Quest for Refuge -- In a Military Spirit

Years later, in turn-of-the-century Utah, Mormon patriarch Benjamin F. Johnson would write that during the church's early days in Missouri, "the Prophet Joseph laid the foundation of our church in a military spirit, and as the Master taught his disciples so he taught us to 'sell our coats and buy swords.'" Johnson reflected that the sword never fully prevailed among the Saints and acknowledged that later, when the federal government took their arms away, they became more secure.¹

This was a lesson that could only be learned by experience. Mormon militarism was a strange mixture of the American revolutionary idea of the defense of natural rights and a millennialism that drew heavily upon Old Testament and Book of Mormon models of warrior-saints.² Since the days of Zion's Gamp the belief had gained ground that the elders would be justified in arming themselves to take the kingdom by force.³ These feelings of aggression, born of fear, frustration, and a sense of millennial destiny, could be easily stirred in Missouri, where the Saints believed that the great events of the last days were soon to unfold. Continued harassment by old citizens, wherever the Saints settled in Missouri, seemed to invoke [p.70] bitter memories of Jackson County and fed the martial spirit. The desire for refuge from pluralism and the uncertainty of choice in a free society encouraged a quest to eliminate opposition both within and without the church through intimidation and, when necessary, violence.

Such tendencies began when Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon came to Far West in the fall of 1837 to strengthen their hold on the church in Missouri. Regimentation swept through the city, and demands were made that the Saints obey the entire law of God,⁴ including the dietary proscriptions of the Word of Wisdom⁵ and the Law of Consecration.⁶ Initiated by Apostle Thomas B. Marsh, oaths of allegiance were demanded of the elders.⁷ Those critical of the prophet were counted disloyal.⁸ Oliver Cowdery lamented the "radical principles taught by the church leaders," saying they "have given loose to the enthusiastik." Fearing that the liberties of the entire church would be subverted, Cowdery wrote that he would not be dictated to when deciding what to eat and drink when he was sick.⁹

John Whitmer, a Book of Mormon witness, and William W. Phelps, a former editor of The Evening and the Morning Star in Independence, Missouri, were also critical. Plagued by creditors¹⁰ and perhaps disillusioned with any possibility of redeeming Zion in the foreseeable future, these two men had sold their land in Jackson County. Although Mormons were still unwelcome in Jackson County, most refugees had refused to relinquish title to their property. In the eyes of the high council in Far West the sale of property in Independence constituted a denial of the faith.¹¹ Consequently, Phelps and John Whitmer were rejected as presidents in Zion, as was David Whitmer, another of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Apostles Thomas B. Marsh and David W. Patten were named as acting presidents until the arrival of Joseph Smith.¹²

Cleansing the divided house at Far West had only begun. In March, a month after being removed from the presidency, John Whitmer and Phelps were charged with "unChristian-like conduct" and excommunicated.¹³ As justification the high council rehearsed an old issue between themselves and the former presidency concerning the proper disposition of $2,000 in personal contributions given by Phelps and Whitmer, who had initially offered to help finance construction of a temple in Far West but later demanded that the bishop return the money.¹⁴ Phelps and Whitmer maintained that these funds were rightly theirs since others had been allowed to [p.71] withdraw their subscriptions.¹⁵ But Marsh, who presided at the excommunication, wrote that the money belonged to the church and that, in addition, the membership was dissatisfied with "many things" the former presidents had done.¹⁶ On reviewing the matter Joseph Smith said that the council had acted "judiciously."¹⁷

When Smith reached the outskirts of Far West on 13 March, internal problems seemed of small concern, for he was greeted "by an escort of brethren" who "welcomed us to their bosoms." Once rested, he met with some of the elders and gave vent to his feelings. He said that the motto of the church was the Constitution "formed by the fathers of liberty peace and good order of society," and, reflecting a certain anti-democratic bias, "aristarchy [government by the best people] live forever." He proclaimed "woe to tyrants, mobs, aristocracy, anarchy and toryism, and all those who invent or seek unrighteous and vexatious lawsuits under the pretext or color of law or office either religious or political."¹⁸ Smith was determined to be free of lawsuits similar to those filed in Kirtland which had driven him away. But the measures he would initiate to prevent recurring lawsuits would contribute to rising militancy in the church and retaliation by Missourians.

At the end of the month, however, Smith wrote to followers still in Kirtland that "the Saints are at this time in union" and that "peace and love prevail throughout."¹⁹ This jubilation was premature. Within two weeks Smith testified against Lyman Johnson, David Whitmer, and Oliver Cowdery,²⁰ who were excommunicated for bringing "vexatious lawsuits" against church leaders and for seeking to lessen his influence among the Saints.²¹ An additional charge of counterfeiting was levied against Cowdery for attempting to produce a bogus scrip.²² Cowdery's criticism of the prophet's sexual conduct was denounced, as was his sale of Missouri land.²³

Lyman Johnson was excluded from fellowship for assaulting Phineas Young and for threatening to appeal the case to a court outside Caldwell County, the county seat set aside by the state legislature for Mormons. It was affirmed that Johnson was bringing discredit to the county.²⁴ To this accusation Johnson replied that he would not "condescend to put [his] constitutional rights at issue on so disrespectful a point." He said that the church had no business telling him where he could appeal his case.²⁵ Smith and Rigdon told the Saints in April that "they meant to have the words of the Presidency... to be as good and as undisputed as the words of God."²⁶ [p.72]

Action was also taken against David Whitmer for joining the dissenters and neglecting church meetings.²⁷ It was clear that he had disassociated himself from the main church body. On 12 April he wrote a letter to this effect, adding that he did not believe the church council which removed him as president in Missouri had proper jurisdiction.²⁸

Oliver Cowdery summarized the feelings of most of the dissenters in Far West in a letter to the high council. He said he would not be governed in temporal affairs by an ecclesiastical tribunal, that if he wished to sell his lands in Jackson County it was his legal right to do so. For the church to claim authority in this matter, he wrote, is

an attempt to set up a kind of petty government, controlled and dictated by ecclesiastical influence, in the midst of this national and state government. You will, no doubt, say this is not correct; but the bare notice of these charges over which you assume a right to decide, is, in my opinion, a direct attempt to make the secular power subservient to Church direction—to the correctness of which I cannot in conscience subscribe—I believe that principle never did fail to produce anarchy and confusion.²⁹

But the prophet was disinclined to pay heed to such criticism. After he settled himself and his family in Far West and had for the moment disposed of dissenters, he looked out with satisfaction on the more than one hundred fifty houses and several stores already constructed³⁰ and on the open spaces that surrounded him. He wrote that "no part of the world can produce a [view] superior to Caldwell County." Having assumed the editorship of the Elders' Journal, he commented in his first editorial that "to all appearance the country is healthy, and the farming interest is equal to that in any part of the world." The prospects for expansion seemed good, and he wrote that "from this to the territorial line on the north is from eighty to one-hundred miles, and to the line on the west twenty-five or upwards." He exuded confidence in the future saying, "The Saints are at perfect peace with all the surrounding inhabitants, and persecution is not so much as once named among them."³¹

Another wave of millennial optimism now swept over the Saints. In the July issue of the Elders' Journal, Alanson Ripley wrote to the missionaries abroad to rejoice for "the Lord our God is about to establish a Kingdom, which cannot be thrown down, neither can the gates of hell prevail against it."³² Appropriate to this end, Smith received a revelation near the end of April in which Far West was declared to [p.73] be "a holy and consecrated land," where members were encouraged to gather "for a defense and a refuge from the storm."³³ They were also commanded to build "a house unto me, for the gathering together of my Saints, that they may worship me." Smith and Rigdon were informed that they were not to go into debt, as they had in Kirtland, in order to erect the sanctuary. A new method for financing the project would be made known.³⁴

Despite these steps to reconfirm Smith's prophetic leadership, there was still murmuring among many faithful who were rankled at the financial losses they had sustained in the Kirtland banking fiasco. Responding to such dissatisfaction, Smith preached to the congregation in May, warning them "against men who came amongst them whining and growling about their money…I cautioned the Saints to beware of such, for they were throwing out insinuations here and there, to level a dart at the best interests of the Church, and if possible destroy the character of its Presidency."³⁵

Smith's attempt to quiet those in financial distress was not entirely successful, since some members believed that the presidency had used church funds for their own purposes.³⁶ Determined to avoid such criticism in the future, Smith and Rigdon went to the high council in May to request financial support, maintaining that "we have for eight years [spent] our time, talents, and property, in the service of the Church." With only one dissenting vote, the council decided to grant each man an eighty-acre lot from the property of the church. It was also agreed that they should receive $1,000 apiece, "not for preaching, or for receiving the word of God by revelation,…but for services rendered in the printing establishment, in translating the ancient records, etc. etc."³⁷ When word of the transaction reached the church members, Ebenezer Robinson recalled, they opposed it "almost to a man."³⁸ The resolution was quickly rescinded, but Ebenezer Robinson reported that shortly after this the revelation on tithing was received.³⁹ Thus debts the presidency incurred building Zion and constructing the temple were to be paid with tithing funds.⁴⁰

A few days later Smith and a company of other elders left Far West to search the northern countryside for potential locations for the hundreds of Saints who were flocking into Missouri. The prophet found an area that seemed ideal. It was situated twenty-five miles north of Far West, outside of the Mormon county, on "an elevated piece of ground" overlooking the Grand River in Daviess County. [p.74] Lyman Wight said Smith commenced laying off town lots and looking for adjacent government land that might be purchased by the Saints. He told them that the new settlement would be called Adam-ondi-Ahman because this was where Adam, the "Ancient of Days," would visit prior to the second coming of Christ.⁴¹ When refugees from Kirtland arrived in Far West in June, Smith directed them to the new settlement. Wight said that floods of immigrants came each day during the summer, and by October two hundred houses had been built. Joseph McFee said that Adam-ondi Ahman grew so fast that it had five hundred people before Gallatin, the county seat, had five houses.⁴² In June Smith organized the settlement into a stake, with his uncle, John Smith, as president.⁴³ Not long afterward the number of Mormons in the county nearly equaled the number of non-mormons.⁴⁴

During the same month another settlement was located south of Far West at DeWitt in Carroll County, where Mormons hoped to secure a port on the confluence of the Missouri and Grand rivers.⁴⁵ The choice of DeWitt as a gathering place had been persistently urged by three land speculators who had contacted Sidney Rigdon when he first passed through in March.⁴⁶ But the expansion of the Saints into counties adjoining Caldwell stirred opposition among politicians, religious leaders, and land speculators. Before such opposition could crystalize, however, events in Caldwell County itself were moving rapidly toward a climactic clash between dissenters and church leaders. The issue which divided them was the nature and authority of civil law inside Caldwell. Word was spreading outside the county that the Saints were unwilling to obey the laws of the state.

Sidney Rigdon protested angrily in June that after David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery came to Far West, they "set up a nasty, dirty, pettifoggers office, pretending to be judges of the law." In addressing a farewell epistle to these ex-brethren, Rigdon complained:

You began to interfere with all the business of the place, trying to destroy the character of our merchants, and bringing their creditors upon them, and break them up. In addition to this, you stirred up men of weak minds to prosecute one another, for the vile purpose of getting a fee for pettifogging for one of them. You have also been threatening continually to enter into a general system of prosecution determined, as you said, to pick a flaw in the titles of those who have bought city lots and built upon them.⁴⁷

[p.75] The dissenters were not the only ones who threatened legal action. In 1837 Reed Peck noted that the Mormons in Far West had borrowed heavily from non-Mormons to finance several merchandising stores,⁴⁸ and a year later in November 1838, a letter to the Missouri Argus commented that the Saints were still "largely in debt to various citizens in neighboring counties."⁴⁹ Threat of court action was alarming to those who remembered being driven from Kirtland in just such a manner. John Whitmer affirmed that in April Joseph Smith publicly asserted that "he did not intend in [the] future to have any process served on him, and the officer who attempted it should die; that any person who spoke or acted against the presidency or the church should leave the country or die."⁵⁰ Sidney Rigdon was similarly disposed and told the Saints that "he would suffer no process of law to be served on him hereafter."⁵¹ According to John Corrill, through the remainder of the spring, Smith and Rigdon continued to preach that "they were fed up with dissenter criticism, and with being harassed to death, that God would protect them henceforth from all enemies if the Saints would 'become one,' and be perfectly united in all things."⁵²

The desired unanimity did not come.⁵³ Some elders began to talk of the need for a body of enforcers who would sustain church leaders without question and harry the critical minded out of their midst.⁵⁴ John Whitmer said the elders "began to form themselves into a secret society which they termed the brother of Gideon, in the which society they took oaths that they would support a brother right or wrong, even to the shedding of blood."⁵⁵ Samson Avard was credited with organizing the possible successor to this group, known as the "Danites," but George W. Robinson, Smith's personal scribe and Rigdon's son-in-law, was also involved in the founding.⁵⁶ In recruiting new members Avard addressed the captains of tens, fifties, and hundreds of the Armies of Israel that Smith organized in 1834 to redeem Zion.⁵⁷ Avard told them, "You have been chosen to be our leading men, or captains to rule over this last kingdom of Jesus Christ."⁵⁸ But in a short time the designation "Danite" was applied to all soldiers of the Armies of Israel, not just the officers. This was how Albert P. Rockwood used the term in his letters written in October as did Anson Call years later.⁵⁹ In its strictest meaning, however, Danites were those of the inner circle who had been initiated into the secret fraternity. Rockwood said that the Danites were established by divine revelation, which indicates that he thought the idea had [p.76] come from the prophet. Oliver B. Huntington referred to the order as a "divine brotherly union."⁶⁰

According to later court testimony, in June when they were organized, the Danite society was bound together by a series of oaths through which they swore unqualified allegiance to the church presidency and to "stand by each other right or wrong." The terms of their agreement were subscribed to in a "constitution," in which they promised to be "governed by such laws as shall perpetuate these high privileges [and rights] of which we know ourselves to be the rightful possessors." The order was to have a "Secretary of War," a legislative assembly, and several military officers responsible to the president of the society, who was declared to be Joseph Smith. Members pledged that they would resist all tyranny "whether it would be in kings or in the people."⁶¹

Apparently Smith did not have much to do with the Danites initially,⁶² keeping a discrete distance but voicing support for the disposing of dissenters and demanding absolute loyalty. John Corrill said, however, that the church presidency would attend Danite meetings from time to time and sanction their plans in person.⁶³ John Cleminson said that Smith told a meeting of Danites that the organization was according to the will of God.⁶⁴ And another loyal Latter-day Saint said it was established by revelation. It is difficult to believe that an organization dedicated to upholding the presidency right or wrong could have advocated actions of which members of the presidency themselves did not generally approve. To do so would have caught the society in contradictions that would have led to its immediate exposure.⁶⁵

John Corrill said that Avard did not inform the church presidency about everything he did.⁶⁶ But many close to Smith, including his Uncle John, Apostle Orson Hyde, and Thomas B. Marsh, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, knew of Danite extravagances.⁶⁷ It does not seem likely that in a town made up of Mormons, where Smith's word was law, the Danites could have done very much without Smith hearing about it from one of these men. George Robinson, Smith's scribe, wrote in the prophet's "Scriptory Book" that "We have a company of Danites in these times [27 July 1838], to put right [physically?] that which is not right, and to cleanse the Church of every [very?] great evil[s?] which has hitherto existed among us inasmuch as they cannot be put to right [-] by teachings and [persuasyons?]."⁶⁸ If Smith dictated or proofread this journal, [p.77] he would have known of Danite intentions to drive the dissenters out of Far West by force.

The Danites now met secretly to consider how dissenters could be driven from Far West. Speaking for those who preferred to see the non-conformists cast out of the city by force, Rigdon informed a large congregation on 17 June that "when men embrace the gospel and afterward lose their faith, it is the duty of the Saints to trample them under their feet.…[Rigdon] called on the people to rise en masse and rid the country of such a nuisance."⁶⁹ Excitement spread rapidly through the community, and threats of violence were leveled against the undesirables.⁷⁰ Rigdon himself composed an ultimatum to Cowdery and the others signed by eighty-three Mormons, warning them to flee from the city in three days or suffer the consequences.⁷¹

Justifying his demand that dissenters depart from their midst, Rigdon commented afterward that "when the country, or body or people have individuals among them with whom they do not wish to associate, and a public expression is taken against their remaining among them, and such individuals do not remove, it is the principle of Republicanism itself that gives that community the right to expel them forcibly, and no law can prevent it."⁷² This kind of reasoning with its appeal to popular sovereignty and higher law would soon bear bitter fruit as Mormons were increasingly viewed as the undesirable minority in western Missouri.

Within a few days four of the leading dissenters, Oliver Cowdery, Lyman Johnson, and the two Whitmers fled to Richmond.⁷³ David Whitmer wrote that he had been required to take an oath of loyalty to the presidency and had refused, thus necessitating his flight from Danite wrath.⁷⁴

After the expulsion of the dissenters, a wave of apocalyptic fervor rolled through Far West sweeping the Saints toward even more rash measures. Apostle David Patten wrote in the July issue of the Elders' Journal that members should be "prepared for the grand assembly,…[to] sit there with the Ancient of Days, even Adam, our father, who shall come to prepare you for the coming of Jesus Christ, our Lord; for the time is at hand."⁷⁵

It was in such a mood of millennial exuberance, as well as anger and frustration, that Rigdon addressed a mixed gathering of Mormons and Missourians at Far West on 4 July—a speech that would have fateful consequences. He announced with ringing protest that the Mormon people would suffer persecutions no more. "If on this [p.78] day," Rigdon began, "the fathers of our nation, pledged their fortunes, their lives, and their sacred honor, to one another,…to be free,…so ought we to follow their example." The rights of the Saints are so identified with the welfare of the country, Rigdon declared, "that to deprive us of them, will be to doom the nation to ruin, and the Union to dissolution." The Mormons would lay the foundation for their temple and make themselves ready for the distress of the nations that was shortly to come. The Saints had warned the Gentiles by precept and by example of the calamitous days ahead, and their words would yet be fulfilled.

Turning to the matter of current Mormon-non-Mormon relations, Rigdon proclaimed, "Our cheeks have been given to the smiters, and our heads to those who have plucked off the hair. We have not only when smitten on one cheek turned the other, but we have done it, again and again, until we are wearied of being smitten, and tired of being trampled upon." Rigdon warned friend and foe

in the name of Jesus Christ, to come on us no more forever, for from this hour we will bear it no more, our rights shall no more be trampled on with impunity. The man or set of men, who attempt to, does it at the expense of their lives. And that mob that comes on us to disturb us; it shall be between us and them a war of extermination, for we will follow them, till the last drop of their blood is spilled, or else they will have to exterminate us; for we will carry the seat of war to their own houses, and their own families, and one party or the other shall be destroyed. Remember it then all MEN.

"We will never be the aggressors," Rigdon asserted, but

no man shall be at liberty to come into our streets, to threaten us with mobs, for if he does, he shall atone for it before he leaves the place. We therefore…proclaim our liberty on this day, as did our fathers. And we pledge…our fortunes, our lives and our sacred honors, to be delivered from the persecutions which we have had to endure, for the last nine years, or nearly that. Neither will we indulge any man, or set of men, instituting vexatious law suits against us, to cheat us of our just rights, if they attempt it we say unto them we this day proclaim ourselves free, with a purpose and a determination, that can never be broken, no never! no never!! NO NEVER!!⁷⁶

Rigdon thus announced that the Saints would not tolerate further legal or violent measures without retaliation.

[p.79] When Rigdon finished, "three loud and long cheers and amens" shook the air of Far West. The old settlers were justifiably alarmed, and Emily Austin remembered that a "very great excitement" was created among them. At this point, she said, "Rigdon's life could not have been insured for five coppers [pennies]."⁷⁷

The speech had been carefully prepared. W. W. Phelps said that a few days before the 4th he heard David Patten say that Rigdon was writing a declaration to proclaim the church independent.⁷⁸ Joseph Smith wrote in the Elders' Journal in August that all the Saints should have a copy for their families to read and that they could obtain it in pamphlet form. He reaffirmed his approval of its central point, that the Saints were determined to retaliate against further persecution: "We are absolutely determined no longer to bear [mobbing] come life or come death for to be mob[b]ed any more without taking vengeance, we will not."⁷⁹

Rigdon's speech stirred lasting enmity among the Missourians. A citizen of Liberty, in Clay County, commented in the Western Star: "Until July 4th, we heard no threats being made against them in any quarters. The people had all become reconciled to let them remain where they are.…But one Sidney Rigdon, in order to show himself a great man, collected them all together in the town of Far West, on the 4th of July, and there delivered a speech containing the essence of, if not treason itself."⁸⁰

There is considerable evidence that Rigdon's speech was, in fact, the turning point in Mormon-Gentile relations in western Missouri.81 Smith himself said there was no persecution through May, and a recent study confirms this was true into July.⁸² To Missourians it seemed that Mormons had declared themselves above the law. The editor of the Missouri Argus said as much: "If this is not a manifestation to prevent the force of law we do not know what it is."⁸³ Soon vigilante forces would be gathering against the Mormons, affirming that they would not honor the law.

Unfortunately, Rigdon's proclamation that "vexatious" lawsuits must cease in Caldwell County was not mere bombast. A resident of Richmond wrote to the Missouri Republican on 13 November 1838 that the Danites had been organized to prevent any collection of debts owed by those within the Mormon community. Recalling Rigdon's declaration, he charged that "the Courts of Justice in Caldwell county were closed, no debts could be collected, the Justices, Constables, and Juries, Clerks and Sheriffs, refused or neglected to do their duties." This writer's accusation is substantiated by a statement of a [p.80] circuit court judge in Caldwell, John Cleminson. He remembered that Smith told him that a certain writ was not to be issued and that he felt "intimidated and in danger, if I issued it, knowing the regulation of the Danite band."⁸⁴ W. W. Phelps, who was a justice in the county court, said that in early July he was forbidden by the prophet to issue any legal process against him.⁸⁵ Citizens of Ray County also said that the Mormons would "not indite one another in Caldwell."⁸⁶ Later Rigdon, while still in the First Presidency in Nauvoo, Illinois, acknowledged that the reason the Saints were harassed in Missouri was that they would not have anything to do with the laws—"we did not break them we were above them."⁸⁷

Even after they left Far West the feeling was strong among the Saints that any appeal to a civil court was wrong. In a high council report in Nauvoo in 1842, it was noted that certain elders "were going to law with [their] brother for trivial causes which we consider a great evil and altogether unjustifiable, except in extreme cases, and then not before the world."⁸⁸ Years later the wife of Apostle Franklin D. Richards told an inquirer that "it is a shame to go to law before the ungodly."⁸⁹ Moved by apocalyptic fervor, the Saints assumed a status of sovereignty above the laws of Missouri, reserving to themselves the right to determine which lawsuits to allow. John Cleminson indicated that Smith exercised this responsibility when the judge himself would not.⁹⁰ This amounted to legal nullification so far as dissenters and non-Mormons in the county were concerned and left Missourians with no recourse but an appeal to arms when involved in disputes with the Saints.

Mormons justified preventing legal process by maintaining that the Kingdom of God had been established and that its laws superceded those of the state. When John Whitmer protested after Rigdon's declaration of independence that state laws should be obeyed, Alanson Ripley retorted that "as to the technical niceties of the law of the land, he did not intend to regard them; that the kingdom spoken of by the prophet Daniel had been set up, and that it was necessary every kingdom should be governed by its own laws."

George Robinson, the prophet's personal scribe, informed Whitmer at this time, "when God spoke he must be obeyed, whether his word came in contact with the laws of the land or not; and that, as the kingdom spoken of by Daniel has been set up, its laws must be obeyed."⁹¹ A few days before this W. W. Phelps warned David Patten that to create a government within a government might be treason, [p.81] but Patten shrugged and said, "It would not be treasonable if they would maintain it, or fight till they died."⁹²

Rigdon's 4th of July oration was a calculated declaration of independence from legal process in Caldwell County, an appeal to higher law—the natural right to self defense legally and militarily. Appeals to higher law could be traced to the American revolutionary tradition, although revolutionaries had not claimed prophetic powers to determine divine law. Mormon higher law justified the establishment of theocratic rule, which the Saints believed was the only law that would protect their rights. Rigdon in his address went a step further, saying that should Gentiles violate those rights again, the elders would carry the war to their houses and families and wage a war of extermination. Rigdon believed that millennial forces were at work, that the vexation of nations had begun. In this context a divinely sponsored war to protect the Saints and their kingdom was fully justified. It is clear since Smith approved the address that these were his beliefs also.⁹³ There was more to Rigdon's speech than religious fervor and 4th of July rhetoric. It was tactical. John Corrill said that for several weeks many feared saying anything against these policies,⁹⁴ thus precluding a voice of caution. Smith and Rigdon had given an ultimatum and the issue of peace or war consequently rested on actions of non-Mormon vigilante leaders in Carroll and Daviess counties. There events moved rapidly toward a military solution.

On the same day that Rigdon declared the legal independence of the kingdom, efforts were underway to make the Saints economically self-sufficient. Smith preached that all the Saints everywhere were required to sell their property to raise funds for buying land around Far West.⁹⁵ Special groups were to buy land from the federal government and deed it to the church. A tract would then be set aside for each family, its size depending upon the number of family members. In this way, Smith said, Zion might be redeemed without the shedding of blood. Rigdon added that the Saints must be united in temporal and spiritual matters or they would never be accepted as children of God.⁹⁶ A few days after this Rigdon elaborated on his theme: "We are soon to commence building the Lord's house in Far West, which will enhance the value of property ten fold in its vicinity, and such proprietors as will not consecrate the whole amount of that increase for the building of the house and other uses, shall be delivered over to the brother of Gideon and be sent bounding over the prairies as the dissenters were."⁹⁷ Despite these threats, not all of the Saints were willing to part with their property.⁹⁸ Many "felt [p.82] like Ananias and Sapphira" and entered land in their own names at the land office, afterward "forcing the poor Saints to pay them large advances for every acre."⁹⁹

A program was established for the newcomers who were flooding into Far West in Caldwell County and Adam-ondi-Ahman to the north in Daviess County. Luman Shirtlift wrote in his journal that when he arrived in Far West in June without funds, he gave all that he possessed into a "cooperative firm" organized into companies of ten men, each with an appointed president.100 John Smith recorded that when he came to Adam-ondi-Ahman he joined a similar unit.101 By October some of these were nearly set up, and leaders had high hopes for their success. Albert Rockwood described with enthusiasm how

permanent arrangements are now makeing for constant employment for both male and female by the operations of Church firms, which are…being…verry extensively established. The members lease all their Real Estate, save the city lots to the firm to which they belong, for a term of years from 10 to 99, without any consideration or interest.…Every member that joins is to put in all he has over and above his needs and wants for his private stewardship in all cases each person is bound to pay his honest debts before leasing. The Calculation is for the brethren to dwell in the cities and cultivate the lands in the vicinity, in fields many miles in extent.

Rockwood further explained that city plots were provided for cooperative workers by the bishop until they could be purchased as private stewardships. All kinds of commodities, farm and manufactured, were produced by these cooperatives. Already they were giving "constant employ…[to] all who join them and pay $1.00 per day for a man's work—any surplus that may remain, after paying the demands of the firm is to be divided according to the needs and wants, not according to property invested, to each family annu[al]ly or [more] often if needed."102

A large crop of wheat had been planted, and now the cooperative members began building new houses. For a man to secure one, he had to work seventy to eighty days for the firm. Rockwood predicted enthusiastically that "arrangements will soon be made that a person can get every necessity to eat, drink and live on and to wear at the store house of the firm and the best of it is they want no better pay than labour arrangements." Thus Rockwood was pleased with [p.83] the prospect of economic independence, maintaining that there would be "no necessity of purchasing of our enemies."¹⁰³ The kingdom was to be economically as well as legally independent.

Despite this buoyant optimism in Far West in the fall of 1838, there was also a note of foreboding expressed in Rockwood's letter to his father. He explained that October, a "time of union and peace in the church," was also one of "rob, mob and plunder without."¹⁰⁴ The truth was that in the three months since Rigdon's 4th of July speech, Mormon-non-Mormon relations had deteriorated in Daviess and Carroll counties. When they first moved into Daviess, Mormons had encountered little protest from the old residents,¹⁰⁵ although Peter H. Burnett said the old citizens were "rather rude and ungovernable" and "opposed to the Mormons extending their settlement" into the county.¹⁰⁶ But protest was quick to be voiced when the newcomers made pre-emptive claims on public land surrounding Adam-ondi-Ahman. It was broadcast among the Missourians that this was an attempt to "take advantage of the [old] citizens in the approaching land sales." Public land auctions were a popular means of acquiring assets cheaply and profit later. There would be less land available to buy because of the influx of Mormon squatters.¹⁰⁷

If collective monopolization of the land by Mormons in Daviess County stirred Missourian hostility, Mormon group politicking prompted greater antagonism. A state election was due in August, and the politically ambitious began to court the Mormon vote. In May a Democratic candidate for state senator, Judge Morin, spent the day with the prophet, and General Wilson, a Whig aspirant, also visited Far West. Afterward, Rigdon, "assisted by the Spirit of God," stood up in the school house and delivered to his mixed audience an "impartial review of both sides of the question."¹⁰⁸

One of the politicos who frequented Far West was William Penniston, who initially opposed the Saints expanding beyond Caldwell County into Daviess County.¹⁰⁹ During the campaign, he visited the Mormon meetings and affirmed that they were "first rate citizens."¹¹⁰ But like most of the old settlers, Penniston was a Whig and had small chance to win favor with the Mormons, who were uniformly committed to the Democratic party.¹¹¹ Fearing that there might be enough new Mormon settlers in Daviess County to swing the election for the Democrats,¹¹² Penniston led Daviess County Whigs in a determined effort to keep Mormons from exercising their political power¹¹³ In July he told supporters in the outlying area of [p.84] the county to vote early on the first day of balloting and then rush to Gallatin to keep the Saints from voting.¹¹⁴ Judge Morin warned the elders of this threat, and on the first morning of the election several brethren, deciding not "to be deprived of their liberty and rights,…determined to go and put in their vote,"¹¹⁵ With this in mind, eight to ten elders arrived in Gallatin early on the morning of 6 August, where Penniston had mounted a whiskey barrel and "harrangued the electors for the purpose of exciting them against the Mormons."¹¹⁶ John Buffer remembered that Penniston told the crowd "he had headed a company to order the Mormons off of their farms and possessions, stating at the same time that he did not consider the Mormons had any more right to vote than the niggers."¹¹⁷

As Missourians gathered around the Mormons and tried to bully them from casting their ballots, fighting erupted. Lyman Wight said that he was "followed to the polls by three ruffians with stones in their hands, swearing they would kill me if I voted."¹¹⁸ John Buffer was initially a spectator, but when he saw several Missourians ganging up on one elder, he grabbed a large chunk of oak and entered lustily into the melee: "When I got in reach of them, I commenced to call out loud for peace and at the same time making my stick to move to my own utter astonishment, tapping them as I thought light, but they fell as dead men."¹¹⁹ The fight lasted only a few minutes, but perhaps as many as thirty men were wounded "with bloody heads and some of them badly hurt."¹²⁰ According to Vinson Knight, armed non-Mormons came to Gallatin the next morning to see to it that no more Mormons voted.¹²¹ The reason for the Whig party's fear of Mormons is shown in the Caldwell County vote for the congressional representative. There were 337 votes for the Democratic candidate, and 2 for the Whig.¹²² Mormons in Missouri voted en bloc, a circumstance that invariably brought opposition.

Judge Morin, who was elected to the state senate, informed the Mormons that some of their elders were dead and left unburied on the ground at Gallatin.¹²³ Angry and determined to right a sacrilege, Smith and Rigdon rounded up fifteen to twenty armed men, with "General" Higbee, "General" Avard and "Colonel" George Robinson among them, his duty being "to command one regiment." As this contingent of the Armies of Israel left Far West, they were joined by "the brethren from all parts of the county"¹²⁴ until there were at least 100 men in their force.¹²⁵ Robinson said that when they arrived at Lyman Wight's house, they found that some of the [p.85] brethren were "badly wounded" from the election fight. He said that certain Missourians were also badly hurt, "some of their sculls cracked."¹²⁶

They soon learned that the story of the uninterred dead was untrue, but rather than return to Far West they rode the next day to the house of local justice of the peace, Adam Black. According to Robinson, he was "an enemy of ours for the evidences were before us that he did, last summer, unite himself to a band of robbers to drive our brethren from the county."¹²⁷ Given Black's hostility, surrounding his house with a band of militia was a provocative act. When some of the elders entered the house, they inquired "whether he justified the course of conduct at the state election." Black said he did not.¹²⁸ The elders then demanded "that he confess to the wrong he had done them," insisting that in working to drive them from the county he had violated the demands of his office. Of course, the question of whether Mormons, in the first place, were violating the conditions of their agreement with Missouri legislators by settling outside of Caldwell County blurred an otherwise straightforward issue.¹²⁹ When the elders "required him to give us some satisfaction so that we might know whether he was our friend or enemy and whether he would administer the laws of our country or not," and that he sign an article of peace, he refused. He would agree to sign a statement of his own composition only. This document apparently affirmed that he would not molest Mormons.¹³⁰

The next day church leaders met at Adam-ondi-Ahman with non-Mormon leaders, including Senator Morin, to agree to a "covenant of peace…to preserve each other's rights and stand in their defense." The agreement provided that if any did wrong they would not be kept from justice in the courts. The agreement seemingly assured non-Mormons that none of the elders would stand above the law, but it also seemed in some respects a mutual defense pact. George Robinson wrote that when the elders returned to Far West at midnight they thought that all was well.¹³¹ They could not have been more wrong.

Before the returning elders settled in Far West, Adam Black made a deposition before a justice of the peace in Daviess County on 9 August, stating that about 154 Mormons surrounded his house and demanded that he sign a peace pledge that he would either not molest the Mormons or suffer "instant death." Black alleged that the Mormons said they would not "submit to the laws."¹³² The next day [p.86] William Penniston swore before Judge Austin A. King in Ray County that Mormons had threatened Adam Black's life and that they intended to drive all the old citizens out of the county and seize their land.¹³³

The Black affair was a boon to those who were hostile to the Mormon advance into Daviess County. Penniston's affidavit forced civil authorities to take action, and a sheriff went to Far West to bring Joseph Smith and Lyman Wight to trial. The pair was reluctant to be tried in Gallatin, and Wight unadvisedly boasted that he could not be taken into custody even if the whole state of Missouri wanted him. His words spread through the western part of the state,¹³⁴ and the response was prompt. In Ray County on 9 August a group of citizens organized a committee of vigilance and sent a delegation of three to investigate.¹³⁵ Three days later a contingent from Livingston County prepared to march to Black's home. They wrote to Carroll County that additional assistance might soon be needed.¹³⁶

Events already underway in Carroll added more supporters to the anti-Mormon cause. Two such meetings were held in Carrollton, the county seat, during early July¹³⁷ and a third on 30 July. There the old citizens passed resolutions requesting that the Mormons at DeWitt leave the county.¹³⁸ Some of the Saints replied emphatically that they would not be driven out, and Henry Root, who had first encouraged the Saints to settle there, hastily retorted that if the citizens of Carroll attempted to expel them they would "apply to Far West for assistance and…[the Missourians] would have to abide the consequences."¹³⁹ On 7 August the people of Carrollton met once more to correspond with nearby counties and to request aid "to remove Mormons, abolitionists, and other disorderly persons from our county."¹⁴⁰

In response to the appeals from Daviess and Carroll county residents, bands of armed men began to collect around Adam-ondi-Ahman and DeWitt in mid-August.¹⁴¹ At the end of the month, Governor Lilburn W. Boggs was sufficiently alarmed by the likelihood of violence that he ordered General David R. Atchison, Commander of the 3rd Missouri Division, to ride with four hundred men to the scene.¹⁴² Joseph Smith also had become fearful of the legions clustering around the Mormon settlements, but he and the other members of the First Presidency resolved that "our rights and our liberties shall not be taken from us, and we peaceably submit to it…we will avenge ourselves of our enemies, inasmuch as they will not let us alone."¹⁴³ [p.87]

This statement, recorded by Robinson, indicated again that Smith and Rigdon were in agreement on retaliation against the marauding Missourians should they cause harm to people or property. Smith wrote to Judge Austin King that government assistance was needed in "putting down and scattering the mob in Daviess county." Smith requested that General Atchison of the state militia visit Far West and advise him as to how to "put a stop to hostilities in Daviess county."¹⁴⁴ When Atchison arrived on the evening of 3 September, he urged Smith to submit to trial before the circuit court. Smith agreed and met Judge King on the 7th at a secluded farmhouse in a wooded area in Daviess, just over the county line.¹⁴⁵ He was accompanied by General Atchison. Quite a few Missourians heard of the secret proceedings and appeared there to threaten Smith. Atchison frightened them off by warning, "If you fire the first gun there will not be one of you left."¹⁴⁶ Although Smith and Wight were held over for probable cause, the Western Star reported at Liberty that the hearing had shown that "Adam Black had misrepresented Mormon intentions."¹⁴⁷

Minute men who had gathered from adjoining counties still lingered in the area to harass the Latter-day Saints. On the 7th a Daviess County committee wrote to citizens of Howard County to come to their rescue since many of their people had already fled. The committee affirmed that Mormons were in rebellion against the laws and that war was inevitable.¹⁴⁸ When General Atchison returned to the area on 15 September, he found two to three hundred men from Livingston, Carroll, and Saline counties marshaled under William W. Austin of Carroll County. Many of the citizens of Daviess had already abandoned their farms and joined the troops at "camp ground," while the Saints too had fled their homes and assumed a defensive position at Adam-ondi-Ahman.¹⁴⁹ The editor of the Western Star wrote that the Gentiles in Daviess County wanted to keep the Mormons away from the free land remaining in the county.¹⁵⁰

An attempt was made to end hostilities. General Atchison ordered Mormons and Missourians to return home, and when most did so he departed, leaving a token force to keep the peace.¹⁵¹ General Parks, in charge of the remaining contingent, wrote on 25 September that those in Daviess County were yet determined to "drive the Mormons with powder and lead," unless one or the other party would buy their opponents out. He said the Mormons at this point "have shown no disposition to resist the laws, or of hostile intentions."¹⁵² [p.88]

On 26 September the opposing groups met, and it was proposed that the Saints purchase the land of Missourians still remaining in the county. Elders were sent out to solicit financial aid from the Saints in the south and east.¹⁵³ Generals Atchison and Parks believed that the situation had stabilized; Atchison wrote to Governor Boggs on the 27th that the Mormons "are not to be feared."154 But a few days later Albert P. Rockwood reflected a different mood among the Saints, writing that "very great fear rests on the Missourians"; they are "selling their property verry low to the Brethren, in many cases they sell their Real Estate with their houses and crops on the ground, for less than the crop is worth." Rockwood said, "Davies[s] County is now in the possession of the Brethren," and noted with satisfaction, "thus the Lord is preparing a way for his children."¹⁵⁵ But the course of events was to prove that Rockwood and the Saints had badly misjudged the signs of the times.

During the latter half of September the situation in Carroll County had become more war-like. There had been a brief lull while William Austin had gone to Daviess to help intimidate the Saints there,¹⁵⁶ but when he returned to DeWitt on 20 September, he brought additional troops from Saline County. Mormons were given until i October to depart.¹⁵⁷ Within the next few days more anti-Mormon troops began to arrive from Ray, Howard, and Clay counties, and after they formed themselves into military companies,158 they surrounded DeWitt, leaving only the road northward to Far West open for the Saints' departure.¹⁵⁹ In the first days of October the two hostile groups began shooting at each other.¹⁶⁰

Meanwhile, Missourians in the more populous areas of the state were growing anxious over the continuing threat of Mormon-Gentile conflict in the north. The editor of the Jeffersonian Republican lamented on 22 September: "Our ploughshares have been turned into swords in this quarter, and the Mormon war is the all engrossing topic of conversation. Even politics is submerged in the deafening sound of the drum and the din of arms." General Samuel D. Lucas, on the scene with a body of state militia, revealed his own and others' bitter hostility toward Mormons in a letter to the governor in which he stated that if a confrontation occurred, "it will create excitement in the whole upper Missouri, and those base and degraded beings will be exterminated from the face of the earth. If one of the citizens of Carroll should be killed, before five days I believe that there will be from four to five thousand volunteers in the field against the Mormons, [p.89] and nothing but their blood will satisfy them."¹⁶¹

The editor of The Far West maintained that "both parties are in the wrong," regretting that some "contentious and quarrelsome disposed persons can throw a whole community into commotion."¹⁶² Another editor maintained that the war was "alike disgraceful to all parties concerned."¹⁶³ A fourth writer took a more belligerent tone, insisting that the situation "will not be settled without a fight, and the quicker they have it the better for the peace and quiet of the county."¹⁶⁴

For a time greater patience prevailed among some in Howard and Chariton counties, where William F. Dunnica formed a committee to find a compromise between the warring parties. A proposition was made by non-Mormons to pay the Saints for their property with 10 percent interest, but the committee was told that the Mormons had been driven enough and preferred to "die on the ground."¹⁶⁵ Mormon determination had been bolstered by the arrival from Far West of Lyman Wight and a company of armed defenders.¹⁶⁶ The Missourians responded by making a plea for more military support from their neighbors: "the people ought to take the execution of justice into their own hands."¹⁶⁷

A small force of militia under General Parks came to DeWitt to keep the peace but was ineffective in preventing skirmishes.¹⁶⁸ Mormons, therefore, appealed desperately to the governor for his intervention, sending a Mr. Caldwell personally to ask for assistance. Boggs claimed to be out of town at the time, but the editor of the Missouri Republican said Boggs believed that the expense of sending more troops was too great.¹⁶⁹ Caldwell reported back to the Mormons that the governor had said they would have to fight it out with their enemies.¹⁷⁰ The Saints at DeWitt chose not to fight and loaded their wagons and departed for Far West on n October,¹⁷¹ agreeing to accept¹⁷² William Dunnica, who had compensation for their property, helped to arrange the final settlement, commented that the Saints made their departure on the very day the Missourians were ready to attack.¹⁷³

If the Saints who fled DeWitt hoped they would escape their tormentors, they hoped in vain. Sashiel Woods urged the troops who had surrounded the town to hurry to Daviess County, because the pre-empted lands would soon go on sale and must be secured by Missourians.¹⁷⁴ Samuel Bogart, a non-Mormon from Ray County, noted to Governor Boggs on 15 October that volunteers from [p.90] Livingston and other counties were on their way to Daviess to prevent the exiled Saints from returning there. He warned the governor that great excitement prevailed in his county and Daviess and concluded his letter with the terse observation that "you may rest assured times grow worse and worse here. [Things are] desperate in the extreme.…You will soon be called on. I hope you will take steps to make a final settlement of this matter, if not soon our country will be ruined."¹⁷⁵

General David Atchison wrote to Boggs a day later, 16 October, saying that troops from Carroll County were on their way to Daviess to play "the same lawless game." He urged "strong measures to put down the spirit of mob and misrule, or to permit them to fight it out." Atchison pleaded that Boggs himself come to the scene, but the governor apparently decided to let the contending parties settle their differences themselves, for he did nothing.¹⁷⁶

For Mormons these Missouri days were a low point. John Pulsipher wrote of this period in his diary: "It seamed that the devil was in almost every man in Missouri. They would declare, from the governor in his chair, down to the meanest man there, who would stand up and swear, with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a knife in the other that the Mormons should not stay there."177 Anxiety turned to fury as the wagons of the exiles from DeWitt rolled into Far West. The prophet protested to John Corrill on 14 October that a plea for assistance had been made to the governor and none had been rendered. Corrill recalled that then and there Joseph and Hyrum Smith determined "to withstand the mob" and drive them out of the country.¹⁷⁸ That Sunday Smith learned from General Doniphan that a large body of troops was hurrying to Adam-ondi-Ahman to begin a new siege, and it was this, according to Corrill, which got the prophet "much excited."¹⁷⁹ It was recorded in Smith's history afterward that the general told the prophet at this point to form his own militia and protect the northern settlement.¹⁸⁰ But several Mormons informed the editor of the Missouri Republican that when Smith called the elders to arms on Monday, 15 October, it was to retaliate for driving the Saints from DeWitt.¹⁸¹

In the morning two to three hundred Mormons collected at the public square to hear Smith exclaim the time had come to take up arms. According to non-Mormon and dissenter sources, Joseph Smith angrily said the law was "unequally administered—all against us, and none for us."¹⁸² The Saints must, he continued,

[p.91] TAKE OUR AFFAIRS INTO OUR OWN HANDS AND MANAGE FOR OURSELVES. We have applied to the Governor and he will do nothing for us; the militia of the county we have tried and they will do nothing. All are mob; the Governor's mob, the militia mob, and the whole State is mob.…I am determined that we will not give another foot, and I care not how many come against us.…God will send angels to our deliverance and we can conquer 10,000 as easily as ten.¹⁸³

Smith told the elders that they might have to live off plundered supplies, but it was justified because they were at war.184 He illustrated his point with a story of a Dutchman who would not sell his potatoes to a military captain, only to find in the morning that the potatoes had been taken despite the captain's pledge to the contrary.¹⁸⁵

Sidney Rigdon now addressed the throng and demanded that all able-bodied men join the task force. Perhaps as many as a third of the elders opposed the expedition,¹⁸⁶ but when Smith threatened to place dissenters at the head of the column, most quickly joined.¹⁸⁷ George Hinkle was placed in command of two hundred men who marched to Adam-ondi-Ahman.¹⁸⁸

Once a base was established in the northern town, the elders were organized into scouting parties and sent to comb the region for supplies.¹⁸⁹ On 17 October General Parks arrived, and Mormon accounts state that he ordered them to "go and put the mob down."¹⁹⁰ Ephraim Owens recalled that Parks told George Hinkle that the Saints "must help themselves" but would not give them a written order to call out Mormon troops. Owens observed that Mormons were thus "compelled to defend themselves by themselves."191 Parley Pratt said that it was a Mormon judge, Elias Higbee, who called out the militia under Colonel Hinkle.¹⁹² During the week that followed, according to Phineas Richards, the elders "went at it and drove the mob by the hundreds, hunted them from every valley, from every secret place. They fled like wind…leaving their cannon and many other valuable things behind which were taken as spoil."¹⁹³

During the campaign Mormon troops drove into Gallatin, the county seat, Millport, and Grindstone Fork and confiscated the property of old citizens.¹⁹⁴ Some of the elders evidently affirmed during the raid that the time had come when the riches of the Gentiles should be consecrated to the Saints.195 Most of the property was placed in the bishop's storehouse.¹⁹⁶ At Gallatin the brethren took all the goods in one store and burned the building to the ground.¹⁹⁷ At Millport [p.92] they raided and burned houses,198 including the home of William Penniston,¹⁹⁹ and at Grindstone Fork citizens who had stashed away enemy arms were driven out and their houses burned.²⁰⁰

The elders who took to their arms had not done so without provocation. Non-Mormons had driven off Mormon livestock²⁰¹ and seized²⁰² and burned houses.²⁰³ Two Mormons had been compelled to ride for three days astride a cannon which the Missourians had brought from Carroll County.204 Some of the brethren were tied to trees and beaten.²⁰⁵ Nonetheless, many of the Mormon troops had gone to war rejoicing that the "Saints shall take the kingdom and possess it forever," fulfilling the prophecy of Daniel.²⁰⁶ It had been whispered among the Danites since July that they would live to fight the battle of Gog and Magog,²⁰⁷ and one of them affirmed in William Swartzell's hearing that they expected to fight "until the blood shall come up to the horse-bridles."²⁰⁸ Albert Rockwood, who was in Far West when the elders returned from their northern campaign, was convinced that millennial events were unfolding and that the Lord's will had been done:

Far West is head-quarters for the Mormon war. The Armies of Israel that were established by Revelation from God are seen from my door every day.…The mob have been dispersed by the Brethren they ask no favors of the Militia—the Missouri mob have all left Davis Co. The f[e]ar of God rests down upon them and they flee when no man persueth. The brethren are fast returning from the northern campaign with hearts full of gratitude, not a drop of blood has been spilt, the Mob disperse by hundreds on the approach of the Danites.…The word of the Lord is for the Saints to gather to Zion in haste…for the perplexities of the nations have commenced.

In an appeal to his family to hurry to Far West, Rockwood said, "Now Father, come to Zion and fight for the religion of Jesus, many a hoary head is seen with their armour about them bold to defend their Masters cause." Rockwood concluded with wonder: "The Prophet now goes before his people as in times of old. Bro. Joseph has unsheathed his sword & in the name of Jesus declares that it will not be sheathed again until he can go into any country or state in safety and peace."²⁰⁹

Smith had indeed unsheathed his sword, but it was a move that he and his people would regret. In the heat of the Daviess County campaign, he proclaimed revolutionary intentions. He said he would [p.93] "hoist a flag, or standard, on the square in Far West, on which he intended to write, 'Religion aside, and free toleration to all religions, and to all people that would flock to it,' and that he believed thousands in the surrounding country would flock to it, and give him force sufficient to accomplish his designs in maintaining his flag and in carrying the war."²¹⁰ Apostle Thomas Marsh, disaffected by these events, confirmed these radical plans "to take this state, and… [Joseph Smith] professes to his people to intend taking the United States, and ultimately, the whole world. This is the belief of the church, and my own opinion of the prophet's plans and intentions."²¹¹ Even consistently loyal Mormons expressed dismay at the actions of Mormon forces against innocent Missourians.

Already by 1838 dreams of a theocratic empire were solidifying. In September Nathan Marsh had written to the governor that "the fears of the people are greatly excited…[the Mormon] teachers have recently been very urgent in soliciting the people to fly to their towns for protection, as the time has arrived when the 'Flying Angel' should pass through the land, accompanied by the Indians."²¹² A resident of Randolph County reported with concern in the Missouri Republican that their "object is a Kingly government… they seem confident that all the wicked in Missouri will be cut off and the Mormons will take peaceable possession."²¹³

When the elders struck towns in Daviess County in October, terror naturally seized the nearby communities. Rumors flew wildly of the intentions of Mormons to devastate the whole state,²¹⁴ and in Ray County word was received that they planned to burn the village of Buncombe.²¹⁵ Frightened citizens sent a communication to Governor Boggs asking for military assistance,²¹⁶ and Boggs responded by calling out two thousand militia to repel invaders.²¹⁷ Citizens of Ray County did not wait for the state militia but mobilized their own troops under Captain Samuel Bogart.²¹⁸ These troops crossed the line into Caldwell County and drove some Mormons from their homes.²¹⁹ Hearing of mob activity in the southern part of their county, Mormon leaders sent Apostle David Patten with seventy Danites to drive Bogart's army out,²²⁰ but in the ensuing fight on 24 October, Patten and two other Mormons were killed.²²¹

Word spread throughout western Missouri that the Mormons had annihilated Bogart's men,²²² and the governor immediately issued a proclamation that the Mormons be exterminated.²²³ Thousands of Missourians happily seized their muskets to end once and for all the Mormon menace in their midst.²²⁴ On 30 October at [p.94] Haun's Mill, a small Mormon village, a company of state militia acting on Boggs's extermination order fell upon the community and slaughtered eighteen elders as well as a boy of eight years.²²⁵ Talk of extermination first by Rigdon and then by Boggs had its effect. The men in the Haun's Mill village were not part of the Mormon army, and the slaughter of these innocents burned into the minds of the Saints a hatred of Missourians that a full generation would not wipe away.²²⁶

"Many respectable men" responded to Bogg's order and began collecting at Richmond in Ray County to expel the Mormons.²²⁷ General John Clark had been placed in command of the state's forces by the governor but was stationed in Charlton County, and he and his troops were slow in arriving.²²⁸ Meanwhile, troops at Richmond under Generals Samuel Lucas and David Atchison moved toward Far West.²²⁹ Albert Rockwood anxiously watched the masses of militia approach the city and noted that the army was "many miles in length." The Saints had a mere five hundred men to face a force which Rockwood estimated to be 1,700. Assured that the Lord would tip the scales in the Mormon favor, he wrote, "the work of death seems to be before us."²³⁰

The prophet perceived the situation for what it was and determined to seek whatever terms he could, perhaps at last recognizing that for the moment most citizens of western Missouri had turned against his people.²³¹ He sent Reed Peck and John Corrill to General Doniphan to sue for peace.²³² Before anything had come of this General Samuel Lucas, who had hurried into the field without orders,²³³ intervened to present the Saints with a "treaty" which required that their leaders—Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Parley P. Pratt, Lyman Wight, and George W. Robinson—surrender themselves as hostages until a final settlement could be reached. The treaty demanded that all the Saints leave the state,²³⁴ a demand that would satisfy the second alternative in Governor Boggs's extermination order.

When Joseph Smith promptly accepted these terms he was taken into custody and "treated with the utmost contempt."²³⁵ General Lucas and some of the other militia officers held a court martial on 1 November and sentenced the Mormon leaders to be shot at dawn.²³⁶ Despite the seeming doom that faced the Mormons, all did not yet despair. Albert Rockwood wrote in his extended letter: "We are now in the hands of our enemies, that are our judges, jurors, and executioners. God only can deliver us…[we] have only to wait and see [p.95] the salvation of God."²³⁷ Rockwood's faith was partially rewarded when General Alexander Doniphan, who was commanded to carry out the executions, refused on the grounds that the proceeding was unlawful.²³⁸ His staunch opposition saved the Mormon leaders from a quick death.

The Saints in Far West did not fare so well. Once they surrendered the militia poured into the town and reaped vengeance upon those who had participated in the Daviess County raid.²³⁹ Hyrum Smith told Dimick B. Huntington to take the Mormon militia men "out of the state for they will be shot down like dogs."²⁴⁰ But those in the militia were not the only ones who would be menaced. Nancy Tracy wrote:

They abused women and children destroyed crops killed beaves and made a general havoc. Once Bogarts company was camped near my house and they searched…for my husband and weapons but they got neither. They placed a double guard at the door and windows so there was no going or coming without their leave. [A]11 this time I was sick in bed a child 3 weeks old and shaking with ague by day burning with a fever at night with no one to care for me but my little boy 5 years old.²⁴¹

Meanwhile, sixty²⁴² of the leading elders were marched to Richmond where on 12 November they were charged with treason in a court of inquiry presided over by Judge Austin King, who had already condemned the prisoners in the newspapers.²⁴³ The hearing, although legally valid, was fiercely partisan as King refused to allow Mormons to testify for the defense and allowed no cross examinations.²⁴⁴ The few Mormons who did testify for the state were intimidated by threats of violence.²⁴⁵

Following the hearing Smith and Rigdon were held over for trial. On 25 January they petitioned to have their case heard in Clay County, where citizens were not as hostile as those in Ray County, but Judge Joel Turnham at Liberty found just cause to hold Smith and four others. On 10 April at a session presided over by Thomas C. Burch, judge of Missouri's eleventh judicial circuit, a Daviess County grand jury brought indictments against the Mormons for riot, arson, burglary, and treason.²⁴⁶ The prisoners gained a change of venue to Boone County after this²⁴⁷ and while in transit to Columbia apparently bribed a guard and escaped.²⁴⁸ They fled to Illinois where the Saints had begun to gather along the banks of the Mississippi River.

[p.96] The Mormon experience in Kirtland and Missouri accentuated the anti-plural tendencies within the movement, vastly increasing the authority of the Mormon prophet and limiting the possibility of loyal dissent. The Danite injunction that the prophet must be obeyed right or wrong became an irresistible demand that all were forced to comply with or leave the community. Those who opposed going to war in Missouri were silenced, forced to flee or put at the head of the Armies of Israel as they marched into battle. Even Brigham Young, who in somewhat similar circumstances later in Nauvoo, Illinois, opposed Rigdon's call to arms,²⁴⁹ made no protest in Far West.²⁵⁰

Only two apostles spoke against the war after the Danite raids had begun: Thomas Marsh, one of the prophet's staunchest supporters and president of the twelve apostles, and Apostle Orson Hyde. They fled Far West before daring to express their opposition. In Ray County they testified before a local judge on 24 October²⁵¹ and then wrote to "Bro & Sister Abbott" on the following day to explain their reasons. Marsh said, "I have left the Mormons & Joseph Smith jr. for conscience sake and that alone." Marsh declared "the disposition in J. Smith and S. Rigdon to pillage, rob, plunder, assassinate and murder, was never equalled, in my estimation, unless by some desperado Bandit. O my what principles to be called the religion of Jesus Christ." Hyde concurred, "I can say with him that I have left the church…for conscience sake, fully believing that God is not with them."²⁵² When Hyde wrote to Brigham Young several months afterward to plead for readmission into the church, he said, "I felt like taking no part in the Danite movements. The convictions of my mind were, that it was not a good and virtuous institution."²⁵³

Wilford Woodruff, expressing the more common views of most of the Saints, said that the dissenting apostles were guilty of "high handed wickedness." Woodruff wrote that the apostles had "jeapard-ized the church by bearing false witness against the presidency & the church before authorities of the state of Missouri which was the leading cause of the Governor calling out thirty thousand of the Militia against the Church."²⁵⁴ Actually, there is no evidence that the testimony of the two apostles before Justice Henry Jacobs on the 24th²⁵⁵ had any influence on Boggs. Boggs's letter to General Clark on the 26th demonstrates that it was the Danite raids on Gallatin and Millport that caused him to call out the militia.²⁵⁶ It is also evident that the exterminating order on the following day came in the wake of reports that the elders had attacked Bogart.²⁵⁷ Military [p.97] retaliation by the Mormons, not apostolic testimony, had once and for all turned Missouri state officials against the Saints.

Had warnings of those opposed to retaliation been heeded, misery, loss of property, and life might have been avoided.²⁵⁸ Still, it does not seem possible that Mormons could have remained in Missouri for long. Given the anti-pluralistic tendencies developing among the Mormons in Missouri, no opposing voices could have been heard and no alternative course considered. Hyde's and Marsh's apprehensions might have been considered humane and supportive of lawful procedures in another time and place.

Yet Wilford Woodruff might have been right to some extent in saying that the two apostles had borne "false witness," in that they quoted exaggerated Danite promises which probably did not indicate serious Danite intent.²⁵⁹ They told of the formation of a Danite "destruction company" to burn Buncombe, Liberty, and Richmond if the residents made any military move against the Saints. They described plans to poison corn and fruit and to say that it was the work of the Lord. They reported Joseph Smith saying "he should yet tread down his enemies, and walk over their dead bodies," and it would soon be "Joseph Smith or the sword."²⁶⁰ Smith was inclined when under great stress to talk in exaggerated terms and would do so again in Illinois.²⁶¹ But the actual response to belligerence when it occurred was much more restrained.²⁶² Although the elders did confiscate property and burn houses, their attacks were generally aimed at specific enemies.²⁶³ Mormons had neither the inclination nor means to wage a general war of extermination against all mobbers, despite menacing talk. The only fatalities occurred in the skirmish with Bogart, where the elders got the worst of the fight. Had the prophet been intent on waging total war, it is unlikely he would have allowed Rigdon to issue his 4th of July warning, which only put the Missourians on guard.

If Marsh and Hyde in fact exaggerated the vicious side of Danite intentions, it may have been because they were misinformed. Hyde confessed to Brigham Young that "tales of some who had been initiated into the mysteries" had prompted him to flee Far West,²⁶⁴ although he insisted that his basic views had been formed before this.

Neither Hyde nor Marsh spoke out against driving dissenters from Far West earlier in the year. It was the war preparations that caused them to flee. Afterward Smith himself came to believe that [p.98] Danite plundering was wrong, or at least a tactical error,²⁶⁵ which may have influenced him to welcome Hyde back to the twelve in 1839.266 Hyde told Brigham Young at the time of his return that "as to the terms upon which I can be received back into my place I shall not be particular; for to live this way [apart from the Saints] I cannot."²⁶⁷ Hyde never denied the specifics of his testimony before Jacobs,²⁶⁸ although later in Nauvoo he was more inclined to blame Rigdon rather than Smith for Danite excesses.²⁶⁹ Marsh did not deny his testimony either, although he wrote to Apostle Heber C. Kimball years later that he had "betrayed a trust."²⁷⁰

The prophet and his people paid a heavy price for their resort to arms in 1838. A majority of state legislators believed that the Saints were at fault and offered no reparations, despite a protest from some in and out of the legislature that the Mormons had been needlessly provoked.²⁷¹ The legislature's decision to table investigation of the causes of the Mormon war precluded any chance, however remote, that the federal government would intervene to demand reparations.²⁷² The consequences psychologically on the Mormon people were enormous as they faced the future fearful that no one in the state or nation cared about their rights or safety. [p.99]

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