History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

130
THE STORY OF MORMOXISM.
Thus it appears that the Missouri state militia, called
out in the first instance to assist the Mormon state
militia in quelling a Missouri mob, finally joins the mob
against the Mormon militia. In none of their acts
had the saints placed themselves in an attitude of unlawful
opposition to the state authorities; on the other
hand, they were doing all in their power to defend
themselves and support law and order, save in the
matter of retaliation.
The first the saints of Caldwell county know of the
new tactics is the appearance, within half a mile of
Far West,
'
'
3 2
of three thousand armed men, under Gen-
eral Lucas, generals Wilson and Doniphan being present,
and General Clark with another army being a few
days' march distant. General Lucas states that the
main business there is to obtain possession of three individuals,
whom he names, two of them not Mormons;
and for the rest he has only to inform the saints that
it is his painful duty either wholly to drive them from
the state or to exterminate them. 33
Gilliam and his
comrades, who as disguised Indians and white men
had been fighting the Mormons, now that the state espouses
their cause, join Lucas. 34
General Atchison
was at Richmond, in Ray county, when the governor's
exterminating order was issued. "I will have
nothing to do with so infamous a proceeding," he said,
and immediately resigned.
ceed immediately to Richmond and there operate against the Mormons. Brig.-
Gen. Parks of Ray has been ordered to have 400 men of his brigade in readiness
to join you at Richmond. The whole force will be placed under your
command.
32 'The governor's orders and these military movements were kept an entire
secret from the citizens of Caldwell and Daviess. .
.even the mail was withheld
from Far West.' Pratt's Autobiography, 200.
3J 'This letter of the governor's was extremely unguarded, and seems to
have been too literally construed. . .Making all due allowance for the exasperated
state of the public mind, these threats of extermination sound a little
too savage in Anglo-Saxon ears. . .But they were impolitic, because they
gave plausibility to the idea that the saints were the victims of a cruel and
unrelenting religious persecution, and furnished them with one of the surest
means of future success.' Ferris' Utah and the Mormons, 90-1.
34 'About the time that Lucas came out to Far West, Smith assembled the
Mormon troops, and said that for every one they lacked in number of those
who came out among them, the Lord would send angels, who would fight for
them, and they should be victorious.' Kidder's Mormonism, 143.