the exodus completed—a fragment of its agonies—the woes of a martyr's widow, a type of the general suffering—threat that one of joseph's prophecies should fail—but it is fulfilled by courageous apostles—missouri's punishment and atonement.
the agony of the exodus from missouri cannot be described. many of the brethren had been killed; many more were in prison; and all the rest were pursued with vindictive hate and threats of death. but for the spirit of mutual help which prevailed, the half of the stricken saints must have perished by massacre or starvation in missouri. a pitiful picture of some of the trials they endured was drawn by sister amanda smith, a survivor of the haun's mill massacre. the mob had killed her husband and one son and had dangerously wounded another of her children.
she says:
they [the mob] told us we must leave the state forthwith or be killed. it was cold weather, and they had our teams and clothes, our men all dead or wounded. i told them they might kill me and my children and welcome. they sent word to us from time to time, saying that if we did not leave the state they would come and kill us. we had little prayer meetings; they said if we did not stop these, they would kill every man, woman and child. we had spelling schools for our little children; they said if we did not stop these they would kill every man, woman and child. we [the women] had to do our own milking, cut our own wood; no man to help us. i started on the 1st of february for illinois without money; mobs on the way; drove our own team; slept out of doors. i had five small children; we suffered hunger, fatigue and cold.
this is one scene by which the whole missouri tragedy of that day may be judged.
some time after the saints had completed their exodus hyrum smith epitomized the awful events in the following words:
governor boggs and generals clark, lucas, wilson and gilliam, also austin a. king, have committed treasonable acts against the citizens of missouri, and did violate the constitution of the united states and also the constitution and laws of the state of missouri, and did exile and expel, at the point of the bayonet, some twelve or fourteen thousand inhabitants of the state, and did murder some three or four hundred of men, women and children in cold blood, in the most horrid and cruel manner possible. and the whole of it was caused by religious bigotry and persecution, and because the mormons dared to worship almighty god according to the dictates of their own conscience, and agreeably to his divine will, as revealed in the scriptures of eternal truth.
the prophet himself bore testimony that the conduct of the saints under their accumulated wrongs and sufferings was most praiseworthy. he had observed them from within his prison walls, and after the order of exile was fully enforced he wrote:
the courage of the saints in defending their brethren from the ravages of the mobs, their attachment to the cause of truth, under circumstances most trying and distressing which humanity can possibly endure; their love to each other: * * * their sacrifice in leaving missouri and assisting the poor widows and orphans and securing them homes in a more hospitable land; all combine to raise them in the estimation of all good and virtuous men, and has secured them the favor and approbation of jehovah, and a name as imperishable as eternity. and their virtuous deeds and heroic actions, while in defense of truth and their brethren, will be fresh and blooming when the names of their oppressors shall be either entirely forgotten, or only remembered for their barbarity and cruelty.
on the 5th day of april, 1839, captain bogart, who was now the county judge of caldwell, with a number of apostates and mobocrats, visited elder theodore turley, in far west, and called his attention to the revelation given through joseph smith, july 8th, 1838, in which the following passage occurs:
let them [the twelve] take leave of my saints in the city of far west on the 26th day of april next, on the building spot of my house, saith the lord.
bogart and his companions said to elder turley:
as a rational man, you must give up the claim that joseph smith is a prophet and an inspired man; the twelve are scattered all over creation; let them come here if they dare: if they do, they will be murdered. as that revelation cannot be fulfilled, you must now give up your faith. this is like all the rest of joseph smith's damned prophecies.
elder turley rebuked them with such manliness and power of the spirit that john whitmer, one of the apostates who was present, hung his head in shame.
but the lord god almighty would not permit one jot or tittle of his promise to fail; he had servants with the courage and fidelity to perform his command. at 1 o'clock in the morning of the 26th day of april, 1839, the day promised in the revelation, seven of the twelve apostles, a majority of the quorum, held a conference on the temple site at far west; and the master workman laid a corner stone of the foundation of the lord's house. after the inspiring services were ended, the twelve took leave of the congregation of the saints, as had been promised.
it was at this conference that wilford woodruff and george a. smith were ordained to the apostleship. brigham young presided over the meeting and john taylor was its clerk.
president brigham young, in speaking of this matter in his history, details the following incident:
as the saints were passing away from the meeting, brother turley said to page and woodruff, "stop a bit, while i bid isaac russell good-bye;" and knocking at the door called brother russell.
his wife answered, "come in, it is brother turley."
russell replied, "it is not; he left here two weeks ago," and appeared quite alarmed; but on finding it was turley, asked him to sit down; but he replied, "i cannot; i shall lose my company."
"who is your company?" inquired russell.
"the twelve."
"the twelve!"
"yes. don't you know that this is the twenty-sixth, and the day the twelve were to take leave of their friends on the foundation of the lord's house, to go to the islands of the sea? the revelation is now fulfilled, and i am going with them."
russell was speechless, and turley bid him farewell.
thus was this revelation fulfilled, concerning which our enemies said, if all the other revelations of joseph smith were fulfilled, that one should not, as it had day and date to it.
after the fulfillment of this prophecy, none of the saints had any desire to remain longer in the state of missouri, and the last remnant, except such as were held in chains and dungeons hastened away to join their brethren in illinois and to find a new place of gathering. and a few months later, after undergoing thrice the tortures of death, parley p. pratt and the other captives had all been released.
the turbulent spirits in missouri had conquered, overriding law and justice and trampling humanity into the dust. this is not the place for a review in detail of all the sufferings of the church of jesus christ in that region; but when the chapter shall be written, it will be as tragic as anything in american history.
the edict of exile was made and enforced, and so far as the saints were concerned, the deed ended there; but not so with the state of missouri, for the wrong committed remained to plague and wreak its vengeance upon guilty and innocent alike. the demon conjured into power by the murderous and plundering element of that region, would not down. when there were no "mormons" to persecute, the turbulent spirits of the border at times fell upon each other and at other times fell unitedly upon law-abiding, prosperous citizens. missouri became deeply involved in the kansas troubles, in which the lawless, mobocratic element took bloody part; and when the civil war opened, the government of missouri, from the executive office down, became a chaos. the man who occupied the place disgraced by lilburn w. boggs, was a secessionist, and fled from his capital to lead the state militia at booneville against the union troops. the national power triumphed, and the governor and his forces, among which were many of the old mobocrats, were utterly routed. the offices which had once been disgraced by cowards were now declared vacant by an arbitrary decree of a state convention in sympathy with the republic, one and indivisible. the state was declared out of the union by the secessionist governor, and then became the theatre for a fratricidal strife which deluged it with blood.
on the 31st day of august, 1861, general john c. fremont, then in command of the western department, declared martial law in the state of missouri, and proclaimed free the slaves of all persons who had taken up arms against the united states. it was a wonderful retribution that missouri, in which the mob had declared as a pretext for their assaults upon the saints that the latter were abolitionists, should be the first state in which an edict of manumission went forth. it is also a wonderful retribution that the state in which the civil power had once been helpless to protect law-abiding citizens, should, only five months after the breaking out of the war, have its civil power abrogated and all its people placed under martial rule. some of the statements in fremont's proclamation show with startling significance the character of that evil population which had been rewarded by the state for expatriating the latter-day saints.
the general says:
circumstances in my judgment of sufficient urgency, render it necessary that the commanding general of this department should assume the administrative powers of the state. its disorganized condition, the helplessness of its civil authority, the total insecurity of life, and the devastation of property by hands of murderers and marauders, who infest nearly every county in the state, and avail themselves of the public misfortunes and the vicinity of a hostile force to gratify private and neighborhood vengeance, and who find an enemy wherever they find plunder,—finally demand the severest measures to repress the daily increasing crimes and outrages, which are driving off the inhabitants and ruining the state. in this condition, the public safety and the success of our arms require unity of purpose: without let or hindrance, to the prompt administration of affairs.
in order, therefore, to suppress disorders, to maintain as far as now practicable the public peace, and to give security and protection to the persons and property of loyal citizens, i do hereby extend, and declare established, martial law throughout the state of missouri. the lines of the army of occupation in this state are for the present declared to extend from leavenworth, by way of the posts of jefferson city, rolla and ironton, to cape girardeau, on the mississippi river.
all persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within these lines shall be tried by court martial, and if found guilty, will be shot.
upon the subject of the slaves, in the same proclamation, the general says:
the property, real and personal, of all persons in the state of missouri who shall take up arms against the united states, and who shall be directly proven to have taken active part with their enemies in the field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use; and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared free men.
and in enforcement of his proclamation to set the negroes free, he issued deeds of manumission, of one of which we are able to present a copy:
deed of manumission.—whereas, t. l. s., of the city and county of st. louis, missouri, has been taking active part with the enemies of the united states in the present insurrectionary movement against the government of the united states, now, therefore, i, john charles fremont, major-general, commanding the western department of the army of the united states, by authority of law, and the power vested in me, as such commanding-general, declare frank lewis, heretofore "held to service" or labor, by said t. l. s. to be free, and forever discharged from the bonds of servitude; giving him full right and authority to have, use and control his own labor or service as to him may seem proper, without any accountability whatever to said t. l. s., or any one to claim by, through or under him. and this deed of manumission shall be respected and treated by all persons and in all courts of justice, as the full and complete evidence of the freedom of said frank lewis.
in testimony whereof this act is done at st. louis, missouri, this 1st day of september, 1861, as is evidenced by the departmental seal hereto affixed by my order.
(signed), john c. fremont.
horace greeley, in his american conflict, speaks of "missouri, betrayed by jackson" (the governor). referring to the spectacle of anarchy and treason exhibited by the seceding states, greeley reaches the culmination with missouri and uses the following words:
we are now to contemplate more directly the spectacle of a state plunged into secession and civil war, not in obedience to, but in defiance of, the action of her convention and the express will of her people—not, even, by any direct act of her legislature, but by the will of her executive alone. * * * the state school fund, the money provided to pay the july interest on the heavy state debt, and all other available means, amounting in the aggregate to over three millions of dollars, were appropriated to military uses, and placed at the disposal of [governor] jackson, under the pretense of arming the state against any emergency. by another act the governor was invested with despotic power—even verbal opposition to his assumptions of authority being constituted treason; while every citizen liable to military duty was declared subject to draft into active service at jackson's will, and an oath of obedience to the state executive exacted.
to support him in his treasonable exercise of power, among the men chosen by governor jackson was john b. clark, the man whom boggs had selected as a willing tool and whom jackson now found pliant to his purpose. another of the mob officers, sterling price, was now made by jackson, major-general of the state forces.
poor missouri atoned with rivers of blood and tears for her sin against herself in permitting the executive to usurp unlawful authority. the precedent of boggs' exercise of power was handed down. in the day of the persecution of the saints, a court had decided that belief in the bible was treason against the government. the idea had moved with terrible momentum; for here we find in 1861 that, "even verbal opposition to the governor's assumption of authority was constituted treason."
it is true that with any kind of a population missouri must have taken part either for or against the union; but it is also true that the existence within her boundaries of thousands of lawless wretches who loved plunder and rapine, largely increased her sufferings. the entire state was punished for permitting the massacre of the saints to go unchecked and for encouraging the spirit of plunder by rewarding the mobocrats with money from the state treasury. men learned to live by murder and rapine. it cost missouri dearly to get rid of the evil, but happily for her much of the bad element was eliminated. many of the old mobocrats suffered all the tortures which they had inflicted.
but missouri largely purged herself of the vile element, and after the strife was ended better men and better sentiments came into the ascendancy. some of the men who had been averse to mobocratic violence against the latter-day saints believed that retribution would come. they lived to see the day of atonement and to participate in a local reconstruction and a restoration of better things.
the constituency of the mob is thus described by the prophet, in a letter dated at commerce, illinois, may 17th, 1839:
we have not at any time thought there was any political party, as such, chargeable with the missouri barbarities, neither any religious society as such. they were committed by a mob composed of all parties, regardless of all difference of opinion either political or religious.
and at a later day in repeating this view, he said:
we consider that in making these remarks, we express the sentiments of the church in general as well as our own individually, and also when we say in conclusion, that we feel the fullest confidence, that when the subject of our wrongs has been fully investigated by the authorities of the united states, we shall receive the most perfect justice at their hands; whilst our unfeeling oppressors shall be brought to condign punishment, with the approbation of a free and enlightened people, without respect to sect or party.
