History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

TOWN BUILDING. 117
any reports of misconduct, however exaggerated, would,
if possible, be accepted as reliable. Such reports wer j
accordingly circulated, and without much regard to
truth. Right or wrong, law or no law, and whether
in accord with the letter or spirit of the constitution
or government of the United States or not, the people
of Missouri had determined that they would go
any length before they would allow the saints to
obtain political ascendency in that quarter. It was
well understood that war on the Mormons, war on
their civil, political, and religious rights, nay, on their
presence as members of the commonwealth, or if need
be on their lives, was part of the policy of the admin-
istration.
Thereupon the Mormons petitioned the legislature
to assign them a place of residence, and the thinly
populated region afterward known as Caldwell county
was designated. Moving there, they bought the claims
of most of the inhabitants, and entered several sections
of government lands. Almost every member of the
society thus became a landholder, some having eighty
acres, and some forty. A town was laid out, called
Far West, which was made the county seat; they were
allowed to organize the government of the county, and
to appoint from among their own people the officers. 9
Again they found peace for a season, during which
their numbers increased, while settlements were made
in Daviess county and elsewhere. 10 Those in Daviess
county were on terms of amity with their gentile neighbors.
Wight was there, and when Smith and Rigdon
arrived from the east they laid out a town named Diahman,
11 which soon rivalled Gallatin, and gradually the
9 John Hyde, Mormonism, 203, says that on their arrival in Missouri,
Smith and Rigdon began ' to scatter the saints in order to obtain political
ascendency in other counties.
'
10 Of the officers then appointed, two of the judges, thirteen magistrates,
all the military officers, and the county clerk were Mormons. 'These steps
were taken, be it carefully observed, by the advice of the state legislature,
and the officers were appointed in the manner directed by law.' Greene's
Farts, IS. The gentiles murmur because of their being under Mormon rule.
Hyde's Mormonism, 203.
11 'Smith gave it the name of Adamondiamon, which he said was formerly