1838 Persecution Of Church Members

[urroner]

Saw this this morning and thought it rather interesting: Greed drove 1838 persecution

Editor's note: This is a synopsis of an article appearing in the latest volume of BYU Studies about motives behind the 1838 persecution of Latter-day Saints in Missouri.

New findings reveal that several prominent Missouri persecutors in Daviess County made immense profits off the lands from which early Mormon settlers were driven. New research also suggests the timing of the Extermination Order facilitated this landgrab.

In 2005, Jeffrey N. Walker was working as manager of the Legal and Business Series for the Joseph Smith Papers project when he discovered important documents that shed new light on the 1838 conflict between Mormons and Missourians in Daviess County. Walker shares his findings in the current issue of BYU Studies: â??While popular history has painted the persecution as religiously motivated, the facts suggest a more base reason: greed, in its most ugly and insatiable form.â?

<snip>

Surveyors struggled to keep up with the workload. â??A settler could file an application for his land and then wait months, or sometimes even years, for the surveying process to be completed,â? Walker explains. In the meantime, settlers worked the land and earned money to purchase it. Also, once houses, mills, and crops were in, the land became vastly more valuable -- the case with most Mormon property in Daviess County.

Preemption rights -- and the delayed payment for claimed lands -- directly influenced Mormonsâ?? settlement decisions following the financial collapse in Kirtland, Ohio. Although â??Caldwell County was informally designed to accommodate Mormons,â? Saints established their main community, Far West, in Caldwell County but also expanded into Daviess County. This was not because â??Caldwell County had filled up to overflowing with Mormons,â? as some have claimed. Many Saints from Kirtland had sold their land and possessions to help pay Church debts, so they came to Missouri unprepared to buy property. Many of these Saints settled Daviess County because preemption rights gave them time to farm and earn money before having to pay for the land.

Walker asserts that some Missourians in Daviess County were motivated by financial self-interest in persecuting their Mormon neighbors. Because Mormon settlers had the first right to buy the improved and now-valuable land at the original price, â??some Missourians carefully orchestrated the persecution in October and November 1838 specifically to gain control of Mormonsâ?? preemption rights,â? he asserts. â??They did not reap an unintended windfallâ? in buying Mormonsâ?? improved land. â??Rather they orchestrated the deliberate takingâ? of Mormonsâ?? preemption rights.

[USU78]

Because Mormon settlers had the first right to buy the improved and now-valuable land at the original price, â??some Missourians carefully orchestrated the persecution in October and November 1838 specifically to gain control of Mormonsâ?? preemption rights,â? he asserts. â??They did not reap an unintended windfallâ? in buying Mormonsâ?? improved land. â??Rather they orchestrated the deliberate takingâ? of Mormonsâ?? preemption rights.

I always tell my kids and anybody else who'll listen that the law of cui bono will always tell you the who and the why of any human activity, from legislation to war to persecution.

USU "Tell me again why Mormons were just being paranoid about another land grab in 1858?" 78

[DispensatorMysteriorum]

Very true law, USU78

[John Williams]

I always tell my kids and anybody else who'll listen that the law of cui bono will always tell you the who and the why of any human activity, from legislation to war to persecution.

USU "Tell me again why Mormons were just being paranoid about another land grab in 1858?" 78

Yep. There's almost always another motive, usually power and money, behind such things. Religion works as a convenient excuse, but it's not often the primary motivation. Look at the Islamofascists of today, whose leaders use religious fanaticism as a tool for power and cash.

[Zakuska]

Yep. There's almost always another motive, usually power and money, behind such things. Religion works as a convenient excuse, but it's not often the primary motivation. Look at the Islamofascists of today, whose leaders use religious fanaticism as a tool for power and cash.

For a minute there I thought your where talking about the street screechers.

[katherine the great]

Saw this this morning and thought it rather interesting: Greed drove 1838 persecution

I could say that greed drove the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre, but I'd only be slightly right. John D. Lee went from poor, hardworking farmer to affluent businessman almost immediately after the attack. I have no doubt that the two things are connected. However, (as we all know) it was much, much more complicated than that. I think the Missouri persecutions were more complicated than that too. Fear, envy, greed, resentment, misunderstanding and rumor all fueled the fire.

[Connolly]

USU "Tell me again why Mormons were just being paranoid about another land grab in 1858?" 78

Or the great land grab of 1996.

[USU78]

Or the great land grab of 1996.

Very good example: Ideology (we must protect the environment by locking up the world's 2nd largest proven envirocoal reserves that would otherwise be burned and pollute Mexico's air) was used to cover acquisitiveness (we must lock up the world's 2nd largest proven envirocoal reserves so that the Chinese government will deliver millions of dollars in cash to the DNC to ensure a sitting president's re-election where the Chinese government, specifically the Red Army, is partners with Singapore in development of the world's largest proven envirocoal reserves).

[Zakuska]

Walker quotes Parley P. Pratt in summarizing the roots of the Missouri conflict: â??The anti-Mormons were determined the Mormons should yield and abandon the country. Moreover the land sales were approaching, and it was expedient that they should be driven out before they could establish their rights of pre-emption. In this way, their valuable improvements -- the fruit of diligence and enterprise -- would pass into the hands of men who would have the pleasure of enjoying without the toil of earning.â?

Isn't this history repeating itself? Thats exactly what the Nazi's did to the Jews.

[John Williams]

Isn't this history repeating itself? Thats exactly what the Nazi's did to the Jews.

Well, sort of, but no ovens were involved.

[Zakuska]

Well, sort of, but no ovens were involved.

I wonder how many saints where burned alive in their homes?

doh... that kind of defeats the purpose of a land grab.

[John Williams]

I wonder how many saints where burned alive in their homes?

Are there any reports of people being burned alive in their homes?

[Connolly]

Are there any reports of people being burned alive in their homes?

Zak will have to speak for himself, but I rather think he was meaning that it wouldn't make any sense to burn someones home when you wanted to grab a bit of land made more valuable because it was improved, ie, it had buildings on it.

[Zakuska]

Exactlly Connolly!

No wonders the saints in Salt Lake staked their homes with hay ready to burn at a momments notice when Johnsons Army came marching in... The US Government had stole their land once before and they weren't about to let it happen again.

[John Williams]

Zak will have to speak for himself, but I rather think he was meaning that it wouldn't make any sense to burn someones home when you wanted to grab a bit of land made more valuable because it was improved, ie, it had buildings on it.

Then why invoke Godwin's Law in the first place?

[USU78]

Then why invoke Godwin's Law in the first place?

An excellent question, but it's certainly understandable why somebody would compare one particularly vicious pogrom involving others with one involving one's ancestors being on the receiving end.

The real lesson here, I think, is that what is said matters a great deal. Absent prod ministers getting people all heated up, the ones behind it all and/or who see an opportunity and are, therefore, morally responsible for what ensues don't make any headway with their self-seeking.

Make no mistake about it -- the prod ministers are probably as much used and using, lied to as much as lying in furtherance of others' political and/or wealth-building aims.

Not that it excuses them nor frees them of moral responsibility for the inevitable consequences of their volitional acts.

[Anijen]

A little bit of a digress here. Did we give too much land and buildings to the RLDS (sorry CoC)? I have always wanted to know why in independence and other places we did not take legal action for more. I was in Independence and one of the older missionaries said the church did it to not be in a court battle. But if it was the CoJCoLDS land and buildings to begin with....It just seems like the Church purchases it when it is available but wasn't it the church's to begin with?