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The 1838 Mormon War
Topic Started: Feb 9 2010, 08:05 PM (171 Views)
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An Empire for Liberty

August 31, 1838

Latent tensions between the Mormon followers of Joseph Smith and settlers in Missouri boiled over on August 6th when a physical confrontation erupted in the town of Gallatin.

Anti-Mormon sentiments in the state had been rising following the "Salt Sermon" of June, in which Mormon leader Sidney Rigdon chastised certain dissenters in the LDS church and warned them that they would be "cast out and trodden under the feet of men" if they did not turn from their heretical ways. This, coupled with Rigdon's fourth of July declaration that further violation of Mormons' rights would bring on "a war of extermination" between them and the settlers greatly alarmed many Missourians.

During election day, the crisis came to a head when a candidate for the state legislature made disparaging statements about Mormons, calling them "horse-thieves and robbers" and saying they had no right to vote; this was followed by a heated argument between a Missourian named Dick Weldon and Samuel Brown, a Mormon waiting to vote, that ended when Brown struck Weldon. A great brawl ensued and rumors quickly spread among both sides that men had been killed. The next day, the Missourians of Carroll County held a public meeting and voted to expel the Mormons by force. The local militia took up arms and began laying siege to Mormon settlements in the area.

As of August 31st the crisis shows no signs of abating, and anti-Mormon vigilantes are continuing to harass Smith and his followers throughout the county. Governor Boggs is reportedly considering statewide action if the conflict cannot be soon contained.
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United States of America
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October 31, 1838

The situation in Missouri has continued to deteriorate throughout the past two months, with continual raids by settlers and Mormons on each other's property and destruction of many frontier homes.

After skirmishes near Daviess County and a pitched battle between Mormons and Missouri militia at Crooked River, demands for statewide action from the governor's office grew to a crescendo. Governor Boggs finally issued an executive order on October 27, known colloquially as the "extermination order," in response to the Mormons' "open and avowed defiance of the laws, and of having made war upon the people of this State." In it the governor declared that "the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace--their outrages are beyond all description."

In the days that followed the militia assaulted a group Mormons assembled at Haun's Mill, killing around 20, and began a siege of the town of Far West. By the evening of the 30th some 3,500 militiamen had gathered to face approximately 200 Mormon defenders, and in the ensuing clash at least 50 Mormons and 12 Missourians were killed, many of them participants in the Battle of Crooked River five days earlier.

Following the battle about 100 men were turned over to state authorities for trial on charges of "treason, murder, arson, burglary, robbery, larceny and perjury," including leaders Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon. Preliminary hearings are scheduled for November. The rest of the LDS members have been forced to sign over their lands to pay for the state militia expenses, and were given notice to leave within a few months' time.
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"For more than half a century, during which kingdoms and empires have fallen, this Union has stood unshaken. The patriots who formed it have long since descended to the grave; yet still it remains, the proudest monument to their memory."
- Zachary Taylor
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