History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

138
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THE STORY OF MORMONISM.
During these trying times the prophet was moving
about among his people, doing everything in his power
to protect and encourage them. Late in September
he was in the southern part of Caldwell county,
whence in October he passed into Carroll county,
where he soon found himself hemmed in by an enraged
populace. He appealed to the people, he applied
to the governor, but all to no purpose. Afterward
he went to Daviess county, and then back to Far
West, where he was arrested and incarcerated with
the others. Shortly afterward the prisoners, now
declared to be forever unalterable except by common consent, reads as follows,
to wit: No person demeaning bimself in a peaceable and orderly manner
shall ever be molested on account of bis mode of worship or religious
sentiments in said territory. These principles I trust will ever be adhered
to in the territory of Iowa. They make no distinction between religious
sects. They extend equal privileges and protection to all; each must rest
upon its own merits anil will prosper in proportion to the purity of its principles,
and the fruit of holiness and piety produced thereby. With regard to
the peculiar people mentioned in your letter, I know but little. They had a
community in the northern part of Ohio for several years, and I have no recollection
of ever having heard in that state of any complaint against them of
violating the laws of the country. Their religious opinions I conceive have
nothing to do with our political transactions. They aro citizens of the United
States, and are entitled to the same political rights and legal protection that
other citizens are entitled to. The foregoing are briefly my views on the subject
of your inquiries.'
In a memorial sent to Washington in the autumn of 1839, it was claimed
by the Mormons that their property destroyed in Jackson co. was worth
$120,000; that 12,000 souls were banished; that they purchased and improved
lands in Clay co., and in three years were obliged to leave there with heavy
loss; that they then purchased and improved lands in Daviess and Carroll
counties; that for the most part these counties were wild and uncultivated;
that they had converted them into large and well improved farms, well
stocked, which were rapidly advancing in cultivation and wealth; and that
they were finally compelled to fly from these counties. In a petition presented
by Sidney Eigdon to the state of Pennsylvania, it is stated that ' Lilburn
Boggs, governor of the state, used his executive influence to have us all
massacred or driven into exile; and all this because we were not lawless and
disobedient. For if the laws had given them a sufficient guaranty against
the evils complained of. . .then would they have had recourse to the laws. If
we had been transgressors of laws, our houses would not have been rifled, our
women ravished, our farms desolated, and our goods and chattels destroyed,
our men killed, our wives and children driven into the prairies, and made to
suffer all the indignities that the most brutal barbarity could inflict; but
would only have had to suffer that which the laws would inflict, which were
founded in justice, framed in righteousness, and administered in humanity. .
Why, then, all this cruelty? Answer: because the people had violated no law;
and they could not be restrained by law, nor prevented from exercising the
rights according to the laws, enjoyed, and had a right to be protected in, in
any state of the Union.' Mr Corrill remarks: 'My opinion is, that if the
Mormons had been let alone by the citizens, they would have divided and
subdivided, so as to have completely destroyed themselves and their power
as a people in a short time.
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