THE PROS AND CONS OF ARBITRATION PROPOSITION.
Having related the principal events connected with the meeting held at
Liberty, we must consider the propositions made by the Jackson people
to the saints, for the peaceful adjustment of their difficulties. To
have the lands owned by the saints and the improvements thereon valued
by disinterested arbitrators, and the amount paid with _one hundred per
cent added_ within thirty days, looks like a very fair proposition; but
still the saints could not accept such terms; as the condition upon
which the proposition was made required the surrender of some of their
rights as citizens of the United States and freemen.
The Constitution of the United States says expressly: "The citizens
of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of
citizens in the several States." [A] The saints were citizens of the
United States, possessing all the rights and franchises thereof, and
they had a right--an indefeasible one, too--to settle in whatever
State they saw proper to choose for their abode; and they had a right
to settle in whatever part of the State pleased them best; and, as
Governor Dunklin admitted, they had a right to call their habitation
"ZION, the Holy Land, or Heaven itself," so long as in doing so, they
interfered not with the property and rights of others. To accept the
proposition of the Jackson people, therefore, and bind themselves
never again to make any effort to settle collectively or individually
within the limits of Jackson County, would be a surrender of their
dearest rights of citizenship; and would be permitting mobocrats and
murderers to dictate them in the exercise of their liberties; binding
not only themselves, but their children as well, to the dictum of these
wretches. To accept such a settlement of their troubles, would have
been a covenant with death, an agreement with hell! To their honor be
it said, they spurned the proposition with the contempt it deserved.
[Footnote A: Const. Art. IV, Section 2.]
But the surrender of some of their rights as citizens of the United
States was not the only difficulty involved in the settlement of the
Jackson troubles by the saints selling their possessions. God had
revealed it to them that Jackson County was the place where is to
be built the Zion of their God. For them to sell their lands then,
and agree never after to make a settlement there, collectively or
individually, would be a denial of their faith and bring upon them the
displeasure of their God. For them to sell their lands was entirely out
of the question.
But the mob offered not only to buy, but to sell upon the same
conditions that they proposed to buy. Why did not the saints accept
this offer? Simply because they could not, and the citizens of Jackson
knew very well they could not. The old settlers of Jackson owned many
times more the amount of land than was possessed by the saints, say
thirty acres to one. The saints were not wealthy to begin with; and
now, after they had been driven from their homes, robbed of their
goods, their cattle driven away, their houses, stables, and stacks
of grain burned, they are asked to buy nearly the whole of Jackson
County, for which they must pay double price, because they were to add
_one hundred per cent_ to the appraised value--in _thirty days!_ I
don't believe the people of Jackson County were sincere in making the
proposition. They knew the saints could not sell their lands without
surrendering many of their rights as free men and citizens of the
United States; and without being untrue to their God, by virtually
denying their faith in the revelations he had given regarding the
building up of Zion in Jackson County. This the old settlers knew the
Mormons would not do. They had tried to whip and frighten too many of
them into a denial of their religious convictions, to think for one
moment that money would be any inducement for them to deny that faith.
On the other hand, they determined to put the price of their own land
beyond the possibility of the saints purchasing it.
The whole scheme was concocted with a view of covering up their
outrages against the people of God, under an appearance of fairness.
"In the corrupted currents of this world, where Offense's gilded hand
may shove by justice," where hypocrisy is often mistaken for piety,
and cunning for fairness, the subterfuge may have served its purpose;
but when the wretches who would have murdered the saints and plundered
them of their goods shall stand before the bar of God where there is
"no shuffling," but where the actions of men "lie in their true light,"
they will find their refuge of deceit will not shield them from the
justice of Him who has declared, "vengeance is mine, I will repay!"
The saints refused to accept the terms of settlement made by the people
of Jackson, but they themselves proposed terms of adjustment, as
follows:
Twelve disinterested men were to be chosen, six by the exiles, six by
the people of Jackson County. These twelve men were to say what the
possessions of those men were worth that would not consent to live with
the "Mormon" people, and they should receive the money for the same in
one year from the time the treaty was made, none of the saints to enter
Jackson County to reside until the money was paid.
This same company of twelve men was to be empowered to say what the
damage was which the "Mormons" sustained in being driven from their
homes and in the destruction of their property, the said amount allowed
for damages to be deducted from the amount paid for the lands of those
who would not consent to live with the saints.
The only reply received to this proposition was in a letter from S. C.
Owens to Mr. Amos Reese, which plainly said the Jackson people would
listen to nothing like the proposition made by the "Mormons;" and here
the hopes of settling the Jackson County trouble by arbitration ended.