The Missouri Persecutions

by B. H. Roberts

The day after, the committee reported in relation to that part of the governor's message relating to the "Mormon troubles," and on the documents accompanying it. The petition from the saints was read, amid profound stillness of the house, and at its conclusion an angry debate followed, in which quite a number of the members testified to the correctness of the statements made in the petition and to the cruelties practiced upon the saints, but they were in the minority.

On the sixteenth of January, Mr. Turner, the chairman of the select joint committee before alluded to, in conformity with the resolution passed, reported "A bill to provide for the investigation of the late disturbances in the State of Missouri." The bill consisted of twenty-three sections. It provided for a joint committee composed of two members of the senate and three members from the house, which was to meet at Richmond on the first Monday in May and thereafter at such time and places as it saw proper. The committee was to select its own officers; issue subpoenas and other processes, administer oaths, keep a record, etc.

This bill was introduced on the sixteenth of January, and on the fourth of February called up for its first reading, but on motion of Mr. Wright was laid on the table till the fourth of July. He knew that by that time, since the governor's exterminating order was still in force, that the "Mormons," in obedience to that cruel edict, would all have left the State, and then there would be no need of an investigation. That was the fate of the bill. It was never afterwards brought up.

The legislature in its magnanimity appropriated two thousand dollars to relieve the sufferings of the people in Daviess and Caldwell Counties, the "Mormons" were to be included. And now came an opportunity for the Missourians of Daviess County to display their generosity. Having filled their homes with the household effects of the saints; their yards with the stock they had stolen; their smoke houses with "Mormon" beef and pork; they concluded they could get along without their portion of the appropriation and allowed the two thousand dollars to be distributed among the "Mormons" of Caldwell County!

Judge Cameron and a Mr. McHenry superintended the distribution of this appropriation. The hogs owned by the brethren who had lived in Daviess County were driven down into Caldwell, shot down and without further bleeding were roughly dressed and divided out among the saints at a high price. This and the sweepings of some old stores soon exhausted the legislative appropriation, and amounted to little or nothing in the way of relief to the saints.

Subsequently this same legislature, while the petition of the saints for a redress of their wrongs was lying before it, appropriated two hundred thousand dollars to defray the expenses incurred in driving the "Mormons" from the State, and dispossessing them of their property! By that act the legislature became a party to the deeds of the mob forces, urged on in their cruelties by the executive of the State; for that legislature had sealed with its approval all that had been done, by paying the mob that had executed the plan devised for the expulsion of the "Mormon" people.

CHAPTER XLVII.

THE ESCAPE OF THE PROPHET FROM MISSOURI.

The winter of 1838-9 must have been a trying one to Joseph the Prophet and his associates immured in Liberty prison. The gloom of their prison life must have caused them less sorrow than the anxiety they felt for the safety of their families and friends, who were being abused and insulted by a heartless mob, even while making arrangements to leave the State. Still there were occasional glimpses of sunshine breaking through the clouds. Some of the faithful brethren called occasionally, bringing them the news from their families and their people, and the progress being made in the preparations to leave the State. Letters also from their families were brought to them, so that they were not altogether cut off from that sweet communion which affection breeds. Nor was the Lord unmindful of them, but he communed with them, and through the Prophet Joseph some of the noblest revelations ever given to The Church were received in that gloomy stone prison known as Liberty jail.^[A]