AFTERMATH OF THE EXPULSION.
The saints, exiled from their homes in Jackson County, found a
temporary resting place in Clay County; though some of them were
scattered through Ray, Lafayette, and Van Buren Counties. Those,
however, who settled in Van Buren were again driven away, as related in
a former chapter. The people in Clay County, as a rule, were kind to
the exiles thrown so unceremoniously upon their hospitality. They were
permitted to occupy every vacant cabin, and build others for temporary
shelter. Some of the sisters obtained positions as domestics in the
households of well-to-do farmers, while others taught school. For their
acts of kindness the people of Clay County were well repaid in labor
performed by the brethren, who were by no means idle, nor of the class
who would receive a gratuity when it was within their power to give its
equivalent in honest toil.
But look at the situation of the saints in the best possible light,
and after all, it was a gloomy prospect! In their scattered condition
no regular discipline could be enforced. Many of them were beyond
the reach of their spiritual teachers; and being surrounded by
wickedness, their hopes blighted, and witnessing the apparent triumph
of the wicked, is it any wonder if, in their despair, many of them
committed sins, and were chargeable with follies unbecoming people of
their profession? But in the main the saints were immovable as the
everlasting hills in their righteousness, and in their integrity. They
were willing to count all things as dross for the excellency of the
knowledge of God. Their very sufferings only wafted them nearer to him
who permitted their enemies to chasten them for their good, their very
chastisement being a witness that they were sons of God--that he loved
them.[A]
[Footnote A: Hebrews 12:6-9.]
The brethren were perplexed most of all as to what course to pursue.
Their return to the lands from which they had been driven looked at
least unlikely. They knew not whether it would be best to lease or
buy lands in Clay County; whether to prepare for permanent or only
temporary residence in that land. In the midst of this uncertainty, a
conference was convened on the 1st of January, 1834, at the house of P.
P. Pratt, at which it was--
_Resolved,_ that Lyman Wight and Parley P. Pratt be sent as special
messengers to represent the situation of the scattered brethren in
Missouri, to the Presidency of The Church, in Kirtland, and ask their
advice.
Accordingly these brethren started to perform this mission, leaving
their families in a penniless condition, while they themselves faced
the winds and snows of winter in the interests of their afflicted
co-religionists.
Pending the saints receiving instructions from their youthful Prophet,
we have many events to relate to our readers. In the latter part of
December, 1833, a court of inquiry was held at Liberty, Clay County,
to investigate the conduct of Colonel Pitcher, in dispossessing the
"Mormons" of their arms, and driving them from their homes. The inquiry
resulted in his arrest and trial before a court-martial; but the court
did not convene until the 20th of February, 1834; and so remiss in
the performance of his duty was General Thompson, who presided at the
court-martial trial, that no report was made to the governor until the
first of May; and even then it had to be solicited by the governor.
From the facts brought out in that trial, the governor decided that
Colonel Pitcher had no right to dispossess the "Mormons" of their
arms; and sent an order to S. D. Lucas, colonel of the thirty-third
regiment, to deliver the arms taken from the "Mormons" on the 5th of
December, 1833, to W. W. Phelps, John Corrill, E. Partridge, A. S.
Gilbert, or their order. Lucas, in the meantime, however, had resigned
his position, left Jackson County and settled in Lexington. Learning
of this, the governor issued a second order for the arms, directing it
this time to Colonel Pitcher. This letter was inclosed in a letter from
the governor to W. W. Phelps, and sent to Pitcher on the tenth of July;
but the arms were never returned. Indeed, between the issuing of the
first and second orders of the governor for their restoration to their
owners, the arms were distributed among the mob; and they insolently
boasted that the arms should not be returned, notwithstanding the order
of the executive. The determination of the mob proved to be stronger
than the authority of the governor--the commander-in-chief of the
militia of the State.
In the month of December, 1833, the mob permitted the firm of Davies
& Kelly to take the printing press owned by The Church over to
Liberty, in Clay County, where the said firm began the publication of
_The Missouri Enquirer;_ and in payment for the press turned over to
the lawyers employed by the saints three hundred dollars on the one
thousand dollar note the brethren had given their attorneys. Not much
to pay for a press that, with the book-works, had cost, eighteen months
before, between three and four thousand dollars.