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Danite organization, 65 but documentary evidence shows
otherwise.
Quoting from his daily journal, founding member
William Swartzell later wrote that the Danites organized formally
as the “Daughters of Zion” in June 1838 at Far West,
taking their nickname from the prophecy of Daniel about
the stone cut out of the mountain without hands (Daniel 2:
44–45). 66 While the organization was still functioning, loyal
LDS member Albert P. Rockwood wrote in 1838: “the
Companies are called Danites because the Prophet Daniel
has said [Daniel 7: 18] the Saints shall take the kingdom and
possess it for-ever.” 67
Two weeks after the formation of a second group at
Adam-ondi-Ahman, Missouri, John Smith (who was both
stake president and a special counselor in the First
Presidency) called the organization “the Danites” in his
diary. He also described Danite meetings as routine events. 68
Soon this militant group developed an infamous reputation
for its intimidation of Mormon dissenters and its warfare
against anti-Mormon militia units. Joseph Smith cited
those two purposes in his journal (called a “Scriptory
Book”) to explain why “we have a company of Danites in
these times.” 69 Sidney Rigdon, first counselor in the First
Presidency, later made a similar statement in the official LDS
newspaper. 70
Thus the Prophet’s own diary corroborates the later statement
by Ebenezer Robinson, who remained a believing
Mormon but regretted his Danite activities: “Both Joseph
Smith, jr. and Sidney Rigdon sanctioned and favored the
only organization of ‘Danites’ of which the writer has any
knowledge.” 71
On 17 June 1838, Sidney Rigdon preached his “Salt
Sermon” as a warning that Mormon dissenters would “be
cast out and trodden under foot of men.” 72 Rather than
simply being an echo of Matthew 5: 13, Rigdon’s sermon was
restating what an 1834 revelation had authorized the First
Presidency to do to Mormons who “hearken not to observe
all my words” (D&C 103:8–10).
The next day, Second Counselor Hyrum Smith and his
uncle John Smith (an Assistant Counselor in the First
Presidency) joined with Danite leader Sampson Avard (the
first signatory) and eighty other Danites in signing a
threatening letter to Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, John
Whitmer, Lyman E. Johnson, and William W. Phelps.
Presidency counselor John Smith was the only general authority
who signed both this 1838 warning
and the earlier warning to Kirtland’s justice
of the peace. This Danite threat instructed
these excommunicated dissenters to “depart,
or a more fatal calamity shall befall
you.” 73
Ebenezer Robinson, who also signed the
Danite document, later wrote that all the
signers were members of the recently organized
Danite “military organization.” He
added that he was told in June 1838 that the
document itself “was gotten up in the office of the First
Presidency.” 74 Avard specified that Counselor Rigdon wrote
the text of this Danite ultimatum. 75 Although the Danites
had been organized primarily for external security against
the possibility of Missouri mobs, 76 they now functioned as
an organization for internal security—to intimidate and possibly
kill dissenting Mormons.
Indeed, Joseph Smith’s “Scriptory Book” journal showed
that the Prophet intended the Danites to use force against
LDS dissidents: “we have a company of Danites in these
times, to put to right physically that which is not right, and
to cleanse the Church of verry [sic] great evils . . .” (emphasis
added). 77 The fact that the Danite death threat was
written by Joseph’s first counselor Sidney Rigdon, signed by
second counselor Hyrum Smith, and co-signed by assistant
counselor John Smith indicates that the First Presidency had
thorough knowledge of the Danite organization in mid-1838
and crucial participation with its violent manifestations
from the outset.
Speaking of the prominent dissidents who received this
death threat in June, Joseph Smith’s “Scriptory” journal
noted: “These men took warning, and soon they were seen
bounding over the prairie like the scape Goat to carry of[f]
their own sins.” 78 Unable to see the situation in such lighthearted
terms, dissenter John Whitmer wrote: “While we
were gone[,] Jo. & Rigdon & their band of gadiantons kept
up a guard and watched our houses and abused our families
and threatened them if they were not gone by morning they
would be drove out & threatened our lives if they [the
Danites] ever saw us in Far West.” 79 “Gadianton” was a
Book of Mormon term for thieves and murderers who were
bound by secret oaths (Helaman 6: 18, 24, 26).
The Danites’ 1838 ultimatum was not an irregularity in
Mormonism but a direct fulfillment of a revelation four
years earlier concerning unfaithful Latter-day Saints “who
call themselves after my name” (D&C 103: 4). Stephen C.
LeSueur observed: “The Danite organization was the
product of, not an aberration from, Mormon attitudes and
teachings. The Danites represented mainstream
Mormonism.” 80 Despite trying to put the best face possible
on this event, Leland H. Gentry acknowledged: “The
method chosen by the Latter-day Saints to rid themselves of
their dissenting Brethren was unfortunate since it furnished
the dissenters with further proof that the Saints were inimical
to law and order.” 81
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