the Star, to which the Old Citizens took so much exception. was intended to inform elders and members in different branches of the church what the laws of Missouri were on the question of free people of color, thinking that such information would be a sufficient deterrent to any free negro member who might want to come to Missouri. To the uneasy slave owners who could not but be suspicious of these Northern non-slave-owning people, however, the publication of this information meant only one thing, that the Mormons were preparing the way for their free colored brethren to settle among them to corrupt their blacks. On seeing the interpretation that was being placed upon the article, an extra was immediately issued explaining intentions, but having once arrived at their conclusions, the Old Settlers preferred to retain them. It is probably true that some of the church members unwisely expressed their views on the slave question; it is well within the possible that the case of interfering with slaves, of which earlier complaint was made, actually happened; but, the leaders of the church promised to deal with any who should offend in the future and there is no evidence of anything further of this kind. The next difficulty, in the charge, is the article in the July Star, above referred to. The whole of the slavely evidence against the Mormons during the two years, then, is this early and apparently not very well substantiated case of interfering with the slaves, and the article in the Star. The first, whatever it was, appears to have been checked. The latter, the publication of a slave state's laws on slavery could be objected to only by a people in a very high state of suspicion. The facts are the Mormon were doing all they could to keep out of the slavery question. But it is to be remembered that they were from the North and they owned no slaves evidence enough to the old settlers that they were opposed to slavery and, therefore, its enemies.

The fourth grievance-daily proclamations by the Mormons that the "Gentiles were to be cut off," and that the Mormons were to have their lands, many apparently having been taught that "they were to be won from us by the sword"-brings us to a charge of substantial strength. It must be admitted by the Mormons that many of the elders, chosen as they are from every walk of life and often possessing little training, have been most unwise in their manner of approach to strangers and have often needlessly antagonized. Many of them have not fully understood their own message. Then, too, the language of Joseph Smith was not always definite and different interpretations could easily be placed on

1A good example of an effort to curb unwise elders is found in a "Letter to the Elders in Kirtland and the Brethren Abroad, published in Joseph Smith's History of the Church, Period I, vol. 1, pp. 467-69. The charge of arrogance is frequently made against the Mormons by non-Mormon writers. See Mackay, The Mormons, pp. 66, 72-4. Also H. H. Bancroft, History of Utah, pp. 97-98.

some of his words.1 A case in point, is that found in connection with the purchase of lands in Zion. The passage follows:

Wherefore the land of Zion shall not be obtained but by purchase or by blood, otherwise there is none inheritance for you. And if by purchase behold ye are blessed; and if by blood, as ye are forbidden to shed blood, lo, your enemies are upon you, and ye shall be scourged from city to city. and from synagogue to synagogue, and but few shall stand to receive an inheritance.2

The mention of purchase by blood had an immediate and an unfortunate effect. To those already unfriendly and suspicious, it meant the use of force or "obtaining inheritances without money and without price" as the Old Citizens put it. But an entirely different meaning has been placed upon it by the Mormon Church which may be explained thus: This "revelation" was given for the purpose of stimulating the people to exert every effort towards buying out the lands of the Old Citizens. If they did not do so it is promised difficulties would arise and the land would be "purchased by blood," not the blood of their enemies for they (the Mormons) were "forbidden to shed blood," but by the spilling of their own blood as they were driven "from city to city and from synagogue to synagogue." In the end, finally, when Zion should be built, the total of the purchase price, would include not only the money involved in buying the lands, but the blood of those who had become martyrs in the effort. In other words, if the saints did not hurry up and buy up Jackson County, their blood would become a part of the purchase price. Interpreted in this way the passage is illuminating and no objection can be taken to it. It has always been so understood by the church leaders. Time and again, they gave assurance that they intended to obtain their lands by purchase and in no other way and no instance is to be found where any effort was made to obtain property in any other manner. It is possible that individual elders have understood it differently and it is certain that the Old Citizens were very suspicious of it. But here again it is a lack of genuine understanding which is at the root of the difficulty.

Grievance number five-the Mormon system of sending into New York, Ohio, and Illinois (northern states), large numbers of missionaries who make many converts among the superstitious, the ignorant, and the poor, and send them to this countyraises considerations which at first reading may appear to be of

1 Joseph Smith appreciated fully his language difficulties. At one time in a letter to W. W. Phelps he said, "Oh Lord God, deliver us in due time from the little narrow prison, almost as it were, total darkness of paper, pen and ink; and a crooked, broken, scattered and imperfect language." Joseph Smith, op.cit., p. 299; and again in his diary, "O may God give me learning, even language, and endue me with qualifications to magnify His name while I live." Millennial Star, vol. 15, p. 548.

2 Docrtine and Covenants, Sec. 43:29-31.

minor importance but which on closer study, are found to be most vital. What though the Mormons were law-abiding, and purchased their lands at market value, and left slavery unmolested, and worked industriously, and sought after sound knowledge, it still remained a fact that the nature of their whole program, as it was being carried out, was such that the Old Settlers could not agree to it. The Mormons had selected Independence as their place of gathering. They pressed into Jackson County in large numbers, many of them too poor to buy improved land, and with enough to buy only a small amount of government land even though it sold at from $1.25 to $2.00 per acre. They were Northern nonslave owners. They looked on life through a religious angle. Their customs, their habits, their projects, public and private, were very foreign to the Southern slave owners' The type of life, most of the things the Old Settlers held dear, was about to be submerged by this veritable invasion of what, in almost every sense, was a foreign people. In a larger sense, it was a question of your home against my home, your institutions against my institutions. The Old Settlers were there first. They had reclaimed the land. Were they to be forced to either sell their homes or live under conditions determined by a majority whose "ways were not their ways?" With increasing dissatisfaction they offered more than once to sell out and leave1 but the Mormons, alas, were too poor to buy. What was to be done? Sit supinely by, and in the course of another year find themselves in a minority and, therefore, according to American political principles, at the mercy of the incoming majority? Not we of frontier Missouri. said the Old Citizens. We'll remove them while we still have the power.

The sixth and last mentioned grievance the prospective loss of political power in the county—was of no small consequence to these people. For a generation the southerners had fought, might and main, to achieve and retain control over the federal government. They were accustomed to political domination and were fully alive to the advantages and the importance of it. Should they submit to a program which would inevitably relegate then to the background and bring to the fore, problems and projects ir: which they had no interest, and which would gradually come to dominate local public affairs?

Again the answer was no.2

1 See John Corrill's op.cit., p. 19.

2 Independence itself was but a very small town when the Mormons began to settle there. The apostate Mormon, Ezra Booth, thus describes it: "It is a new town, containing a courthouse built of brick, two are three merchant stores, and fifteen or twenty dwelling houses, built mostly of logs hewed on both sides; and is situated on a lonesome rise of ground, about three miles south of the Missouri River, and about 12 miles east of the dividing line between the United States and the Indian Reserve, and is the county seat of Jackson County." From Letter No. 6, published in Howe's Mormonism Unveiled, p. 196.

Jackson County itself, in 1830, just before the Mormons began to settle there, had a population of 2823. These people were mainly from the south. Linn, The Story of the Mormons, pp. 161-62.

CHAPTER XII

THE STORY TOLD BY THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

Many Mormon writers have held that the old citizens of Jackson County were not only grossly ignorant themselves, but were bloodthirsty and lawless, with little respect for law or order, being in part at least dregs of Southern society, sent west to perpetuate slavery in new territory. As for the charge of ignorance, it is, perhaps, a legitimate assumption that there was not much to choose from as between the Old Settlers and the Mormons.1 Both were subject to pioneer conditions and the masses could not well have had much education. It is certain that there were many who were very ignorant in both camps. But the story that is revealed by the sequence of events indicates clearly that, while the Old Citizens had fully determined to use whatever force was necessary in order to remove the Mormons, they did not desire to inflict any further injury than was necessary to bring this about. Let us follow the order of events. Following a preliminary meeting in April at which little was accomplished, there gathered a large body of Old Citizens at Independence, about July 15, 1833. The Mormons were informed that they must leave the county, but no violence of consequence was manifested. On July 20th, the Old Settlers returned, in larger numbers, and renewed the demand. The Mormons refused. The next step taken was to destroy the Star printing press. Bishop Partridge and Charles Allan were also tarred and feathered upon the public square. The crowd then disbanded. On the 23rd of July they came again in still larger numbers and thus made it evident that they meant business. The Mormon leaders now agreed to leave, themselves, and to use their influence to get the rest to leave. The agreement was signed and was acceptable to the Old Citizens who disbanded. There was no further violence until the Mormons, on the advice of the Church leaders in Kirtland, decided that the agreement was made under duress and was binding only on those who had signed it, and, on the advice of Governor Dunklin, sought the assistance of the civil law to protect their persons and property. Following this the Mormons were removed from the county by force of arms. Much suffering naturally resulted and in cases inflamed mobs went

1 Linn (an anti-Mormon writer) in The Story of the Mormons, pp. 161-62, describes the backward conditions which maintained among the old settlers. See also P. P. Pratt's Autobiography, pp. 70-71, 78.

2 Andrew Jenson and Edward Stevenson relate in a pamphlet on the Infancy of the Church, pp. 2-4, an account of a visit in 1888 to the home of a Mr. Mason who was one of the Jackson County mob. Said Mr. Mason, concerning himself: "I can't read a word, I only went to school three weeks in my life, during which time I got nine lickings and quit."

to extremes.1 The winter wore on and the Mormons sought state aid in order to become reinstated. The governor was willing to reinstate them but thought it was beyond his power to maintain a military force to protect them. He suggested that they organize themselves into a guard in order to protect themselves. Realizing that they were not strong enough to return as things stood, Zion's Camp was formed by the branches of the church in the east. The men of this camp came to Missouri to make their homes and to give the Mormons in Missouri sufficient strength so that they could protect themselves, after the governor reinstated them. It was not until the Mormons sent word to the governor concerning these reinforcements that, in desperation, it would seem, the Jackson citizens burned the Mormon homes, during the period between April 24 and May 7, 1834.

But, it is objected, all of these high-handed proceedings of the Old Citizens were lawless. That must be admitted and was admitted by the Old Citizens themselves in their "Address to the Public" which is printed at the close of Chapter XIV of this volume. What is contended here is, that having decided for reasons they deemed sufficient to go beyond the law and expel the Mormons, they apparently made a decided effort to do so with as little violence as possible, constituting themselves ready, nevertheless, to go as far as was necessary in order to accomplish their purpose. Bishop Edward Partridge's own statement concerning his "tarring and feathering" seems to bear out the conclusion I have here reached and I shall close this part of our inquiry with his account:2

Before tarring and feathering me, I was permitted to speak. I told them that the saints had been made to suffer persecution in all ages of the world, that I had done nothing which ought to offend anyone. That if they abused me, they would abuse an innocent person. That I was willing to suffer for the sake of Christ; but, to leave the country, I was not then willing to consent to it. By this time the multitude made so much noise that I could not be heard; some were cursing and swearing, saying, call upon your Jesus; others were equally noisy in trying to still the rest, that they might be enabled to hear what I was saying.

Until after I had spoken, I knew not what they intended to do with me, whether to kill me, to whip me, or what else I knew not. I bore my abuse with so much resignation and meekness, that it appeared to astound the multitude, who permitted me to retire in silence, many looking very solemn, their sympathies having been touched as I thought and, as to myself, I was so filled with the Spirit and love of God, that I had no hatred towards my persecutors, or anyone else.

1 Particularly were the old settlers hard on any who attempted to return for any cause whatsoever. For example, see Joseph and Heman Smith Church History, (Reorganized), vol. 2, pp. 52-53. For further account of Mormon sufferings see P. P. Pratt's Late Persecutions, pp. 31-35.

2 Times and Seasons, vol. 6, p. 839.

Such occurrences as the foregoing were probably responsible for the favorable sentiment toward the Mormons, which existed among state officials and people generally in Missouri outside of Jackson County, during this period. See Mackay, The Mormons, p. 73.