His letter gave the Mormons of Jackson County new courage. They had been maintaining a waiting attitude since the meeting of July 23, but now they resumed their occupations, and began to erect more houses, and to improve their places as if for a permanent stay, and meanwhile there was no cessation of the immigration of new members from the East. Their leaders consulted four lawyers in Clay County, and arranged with them to look after their legal interests.
This evident repudiation by the Mormons of their part of their agreement with the committee incensed the Jackson County people, and hostilities were resumed. On the night of October 31, a mob attacked a Mormon settlement called Big Blue, some ten miles west of Independence, damaged a number of houses, whipped some of the men, and frightened women and children so badly that they fled to the outlying country for hiding-places. On the night of November 1, Mormon houses were stoned in Independence, and the church store was broken into and its goods scattered in the street. The Mormons thereupon showed the governor's letter to a justice of the peace, and asked him for a warrant, but their accounts say that he refused one. When they took before the same officer a man whom they caught in the act of destroying their property, the justice not only refused to hold him, but granted a warrant in his behalf against Gilbert, Corrill, and two other Mormons for false imprisonment, and they were locked up.* Thrown on their own resources for defence, the Mormons now armed themselves as well as they could, and established a night picket service throughout their part of the county. On Saturday night, November 2, a second attack was made by the mob on Big Blue and, the Mormons resisting, the first "battle" of this campaign took place. A sick woman received a pistolshot wound in the head, and one of the Mormons a wound in the thigh. Parley P. Pratt and others were then sent to Lexington to procure a warrant from Circuit Judge Ryland, but, according to Pratt, he refused to grant one, and "advised us to fight and kill the outlaws whenever they came upon us."**
* Corrill's letter, Evening and Morning Star, January, 1834.
** Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 105.
On Monday evening, November 4, a body of Missourians who had been visiting some of the Mormon settlements came in contact with a company of Mormons who had assembled for defence, and an exchange of shots ensued, by which a number on both sides were wounded, one of the Mormons dying the next day.
These conflicts increased the excitement, and the Mormons, knowing how they were outnumbered, now realized that they could not stay in Jackson County any longer, and they arranged to move. At first they decided to make their new settlement only fifty miles south of Independence, in Van Buren County, but to this the Jackson County people would not consent. They therefore agreed to move north into Clay County, between which and Jackson County the Missouri River, which there runs east, formed the boundary. Most of them went to Clay County, but others scattered throughout the other nearby counties, whose inhabitants soon let them know that their presence was not agreeable.
The hasty removal of these people so late in the season was accompanied by great personal hardships and considerable pecuniary loss. The Mormons have stated the number of persons driven out at fifteen hundred, and the number of houses burned; before and after their departure, at from two hundred to three hundred. Cattle and household effects that could not be moved were sold for what they would bring, and those who took with them sufficient provisions for their immediate wants considered themselves fortunate. One party of six men and about one hundred and fifty women and children, panic-stricken by the action of the mob, wandered for several days over the prairie without even sufficient food. The banks of the Missouri River where the fugitives were ferried across presented a strange spectacle. In a pouring rain the big company were encamped there on November 7, some with tents and some without any cover, their household goods piled up around them. Children were born in this camp, and the sick had to put up with such protection as could be provided. So determined were the Jackson County people that not a Mormon should remain among them, that on November 23 they drove out a little settlement of some twenty families living about fifteen miles from Independence, compelling women and children to depart on immediate notice.
The Mormons made further efforts through legal proceedings to assert their rights in Jackson County, but unsuccessfully. The governor declared that the situation did not warrant him in calling out the militia, and referred them to the courts for redress for civil injuries. In later years they appealed more than once to the federal authorities at Washington for assistance in reestablishing themselves in Jackson County,* but were informed that the matter rested with the state of Missouri. Their future bitterness toward the federal government was explained on the ground of this refusal to come to their aid.
* James Hutchins, a resident of Wisconsin, addressed a long
appeal "for justice" to President Grant in 1876, asking him to reinstate
the Mormons in the homes from which they had been driven.
Meanwhile Smith had been preparing to use the authority at his command to make good his predictions about the permanency of the church in the Missouri Zion. On December 6, 1833, he gave out a long "revelation" at Kirtland (Sec. 101), which created a great sensation among his followers. Beginning with the declaration that "I, the Lord," have suffered affliction to come on the brethren in Missouri "in consequence of their transgressions, envyings and stripes, and lustful and covetous desires," it went on to promise them as follows:—