State and Church During the Mormon Wars

Throughout the world, missionaries from all different religions and denominations travel the world inspiring faith within people and gaining converts to further strengthen their religious doctrine. Among the most recognized of these missionaries are the teams clad in uniform slacks and matching tops, clutching their books closely as they travel door to door. The teams I am referring to are those from the church of the Latter Day Saints, recognized simply to the public as Mormons. At the age of 18, many Mormon youth go among the states or abroad to introduce their religious doctrine and to gain new members. Whether it is in vain or success, these missiaonaries go on to fulfill their spiritual mission, keeping diligent in visiting each and every house to try and share the word of the Mormon faith.

Noting these missionary efforts, the Mormons have shown to experience success in the gain of numbers; today's population of Mormons in the United States is around 5.5 million, making the faith the fourth largest individual denomination in the country. Efforts outside the country have produced massive numbers, reaching over 5.5 million members, as more Mormons live outside the U.S than in, and creating over 25,000 congregations worldwide. Mormonism is one of the fastest growing denominations on the planet. While mainline Christianity denominations including the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church, to name a few, have been in decline, the prominence of Mormonism and the rising power of the church is evident.

Lantzer even suggests that Mormonism is quickly becoming a very "mainline-like' denomination indeed, noting a rise of "alternative religions". This is a whole other argument in itself. The recent presidential running for the United States in 2012 pitting the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, and the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, a prominent and open Mormon, further suggests that Mormonism is becoming somewhat of an accepted religious norm. While Mitt Romney didn't win the election, the question was still raised about his faith.

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There was a similar situation nearly 170 years ago; the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith ran for the Presidency, but his campaign met much hostility.5 The Mormon immigration to Missouri, then to Illinois, both created conflicts that led to two separate wars. It is interesting to note that both the Illinois and Missouri Mormon War conflicts played out very similar.

A question that seems to present itself in this particular historical theatre is who did it; who is to blame for these conflicts? Within the documents, there are conflicting sources; the Mormons cry out religious persecution, while the locals, either Missourian or Illinoisan, blame the Mormons for thievery, kidnapping, and other crimes. Both sides cry injustice against the other, but no aggressor is truly agreed upon. The Mormon Wars in Missouri and Illinois from 1838 to 1844 occurred not simply due to acts of revenge and personal vendettas, but through a clash of church and state that fueled religious and political strife. The wars proved that the separation of church and state existed not as a solid wall, but as a boundary permeated by religious and political ambition and influence.

In fact, Mormonism was held in contempt ever since its conception in New York by Joseph Smith. Smith would attempt to establish his new religion in Kirtland, Ohio by 1831.6 Smith and his followers created a bank, probably planning to settle community right there in Ohio. This bank in Ohio, however, experienced a financial crisis and shortly failed, spurring Smith and his followers, who had been steadily growing in numbers, to remove themselves to Missouri.

In Missouri, the Mormons kept on searching for a place to settle, including Jackson County, which, by revelations of Smith, was proclaimed as Zion, the Mormon equivalent of the holy land of Jerusalem, and Clay County; both of which were met with tension and conflicts." The Mormons settled in Caldwell County in 1836, after years of searching for an ideal land safe from prejudice, by buying large sections of land and claiming it as their own Mormon county.

The Mormons settling in Missouri progressively ignited more conflicts within the state and increased agitation towards the religious group; climaxing into a dramatic proclamation by the governor and the start of the Missouri war. With accusations of theft, kidnappings, and even murders against the Mormons, Governor Boggs released Executive Order 44 calling for military actions and that, "The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace. A conflict arose between Missouri militia and the religious group being recorded in history as the Missouri Mormon war.

Within a month of Governor Boggs' Executive Order against the Mormon people, militia had marched to the Mormon encampments and received surrender from the Mormons; the Missouri Mormon War ended with the surrender of Far West. 10 The Mormons were driven from the state east across the Mississippi river into Illinois. Between the years 1839 and 1840, the whole Mormon population in Missouri took refuge in Illinois, which is exactly how Illinois received them; as refugees. Several counties in Illinois displayed hospitality and took in the newly homeless Mormons. The Mormons were treated as sufferers of religious persecution and received refuge from the people of Illinois." The Mormons, with renewed religious fervor in their new home, found a new Zion in their new city Nauvoo.

There in Nauvoo, the Mormons lived in relative peace with the neighboring counties. But over the next couple years, the people of Illinois slowly began to resent the Mormons living in their state. Tension began to arise, Anti-Mormonism became a prominent feeling, and a separate conflict named the Illinois Mormon War erupted, leading to the capture and murder of Joseph Smith in a jailhouse in Carthage Illinois. With the death of their prophet, the Mormons gathered for an exodus that led them into the western frontier, where they eventually settled in Utah and found Salt Lake City. The Mormons based their operations in Utah and have existed ever since.

The Mormons first move into Missouri quickly caught the attention of settled Missourians who were suddenly surprised living next to the new religious group. Jackson County, the first perceived Zion, drove the Mormons out of their county. In response to this event, the Mormons followed Joseph Smith to neighboring Clay County. The county of Clay was merely supposed to be a temporary sanctuary for the Mormons until arrangements could be made to find a way to return to their homes. It seems that the Mormons may have overstayed their welcome however.

The residents of Clay County met and agreed that sympathy for the Mormons had run short and that, "there was one thing that stood out in bold relief-the saints [Mormons] must go; leave the county-all hands agreed in that".  It was suggested, strongly I might add, that the Mormons move and find their own place to live. The Missourians, at this point, were avoiding any forceful conflict with these newcomers. It was recorded that the meeting's conclusion consisted of a suggestion for the creation of Caldwell County "in the spirit of frank and friendly kindness," advising the Mormons to "seek a home where they may obtain large and separate bodies of land, and have a community of their own.'

With the Mormons successfully removed from the county, one would expect the two groups to be at peace; this was not so. The beginnings of the conflicts arose when the Mormonsn started settling in other counties beside their own; a breach in contract in the Missourians' eyes. Caldwell County was decided to be a Mormon county, a separate but equal tactic that was imagined to be able to avoid conflict. But the area of Caldwell County was not as favorable as neighboring counties resource wise, and Mormons slowly began to spill into neighboring counties.

According to LeSueur, Cornelius Gillam, a future legislature and member of the Clay County committee, helped the finding of Caldwell County for the Mormons and stated that the Mormons had promised "they would never settle above or north of the line of (Caldwell) county. " LeSueur also includes the alleged formal proposition, found in a book in 1886. According to LeSueur, the proposition read as such; that the Mormons would have "undisturbed possession of the new county", that they "were to hold to county offices", and even able to "send representatives to the legislature". The proposal created an agreement that in return for Caldwell County, the Mormons, "were not to settle in any other county save by the express consent and permission, previously obtained, of two-thirds of the non-Mormon residents...".

It is interesting to note, that this proposal appears to give Mormons a fair deal of political power. The Mormons had their own governing system of the county, and even a say in the state legislature. The agreement also did not necessarily confine the group to Caldwell County. With enough time, and persuasion, the Mormons possibly could have convinced a few counties for a 2/3 vote from its locals. These are all hypotheticals however. But to fully concur on an agreement, one needs approval from both sides. This alleged agreement seems to be recalled only by the Missourians, and is not mentioned by Mormons.

Lesueur, however, includes the recollection of Alexander Doniphan, later know as General Doniphan, the lawyer for the Mormons and admired by the Mormons for events yet to come. Lesueur notes that Doniphan recalled that, "they [the Mormons] commenced forming a settlement in Davis County, which under their agreement they had no right to do." Whatever the political specifics on the boundaries of a Mormon county, the Mormons seemed to have a breach in their contract.

For the Mormons to have been removed to a separate county in the first place, they surely must have clashed with the Missourians on some ideals. A religious clash would be the obvious conclusion, but a closer look reveals that the Mormons were simply opposite in their political doctrine than their Missourian counterparts. The Mormons, and more importantly Joseph Smith, originated from New York, and brought with them any political values of the area. Missouri and Illinois, on the other hand, were on the edge of the frontier with differing ideals. A controversial ideal the Mormons held that met fierce opposition was the abolishment of slavery. Illinois itself had a demographic that 90 percent of its population had been from southern origins.

Most, if not all of them, would probably be sympathizers of slavery, which was completely legal for the time period. It is noted by Salisbury that, "abolitionists were not tolerated in the State outside of Galesburg, Princeton, Chicago, and a few other places.” Missouri, just right across the Mississippi, must have shared many of the same demographics and sentiments as their Illinois neighbors. Slavery was a controversial topic at the time and when the Mormons immigrated in Missouri, they began to preach against slavery. The Midwesterners "received them as they did that other New England abolitionist, John Brown, with fire and sword."

One must notice the reference to John Brown, a precedent if any for Missourian reactions. The Midwesterners had dealt with abolitionists before, and this hostile attitude was not uniquely specific to the Mormons. Elijah P. Lovejoy, a New England abolitionist, had conflicted with the people of Illinois, and was murdered by a pro-slavery mob just 7 years before. Many of the inhabitants of Nauvoo held abolitionist ideas. Many of the Mormons were even descendants of high class abolitionists, some even with direct ties with British nobility.

The county of Clay in Missouri was not kind to these abolitionist attitudes either. They discerned that the Mormons "were Easterners with different manners, customs, and habits, nonslaveholders who opposed slavery".  Salisbury notes in his article a speech by Senator O. F Berry before the Illinois State Historical Society in 1906 saying, "It is sufficient here to say that it is not strange that talking and preaching against slavery as they did, both publicly and privately, they aroused the enmity of the Southern slaveholder, and they were driven out of Missouri, not on account of their religious teachings, in any particular, but because of their political doctrines.....".

The Mormons with their abolitionist ideals surely tried to use some of their political power to affect legislation. As stated before, the Mormons gained their own county, with their own political body and even representatives for the legislature. The Mormons had some rising power because Mormon immigrants and even converts continually settled in Caldwell County, making the religious group grow in strength and in numbers. With only followers of Joseph Smith living in the county, a bi-partisan political system seems out of the question. Missouri was also greatly unpopulated and some areas were not even organized into counties.

The area of Platte County was a recently annexed addition by the time the Mormons had already organized in Clay County; both Buchanan and Platte counties were organized in 1838. Livingston and Linn counties to the northeast were established in 1837. Daviess County, to the north, was established in 1836, the same year as Caldwell. Therefore, comparatively, Caldwell had quite a say in the Missouri's politics; a grim aspect for slavery sympathizers being "under invasion" from these New England abolitionists.

Perhaps the Missourians did not realize the Mormons to be staunch abolitionists at first, but Mormons definitely had a difference in political opinion with the local Midwesterners, which agitated them to a degree in silent contempt with the growing Mormon political power. The climax to this political opposition, however, was the founding and chartering of Nauvoo after the great Missouri exodus. The move into Illinois throughout 1839-1840 was tough on the religious group, but the prospects of a life in Illinois looked promising for the Mormons; the Illinoisan people had received them as sufferers.

The Illinois people were not wrapped up in the Missouri state politics, and the Mormons started anew with their new neighbors. With that, a new Zion was found, a city along the Mississippi river named Nauvoo in Hancock County. Surprisingly enough, the Mormons passed the charter for the city smoothly and uncommonly hastily, which led to major problems in a balance of powers. The charter gave excessive powers to Nauvoo that conflicted with State laws.

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