BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY (BYU) JOSEPH WALKER
BYU CONTINUES A BIASED VIEW OF HISTORY
Historian: Mormon land grabbed in Missouri
Published: June 27, 2008
SALT LAKE CITY, June 27 (UPI) -- A historian at Brigham Young University argues that Mormons were persecuted in Missouri in 1838 in a deliberate and successful effort to get their land.
Joseph Walker, who is working on the Joseph Smith papers, said documents show the Extermination Order of 1838 -- aimed at the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints -- was timed to prevent Mormons from buying land they had improved, Mormon Times reported.
Local laws allowed what was known as pre-emption, Walker says. Settlers had the right to buy government land they had lived on and farmed, but if they were unable to do so, others could buy the improved land at the price of vacant land.
Mormons settled in Missouri in the early 1830s. They were driven out in 1838 by government-sanctioned violence, Walker said, and moved to Nauvoo, Ill., where Joseph Smith, the church's founder, was killed by a mob in 1844.
Brigham Young, Smith's successor, led the Mormons to Salt Lake City.
POLITICAL BACKLASH IS NOT PERSECUTION
MORMONS IN MISSOURI REAPED A BACKLASH FOR THEIR HATE OF NON-MORMONS
DOCTRINES AND COVENANTS – Section 52:42
Date: June 7, 1831
Place: Kirtland, Ohio
To: Elders of the Church
42 And thus, even as I have said, if ye are faithful ye
shall assemble yourselves together to rejoice upon the land of Missouri, which
is the land of your inheritance, which is now the land of your enemies.
Fourth of July in Far West - 1838
July 4, 2007
By Sharon Lindbloom
On the 4th of July, 1838 the Mormons, gathered in Far West, Missouri,
held a celebration. The following is an excerpt from former BYU
historian Stephen C. LeSueur’s book, The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri,
pages 49-53.
“‘We take God and all the holy angels to witness this day, that we warn
all men in the name of Jesus Christ, to come on us no more forever, for
from this hour, we will bear it no more, our rights shall no more be
trampled on with impunity. The man or the set of men, who attempts it,
does it at the expense of their lives. And that mob that comes on us to
disturb us; it shall be between us and them a war of extermination, for
we will follow them, till the last drop of their blood is spilled, or
else they will have to exterminate us: for we will carry the seal of
war to their own houses, and their own families, and one party or the
other shall be utterly destroyed. –Remember it then all MEN.
“‘We will never be the aggressors, we will infringe on the rights of no
people; but shall stand for our own until death. We claim our own
rights, and are willing that all others shall enjoy theirs.
“‘No man shall be at liberty to come into our streets, to threaten us
with mobs, for if he does, he shall atone for it before he leaves the
place, neither shall he be at liberty, to vilify and slander any of us,
for suffer it we will not in this place.
“‘We therefore, take all men to record this day, that we proclaim our
liberty on this day, as did our fathers. And we pledge this day to one
another, our fortunes, our lives, and our sacred honors, to be
delivered from the persecutions which we have had to endure, for the
last nine years, or nearly that. Neither will we indulge any man, or
set of men, in instituting vexatious law suits against us, to cheat us
out of our just rights, if they attempt it we say wo be unto them.
“‘We this day then proclaim ourselves free, with a purpose and a
determination, that never can be broken, “no never! no never!! NO
NEVER”!!!’