Footnotes:
[1]. It was a cunning piece of diabolism which prompted the mob of Daviess county to set fire to their own log cabins, destroy some of their own property and then charge the crime to the Saints. But it was not without a precedent in Missouri. Two years before that, something very similar occurred in Mercer county, just northeast of Daviess. In June of the year 1836, the Iowa Indians, then living near St. Josoph, made a friendly hunting excursion through the northern part of the state, and their line of travel led them through what was known as the "Heatherly settlement," in Mercer county. The Heatherlys, who were ruffians of the lowest type, took advantage of the excitement produced by the incursion of the Indians, and circulated a report that they were robbing and killing the whites. During the excitement these Heatherlys murdered a man by the name of Dunbar, and another man against whom they had a grudge, and then fled to the settlements along the Missouri river, representing that they were fleeing from the Indians for their lives. This produced great excitement in the settlements in the surrounding counties; the people not knowing at what hour the Indians might be upon them. The militia was called out for their protection; but it was soon ascertained that the alarm was a false one. The Heatherlys were arrested, tried for murder, and some of them sent to the penitentiary. This circumstance occurring only two years before the action of the mob about Millport, and in a county adjacent to Daviess county, doubtless suggested the course pursued by the mob in burning their own houses and fleeing to all parts of the state with the report that the "Mormons" had done it, and were murdering and plundering the old settlers. These false rumors spread by the mob, were strengthened in the public ear by such men as Adam Black, Judge King of Richmond, and other prominent men who were continually writing inflammatory communications to the governor.—For the Heatherly incident, see "History of Livingston County, Missouri," written and compiled by the National Historical Company (1886), chapter 3, pp. 710, 713.
[2]. The chief points in the affidavit of Thomas B. Marsh, referred to in the text, are as follows: "They have among them a company, considered true Mormons, called the Danites, who have taken an oath to support the heads of the Church in all things that they say or do, whether right or wrong. Many, however, of this band are much dissatisfied with his oath, as being against moral and religious principles. On Saturday last, I am informed by the Mormons, that they had a meeting at Far West, at which they appointed a company of twelve, by the name of the 'Destruction Company,' for the purpose of burning and destroying, and that if the people of Buncombe came to do mischief upon the people of Caldwell, and committed depredations upon the Mormons, they were to burn Buncombe; and if the people of Clay and Ray made any movement against them, this destroying company were to burn Liberty and Richmond. * * * * The Prophet inculcates the notion, and it is believed by every true Mormon, that Smith's prophecies are superior to the laws of the land. I have heard the Prophet say that he would yet tread down his enemies, and walk over their dead bodies; and if he was not let alone, he would be a second Mohammed to this generation, and that he would make it one gore of blood from the Rocky mountains to the Atlantic ocean; that like Mohammed, whose motto in treating for peace was, 'the Alcoran or the Sword.' So should it be eventually with us, 'Joseph Smith or the Sword.' These last statements were made during the last summer. The number of armed men at Adam-ondi-Ahman was between three and four hundred.
"Thomas B. Marsh.
"Sworn to and subscribed before me, the day herein written.
"Henry Jacobs,
"J. P. Ray county, Missouri.
"Richmond, Missouri, October 24, 1838."
"Affidavit Of Orson Hyde.
"The most of the statements in the foregoing disclosure I know to be true; the remainder I believe to be true.
"Orson Hyde.
"Richmond, October 24, 1838.
"Sworn to and subscribed before me, on the day above written.
"Henry Jacobs, J. P."
Of this testimony and the action of Marsh and Hyde the late President Taylor in his discourse on Succession in the Presidency, makes these pertinent remarks: "Testimonies from these sources are not always reliable, and it is to be hoped, for the sake of the two brethren, that some things were added by our enemies that they did not assert, but enough was said to make this default and apostasy very terrible. I will here state that I was in Far West at the time these affidavits were made, and was mixed up with all prominent Church affairs. I was there when Thomas B. Marsh and Orson Hyde left there; and there are others present who were there at the same time. And I know that these things, referred to in the affidavits, are not true. I have heard a good deal about Danites, but I never heard of them among the Latter-day Saints. If there was such an organization, I never was made acquainted with it * * * * * * Thomas B. Marsh was unquestionably instigated by the devil when he made this statement, which has been read in your hearing [the foregoing affidavit]. The consequence was, he was cut off from the Church. * * * * * * It would be here proper to state, however, that Orson Hyde had been sick with a violent fever for some time, and had not yet fully recovered therefrom, which, with the circumstances with which we were surrounded, and the influence of Thomas B. Marsh, may be offered as a slight palliation for his default. * * * * * * It may be proper here again to say a few words with regard to Brother Orson Hyde, whose endorsement of the terrible charges made by Thomas B. Marsh in his affidavit, has already been read. Suffice it to say, in addition to what has previously been stated, he was cut off from the Church, and of course lost his apostleship; and when he subsequently returned, and made all the satisfaction that was within his power, he was forgiven by the authorities and the people and was again re-instated in the quorum."
Schuyler Colfax, vice-president of the United States, in his discussion with the late President John Taylor on the "Mormon Question," quoted this Marsh-Hyde affidavit, and Elder Taylor in reply said: "I am sorry to say that Thomas B. Marsh did make that affidavit, and that Orson Hyde stated that he knew part of it and believed the other; and it would be disingenuous in me to deny it; but it is not true that these things existed, for I was there and knew to the contrary; and so did the people of Missouri, and so did the governor of Missouri. How do you account for their acts? Only on the score of the weakness of our common humanity. We were living in troublous times, and all men's nerves are not proof against such shocks as we then had to endure."
[3]. It is to be regretted that General David R. Atchison joined with General Lucas in signing the above communication. Up to this time Major General Atchison had apparently exercised his influence counseling moderation in dealing with the "Mormons." He was a resident of Clay county when the Saints were driven into that county from Jackson. He, with General Doniphan and Amos Rees, had acted as counsel for the exiles, and had seen the doors of the temple of justice closed in their faces by mob violence, and all redress denied them. He was acquainted with the circumstances which led to their removal from Clay county, to the unsettled prairies of what afterwards became Caldwell county. He knew how deep and unreasonable the prejudices were against the Saints. Can it be possible that he did not know how utterly unjustifiable the present movement against them was? Whether he was blinded by the false reports about Millport and Gallatin and Crooked river, or whether his courage faltered, and he became afraid longer to defend a people against whom every man's hand was raised, I cannot now determine, but one or the other must have been the case. General Atchison, however, was afterwards "dismounted," to use a word of General Doniphan's in relating the incident, and sent back to Liberty in Clay county by special order of Governor Boggs, on the ground that he was inclined to be too merciful to the "Mormons," so that he was not active in the operations about Far West. But how he could consent to join with Lucas in sending such an untruthful and infamous report to the governor about the situation in Upper Missouri, is difficult to determine. The Saints had not set the laws at defiance, nor were they in open rebellion. But when all the officers of the law refused to hear their complaints, and both civil and military authority delivered them into the hands of merciless mobs to be plundered and outraged at their brutal pleasure, and all petitions for protection at the hands of the governor had been answered with: "It is a quarrel between the Mormons and the mob, and they must fight it out," what was left for them to do but to arm themselves and stand in defense of their homes and families? The movement on Gallatin by Captain Patten and that on Millport by Colonel Wight was ordered by General Parks, who called upon Colonel Wight to take command of his company of men, when the militia under Parks' command mutinied, and dispersed all mobs wherever he found them. Gallatin was not burned, nor were the records of the county court, if they were destroyed at all, destroyed by the Saints. What houses were burned in Millport had been set on fire by the mob. The expedition to Crooked river was ordered by Judge Higbee, the first judge in Caldwell county and the highest civil authority in Far West, and was undertaken for the purpose of dispersing a mob which had entered the house of a peaceable citizen—one Pinkham—and carried off three people prisoners, four horses and other property, and who had threatened to "give Far West hell before noon the next day." So that in their operations the acts of the Saints had been strictly within the law, and only in self defense.