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U.S. Citizens expect the government to ensure that the rights found in the
Constitution are protected. Equally, citizens have the responsibility to obey the
laws of the land.
When the Founding Fathers
implemented the Bill of Rights as a part of the Constitution, they wanted to ensure
that citizens could practice their religion freely. However, this was
often was not applied to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
known as the Mormons.
In April of 1830, Joseph Smith, its founder,
organized the Church in upstate New York. Persecution came soon after.
Then the LDS Church moved to Kirtland, Ohio to escape this persecution.
In 1834, Joseph Smith left Kirtland for Missouri.
Some of the church members settled in Missouri, while others went to the banks
of the Mississippi River and built the city of Nauvoo.
Meanwhile in Missouri, some of the worst governmental persecution took place.
In 1838, Governor Lilburn Boggs issued what was called the "Mormon Extermination Order".
This was later removed on July 25th of 1976 by Christopher Bond.
Back in 1839, Joseph Smith sought the help of President Van Buren.
According to Joseph Smith, Van Buren replied
saying "Your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you...
If I take up for you, I shall lose the vote of Missouri".
With all this persecution, people wonder,
"What are the Mormons thoughts towards the government?"
In 1842, when asked by a newspaper editor in Chicago,
he was asked what they believed; Joseph Smith replied quoting
the 13 Articles of Faith.
Numbers 11 and 12 relate to this issue.
In 1844, Joseph Smith and his brother were captured and taken to Carthage,
Illinois. Instead of being protected, they were both assassinated.
As a result, 5 defendants were tried for the *** of the Smiths.
All 5 defendants were found not guilty by a jury. This jury was composed
exclusively exclusively of non-Mormons
After the death of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young became leader of the church.
In 1846, it was decided to leave U.S. territory as they did not feel safe.
As a result, they left Nauvoo, which by now was the 2nd largest
city in Illinois. Less than 3 months later,
the U.S. was at war with Mexico.
Brigham Young sent a letter
asking for aid in migrating west. The president replied that they could
camp on U.S. territory
as they traveled west if they raised a battalion of 500 men to fight in the
Mexican war. Although they never had to engage in battle,
the men of the Mormon Battalion were honored for volunteering to fight alongside
the United States and were considered as
loyal American citizens. This march of about 2,000 miles from Council Bluffs to California
is known today as one of the longest military marches in history.
Many of these men helped build flour mills and sawmills in northern
California. Some of those men were one of the first to discover gold at Sutter's Mill.
As the Battalion was marching west, the wagon
trains of Mormons were also headed west.
but felt they were headed to a land of safety.
This is illustrated by a well-known Mormon Hymn, "Come, Come Ye Saints"
In a verse of this song, it states:
On July 24th
1847, Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon pioneers entered the valley of
The Great Salt Lake.
When the Mormons arrived in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, their conflict with the
government of the United States was not over.
This area came under the control of the United States after the Mexican War.
Brigham Young had boasted that if they could get 10 years of peace,
they would ask no odds of the devil or Uncle Sam.
Ten years to the day, July 24, 1857,
Brigham Young received word that an American army was on its way.
The reasons for this are complicated:
1) The Republican Party had linked plural marriage (which about 25% of Mormons practiced)
to the issue of slavery. 2) Stephen A. Douglas,
a former ally of the Latter-day Saints, began to denounce Mormonism to
to save the idea of popular sovereignty, which was a plan to allow the territories
to decide the issue of slavery for them. 3)
Maybe most importantly--although Brigham Young had been named territorial
governor by president Millard Fillmore
the amicable relationship broke down under the presidency of James Buchanan.
The church members and leaders did not like the rulings
made by Federal Judges and other officials.
Some lawyers broke into a Federal Judge's office
and pretended to burn court documents and law books.
The judges fled to Washington where they claimed that they had barely escaped with their lives.
Although preparing for war, it was hoped that a peaceful solution could be worked out.
Envoys were sent to Washington D.C
in hopes that a peaceful solution could be worked out.
However, troops were dispatched from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
After 10 weeks of irregular warfare where the weather was the troop's worst enemy,
Colonel A.S. Johnston arrived to take command.
Meanwhile, critics in the Eastern press felt that President Buchanan
had not handled the Utah problem very well. Positive reports were given to Congress by
assistant quartermaster, Captain Stuart
Van Vliet and Mormon sympathizer Thomas L. Kane.
Both of whom had journeyed to Salt Lake City. After Utah's
newly appointed territorial governor traveled alone into Salt Lake City
without incident, a peaceful solution was worked out
and the Mormon people received a pardon from the U.S. government.
The army of Colonel Johnston marched peacefully through an almost empty Salt Lake City
in the spring
and built Camp Floyd some 40 miles to the southwest.
A correspondent of the New York Herald summed up the Utah
or after the Mormon War this way: "killed, none;
wounded, none: fooled everybody"
The people of Utah began their struggle to become a state.
One of the major problems to this happening
was the practice of plural marriage (polygamy) Once that was no longer a practice in the church,
Utah became the 45th state in the Union on January 4, 1896.
Over the years, Mormons have served at all levels of government.
There have been representatives, senators,
governors and even members of the presidential cabinet.
In 1830, the church started with 6 members
and today there are over 15,000,000 Mormons.
And is now one of the fastest growing Christians denominations.