The Missouri Persecutions

by B. H. Roberts

The brethren were perplexed most of all as to what course to pursue. Their return to the lands from which they had been driven looked at least unlikely. They knew not whether it would be best to lease or buy lands in Clay County; whether to prepare for permanent or only temporary residence in that land. In the midst of this uncertainty, a conference was convened on the 1st of January, 1834, at the house of P. P. Pratt, at which it was—

Resolved, that Lyman Wight and Parley P. Pratt be sent as special messengers to represent the situation of the scattered brethren in Missouri, to the Presidency of The Church, in Kirtland, and ask their advice.

Accordingly these brethren started to perform this mission, leaving their families in a penniless condition, while they themselves faced the winds and snows of winter in the interests of their afflicted co-religionists.

Pending the saints receiving instructions from their youthful Prophet, we have many events to relate to our readers. In the latter part of December, 1833, a court of inquiry was held at Liberty, Clay County, to investigate the conduct of Colonel Pitcher, in dispossessing the "Mormons" of their arms, and driving them from their homes. The inquiry resulted in his arrest and trial before a court-martial; but the court did not convene until the 20th of February, 1834; and so remiss in the performance of his duty was General Thompson, who presided at the court-martial trial, that no report was made to the governor until the first of May; and even then it had to be solicited by the governor.

From the facts brought out in that trial, the governor decided that Colonel Pitcher had no right to dispossess the "Mormons" of their arms; and sent an order to S. D. Lucas, colonel of the thirty-third regiment, to deliver the arms taken from the "Mormons" on the 5th of December, 1833, to W. W. Phelps, John Corrill, E. Partridge, A. S. Gilbert, or their order. Lucas, in the meantime, however, had resigned his position, left Jackson County and settled in Lexington. Learning of this, the governor issued a second order for the arms, directing it this time to Colonel Pitcher. This letter was inclosed in a letter from the governor to W. W. Phelps, and sent to Pitcher on the tenth of July; but the arms were never returned. Indeed, between the issuing of the first and second orders of the governor for their restoration to their owners, the arms were distributed among the mob; and they insolently boasted that the arms should not be returned, notwithstanding the order of the executive. The determination of the mob proved to be stronger than the authority of the governor—the commander-in-chief of the militia of the State.

In the month of December, 1833, the mob permitted the firm of Davies & Kelly to take the printing press owned by The Church over to Liberty, in Clay County, where the said firm began the publication of The Missouri Enquirer; and in payment for the press turned over to the lawyers employed by the saints three hundred dollars on the one thousand dollar note the brethren had given their attorneys. Not much to pay for a press that, with the book-works, had cost, eighteen months before, between three and four thousand dollars.

CHAPTER XV.

AN "ATTEMPTED VINDICATION" OF LAW.

It would appear that as soon as the news of the expulsion of the saints reached the ears of the State officers, they were anxious to reinstate them in their possessions. R. W. Wells, the attorney-general of Missouri, wrote the lawyers employed by The Church to the effect that if the "Mormons" desired to be returned to their homes in Jackson County, an adequate force of the State militia would be sent forthwith to accomplish this object, the militia have been ordered to hold themselves in readiness for that purpose. He also promised that if the "Mormons" would organize themselves into a company of militia, they should be supplied with arms by the State. He also suggested that, "as only a certain quantity of public arms can be distributed in each county, those who first apply will be most likely to receive them." This letter was written after a conversation between the governor and the attorney-general; and by that conversation, the attorney-general believed that he was warranted in making these suggestions to the "Mormons," and one would be justified in regarding the foregoing as the sentiments of the governor, as well as the attorney-general.