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"Saints Driven From Jackson County Missouri" by C.C.A. Christensen

The Expulsion of Mormons from Jackson County, Missouri in 1833 resulted in the forced removal of Latter Day Saints (commonly known as Mormons) from Jackson County, Missouri. The expulsion occurred amidst escalating violence between Mormon residents and non-Mormon vigilantes.

Mormons began establishing a community in Jackson County in 1831. According to Mormon teachings, Jackson County was designated as a gathering place, where they believed they would establish the city of Zion.

Tensions reached a critical point in July 1833 when a controversial issue of the local Mormon newspaper was published. This issue contained two pieces that provoked strong reactions among Missourians. One article reminded free people of color to bring proper identification before immigrating to Missouri, as mandated by state law. The second article advised potential Mormon settlers to make financial preparations before immigrating to the county, rather than relying on the expectation that land would be obtained "by the sword" as in the Old Testament. In response, Missourians formed a mob and destroyed the Mormon printing press.

In October 1833, Mormon leaders received an ultimatum, demanding their departure from the county by the following spring. The expelled Mormons sought refuge in neighboring counties, especially Clay County. The expulsion had a profound impact on the Latter Day Saint community, shaping their history, migration patterns, and religious development in subsequent years. [1]

Background

See also: Zion (Latter Day Saints) and Temple Lot
This one page Plat written in June 1833 by Joseph Smith defines a comprehensive multiple city plan.

After the publication of the Book of Mormon in 1830, early members were instructed in a revelation to Joseph Smith in September 1830 to "go among the Lamanites and preach my gospel unto them." [2] [3] The " Lamanites" were understood by the early members to be Native Americans living on the border of Missouri, where they were being forcibly relocated by the United States government. The location of Zion was not specified, but originally given in revelation to be "among the Lamanites," across the border of Missouri in Indian territory. [4] When missionaries arrived however in January 1831, the United States government did not permit any missionary work or Latter Day Saint settlements. [5]

On July 20, 1831 Smith received a new revelation that the location of Zion would be located across the river on the "borders of the Lamanites" in Jackson County. [5] Specifically, the county seat of Independence, had been designated by divine revelation as the place of Zion, the New Jerusalem. [6] Earlier revelations were modified to reflect the new location in Missouri rather than Indian territory. [2] [7] [4] The Mormons settled primarily in the western part of Kaw Township and opened a school in what is now Troost Park. [8] On August 3, 1831, Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, Peter Whitmer Jr., Frederick G. Williams, W. W. Phelps, Martin Harris, and Joseph Coe laid a stone as the northeast cornerstone of the anticipated temple. On December 19, 1831, Mormon leader Edward Partidge purchased 63 acres (250,000 m2), including the Temple Lot. [6]

In June 1832, Mormon leader W.W. Phelps moved to Independence, set up operation of a printing press and established the The Evening and the Morning Star, a monthly Mormon newspaper. Independence resident Josiah Gregg later recalled "in proportion as [the Mormons] grew strong in numbers, they also became more exacting and bold in their pretensions. In a little paper printed at Independence under their immediate auspices, everything was said that could provoke hostility between 'saints' and their 'worldly' neighbors, until at last they became so emboldened by impunity, as openly to boast of their determination to be the sole proprietors of the 'Land of Zion.'" [9]

In December 1832, contemporary sources estimated that 100 Mormons populated Jackson County. [10] By 1833, about 1200 Mormons had settled in the county, making up between one-third and one-half of population. [11] [12] As the number of Mormons in the area grew, tensions emerged between the Mormons and their non-Mormon neighbors. This was partly due to the religious and cultural differences between the two groups, economic competition, political differences, and fears of cultural displacement. [13]

A comprehensive plat was devised by Smith in 1833, describing the planned city as an organized grid system of blocks and streets, with blocks house lots that alternated in direction by columns of blocks between north-south streets. The plan called for 24 Mormon temples at the city's center. [14]

July edition of The Star and escalating violence

The July 1833 edition of the Evening and the Morning Star, a Mormon local newspaper, featured multiple stories that were controversial with Missourians.

The controversial issue of The Evening and the Morning Star published in July 1833.

One piece reminded "free people of color" to bring proof of citizenship with them if they came to the state, as required by Missouri law. While the piece was an attempt to have Mormon settlers of color comply with state law, the legal immigration of free blacks was seen as extremely undesirable to Missourians of the newly-created Slave State. The articles inflamed tensions with the Missourians, who interpreted them as evidence of the Mormons actively facilitating and encouraging the settlement of people of color. [15] However, The Star would later publish an extra denying these allegations, stating their intent was actually the opposite.

A second piece in The Star's July edition cautioned Mormons to adequately prepare before attempting to migrate to Jackson County, reminding them that while "the children of Israel" were "compelled to obtain [the Holy Land] by the sword, with the sacrifice of many lives", land in Jackson country had to be lawfully purchased, writing: "to suppose that we can come up here and take possession of this land by the shedding of blood, would be setting at nought the law of the glorious gospel, and also the word of our great Redeemer: And to suppose that we can take possession of this country, without making regular purchases of the same according to the laws of our nation, would be reproaching this great Republic, in which the most of us were born, and under whose auspices we all have protection." [16] While the piece attempted to stem the influx of unprepared Mormon settlers and emphasized the need to respect existent property rights, the mere mention of land being obtained "by the sword" inflamed anxieties among Missourians.

Destruction of The Star

"Extra" of the Evening and Morning Star published July 16, 1833 in an effort to diffuse the tense situation.
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On July 20, 1833, citizens of Jackson County held a town meeting to discuss concerns about the Mormon settlers, whom they described as "little above the condition of our blacks either in regard to property or education", accusing the Mormons of having a "corrupting influence on our slaves" and inviting free people of color to the state. It accused the Mormons of planning to take over the county, writing "We are daily told, and not by the ignorant alone, but by all classes of them, that we, (the Gentiles,) of this county are to be cut off, and our lands appropriated by them for inheritances." The address alleged that "many of this deluded and infatuated people have been taught to believe that our lands were to be won from us by the sword." The address argued "it requires no gift of prophecy to tell that the day is not far distant when the civil government of the country will be in their hands".

It finally concluded with a demand that no further Mormons come to the county, that those present in the county leave, that their paper cease printing immediately. It ended with an ominous threat of violence, calling for "those who fail to comply with these requisitions [to] be referred to those of their brethern who have the gifts of divination... to inform them of the lot that await them". [17][ better source needed]

After a two hour adjournment, during which the demands were presented to prominent Mormons, the meeting reconvened and were told that the local Mormon leaders requested an "unreasonable" amount of time to respond. As a result, a mob attacked the newspaper's printing office, destroyed the press, and tarred and feathered two Mormon leaders. [17] [18]

Forced "agreement"

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On July 23, a mob again gathered at the courthouse square, and rounded up six of the church's high priests. The vigilantes dispersed after extracting an agreement from them that half of the Mormons would leave the county by January 1, 1834, and the rest by April 1. [19] In exchange for the Mormons leaving their homes, the local citizens council would "use all their influence to prevent any violence" so long as the Mormons complied with the "agreement". [20]

Expulsion

In October 1833, W. W. Phelps and Orson Hyde traveled to Jefferson City, the state capital, to present a petition to Governor Daniel Dunklin requesting militia protection and redress for damaged property. The government of Missouri condemned the actions of the vigilantes, and advised the Mormon representatives to prosecute their offenders through local courts. [21] Following the governor's advice, the Mormon leaders filed lawsuits against the perpetrators of the printing shop's destruction. [22]

On October 31, a mob raided a Mormon settlement eight miles west of Independence, damaging several houses and whipping the men inside. [23] The next day, the Mormon storehouse in Independence was sacked, having its goods scattered on the street. [24]

On November 4, some 50 Missourians gathered near the Big Blue River and captured the Mormon ferry. A gunfire exchange ensued which resulted in the death of one Mormon and two non-Mormons. [25] After the local militia intervened, the Mormons surrendered their arms and agreed to leave the county within ten days. [26]

Aftermath

See also: 1838 Mormon War
Settlements in western Missouri in 1838

The non-Mormons in Jackson County refused to allow the Mormons to return to their lands, and reimbursement of confiscated and damaged property was refused. [27] In 1834, Mormons attempted to effect a return to Jackson County with a quasi-military expedition known as Zion's Camp. This expedition originated from the church's headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio, with the aim of reaching Jackson County. However, it disbanded before it reached its intended destination. [28]

The expulsion garnered significant attention and widespread disapproval from both local and national press. [29]

It is possible to forsee what is to be the result of this singular and outrageous violation of the laws. We fear that the party opposed to the Mormons will think themselves placed so far beyond the pale of the law as to continue utterly regardless of it. . . The Mormons are as much protected in their religion, their property, and persons, as any other denomination or class of men. (Missouri Republican, November 1833) [30]

New converts to Mormonism continued to relocate to Missouri and settle in Clay County. Tensions rose in Clay County as the Mormon population grew. In an effort to keep the peace, Alexander William Doniphan of Clay County pushed a law through the Missouri legislature that created Caldwell County, Missouri, specifically for Mormon settlement in 1836. [31]

A panoramic view of Temple Lot from the U.N. Plaza to the west. Significant buildings (left to right): Stone Church (a historic congregational building of the Community of Christ), Church of Christ Temple Lot, Community of Christ Temple, Mormon Independence Visitor Center (slightly visible to the left down the hill from the auditorium), Community of Christ Auditorium.

References

  1. ^ Givens, Terryl L. (2019). The Latter-day Saint Experience in America. Oxford University Press.
  2. ^ a b Vogel, D. (2023). Charisma under pressure: Joseph Smith, American prophet, 1831-1839. Signature Books. page 140
  3. ^ Staker, M. L. (2009). Hearken, O ye people: The historical setting of Joseph Smith’s Ohio Revelations. Greg Kofford Books. Page 49
  4. ^ a b Smith, J., & Marquardt, H. M. (2013). Joseph Smith’s 1828-1843 revelations. Xulon Press.
  5. ^ a b Gentry, Leland H. “ Light on the ‘Mission to the Lamanites.’” Brigham Young University Studies, vol. 36, no. 2, 1996, pp. 226–34. JSTOR, . Accessed 11 Nov. 2023.
  6. ^ a b Addams, R. Jean. “ The Establishment and Redemption of Zion.” The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 34, no. 1 (2014): xiv–33.
  7. ^ Revelation Book 1, p. 41, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed November 11, 2023
  8. ^ "Marker at Troost Park – Ensign Peak Foundation". Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  9. ^ https://issuu.com/utah10/docs/uhq_volume35_1967_number1/s/104108
  10. ^ http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/OH/miscoh02.htm#120632
  11. ^ https://www.kcur.org/show/central-standard/2015-02-12/the-bloody-history-of-mormonism-in-jackson-county
  12. ^ Harper, Steven C. (2017-10-31). "Mormon Authority and Identity in America". VoegelinView. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  13. ^ Bushman, Richard L. (1960). "Mormon Persecutions in Missouri, 1833". Brigham Young University Studies. 3 (1): 11–20. ISSN  0007-0106. JSTOR  43043849. Missourians were voluble about the causes of their enmity. Declarations adopted by mass meetings in Jackson County and articles by individual apologists described the sources of resentment interference with Negroes, collusion with Indians, threatened armed aggression, the offensive religion of the Mormons, and their growing political power
  14. ^ Taysom, Stephen C. (2010). "Imagination and Reality in the Mormon Zion". Shakers, Mormons, and Religious Worlds: Conflicting Visions, Contested Boundaries. Religion in North America. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 61. ISBN  978-0-253-35540-9. LCCN  2010012634.
  15. ^ Frampton, T. Ward (2014). ""Some Savage Tribe": Race, Legal Violence, and the Mormon War of 1838". Journal of Mormon History. 40 (1): 175–207. ISSN  0094-7342. JSTOR  24243875. Missourians ... interpreted the passage as clear evidence that the Mormons were encouraging and facilitating the settling of free blacks in Jackson County; Phelps immediately protested that his intent was actually to discourage that very thing. In the same issue, however, was a second article that seemed to betray where the Mormons' sympathies truly lay: "The saints must shun every appearance of evil. As to slaves we have nothing to say. In connection with the wonderful events of this age, much is doing towards abolishing slavery, and colonizing the blacks, in Africa."
  16. ^ http://www.centerplace.org/history/ems/v2n14.htm
  17. ^ a b http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/MO/Miss1831.htm
  18. ^ Brodie, Fawn M. (1957). No Man Knows My History. p. 129. A mob had stormed into Independence, burned the printing house, smashed the press, carried off the newly printed collections of revelations, tarred and feathered Bishop Partridge, and ordered the whole colony to leave the county.
  19. ^ Kinney, Brandon G. (2011). The Mormon War: Zion and the Missouri Extermination Order of 1838. Westholme. ISBN  978-1-59416-534-4. Three days later the group returned, threatening the leaders with one hundred lashes—a death sentence—unless they agreed to leave Jackson County. The leaders responded that half the colony would leave by January 1, 1834, and the rest before spring.
  20. ^ THE WESTERN MONITOR. Fayette, Missouri, August 2, 1833.
  21. ^ Jennings, Warren A. Zion is Fled: The expulsion of the Mormons from Jackson County, Missouri. p. 158. Finally, on October 19, the Governor forwarded his opinion to the elders. He informed the petitioners: I should think myself unworthy the confidence with which I have been honored by my fellow-citizens, did I not promptly employ all the means which the Constitution and laws have placed at my disposal, to avert the calamities with which you are threatened... No citizen, nor number of citizens, have a right, to take the redress of their grievances, whether real or imaginary, into their own hands: Such conduct strikes at the very existence of society, and subverts the foundation on which it is based.
  22. ^ Jennings, Warren A. Zion is Fled: The expulsion of the Mormons from Jackson County, Missouri. p. 158. The advice of the governor was acted upon. The disciples consulted with four lawyers from Clay County.
  23. ^ Wosnik, Peter J. (2017). Religious Liberty, Zion, and the Mormon Expulsion from Missouri, 1831-1839. p. 47. That night forty or fifty armed mob members "unroofed" nearly a dozen houses. The mob then "caught three or four of the men, and notwithstanding the cries, and entreaties of their wives and children . . . whipped and beat them in a barbarous manner.
  24. ^ Lund, Matthew (2012). The Vox Populi Is the Vox Dei: American Localism and the Mormon Expulsion from Jackson County, Missouri. vigilantes split opened the doors of the Gilbert & Whitney store and threw the goods out into the street.
  25. ^ Jennings, Warren A. Zion is Fled: The expulsion of the Mormons from Jackson County, Missouri. p. 177. The fire must have been heavy, for when the battle was over two of the citizens and several of their horses were dead on the field
  26. ^ Lund, Matthew (2012). The Vox Populi Is the Vox Dei: American Localism and the Mormon Expulsion from Jackson County, Missouri. After relinquishing their arms, the Mormon company disbanded. The men Colonel Pitcher demanded were surrendered and subsequently imprisoned. A few days later, however, the Missourians released them without trial.
  27. ^ Lund, Matthew (2012). The Vox Populi Is the Vox Dei: American Localism and the Mormon Expulsion from Jackson County, Missouri. Feeling powerless, Governor Dunklin eventually conceded to popular rule in Jackson County. Likewise, submitting to the limitations of the federal constitution, the Jackson Administration bowed to the local will and sovereignty of the state. Consequently, the Mormons failed to receive protection and redress from local, state and federal authorities for depredations committed against them.
  28. ^ LeSueur, Stephen C. (1990). The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri. University of Missouri Press. p. 19. ISBN  9780826206268.
  29. ^ Kinney, Brandon G. (2011). The Mormon War: Zion and the Missouri Extermination Order of 1838. Westholme. ISBN  978-1-59416-130-8. The newspapers throughout the state and the nation decried the outrageous acts of the Jackson County citizens against the Mormons ... The scathing editorials were indignant that the Mormons had been forcibly dispossessed of their lands and property.
  30. ^ Firmage, Edwin Brown; Mangrum, Richard Collin (2001). Zion in the Courts: A Legal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900. University of Illinois Press. ISBN  978-0-252-06980-2.
  31. ^ Bushman, Richard L (2007). Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. New York City, NY: Vantage. pp. 344–345. ISBN  978-1-4000-7753-3. Retrieved 12 April 2011.
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