The Story of Mormonism and The Philosophy of Mormonism | Page 7

as these; but insincere they cannot be, even in the judgment of their
bitterest opponent, if he be a creature of reason.
The clouds of persecution thickened in Ohio as the intolerant zeal of
mobs found frequent expression; numerous charges, trivial and serious,
were made against the leaders of the Church, and they were repeatedly
brought before the courts, only to be liberated on the usual finding of
no cause for action. Meanwhile the march to the west was maintained.
Soon thousands of converts had rented or purchased homes in
Missouri--Independence, Jackson County, being their center; but from
the first, they were unpopular among the Missourians. Their system of
equal rights with their marked disapproval of every species of
aristocratic separation and self-aggrandizement was declared to be a
species of communism, dangerous to the state. An inoffensive
journalistic organ, _The Star_, published for the purpose of properly
presenting the religious tenets of the people, was made the particular
object of the mob's rage; the house of its publisher was razed to the
ground, the press and type were confiscated, and the editor and his
family maltreated. An absurd story was circulated and took firm hold of
the masses that the Book of Mormon promised the western lands to the
people of the Church, and that they intended to take possession of these
lands by force. Throughout the book of revelations regarded by the
people as law specially directed to them, they are told to save their
riches that they may purchase the inheritance promised them of God.
Everywhere are they told to maintain peace; the sword is never offered
as their symbol of conquest. Their gathering is to be like that of the
Jews at Jerusalem--a pacific one, and in their taking possession of what
they regard as a land of promise, no one previously located there shall
be denied his rights.
A spirit of fierce persecution raged in Jackson and surrounding counties
of Missouri. An appeal was made to the executive of the state, but little
encouragement was returned. The lieutenant- governor, Lilburn W.
Boggs, afterward governor, was a pronounced "Mormon"-hater, and
throughout the period of the troubles, he manifested sympathy with the

persecutors.
One of the circuit judges who was asked to issue a peace warrant
refused to do so, but advised the "Mormons" to arm themselves and
meet the force of the outlaws with organized resistance. This advice
was not pleasing to the Latter-day Saints, whose religion enjoined
tolerance and peace; but they so far heeded it as to arm a small force;
and when the outlaws next came upon them, the people were not
entirely unprepared. A "Mormon" rebellion was now proclaimed. The
people had been goaded to desperation. The militia was ordered out,
and the "Mormons" were disarmed. The mob was unrestrained in its
eagerness for revenge. The "Mormons" engaged able lawyers to
institute and maintain legal proceedings against their foes, and this step,
the right to which one would think could be denied no American citizen,
called forth such an uproar of popular wrath as to affect almost the
entire state.
It was winter; but the inclemency of the year only suited the better the
purpose of the oppressor. Homes were destroyed, men torn from their
families were brutally beaten, tarred and feathered; women with babes
in their arms were forced to flee half-clad into the solitude of the prairie
to escape from mobocratic violence. Their sufferings have never yet
been fitly chronicled by human scribe. Making their way across the
river, most of the refugees found shelter among the more hospitable
people of Clay County, and afterward established themselves in
Caldwell County, therein founding the city of Far West. County and
state judges, the governor, and even the President of the United States,
were appealed to in turn for redress. The national executive, Andrew
Jackson, while expressing sympathy for the persecuted people,
deplored his lack of power to interfere with the administration or
non-administration of state laws; the national officials could do nothing;
the state officials would do naught.
But the expulsion from Jackson County was but a prelude to the
tragedy soon to follow. A single scene of the bloody drama is known as
the Haun's Mill massacre. A small settlement had been founded by
"Mormon" families on Shoal Creek, and here on the 30th of October,

1838, a company of two hundred and forty fell upon the hapless settlers
and butchered a score. No respect was paid to age or sex; grey heads,
and infant lips that scarcely had learned to lisp a word, vigorous
manhood and immature youth, mother and maiden, fared alike in the
scene of carnage, and their bodies were thrown into an old well.
In October, 1838, the Governor of Missouri, the same Lilburn W.
Boggs, issued his infamous