and then the Mormons knew that they had no alternative except to leave the state. While the prisoners were in jail, things had not quieted down in the Mormon counties. The decisive action of the state authorities had given the local Missourians to understand that the law of the land was on their side, and when the militia withdrew they took advantage of their opportunity. Mormon property was not respected, and what was left to those people in the way of horses, cattle, hogs, and even household belongings was taken by the bands of men who rode at pleasure, and who claimed that they were only regaining what the Mormons had stolen from them. The legislature appropriated $2000 for the relief of such sufferers. Facing the necessity of moving entirely out of the state, the Mormons, as they had reached the western border line of civilization, now turned their face eastward to Quincy, Illinois, where some of their members were already established. Not until April 20 did the last of them leave Far West. The migration was attended with much suffering, as could not in such circumstances be avoided. The people of the counties through which they passed were, however, not hostile, and Mormon writers have testified that they received invitations to stop and settle. These were declined, and they pressed on to the banks of the Mississippi, where, in February and March, there were at one time more than 130 families, waiting for the moving ice to enable them to cross, many of them without food, and the best sheltered depending on tents made of their bedclothing.2 What the total of the pecuniary losses of the Mormons in Missouri was cannot be accurately estimated. They asserted that in Jackson County alone $120,000 worth of their property was destroyed, and that fifteen thousand of their number fled from the state. Smith, in a statement of his losses made after his arrival in Illinois, placed them at $1,000,000. In a memorial presented to Congress at this time the losses in Jackson County were placed at $175,000, and in the state of Missouri at $2,000,000. The efforts of the Mormons to secure redress were long continued. Not only was Congress appealed to, but legislatures of other states were 1 See M. Arthur's letter, "Correspondence, Orders, etc.," p. 94. urged to petition in their behalf. The Senate committee at Washington reported that the matter was entirely within the jurisdiction of the state of Missouri. One of the latest appeals was addressed by Smith at Nauvoo in December, 1843, to his native state, Vermont, calling on the Green Mountain boys, not only to assist him in attaining justice in Missouri, "but also to humble and chastise or abase her for the disgraces he has brought upon constitutional liberty, until she atones for her sin." The final act of the Mormon authorities in Missouri was somewhat dramatic. Smith in his "revelation" of April 8, 1838, directing the building of a Temple at Far West, had (the Lord speaking) ordered the beginning to be made on the following Fourth of July, adding, “in one year from this day let them recommence laying the foundation of my house." The anniversary found the latest Missouri Zion deserted, and its occupants fugitives; but the command of the Lord must be obeyed. Accordingly, the twelve Apostles journeyed secretly to Far West, arriving there about midnight of April 26, 1839. A conference was at once held, and, after transacting some miscellaneous business, including the expulsion of certain seceding members, all adjourned to the selected site of the Temple, where, after the singing of a hymn, the foundation was relaid by rolling a large stone to one corner.1 The Apostles then returned to Illinois as quietly as possible. The leader of this expedition was Brigham Young, who had succeeded T. B. Marsh as President of the Twelve. Thus ended the early history of the Mormon church in Missouri. 1 The modern post-office name of Far West is Kerr. All the Mormon houses there have disappeared. Traces of the foundation of the Temple, which in places was built to a height of three or four feet, are still discernible. BOOK IV IN ILLINOIS CHAPTER I THE RECEPTION OF THE MORMONS " THE state of Illinois, when the Mormons crossed the Missouri River to settle in it, might still be considered a pioneer country. Iowa, to the west of it, was a territory, and only recently organized as such. The population of the whole state was only 467,183 in 1840, as compared with 4,821,550 in 1900. Young as it was, however, the state had had some severe financial experiences, which might have served as warnings to the new-comers. A debt of more than $14,000,000 had been contracted for state improvements, and not a railroad or a canal had been completed. "The people,' says Ford, "looked one way and another with surprise, and were astonished at their own folly." The payment of interest on the state debt ceased after July, 1841, and "in a short time Illinois became a stench in the nostrils of the civilized world. . . . The impossibility of selling kept us from losing population; the fear of disgrace or high taxes prevented us from gaining materially."1 The State Bank and the Shawneetown Bank failed in 1842, and when Ford became governor in that year he estimated that the good money in the state in the hands of the people did not exceed one year's interest on the public debt. The lawless conditions in many parts of the state in those days can scarcely be realized now. It was in 1847 that the Rev. Owen Lovejoy was killed at Alton in maintaining his right to print there an abolition newspaper. All over the state, settlers who had occupied lands as "squatters" defended their claims by force, and serious mobs often resulted. Large areas of military lands were owned 1 Ford's "History of Illinois," Chap. VII. by non-residents, who were in very bad favor with the actual settlers. These settlers made free use of the timber on such lands, and the non-residents, failing to secure justice at law, finally hired preachers, who were paid by the sermon to preach against the sin of "hooking" timber.1 Bands of desperadoes in the northern counties openly defied the officers of the law, and, in one instance, burned down the courthouse (in Ogle County in 1841) in order to release some of their fellows who were awaiting trial. One of these gangs ten years earlier had actually built, in Pope County, a fort in which they defied the authorities, and against which a piece of artillery had to be brought before it could be taken. Even while the conflict between the Mormons was going on, in 1846, there was vitality enough in this old organization, in Pope and Massac counties, to call for the interposition of a band of "regulators," who made many arrests, not hesitating to employ torture to secure from one prisoner information about his associates. Governor Ford sent General J. T. Davies there, to try to effect a peaceable arrangement of the difficulties, but he failed to do so, and the "regulators," who found the county officers opposed to them, drove out of the county the sheriff, the county clerk, and the representativeelect to the legislature. When the judge of the Massac Circuit Court charged the grand jury strongly against the "regulators," they, with sympathizers from Kentucky, threatened to lynch him, and actually marched in such force to the county seat that the sheriff's posse surrendered, and the mob let their friends out of jail, and drowned some members of the posse in the Ohio River. The reception and treatment of the Mormons in Illinois, and the success of the new-comers in carrying out their business and political schemes, must be viewed in connection with these incidents in the early history of the state. The greeting of the Mormons in Illinois, in its practical shape, had both a political and a business reason.2 Party feeling ran very high throughout the country in those days. The House of Representatives at Washington, after very great excitement, organized 1 Ford's "History of Illinois," Chap. VI. 2 "The first great error committed by the people of Hancock County was in accepting too readily the Mormon story of persecution. It was continually rung in their ears, and believed as often as asserted." — GREGG, "History of Hancock County," p. 270. early in December, 1839, by choosing a Whig Speaker, and at the same time the Whig National Convention, at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, nominated General W. H. Harrison for President. Thus the expulsion from Missouri occurred on the eve of one of our most exciting presidential campaigns, and the Illinois politicians were quick to appraise the value of the voting strength of the immigrants. As a residence of six months in the state gave a man the right to vote, the Mormon vote would count in the presidential election. Accordingly, we find that in February, 1839, the Democratic Association of Quincy, at a public meeting in the court-house, received a report from a committee previously appointed, strongly in favor of the refugees, and adopted resolutions condemning the treatment of the Mormons by the people and officers of Missouri. The Quincy Argus declared that, because of this treatment, Missouri was now so fallen that we could wish her star stricken out from the bright constellation of the Union." In April, 1839, Rigdon wrote to the "Saints in prison" that Governor Carlin of Illinois and his wife "enter with all the enthusiasm of their nature" into his plan to have the governor of each state present to Congress the unconstitutional course of Missouri toward the Mormons, with a view to federal relief. Governor Lucas of Iowa Territory, in the same year (Iowa had only been organized as a territory the year before, and was not admitted as a state until 1845), replying to a query about the reception the Mormons would receive in his domain, said: "Their religious opinions I consider have nothing to do with our political transactions. They are citizens of the United States, and are entitled to the same political rights and legal protection that other citizens are entitled to." He gave Rigdon at the same time cordial letters of introduction to President Van Buren and Governor Shannon of Ohio, and Rigdon received a similar letter to the President, recommending him "as a man of piety and a valuable citizen," signed by Governor Carlin, United States Senator Young, County Clerk Wren, and leading business men of Quincy. Thus began that recognition of the Mormons as a political power in Illinois which led to concessions to them that had so much to do with finally driving them into the wilderness. The business reason for the welcome of the Mormons in Illinois and Iowa was the natural ambition to secure an increase of population. In all of Hancock County there were in 1830 only |