The Story of Mormonism and The Philosophy of Mormonism | Page 8

exterminating order, and called upon the
militia of the state to execute it. The language of this document, signed
by the executive of a sovereign state of the Union, declared that the
"Mormons" must be driven from the state or exterminated. Be it said to
the honor of some of the officers entrusted with the terrible commission,
that when they learned its true significance they resigned their authority
rather than have anything to do with what they designated a
cold-blooded butchery. But tools were not wanting, as indeed they
never have been, for murder and its kindred outrages. What the heart of
man can conceive, the hand of man will find a way to execute. The
awful work was carried out with dread dispatch. Oh, what a record to
read; what a picture to gaze upon; how awful the fact! An official edict
offering expatriation or death to a peaceable community with no crime
proved against them, and guilty of no offense other than that of
choosing to differ in opinion from the masses! American school boys
read with emotions of horror of the Albigenses, driven, beaten and
killed, with a papal legate directing the butchery; and of the Vaudois,
hunted and hounded like beasts as the effect of a royal decree; and they
yet shall read in the history of their own country of scenes as terrible as
these in the exhibition of injustice and inhuman hate.
In the dread alternative offered them, the people determined again to
abandon their homes; but whither should they go? Already they had
fled before the lawless oppressor over well nigh half a continent;
already were they on the frontiers of the country that they had regarded
as the land of promised liberty. Thus far every move had carried them
westward, but farther west they could not go unless they went entirely
beyond the country of their birth, and gave up their hope of protection
under the Constitution, which to them had ever been an inspired
instrument, the majesty of which, as they had never doubted, would be

some day vindicated, even to securing for them the rights of American
citizens. This time their faces were turned toward the east; and a host
numbering from ten to twelve thousand, including many women and
children, abandoned their homes and fled before their murderous
pursuers, reddening the snow with bloody footprints as they journeyed.
They crossed the Mississippi and sought protection on the soil of
Illinois. There their sad condition evoked for a time general
commiseration.
The press of the state denounced the treatment of the people by the
Missourians and vindicated the character of the "Mormons" as
peaceable and law-abiding citizens. College professors published
expressions of their horror over the cruel crusade; state officials,
including even the governor, gave substantial evidence of their
sympathy and good feeling. This lull in the storm of outrage that had so
long raged about them offered a strange contrast to their usual
treatment. Let it not be thought that all the people of Illinois were their
friends; from the first, opposition was manifest, but their condition was
so greatly bettered that they might have thought the advent of their
Zion to be near at hand.
I stated that professional men, and even college professors raised their
voices in commiseration of the "Mormon" situation and in denouncing
the "Mormon" oppressors. Prof. Turner of Illinois College wrote:
Who began the quarrel? Was it the "Mormons?" Is it not notorious on
the contrary that they were hunted like wild beasts from county to
county before they made any resistance? Did they ever, as a body,
refuse obedience to the laws, when called upon to do so, until driven to
desperation by repeated threats and assaults by the mob? Did the state
ever make one decent effort to defend them as fellow-citizens in their
rights or to redress their wrongs? Let the conduct of its governors and
attorneys and the fate of their final petitions answer! Have any who
plundered and openly insulted the "Mormons" ever been brought to the
punishment due to their crimes? Let boasting murderers of begging and
helpless infancy answer! Has the state ever remunerated even those
known to be innocent for the loss of either their property or their arms?

Did either the pulpit or the press through the state raise a note of
remonstrance or alarm? Let the clergymen who abetted and the editors
who encouraged the mob answer!
As a sample of the press comments against the brutality of the
Missourians I quote a paragraph from the Quincy _Argus_, March 16,
1839:
We have no language sufficiently strong for the expression of our
indignation and shame at the recent transaction in a sister state, and that
state, Missouri, a state of which we had long been proud,