* Evening and Morning Star, p. 227; Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p.
516.
Some hundreds of names were signed to this call, and the meeting of July 20 was attended by nearly five hundred persons. There is no doubt that it was a representative county gathering. P. P. Pratt says that the anti-Mormon organization, which he calls "outlaws," was "composed of lawyers, magistrates, county officers, civil and military, religious ministers, and a great number of the ignorant and uninformed portion of the population."* The language of the address adopted shows that skilled pens were not wanting in its preparation.
* Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 103.
The first business of the meeting was the appointment of a committee to prepare an address stating the grievances of the people with somewhat greater fulness than the manifesto above quoted. Like the latter, it conceded at the start that there was no law under which the object in view could be obtained. It characterized the Mormons as but little above the negroes as regards property or education; charged them with having exerted a "corrupting influence" on the slaves;* asserted that even the more intelligent boasted daily to the Gentiles that the Mormons would appropriate their lands for an inheritance, and that their newspaper organ taught them that the lands were to be taken by the sword. Noting the rapid increase in the immigration of members of the new church, the address, looking to a near day when they would be in a majority in the county, asked: "What would be the state of our lives and property in the hands of jurors and witnesses who do not blush to declare, and would not upon occasion hesitate to swear, that they have wrought miracles, and have been the subjects of miraculous and supernatural cures, have conversed with God and his angels, and possess and exercise the gifts of divination and of unknown tongues, and are fired with the prospect of obtaining inheritances without money and without price, may be better imagined than described." That this apprehension was not without grounds will be seen when we come to the administration of justice in Nauvoo and in Salt Lake City.
* The Mormons never hesitated to change their position on the
slavery question. An elder's address, published in the Evening and
Morning Star of July, 1833, said: "As to slaves, we have nothing to
say. In connection with the wonderful events of this age, much is doing
toward abolishing slavery and colonizing the blacks in Africa." Three
years later, in April, 1836 the Messenger and Advocate published a
strong proslavery article, denying the right of the people of the North
to interfere with the institution, and picturing the happy condition of
the slaves. Orson Hyde, in the Frontier Guardian in 1850 (quoted in the
Millennial Star, Vol. XIII, p. 63), said: "When a man in the Southern
states embraces our faith and is the owner of slaves, the church says
to him, 'If your slaves wish to remain with you, and to go with you, put
them not away; but if they choose to leave you, and are not satisfied to
remain with you, it is for you to sell them or to let them go free, as
your own conscience may direct you. The church on this point assumes not
the responsibility to direct.'" Horace Greeley quoted Brigham Young
as saying to him in Salt Lake City, "We consider slavery of divine
institution and not to be abolished until the curse pronounced on Ham
shall have been removed from his descendants" ("Overland journey," p.
211).
The address closed with these demands:—
"That no Mormon shall in future move and settle in this county.
"That those now here, who shall give a definite pledge of their intention within a reasonable time to remove out of the county, shall be allowed to remain unmolested until they have sufficient time to sell their property and close their business without any material sacrifice.
"That the editor of the Star (W. W. Phelps) be required forthwith to close his office and discontinue the business of printing in this county; and, as to all other stores and shops belonging to the sect, their owners must in every case strictly comply with the terms of the second article of this declaration; and, upon failure, prompt and efficient measures will be taken to close the same.
"That the Mormon leaders here are required to use their influence in preventing any further emigration of their distant brethren to this county, and to counsel and advise their brethren here to comply with the above regulations.