may be equal in the bonds of heavenly things, and earthly things also, for the obtaining of heavenly things. For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things."⁶⁶ The intent was to promote equality, but hopefully the church also would be made "independent above all other creatures beneath the celestial world."⁶⁷ Arrington indicates that in Geauga County and Missouri the Mormons attempted to eliminate all trade with the Gentiles but were only partially successful.⁶⁸

When the United Firm was dissolved those who had contributed to it were given a stewardship over an individual piece of property.⁶⁹ Under the new arrangement the brethren were to pool their funds into two treasuries, one made up of funds earned from the publication of Smith's revelations and the other of profits coming from new individual stewardships. Although the consecration of property was discontinued for a time among the membership after 1834,⁷⁰ church leaders were apparently still to share their capital in an effort to build up the finances of the kingdom.

After the United Order was discontinued, many Saints still expected church leaders to provide for them generously regardless [p.39] of whether or not it was economically feasible. Brigham Young recalled an incident in Kirtland, where Joseph served as a storekeeper:

Joseph goes to New York and buys $20,000 worth of goods, comes into Kirtland and commences to trade. In comes one of the brethren. "Brother Joseph, let me have a frock pattern for my wife." What if Joseph says, "No, I cannot without money." The consequence would be, "He is no Prophet," says James. Pretty soon Thomas walks in. "Brother Joseph, will you trust me for a pair of boots?" "No, I cannot let them go without money." "Well," says Thomas, "Brother Joseph is no Prophet; I have found that out and I am glad of it." After a while in comes Bill and Sister Susan. Says Bill, "Brother Joseph, I want a shawl. I have not got any money, but I wish you to trust me a week or a fortnight." Well, Brother Joseph thinks the others have gone and apostatized, and he don't know but these goods will make the whole church do the same, so he lets Bill have a shawl. Bill walks off with it and meets a brother. "Well," says he, "what do you think of Brother Joseph?" O, he is a first rate fellow with them all the time, provided he never would ask them to pay him.⁷¹

Being a prophet and a storekeeper at the same time was symptomatic of certain difficulties which occurred when sacred and secular roles were homogenized within the Mormon theocratic kingdom.

Under Mormon theocratic ideals no distinction was drawn between religious and secular aspects of life. There was only one world and that was the Lord's. The children of the kingdom could build a tannery or a temple with equal zest and equal assurance that they were following God's commands. Or, when their new zion in Missouri was threatened in 1833 by rioting and mobbing, they could organize an army in Ohio called "Zion's Camp" and invade the state to redeem their promised land. To be sure, they were assured before they left Kirtland that the state militia would be there to escort those who had been forced to flee back to their farms, but this did not necessarily mean that the governor wanted armed forces coming in from outside the state, a course which the Mormons chose to take. Thus the quest for a kingdom and refuge on earth could lead down strange paths and tempt a usually peace-loving people to militaristic aggression. Zion's Camp was a portent of things to come.

The Saints had begun to settle on the far western border of Missouri in 1831. They were drawn there after the proposed Indian mission failed, the elders having been driven away by a federal agent [p.40] and hostile Protestant preachers.⁷² Undaunted, the missionaries had gone to preach in Independence, in Jackson County, Missouri, and had sent Parley Pratt back to Ohio to report their reverses. Pratt informed the prophet of good prospects for a Mormon gathering in the region, and soon preparations were made to migrate.⁷³ Among these were the Colesville, New York, Saints whose sojourn at Thompson had come to an end.

To spread the gospel and to seek out an inheritance for themselves, the prophet and all the elders journeyed west in the summer of 1831.⁷⁴ They began filtering into Independence in July.⁷⁵ Smith acted quickly to establish the United Order among the new immigrants, naming Bishop Edward Partridge to manage economic affairs. Partridge was instructed to buy land, build a storehouse, and set up a printing press.⁷⁶ It was revealed that Independence would be the central gathering place for the New Jerusalem, or Zion, and the Saints were commanded to buy all the additional land possible from Independence to the western border of the state.⁷⁷ In August the promised land was dedicated in a simple ceremony,⁷⁸ and Smith, shunning the primitive life on the frontier, returned to Ohio.⁷⁹

During the next year Zion grew slowly, and there was no overt hostility between the incoming strangers and the old Missourians.⁸⁰ However, a feeling of uneasiness developed among some who calculated that Mormons would soon acquire all the desirable grazing land.⁸¹ Others began to fear the political potential of the Saints' slow but steady growth, even though the Mormons had not yet involved themselves in politics.⁸² As the number of Mormons grew, tension between the two groups increased.⁸³ Some Gentiles came forward, offering to sell their lands to the Saints and leave, but the newcomers lacked the capital.⁸⁴ Many Mormons in their conversations with "Gentiles" were outspoken, freely voicing eschatological expectations of inheritance and dominion.⁸⁵ The Mormon newspaper, The Evening and the Morning Star, was widely read but was "very distasteful" to members of other denominations.⁸⁶

Sectarian opposition to the Saints appeared at the very first and caused antagonism.⁸⁷ Squatters who had exercised their rights in a traditionally American fashion were afraid that Mormons might purchase their claims at auction,⁸⁸ and land speculators feared that the Mormon presence would depreciate the available land.⁸⁹ Also, Gentile merchants disliked the exclusive economic policies of the Saints.⁹⁰ An assortment of "old timers" thus objected to Mormon intrusions. One opponent later admitted as much when he said that [p.41] non-Mormons had first settled western Missouri, thereby giving them prior rights under "natural law" in organizing and governing the region.⁹¹

Such were the sources of anxiety when a group in Jackson County met in March 1832 to discuss extra-legal ways of ridding themselves of the uninvited. But an Indian sub-agent discouraged them and they dispersed.⁹² In the fall came some haystack burning and bitter name-calling,⁹³ and the following March the Missourians met again in an abortive effort to form a united front to oust the Saints.⁹⁴ At this point, in July 1833, W. W. Phelps, editor of The Evening and the Morning Star, alienated nearly all the Missourians in Jackson County. Phelps, for reasons which became the subject of much controversy, provided explicit instructions about legal requirements for free Negroes immigrating to the state.⁹⁵ Slavery, which was widespread in western Missouri,96 seemed endangered by possible free Negro infiltration,⁹⁷ and many leading citizens of Jackson County now became hostile toward the Mormons.⁹⁸

On 20 July, four hundred to five hundred Missourians massed at the Independence courthouse to insist that the Mormons leave the county immediately or suffer the consequences.⁹⁹ When the Mormons demurred, the mob destroyed their press and beat two elders.¹⁰⁰ Mormon leaders at Independence finally promised to evacuate by the following January but did not act on this, believing that the agreement made under duress was not binding. Following Smith's advice, they sought through legal process to have their property damages paid.¹⁰¹ But they were unable to persuade any civil official in the county to execute the law against the earlier settlers.¹⁰² In desperation they petitioned the governor, who replied that if no local officer-would serve a writ upon Mormon persecutors, he would intervene.¹⁰³

Many Missourians resumed their persecution, and Mormons began to arm themselves in self-defense, determined to remain in their promised land whatever the cost.¹⁰⁴ But in early November, a series of skirmishes left some Saints and Missourians dead. The old settlers secured assistance from outside the county, and the Mormons were outnumbered ¹⁰⁵ and fled, having been disarmed by the local militia and then harassed by angry mobs. Their best remaining hope was the possible intervention of Governor Dunklin.

At first the governor seemed to promise significant help. Through his letters Dunklin informed the Mormons that they were entitled to reinstatement on their lands and that they could be [p.42] escorted en route by a detachment of state militia. He did not believe that the situation justified his placing a body of troops permanently in Jackson County, but the resident Saints were free to arm themselves in defense of their lives and property, and state arms could be made available for this purpose. He indicated that he was anxious that a court of inquiry search out the guilty and guarantee protection to any Mormons willing to return to Jackson County to testify.¹⁰⁶ But legal .justice would have to be administered in Jackson County, where public opinion was overwhelmingly against the Mormons.

In February preparations were made for a public investigation, and several Mormon witnesses were marched into Independence under the protection of a contingent of the state militia commanded by David Atchison, a friend of the Mormons. The state's attorney reported after a short inquiry that no criminal prosecution was possible.¹⁰⁷ The discouraged Mormons were told that public feeling in Jackson County was too intense, that any conviction would bring no more than a five-dollar fine, and that most jury members were also mobocrats.¹⁰⁸ It was obvious to all that no legal process in the county would restore Mormon rights or property. The local Saints had given up any expectation of immediate help from the state and were determined to await help from their eastern brethren.¹⁰⁹

The dilemma facing the Mormons was explained by Oliver Cowdery: "You will undoubtedly see that it is of but little consequence to proclaim the everlasting gospel to men, and warn them to flee to Zion for refuge, when there is no Zion, but that which is in possession of the wicked. Lo, Zion must be redeemed, and then the Saints can have a place to flee to for safety."¹¹⁰ The ensuing paramilitary expedition seemed the only course.¹¹¹ E. D. Howe described the elaborate preparations and eventual departure from Kirtland in May 1834:

Gen. Joe Smith took his line of march from this county on Monday last, with a large party of his fanatical followers, for the seat of the [Missouri] war.—This expedition has been a long time in active preparation…last November…the prophet here sent forth his general orders, which he pretended was a revelation from God, for all his able bodied men to repair to the scene of difficulty. His preachers were sent forth to all parts of the country among their proselytes, with a printed copy of the revelation in their pockets, reiterating and magnifying all the tales of woe which had befallen "the church" in the "promised land."… For several months past they have been collecting munitions of [p.43] war for the crusade. Dirks, knives, swords, pistols, guns, power-horns, &c. &c. have been in good command in this vicinity.¹¹²

The Mormon army, one hundred fifty strong, marched from Kirtland to Missouri with high millennial hopes. The previous December after the Missouri Saints had been driven from Zion, the Lord had commanded:

Go and gather together the residue of my servants; and take all the strength of mine house, which are my warriors, my young men, and they that are of middle age also…and go ye straightway into the land of my vineyard, and redeem my vineyard, for it is mine, I have bought it with money. Therefore get ye straightway unto my land; break down the walls of mine enemies; throw down their tower, and scatter their watchmen; and inasmuch as they gather together against you, avenge me of mine enemies; that by and by, I may come with the residue of mine house and possess the land.¹¹³

Use of military force was thus suggested in the revelation. It indicated, however, that a call to arms was to be a last resort: "Let them importune at the feet of the Judge; and if he heed them not, let them importune at the feet of the governor; and if the governor heed them not, let them importune at the feet of the President; and if the President heed them not, then will the Lord arise and come forth out of his hiding place, and in his fury vex the nation."¹¹⁴

Hoping to avoid stirring excitement,¹¹⁵ the elders traveled in small groups, confident that if they were unified no one would be harmed in the campaign.¹¹⁶ They took special care not to advertise that they were en route to Jackson County,¹¹⁷ but if they expected to catch the Missourians asleep, the hope was vain. Two Ohioans had already written the postmaster at Independence warning of the Mormon invasion. On 7 June the Missouri Intelligencer and Boon's Lick Advertizer announced the coming of Zion's army: "ANOTHER MORMON WAR THREATENED."¹¹⁸ When the editor first heard the rumor that the Mormons were invading he was skeptical, but a week later he confirmed the report: "The last Springfield, Ill. Journal announces the passage through that place of a company of Mormons, 250 or 300 strong—composed of able bodied men.…They appeared to be generally armed."¹¹⁹

By 4 June the elders had reached the Mississippi River, still expecting that the governor would assist them once they reached the borders of Jackson County. Smith had left Kirtland dismayed because [p.44] he had not been able to raise sufficient funds for provisions and because his military force was not large enough to adequately protect the Saints.¹²⁰ He wrote his wife Emma to this effect on 4 June: "Our numbers and means are altogether too small for the accomplishment of such a great enterprise,… our only hope is that whilst we deter the enemy, and terrify them for a little season (for we learn by means of some spies we send out for that purpose that they are greatly terrified) notwithstanding they are endeavoring to make a formidable stand." Smith hoped that more church elders would yet rally to the cause and "come to our relief."¹²¹

Meanwhile, Governor Dunklin was wavering in his resolve to intervene in behalf of the resident Saints. On 6 June he wrote to James Thornton that he had determined to await the course of events. The Mormons had an undeniable right to return to their lands but might yet be persuaded to forfeit that right in view of the difficulties. His first advice would be for them to sell out if they could get a fair price. Another possibility would be to give both groups separate territories. If that failed, he might have to intervene. But he warned that the coming of armed Mormons or Missourians into Jackson County would be illegal,¹²² thus expressing his opposition to the intrusion either of Zion's Camp or of armed Missourians from other counties. Already Missourians from adjoining counties were planning an armed intervention of their own if the Mormon army tried to enter Jackson County.¹²³

Unaware of Dunklin's position, Smith sent Apostles Orson Hyde and Parley Pratt to Jefferson City on 12 June to ask for the governor's protection. Two days later they returned with the message that Dunklin refused to act. The governor had said that "if he sought to execute the laws in that respect" it would "deluge the whole country in civil war and bloodshed."¹²⁴ Nonetheless, after counseling together, the camp decided "that we should go on armed and equiped."¹²⁵

Evidently Smith determined at this point to make a show of force, despite Dunklin's counsel to the contrary. Otherwise it is difficult to explain why the camp did not disband and why so many camp members were furious when Smith determined later to negotiate for peace. Benjamin Winchester, who was with the camp, insisted that force had always been considered a viable option. The camp was "effected with the understanding that they were to fight their way, if necessary." ¹²⁶ Hosea Stout assumed he was marching to Zion "to fight for their lost inheritances."¹²⁷ This was no doubt a widely [p.45] held expectation. According to Nathan Tanner, when a revelation later came that their offering was sufficient and they need not fight, "sum of the camp be came angry & said they had rather die than return with out a rite."¹²⁸ Harrison Burgess added that "some individuals of the Camp felt to murmer at this decree and wanted to fight the enemies of God."¹²⁹ However, in the circular Oliver Cowdery and Sidney Rigdon sent to the churches immediately after the camp's departure from Kirtland, it was said that if the camp were large enough "the mob will either flee the country or remain inoffensive."¹³⁰ Thus, intimidation rather than war may have been initially intended by church leaders, as suggested in Joseph Smith's 4 June letter to Emma.¹³¹

Perhaps with this intimidation in mind, the camp continued toward Clay County, where most of the Saints expelled from Jackson County had relocated. When camp members reached Fishing River, as recorded by Heber C. Kimball, they stopped for the night. But then, "five men rode into the camp, and told us we should see hell before morning.…They told us that sixty men were coming from Richmond, Ray County, who had sworn to destroy us, also, seventy more were coming from Clay County, to assist in our destruction. These men were armed with guns, and the whole country was in a rage against us, and nothing but the power of God could save us."¹³²

For the moment, the power of God did not fail. A storm blew up over the Fishing River, and the water level rose "forty feet."¹³³ The Missourians, hastening to engage the Lord's anointed, were stalled, and the lull gave the Mormons further time to reconsider. During this time W. W. Phelps, the embattled editor of the newspaper which the Jackson County settlers had destroyed, came to camp with John Corrill and told the prophet that the Gentiles were determined either to drive the Mormons out or to exterminate them.¹³⁴ At this, church leaders decided to capitulate.¹³⁵ When Colonel Searcy of Ray County came into camp to test Mormon intentions, Smith appealed to his sense of decency, recounted the sufferings of the Saints in Jackson County, and insisted that they had come merely to provision the sufferers and to see them reinstated through legal process. Force would be employed only as a last resort.136 After this, a peace conference was held at Liberty, Missouri. Propositions were made that the Mormons or the Missourians buy the other out. Smith lacked the means to purchase the land and was unwilling to have the Saints sell their holdings. At the meeting Judge Ryland warned the Mormons that should they defeat the citizens of Jackson County [p.46] in battle, they would face Missourians from adjoining counties.¹³⁷ This was apparently a deterrent to those still wishing to redeem the promised land by force. In addition, the Mormons had become devastated by cholera. Smith sought peace. On 21 June a letter was sent by several of the brethren in Clay County to the Missourians, which explained that they had no intention of invading Jackson County and would make every sacrifice to find an honorable adjustment of their differences.¹³⁸

The prophet now disbanded the camp, but the protest against returning to Kirtland without restoring the Saints to their "inheritances" became so violent among camp members that Smith had to promise that Zion would be redeemed once the Saints had sufficient militia in Missouri. He pledged that within three years the Saints would come to Jackson County with a mighty army and "there would not be a dog to open his mouth against them."¹³⁹ In a revelation at Fishing River, the elders were told that they failed to redeem Zion because they had neither made Zion's army sufficiently strong¹⁴⁰ nor been united "according to the union required by the laws of the celestial kingdom."¹⁴¹ The Lord told them that they must no longer speak of judgments but say to the Missourians, "redress us of our wrongs,"¹⁴² thereby buying time "until the army of Israel becomes very great."¹⁴³ The Saints were to raise funds to buy additional land in the vicinity of Jackson County, and then "I will hold the armies of Israel guiltless in taking possession of their own lands…and of throwing down the towers of mine enemies."¹⁴⁴ In the meantime,

let my army become very great, and let it be sanctified before me, that it may become fair as the sun, and clear as the moon, and that her banners may be terrible unto all nations;

That the kingdoms of this world may be constrained to acknowledge that the kingdom of Zion is in very deed the kingdom of our God and his Christ; therefore, let us become subject unto her laws.¹⁴⁵

By June 1834 Zion had begun to take on a quasi-nationalistic and militaristic dimension.

Before Smith departed from Missouri, he organized a high council and named David Whitmer the president of Zion.¹⁴⁶ Back in Kirtland, he urged the new council "to be in readiness to move into Jackson County in two years from the eleventh of September next, which is appointed time for the redemption of Zion. If—verily I say [p.47] unto you—if the Church with one united effort perform their duties."¹⁴⁷ Every man was to have his "tent, his horses, his chariot, his armory, his cattle, his family, and his whole substance in readiness against the time when it shall be said: To your tents, O Israel!"¹⁴⁸

It was this turn of events which afterward caused Apostle William E. McLellin to depict the entire camp expedition as a fiasco which raised in the church "the spirit of war."¹⁴⁹ Martin Harris also said that at this time the church was changed from "a peaceful company to that of a warrior band."¹⁵⁰ The disillusionment felt by these brethren spread from Missouri to Kirtland.

When Smith returned the town was torn apart for several weeks as his prophetic claims were openly challenged.¹⁵¹ People began to doubt the Book of Mormon. The most vocal critics shouted that Smith had prophesied lies in the name of the Lord.¹⁵² To assuage the discontented Smith announced that twelve apostles would be chosen to direct missionary efforts abroad and that seventy elders would assist them. The new apostles, chosen from among those who had journeyed to Missouri, were told to gather the elect for the Millennium. Several of the twelve were promised that they would personally complete the gathering and live to witness the advent of Christ. One was also promised that "the nations of the earth shall acknowledge that God has sent him."153 But the anger that was engendered over Zion's Camp was not pacified, and the prophet was soon forced to act on his pledge to redeem his land of refuge.

Some of the most fundamental aspects of Mormon doctrine and theology were shaped during this crisis. According to one student, as Joseph Smith's position in Kirtland was deteriorating, he formulated what amounted to a new direction in doctrine.¹⁵⁴ This overstates and ignores both the continuity of Mormon thought and the gradual way in which new concepts were incorporated into the average Mormon's mind.¹⁵⁵ Rather than advocating completely new principles, Smith usually reshaped old ones. But it was not disturbing to most Mormons when some initial ideas were brushed aside, and the Saints were generally more concerned that the process of revelation continue than that old ideas be harmonized with the new. Only a few Saints felt otherwise.

Biblicism provided a base for theological development in Kirtland, and the broad revolt against Calvinism provided a framework from which to view the Old and New Testaments. In his early [p.48] theological insights Smith often sought to reconcile the Presbyterian Calvinism of his mother with the more liberal Universalism of his father. His inclination to harmonize divergent ideologies was not altogether unrecognized. Smith explained his purpose in 1843: "If by the principles of truth I succeed in uniting men of all denominations in the bonds of love, shall I not have attained a good object?… Christians should cease wrangling and contending with each other, and cultivate the principles of union and friendship in their midst; and they will do it before the millennium can be ushered in and Christ take possession of his Kingdom."¹⁵⁶

The theological blending occurred slowly, and ecumenicalism was not realized at all. Initial theological changes came in the form of a new doctrine of salvation. According to the new understanding, all but the most rebellious—the sons of perdition—would eventually gain salvation.¹⁵⁷ In February 1832 God revealed that the dualism preached by the revivalists was in error. Humanity was not resigned to eternal bliss or everlasting burning but would gain salvation based on individual merit. The existence of three heavenly degrees was announced, with the Saints who were true inheriting the highest reward in the celestial kingdom, where God himself dwells.¹⁵⁸ In keeping with Mormon eschatological thought, the celestial kingdom was to be established on the earth after it had been purified by fire. Thus the Saints would literally inherit the earth for all eternity.¹⁵⁹ Such ideas were advanced early in the Kirtland period, but they did not take hold rapidly, and most Latter-day Saints still spoke of the saved and the damned in opposing categories. The Book of Mormon does not address the issue of humankind's ultimate destiny in these terms, and it was not until they reached Nauvoo, Illinois, when Smith further elaborated his ideas, that the more liberal view of salvation began to take hold.¹⁶⁰

In Smith's evolving theology anyone who did not live the Mormon law or who died without knowledge of Jesus Christ but lived an honorable life would inherit in the next life a heavenly glory termed the terrestrial kingdom.¹⁶¹ A third glory, the equivalent of the usual Protestant version of hell where the soul would suffer endless remorse, was the "telestial" kingdom, saved for those who had lived immoral lives—the murderers, adulterers, liars, and whoremongers.¹⁶² A final status, devoid of glory, was preserved for those few who betrayed Jesus after having received a testimony of him. They would be sons of perdition doomed to everlasting torment. This concept of perdition retained only a vestige of the earlier Calvinism.

[p.49] It was during this same period that the Mormon doctrine of deity began to take on a distinctive shape. Whereas in the Book of Mormon the relationship between the members of the godhead was unclear, now some Saints began to accept the principle that God and Jesus were two distinct persons, God being a personage of spirit and Jesus having bodily form.¹⁶³

The development of a more positive view of man was a fundamental alteration in Mormon beliefs which directly affected both of the above principles. The Book of Mormon had seen humans as God's creatures, contingent and sinful, but some of the Saints in the early 1830s began to see them as children of God, whose essence was uncreated and co-eternal with God. In 1833 Joseph Smith received a revelation to this effect, which explained that human "intelligence," their innermost self or reality, was neither created nor made but existed through all eternity.¹⁶⁴ God, the father of spirits, gave his children a spiritual body, much like their early, "intelligence" form but of a finer substance.¹⁶⁵ Men and women were indeed God's children but partook of divinity by existing in their original state entirely independent of his will.¹⁶⁶

One of the ideas which was circulating widely in Smith's intellectual environment in the 1830s was that of a plurality of worlds. Thomas Paine had argued in his Age of Reason that plurality was incompatible with orthodox Christianity, but several writers had countered Paine in attempting to reconcile revealed and natural religion.¹⁶⁷ One of these writers was Thomas Dick, a Christian naturalist whose reaction to Paine was widely read in western New York. His Philosophy of a Future State was read by Mormon leaders in Kirtland in the mid-1830s and may have been read by and/or discussed in the presence of Joseph Smith. Dick envisioned a divine cosmos much like that of the Mormons¹⁶⁸ and tied Christian theology to a material universe, where in the afterlife worthy souls would dwell on some distant planet and progress toward perfection. He even speculated on the possibility of degrees of glory in the eternal world.¹⁶⁹

Although there is no reliable evidence that Dick directly influenced Smith's thinking, by the end of 1834 Smith had revealed a universe similar to Dick's, peopled with intelligences progressing toward perfection.¹⁷⁰ Smith was no mere copier of other men's ideas, however, for he had begun to work out his own materialistic cosmology as early as 1830. In what became his Book of Moses, a series of biblical revelations he received, he outlined a universe of multiple worlds:

[p.50] And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations;…

Wherefore, I can stretch forth mine hands and hold all the creations which I have made; and mine eye can pierce them also, and among all the workmanship of mine hands there has not been so great wickedness as among thy brethren.¹⁷¹

Smith thus believed in multiple worlds inhabited by beings capable of wickedness. Yet the prophet's thought had not fully matured. For example, he had not yet contended that the basic element of the universe was a form of matter.¹⁷² This did not come until the Saints were in Nauvoo, but Smith was moving in this direction. He recounted in a Kirtland, Ohio, revelation that the elements of the universe were eternal.¹⁷³

To many in the early nineteenth century, a materialistic universe made good sense. Thomas Jefferson had affirmed that "to say that the human soul, angels, God, are immaterial is to say that they are nothing, or there is no God, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise."¹⁷⁴

In 1849 Orson Pratt, while defending Mormonism in the British Isles, argued much the same way: "There are two classes of Atheists in the world. One class denies the existence of God in the most positive language; the other denies his existence in duration or space. One says, 'There is no God,' the other says 'God is not here or there, any more than he exists now and then.' The infidel says, 'God does not exist anywhere.' The immaterialist says, 'He exists Nowhere.'"¹⁷⁵

Thus Mormons met the challenge of a materialistic and secular world view by incorporating some of it into their own theology. Mormons were mindful of the dangers of infidelity in doing so¹⁷⁶ but generally felt they could extract a greater truth by harmonizing divergent views. Such a quest structured not only their economic but also their intellectual life, although the thrust toward inclusiveness could at times foster discord within the church itself.

One area of Mormon life which could not remain permanently excluded from the enveloping reaches of the theocratic kingdom was marriage. Although no revelation exists on the subject dating this early, rumors that some form of polygamy was practiced by Joseph Smith in Kirtland in 1835 circulated widely.¹⁷⁷ Church leaders responded with a denial in the Doctrine and Covenants. "We believe," they said, "that one man should have one wife, and one [p.51] woman but one husband."¹⁷⁸ Nonetheless, enamored with the theocracy of the ancient Hebrews and the career of the patriarch Abraham, Smith and his Saints could have hardly overlooked Old Testament marital institutions. Mormons believed that before the final day of millennial consummation all the truths practiced by the ancient prophets would be restored,¹⁷⁹ and it was inevitable that the "Patriarchal Order of Marriage"¹⁸⁰ would be one of these. According to W. W. Phelps, as early as January 1831, Smith told certain of the elders in Missouri that in time the Lord wanted them to take additional wives among the Indians. In 1834 Smith reportedly explained to Phelps that this would be done as it had been by the ancient Hebrews—by divine revelation.¹⁸¹ According to another church member, Smith told Lyman R. Sherman in 1835 that the ancient order of plural marriage would again be restored to the church.¹⁸²

For the Mormons to introduce plural marriage relationships in America where monogamy was universally revered was, at the very least, risky. Emma Smith wrote that her husband told her when rumors regarding polygamous practices were circulating among the Saints that "such a system might be, if everybody agreed to it, and would behave as they should."183 But the prophet added that he did not think such would be the case. Nonetheless, with Smith himself being charged with polygamous inclinations, some of his seventies evidently soon initiated the practice.¹⁸⁴ Uriah and Lydia Hawkins were tried by the high council on 7 September 1836 for "unlawful matrimony." Jared Carter said at the trial that there was a tendency of "countenancing such practices in our midst."¹⁸⁵ With growing numbers practicing plurality and potential strife attending it, Smith avoided any effort to incorporate the principle into the official doctrine of the church.¹⁸⁶ He had to await a time when the kingdom seemed more secure than it was in Ohio.

In Kirtland following the failure of Zion's Camp, Smith endeavored to rally the discordant elements in the village by hastening the building of the temple.¹⁸⁷ He told the elders that they would receive a special endowment of spiritual power once the work was finished.¹⁸⁸ They required a period of study and preparation in the meantime to enable them to preach the gospel abroad, to gather the elect, and to return to Zion.¹⁸⁹ The Saints now worked with a will to finish the structure so that the promised endowment would come. Sacrifice was the order of the day, according to Heber C. Kimball:

[p.52] Our women were engaged in spinning and knitting in order to clothe those who were laboring at the building.… My wife toiled all summer in lending her aid towards its accomplishment. She had a hundred pounds of wool, which, with the assistance of a girl, she spun in order to furnish clothing for those engaged in the building…and although she had the privilege of keeping half the quantity of wool for herself…she did not reserve even so much as would make her a pair of stockings.¹⁹⁰

Church leaders and common elders made an extra effort to raise the walls of the Lord's house: "The whole church united in this undertaking and every man lent a helping hand. Those who had no teams went to work in the stone quarry and prepared the stones for drawing to the house, President Joseph Smith Jr. being our foreman in the quarry. The Presidency, High Priests, and Elders all alike assisting."¹⁹¹

The building of the temple helped the Kirtland economy, and some of the poor were fed by the temple committee in exchange for their labor.¹⁹² To finance the purchase of supplies and to pay other costs associated with the building, Smith borrowed heavily everywhere he could.¹⁹³ He received generous assistance from one new member, a merchant, who loaned Smith $2,000 to pay the mortgage on his farm, loaned the temple committee $13,000 in goods, and signed a note which enabled Smith to purchase $30,000 worth of additional merchandise for the temple in New York. This generosity kept the temple storehouse operating and thereby provided for many laboring on the Lord's house.

The Kirtland economy felt some strains from the rapidly growing population, and by the summer of 1835 there were from 1,700 to 1,800 Saints in the city. As the temple neared completion, it was difficult to find work for everyone.194 To keep pace with the rapidly expanding population, Smith bought land and resold it to the Saints. He also maintained the operation of his store, which increased the amount of debt he was forced to carry.195 One of the difficulties for the Kirtland economy was the critical shortage of liquid capital throughout 1835.196 Prices seemed high for mere necessities. In May W. W. Phelps wrote to his wife living in Missouri: "It is hard living here; flour costs from $6.00 to $7.00 a barrel and cows from $20.00 to $30.00 a head. It is a happy thing that I did not move back, for everything here is so dear. Our brethren are so poor and hard run for money that it would have been more than I could have done to maintain my family."¹⁹⁷ [p.53]

Phelps's general picture may have been overdrawn, because the Kirtland economy probably was typical for the region and not without prospects for stability and growth.198 But for those who found it hard going there was also the expectation that soon they would be marching to Missouri. From late summer 1835 through the following April, the prophet's history is filled with comments on the approaching migration. In September he met with the Kirtland High Council "to take into consideration the redemption of Zion." The elders pledged "that we [will] go next season, to live or die on our own lands, which we have purchased in Jackson County." They enrolled the names of those anxious to migrate, and the prophet commented, "I ask God in the name of Jesus that we may obtain eight hundred or one thousand emigrants."199 In October he counseled with the twelve and "told them that it was the will of God they should take their families to Missouri next season."200 During the following March the church presidency and twelve "resolved to emigrate on or before the 15th of May next, if kind Providence smiles upon us."201 At the end of the month Smith informed the seventies they were "at liberty" to go to Zion and urged them to send all the strength of the Lord's house. The brethren then made a covenant "that if any more of our brethren are slain or driven from their lands in Missouri, by the mob, we will give ourselves no rest, until we are avenged of our enemies to the uttermost."202

In the meantime, Smith secretly organized the Army of Israel. John Whitmer recorded that on 24 September 1835 "we met in counsel at the house of J. Smith, Jr., the seer, where we according to a previous commandment given, appointed David Whitmer captain of the Lord's Host." Smith was made head of the "war department," and several other church leaders were given high ranking military posts.203 This was a fateful turn of events which would have unforeseen consequences in the years to come.

The long-planned-for invasion of Missouri was launched in 1836 in a less dramatic manner than Zion's Camp. In May a Missouri newspaper at Independence described how some 1,500 to 2,000 men were making their way into the country "in detached parties."204 The same newspaper contained an account of a resident of Kirtland, identified as "O.P.Q," who explained the new Mormon policy of infiltration: "Their object as I learn from them is to settle in any part of the State…as contiguous to Jackson County as circumstances will permit…they expect in a few years to fill up the counties on the north side of the River, so as to control the elections, and they expect to be [p.54] able to raise a force sufficient to conquer Jackson County."²⁰⁵ The editor of The Far West did not like what was happening and promised that Jackson County citizens would be ready when the elders arrived.²⁰⁶

In Clay County, where most of the Saints had immigrated, the old citizens had become greatly disturbed by the trend of events and gathered in a public meeting on 29 June to invite all Mormons to leave the county. They affirmed "that at this moment the clouds of civil war are rolling up their fearful masses." The major cause of the difficulty was the "rapid and increasing emigration of that people commonly called Mormons during the last few months."²⁰⁷ The citizens warned that if the Mormons "persist in the blind course they have heretofore followed in flooding the country with their people, that we fear and firmly believe that an immediate civil war is the inevitable consequence."²⁰⁸

After this show of united opposition to the Saints, nothing remained but for Smith to call off the massive migration. He wrote to the Missouri Saints that they should avoid any aggression and that if their enemies would permit dispose of their property and go in peace.²⁰⁹ Within a few months the members began to gather at Shoal Creek, in the northern part of Ray County.²¹⁰ Here too they began to encounter opposition to their gathering.²¹¹ At this point Alexander Doniphan led an effort in the state legislature to have a separate county set apart for Mormons north of Ray County but, according to Doniphan,²¹² with the strict understanding that they would remain within the bounds of their new district. Certainly the Missourians in the region understood this to be a condition.²¹³ Later an editor of a Missouri newspaper would protest the harsh terms imposed on the Mormons by this agreement, but by then it was too late.²¹⁴

Within six months the Mormons were gathering rapidly to the county and filling political offices.²¹⁵ Before long they began to look for new areas to settle. But the combination of Mormon politics and the massive gathering did not bode well for lasting peace between the Saints and western Missourians. Meanwhile Smith began making plans to build up Kirtland as an alternative gathering place.²¹⁶ But deep resentment among some Mormons over the failures of Zion's Camp, the increasingly militaristic posture of the church, and its expanding theocratic involvement in economic affairs stirred the smoldering embers of rebellion within the ranks of the Kirtland elect. [p.55]

Notes:

1. Religious experimentalism was not unique to the Mormons. See Jerald C. Brauer, Protestantism in America (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1953) 7, and compare Alice Felt Tyler, Freedom's Ferment (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1962), 46, 109-39, 166-95.

2. Palmyra Reflector, 9 March 1831, 116. Compare Leonard J. Arrington, "Early Mormon Communitarianism: The Law of Consecration and Stewardship," Western Humanities Review 7 (Autumn 1953): 349n26.

3. DC 38:27. Compare BC, 82-83.

4. Painesville Telegraph, 16 Nov. 1830, 3. Howe said the missionaries had been there two weeks.

5. Daryl Chase, "Sidney Rigdon—Early Mormon," M.A. thesis, University of Chicago, 1931, 71-72. Parley Pratt, an ex-Campbellite and associate of Rigdon, had encouraged them to take a roundabout route west to present the Book of Mormon to his friend. Kent Fielding describes how much more convenient it would have been to go to Missouri via the National Road (see "The Growth of the Mormon Church in Kirtland, Ohio," Ph.D. diss., University of Indiana, 1957, 29-30).

6. Painesville Telegraph, 16 Nov. 1830, 3.

7. Lucy Mack Smith wrote to Solomon Mack on 6 Jan. 1831 that 300 had been added to the church in Ohio (see Ben E. Rich, Scrapbook of Mormon Literature [Chicago: Henry C. Etten, 1910?], 543-45).

8. Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt 5th ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1961), 48.

9. Rigdon's conversion added prestige to the movement in Ohio. John Corrill said he was himself partly persuaded by Rigdon's congregation joining the Mormons since he knew they were well versed in the Bible. See A Brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter-day Saints, Including their Doctrine and Discipline (St. Louis: For the author, 1839), 7-8, and compare Chase, 73-74.

10. See Willis Thornton, "Gentile and Saint in Kirtland," Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly 63 (1954): 8.

11. Ibid., 9, and Amos Sutton Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in Hiram, Portage County, Ohio (Cleveland: Robison, Savage, 1876), 20.

12. Thornton, 9. Hayden said the Mormons made "little headway among the Disciples" except at Kirtland where "the way was paved by the common stock principle" (see p. 216).

13. Fielding makes the basis of the Mormon appeal too narrow when he says that spiritual gifts were the decisive factor (see p. 34). It was the whole primitive Christian appeal.

14. Quoted by Corrill, 8.

15. Ibid., 10.

16. Ibid., 14.

17. Naked Truths About Mormonism 1 (Jan. 1888). The statement was made by S. F. Whitney, brother of Newell K. Whitney.

18. See "Ezra Booth's Letters," Painesville Telegraph, 1 Nov. 1831, 3.

20. Naked Truths About Mormonism 1 (Jan. 1888).

21. Richards described a much milder form of spiritual manifestation than that which came in Kirtland and told of his feelings after the Saints had emigrated to Utah. See "Narrative of Franklin Dewey Richards" (San Francisco, 1880), p. 15, part of a large collection of personal reminiscences collected by Hubert Howe Bancroft in the Bancroft Library at Berkeley, California.

22. Corrill, 17.

23. "Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith," Juvenile Instructor 27 (1892): 22.

24. Joseph Smith to Hyrum Smith, 31 March 1831, in PW, 230.

25. According to David Whitmer, "many had the gift of prophecy in those days" (Saints' Herald 34 [Feb. 1887]: 90).

26. "Book of John Whitmer," 4-5.

27. DC 43:3-4. This revelation came in February in response to Hubble's manifestations. Compare HC 1:154 and BC, 96.

28. DC 50:23. Compare BC, 121.

29. DC 50:31. Compare BC, 121-22.

30. JD 11:4.

31. See "The Equality and Oneness of the Saints," The Seer 2 (July 1854): 289.

32. The Lord had told them before they fled New York, "go ye out from among the wicked" (BC, 84; compare DC 38:42).

33. E. D. Howe commented on separatist tendencies in Kirtland in Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH: By the author), 128.

34. This point is made by Kent Fielding, "Historical Perspectives for a Liberal Mormon ism," Western Humanities Review 14 (Winter 1960): 74. In fact, Mormons were not just fleeing New York but inheriting Ohio. E. D. Howe quoted a letter by Rigdon to Ohio Saints saying that Kirtland would be part of the eternal inheritance of the Saints (see pp. 110-11). Compare Painesville Telegraph, 18 Jan. 1831, 3, where Howe made the same observation three years before his book was published. Here he noted that converts in Ohio had been told to sell no more land but to purchase as much as they could. Compare also John Whitmer's statement that some of the Saints believed Kirtland would be the place for building the New Jerusalem ("Book of John Whitmer," 6). Joseph Smith himself wrote to Martin Harris in February 1831 to tell those Saints still in New York to hurry to Ohio. He said of the New York elders that the Lord "has a great work for them all in this our inheritance" (see JH, 22 Feb. 1831). W. W. Phelps in 1832 designated the area from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean as Zion (see The Evening and the Morning Star 1 [Sept. 1832]: 71).

35. Oliver Cowdery's letter to his brother, Warren, dated 30 Oct. 1833, reflects this mood. This is in a collection of Oliver Cowdery's letters at Huntington Library, San Marino, California. It will be referred to below as Oliver Cowdery's Letters.

36. DC (1835 edition), 119.

37. Smith told Martin Harris in February, "We have received the laws of the kingdom since we came here" (JH, 22 Feb. 1831).

38. It is significant that nothing was said in the 1833 BC about the Saints being subject to the laws of the land. Should the sins of the Saints include murder or stealing, they were to be held accountable to church law alone. Later, as the church began to have trouble over legal matters, the revelation was changed, and in the 1835 DC, members were made accountable to the law of the land touching these two crimes. Compare BC, 91-99, with DC (1835 edition), vv. 79-86, which were added to the original. The additions appear on p. 125 of the 1835 edition.

39. BC, 91-99, 95. Compare DC 42: 18-98, 65. The wording of this latter verse was altered in the later edition.

40. This caption is often employed by the Mormons today and is used by Leonard J. Arrington in his excellent article describing how the law operated economically in Ohio and Missouri (see "Early Mormon Communitarianism," 7, 341-69).

41. BC, 92. This law was changed in some respects later and the DC was adjusted accordingly (compare DC 42:30-35).

42. According to Lyman Wight, those Disciples of "Morley's Family" who joined the Mormons had been basing their communal experiment on an interpretation of Acts 2. (Wight's journal is quoted by Eva L. Pancoast, "The Mormons at Kirtland," M.A. thesis, Western Reserve University, 1929, p. 65.)

43. The Seer 2 (July 1854): 290-91. Compare W. W. Phelps's similar views in The Evening and the Morning Star 1 (Dec. 1832): 6. This is from the original edition.

44. Ibid., 2:293.

45. Ibid.

46. Arrinqton describes these as two social purposes of the law ("Early Mormon Communitarianism," 347).

47. St. Louis Times, 9 July 1831, 2, carried a piece from a Ravenna, Ohio, newspaper noting the settling of the Saints at Thompson in May.

48. Arrington implies that when Lemon Copley withdrew his consecration the farm was abandoned. But according to Ezra Booth, Partridge was commanded to buy the farm at a very low price and to borrow money to do it. That this was done is indicated by Lucy Smith, who, with her husband, continued to live on the farm under the consecration law until 1835. See "Early Mormon Communitarianism," 349, and "Ezra Booth's Letters," Painesville Telegraph, 6 Dec. 1831, 1. Compare Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith by his Mother, Preston Nibley, ed. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954), 209-37.

49. Arrington does not say so, but according to George Albert Smith, the Campbellites composing the "family," who had been living under a communistic arrangement, were baptized into the Mormon church while still living in this manner. They struggled over the sharing of each other's property, and this may have been one reason why in Smith's revelation the Saints were told they must buy what they needed from their neighbor. See "Early Mormon Communitarianism," 347n18; G. A. Smith's sermon in JD 11:3-4; and BC, 94. Compare also Howe, 103, and Palmyra Reflector, 14 Feb. 1831, 102, which confirms that the early Mormons in Ohio had a community of goods.

50. Arrington, "Early Mormon Communitarianism," 349, and Lucy Mack Smith, 237. The departure of the Colesville Saints came in June or July 1831 (see JH, 25 July 1831).

51. Arrington, "Early Mormon Communitarianism," 342-43.

52. Arrington does not discuss this purpose of the law, but its importance is shown by the fact that when Smith in 1838 sought from the high council a fixed salary for his service, it was vigorously opposed by the body of the church. A revised Law of Consecration and tithing had to be substituted. See HC 3:32, and compare Ebenezer Robinson, ed., The Return 1 (Sept. 1889): 136-38. Robinson indicates that although the high council voted to give the salary, they later had to rescind the resolution. For further ramifications of this controversy, see below.

53. Arrington, along with Feramorz Y. Fox and Dean L. May, have treated Mormonism's communitarian experience on a grand scale in their Building the City of God: Community and Cooperation Among the Mormons (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976). Their treatment of early communitarianism in Kirtland follows closely Arrington's article but with some additional details (see pp. 15-33). Compare "Early Mormon Communitarianism," 344.

54. "Book of John Whitmer," 4. Howe's account of this phase of the experiment substantiates Whitmer. Howe is quoted by John A. Clark, Gleanings by the Way (Philadelphia: Simon Brothers, 1842), 323. Warren A. Jennings ("Zion is Fled: The Expulsion of the Mormons from Jackson County, Missouri," Ph.D. diss., University of Florida, 1962, 99) inaccurately uses these passages to apply to Missouri. Before and after page 4 Whitmer is describing events in Kirtland and gives no indication of any change of subject. Howe specifically says the poor in Kirtland wished for a sharing of goods.

55. HC 1:215.

56. Hayden, 250-51.

57. Ryder was converted by a Mormon girl's prophecy of destruction in China, in addition to Smith's healing powers (ibid., 250-51). Ezra Booth was also converted at this time.

58. As quoted from the "Life and Character of Symonds Ryder," in Burke Aaron Hinsdale, A History of the Disciples in Hiram, Portage County, Ohio (Cleveland: Robison, Savage & Co., 1876), 19. With consecration failing to provide adequate funds for land purchase, the Lord in September authorized the Saints to borrow money from the Gentiles, saying, "Behold it is said in my laws or forbidden to get in debt to thine enemies; But behold it is not said at any time, that the Lord should not take when he please, and pay as seemeth him good: Wherefore as ye are agents, and ye are on the Lord's errand; and whatever ye do according to the will of the Lord, it is the Lord's business, and it is the Lord's business to provide for his saints in these last days, that they may obtain an inheritance in the land of Zion" (BC, 160). That Bishop Partridge objected to this injunction is indicated by Ezra Booth, who predicted Partridge would soon be removed from his managerial position. Booth said the borrowed money was used to buy land at Thompson. This loan of "several hundred dollars" may have been an important factor in keeping the remaining Mormons in Ohio. Compare "Ezra Booth Letters," Painesville Telegraph, 6 Dec. 1831, 1, and Fielding, "The Growth of the Mormon Church," 46-47, where he gives evidence that the Mormon were thinking of migrating en masse to Missouri.

59. Brodie, 116.

60. HC 1:236.

61. BC, 95. These lesser officers were to be given a stewardship from the consecrated property or be cared for from the storehouse (compare D [1835 ed.], 124).

62. Arrinqton, "Early Mormon Communitarianism," 356.

63. DC (1835 edition), 220. Compare DC 82:11-24.

64. Arrington, "Early Mormon Communitarianism," 356n52.

65. Fielding, "The Growth of the Mormon Church," 86-88.

66. DC 78:5-6.

67. Ibid., 14.

68. Arrington, "Early Mormon Communitarianism," 356n53.

69. Fielding argues in "The Growth of the Mormon Church," 87-88 that one of the reasons for breaking up the United Firm was to allow the prophet to secure a stewardship since he had none before and that he prob ably borrowed $2,000 on the farm. It is possible, however, that the money was used for Zion's Camp, since Smith was having difficulty raising fun for the expedition. A revelation given April 23, two weeks before the camp departure, authorized the borrowing of money "to deliver yourselves fro bondage" (DC 104:83-84). On Zion's Camp, see below, pp. 41-46.

70. Arrington, "Early Mormon Communitarianism," 358n64. But notice in Wilford Woodruff's diary that on 31 December 1834 Woodruff consecrated $240 worth of property to the church in Missouri—his total assets (Kenney, 1:16). I cannot agree with Arrington's initial view that the Law of Consecration was not revived in 1838. But Arrington modifies his position in his recent book, saying the law was never reinstated but a lesser law was introduced, which was "not greatly different from the so-called celestial law of 1831" (Arrington, Fox, and May, 33-34; see also 202-204).

71. JD 1:215. Probably the period referred to dates after 1835, since Fielding indicates Smith operated a variety store after the United Firm was broken up ("The Growth of the Mormon Church," 87).

72. The missionaries had neglected to secure a permit for their work and also unintentionally disrupted the efforts underway by ministers of other denominations (Jennings, 7-8). Jennings in another publication quotes the wife of one of the Baptist missionaries in Independence that an "agent has driven them off this side of the line and forbits their crossing it" (see his "Isaac McCoy and the Mormons," Missouri Historical Review 61 [Oct. 1966]: 65).

73. Ibid., 8, 30, and P. Pratt, Autobiography, 61. Pratt does not indicate what reports he made to Smith. But his information plus that learned from correspondence with the missionaries in Missouri must have been favorable enough or the expedition west would not have been launched. Fielding shows that many Saints sold their land in Ohio before departure, so they intended to make Missouri a permanent home (see "The Growth of the Mormon Church," 46-47, and compare HC 1:181-82). Smith indicates here how anxious the Ohio Saints were for information about Missouri.

74. HC 1:177. The Lord by revelation had already designated Missouri as a land of inheritance for the Saints (compare Jennings, 30, 36). The Saints planned a settlement upon the public domain.

75. HC 1:188, 191.

76. Jennings, 37.

77. Ibid, 36. Compare DC 57:1-4, and HC 1:189.

78. HC 1:199. Compare Jennings, 38-39.

79. Howe, 130, and Fielding, "The Growth of the Mormon Church," 50.

80. Both Josiah Gregg and Thomas Pitcher reported that relations between Mormons and Gentiles were good at the start (see their statements in Jennings, 120n3).

81. Emily Austin, Mormonism: or Life Among the Mormons (Madison, WI: M.J. Cantwell Book and Job Printer, 1882), 68. Emily was a sister-in-law to Newel Knight (see p. 30).

82. Mosiah Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, in Reuben Gold Thwaites, Early Western Travels, Pt. II (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark, 1905), 20:95. Isaac McCoy, a Baptist missionary to the Indians whom the Mormons said was a primary leader among their enemies, maintained that Mormons did not get into politics initially, but he feared their potential power (see his letter of 28 Nov. 1833 in Missouri Intelligencer, 21 Dec. 1833).

83. Jenninqs, 120. Compare Corrill, 19. By December 1832, the Saints had 538 members in Missouri ("Book of John Whitmer," p. 39).

84. Corrill, 19.

85. Compare B. Pixley's comments in a letter written 7 Nov. 1833, from Independence, in William Mulder and A. Russell Mortensen, eds., Among the Mormons [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1958], 82, with Howe, 145, and Joseph Thorp, Early Days in the West Along the Missouri One Hundred Years Ago (Liberty, MO: Irving Gilmer, reprinted 1924), 74.

86. Jennings, 60-62, quotes Alexander Majors to this effect.

87. Alexander Majors, as a young observer of these events, emphasized the degree to which Mormon claims to special authority were offensive to the other denominations (see Prentiss Ingraham, ed., Seventy Years on the Frontier: Alexander Majors' Memoirs of a Lifetime on the Border [Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co., 1893], 43-45, 47, 52-53). Also, many ministers were irked by enthusiastic Mormon missionary efforts and were particularly disturbed by the Mormon argument that the Bible was intended mostly for ancient Christians (Jennings, 62, 74-75). Rigdon was preaching these views in Missouri in 1832. Compare also the "Secret Constitution" of the Missourians drawn up against the Mormons in 1833. The pertinent part is quoted by Jennings, 308. Compare Jennings's comments and appropriate quotations on sectarian opposition to the Saints (pp. 128-29, 309-12).

88. Jennings, 54-55, 298, and compare An Appeal to the American People, 2nd ed. (Cincinnati: Shepard & Stearns, 1840), 7. According to William Alexander Linn (The Story of the Mormons [reprint; New York: Russell & Russell, 1963], 21), this pamphlet was written by Rigdon. Daniel Boorstin's shrewd commentary on how the first comers to a community tended to reap the maximum benefits in American society is relevant here. It was customary for the squatters to band together to safeguard their rights regardless of the law. Meanwhile the Mormons expected that this traditional mode of handling land rights should be set aside in their favor. It was their contention throughout their sojourn in Missouri that they had paid for their land and were entitled to it. But squatters' rights and the rights of priority could not be offset by formal legal claims. See Boorstin, The Americans: The National Experience (New York: Random House, 1965), 78-81.

89. Jennings, 296-98.

90. Ibid., 299.

91. "O" stressed this point in defending the anti-Mormon activities of Samuel Owens (see Missouri Argus, 29 July 1836).

92. Jennings, 124.

93. Ibid., 125.

94. Ibid., 127.

95. Ibid., 129-30. Among other things, Phelps revealed that free people of color must have a certificate of citizenship from another state. He insisted afterward that he was trying to discourage free Negroes who were converts from immigrating by making known how difficult satisfying Missouri laws could be.

96. Ibid., 22.

97. Ibid., 131-35. Jennings describes how fearful the Missourians were of free Negroes living among them. B. H. Roberts quotes the Western Monitor, a non-Mormon newspaper published in Fayette, 2 Aug. 1833, that "a considerable number of this degraded caste were only waiting this information before they should set out on their journey" (The Missouri Persecutions [Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon and Sons, 1900], 80).

98. After Phelps's blunder, the leading civil authorities in Jackson County were ready to oust the Mormons. A jailer, an Indian agent, a constable and his deputy, a county clerk, a postmaster, the judge of the county court, and justices of the peace signed the Secret Constitution. This document enumerates the several aspects of the Mormon kingdom which the Missourians opposed. But it is worth noticing that not all Missourians were against the Mormons, as they themselves sometimes held. See editorials which especially deplored violence in Missouri Intelligencer and Boon's Lick Advertizer, 10 Aug. 1833, 3; 16 Nov. 1833, 2; 23 Nov. 1833, 2; and 30 Nov. 1833, 1. This is referred to below as Missouri Intelligencer.

99. Jennings, 137-38.

100. Ibid., 137-47.

101. Ibid., 154-56

102. Ibid., 134, 162-64, 168-69, 171-72, and History of Jackson County Missouri (Kansas City, MO: Union Historical Co., 1881), 256.

103. Jennings, 158-59.

104. Ibid., 160-64.

105. Ibid., 166-80.

106. These facts are told by Jennings, 211-26. His information came largely from "The History of Joseph Smith," published in the Times and Seasons. For convenience, compare HC 1:424-25.

107. Missouri Intelligencer, 8 March 1834, 1-2, recounts these happenings. Compare W. W. Phelps's account of the morning's events in HC 1:481-82. Phelps indicates Jackson Countians flooded into Independence and assumed "a boisterous and mobocratic appearance."

108. Jennings, 216, 221-25. The western Missouri newspapers contain much information about these events. See not only the Missouri Intelligencer but also the Missouri Republican from March to July 1834. I was generously supplied these newspapers on microfilm by the State Historical Society of Missouri at Columbia.

109. See HC 1:491-92, which contains a letter written in April from church leaders to the governor informing him of their intention to arm themselves and their expectation that in the summer reinforcements would arrive to help them defend their homes. They thanked the governor for enforcing the laws "so far as he can consistently 'with the means furnished by the legislature.'"

110. Oliver Cowdery's Letters, 30 March 1834. This was written to W. W. Phelps in Missouri.

111. Thus Oliver Cowdery explained the purpose of the Camp in a circular letter to the Saints written on 10 May 1834 (see the Oliver Cowdery Letters, Huntington Library, San Marino, California). Peter Crawley and Richard L. Anderson argue this point in "Political and Social Realities of Zion's Camp," Brigham Young University Studies 14 (Summer 1974): 406-20.

112. Painesville Telegraph, 9 May 1834, 3. Brigham Young said he took with him "a good gun, the bayonet, plenty of ammunition, a dirk, an ax, a saw, a chisel, spade, hoe, and other necessary tools" ("History of Brigham Young," LDSMS 25 [July 1863]: 455).

113. BC, 237-38. This is DC 101:55-58. Compare Joseph Smith's prophetic promise made on 30 March: "God will strike through kings in the day of his wrath…and what do you suppose he should do with a few mobbers in Jackson County, where ere long he will set his feet, when earth and heaven shall tremble!" (Oliver Cowdery's Letters, 30 March 1834). See also the account by an Ohioan that some of the elders maintained they were "going to fight the battle of the Lord" (Missouri Intelligencer, 7 June 1834, 3).

114. BC, 239. Compare DC 101:86-89.

115. See the letter of a citizen from "Chagrin," Ohio, dated 29 April 1834, Missouri Intelligencer, 7 June 1834, 3.

116. George Albert Smith recounts a promise made by the prophet that "if they were faithful and did not murmur against the Lord and his servants they should all return safely and not one shall fall upon the mission" (LDSMS 27 [July 1865]: 439).

117. See "Extract from the Journal of Elder Heber C. Kimball," Times and Seasons 6 (15 Jan. 1845): 772-73, 787. Kimball tells how careful the members of the camp were not to reveal their identity.

118. Missouri Intelligencer, 7 June 1834, 3. See also St. Louis Observer, 19 June 1834, 123; Jeffersonian Republican, 21 June, 1834, 4; and Missouri Republican, 23 June 1834.

119. Missouri IntelIigencer, 7 June and 3,14 June 1834.

120. Joseph Smith to Orson Hyde, 7 April 1834, in Joseph Smith Letterbook, LDSCA.

121. PW, 323.

122. Howe, 172-75.

123. See Zacharin Linville's letter warning of such military action addressed to Joseph Smith on 23 June 1834, Smith papers, LDSCA.

124. P. Pratt, Autobiography, 115.

125. See Charles C. Rich's "Day Book," 14 June 1834, in LDSCA.

126. Winchester's "Primitive Mormonism," appears in Charles L. Woodward's "First Half Century of Mormonism," 195, in the New York Public Library.

127. "Diary of Hosea Stout," 1:79, Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

128. "Nathan Tanner Biographical History," 13, Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.

129. "A Short Sketch of the Life of Harrison Burgess," 3, LDSCA.

130. Oliver Cowdery Letterbook, May 1834.

131. PW, 323.

132. Kimball, Times and Seasons 6 (Feb. 1845): 790.

133. Ibid. L. O. Littlefield gives a figure of forty feet. However, when the Saints actually measured the river some time afterward, it was down to a few feet (see Alan H. Gerber, "Church Manuscripts," 2:17, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University).

134. Ibid.

135. Ibid. Kimball's narrative indicates this.

136. Ibid., and see "Proposition of the Mormons," Painesville Telegraph, 8 Aug. 1834,1. Compare HC 2:121-22. Cornelius Gilliam, who confronted the Mormons in Clay County along with Colonel Searcy, repeats the Mormon version of their intentions, which had been signed by the leader of the camp. This account agrees substantially with Kimball, stressing the peaceful purposes of the Mormon task force by this time.

137. See the details of this meeting in the Missouri Intelligencer, 28 June 1834, 3 This was Monday, 23 June.

138. HC 2:107, 115, 119.

139. According to Reed Peck in Peepstone Joe and the Peck Manuscript, L. B. Cake, ed., (New York: By the editor, 1899), 82. Compare DC 105:15, where the Lord said, "The destroyer I have sent forth to destroy and lay waste mine enemies and not many years hence they shall not be left to pollute mine heritage." This revelation was given in Missouri at a time when cholera had struck the state.

140. DC 105:16-17.

141. Ibid., v. 4.

142. Ibid., vv. 24-25.

143. Ibid., v. 26.

144. Ibid., v. 30.

145. Ibid., vv. 31-32.

146. HC 2:122-24. Afterward there would develop much disagreement as to what position Whitmer had actually been called. Whitmer himself and some of the other dissenters held he had been made a successor to the prophet should he falter. See William E. McLellin's argument to this effect, The Ensign of Liberty 1:5, and compare David Whitmer, Address to All Believers in Christ (Richmond, MO: By the author, 1887), 55; Woodward, 195; and "Book of John Whitmer," 42, which all indicate that David was ordained a "Prophet, Seer, and Revelator."

147. HC 2:145. This letter was written on 16 Aug. 1834.

148. Ibid.

149. Ensign of Liberty 1:4.

150. John Zahnd mss, New York Public Library.

151. Howe, 162.

152. "Book of John Whitmer," 32, and HC 2:160.

153. HC 2:180-200 records the selection of the Twelve but omits the promises (but see LDSMS 25 [March 1853]: 206-207).

154. Fielding, "The Growth of the Mormon Church," 134.

155. Grant Underwood has persuasively argued how slowly Mormon thought deviated from Protestant norms, even on the question of heaven and hell ("Saved or Damned: Tracing a Persistent Protestantism in Early Mormon Thought," Brigham Young Uni