AGAIN THE PASSIVELY GOOD--PETITIONS.
It must not be supposed that all the people of Missouri sanctioned the
outrages committed against The Church. On the contrary there was here
and there an honorable man who protested against the conduct of the mob
and the authorities; and occasionally some newspaper would deplore the
action of the State against the saints.
Among the men who were moved with sympathy by their sufferings
was Michael Arthur. He wrote to the representatives in the State
legislature from Clay County, relating the vile atrocities that
were heaped upon the heads of the defenseless saints after they had
surrendered their arms to General Clark. He represented that the
"Mormons" were willing to leave the State, in fact that they were
making every effort that their limited means would permit them to make
to get away, and suggested that a company of reliable men under the
command of Geo. M. Pryer be authorized to patrol on the line between
Daviess and Caldwell counties with authority to arrest any one they
found disturbing the peace, that the "Mormons" might be protected
while they were making preparations to leave the State. And if it was
impracticable to organize this company of men, then he suggested that
the arms taken from the "Mormons" be returned to them, that they might
defend themselves from the barbarous attacks of their enemies.
Nor were the saints wanting in attention to the instructions of the
Lord in the matter of petitioning for a redress of their grievances.
For as soon as the legislature was convened they sent a statement of
all the wrongs heaped upon them during their sojourn in the State of
Missouri, from the time they first settled in Jackson County to the
treaty forced upon them at Far West by Generals Lucas and Clark, and
the outrages that had been committed against them since the surrender
of their arms.
After detailing the story of their wrongs, they asked: first, that
the legislature pass a law rescinding the exterminating order of
Governor Boggs; second, they asked an expression of the legislature,
disapproving the conduct of those who compelled them to sign a deed of
trust at the muzzle of the musket, and of any man in consequence of
that deed of trust taking their property and appropriating it to the
payment of damages sustained, in consequence of trespasses committed
by others; third, that they receive payment for the six hundred and
thirty-five arms that were taken from them, which were worth twelve
or fifteen thousand dollars; fourth, that an appropriation be made to
reimburse them for their loss of lands from which they had been driven
in Jackson County. The petition closed in these words:
In laying our case before your honorable body, we say that we are
willing, and always have been, to conform to the Constitution and laws
of the United States, and of this State. We ask in common with others
the protection of the laws. We ask for the privileges guaranteed all
free citizens of the United States and of this State to be extended to
us, and that we may be permitted to settle and live where we please,
and worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience
without molestation. And while we ask for ourselves this privilege, we
are willing all others should enjoy the same.
Elder David H. Redfield was appointed to present this petition to the
legislature; and on that mission he arrived at Jefferson City on the
seventeenth day of December. The same day of his arrival he had an
interview with Governor Boggs, in which the governor manifested much
interest, and on being informed that the Missourians were committing
depredations against the saints, promised to write Judge King and
Colonel Price ordering them to put down every hostile appearance.
In the course of this conversation Boggs admitted that the
"stipulations entered into by the Mormons to leave the State, and
signing the deeds of trust, were unconstitutional and not valid."
"We want the legislature to pass a law to that effect, showing
that the stipulations and deeds of trust are not valid and are
unconstitutional," said Redfield, and went on to say if they did not,
the character of the State was forever lost.
Previous to the arrival of Redfield, the governor's exterminating
order, General Clark's reports, the report of the _ex parte_
investigation at Richmond, and a lot of other papers, had been
forwarded to the legislature and referred to a special joint committee.
That committee reported the day following Redfield's arrival at
Jefferson City, the eighteenth of December. And to show in what bad
repute these documents were held by this committee, I need only say
that it refused to allow them to be published with the sanction of the
legislature, because the evidence adduced at Richmond in a great degree
was _ex parte_ and not of a character to be desired for the basis
of a fair and candid investigation. The report concluded with three
resolutions: one to the effect that it was inexpedient at that time to
prosecute further the inquiry into the cause of the late disturbances;
another to the effect that it was inexpedient to publish any of the
documents accompanying the governor's message in relation to those
disturbances; the last favored the appointment of a joint committee
from the house and senate to investigate the troubles and the conduct
of the military operations to suppress them. These resolutions were
subsequently referred to a joint select committee with instructions to
report a bill in conformity thereto, and to which I shall again allude.
The day after, the committee reported in relation to that part of
the governor's message relating to the "Mormon troubles," and on the
documents accompanying it. The petition from the saints was read, amid
profound stillness of the house, and at its conclusion an angry debate
followed, in which quite a number of the members testified to the
correctness of the statements made in the petition and to the cruelties
practiced upon the saints, but they were in the minority.
On the sixteenth of January, Mr. Turner, the chairman of the select
joint committee before alluded to, in conformity with the resolution
passed, reported "A bill to provide for the investigation of the
late disturbances in the State of Missouri." The bill consisted of
twenty-three sections. It provided for a joint committee composed of
two members of the senate and three members from the house, which was
to meet at Richmond on the first Monday in May and thereafter at such
time and places as it saw proper. The committee was to select its own
officers; issue subpoenas and other processes, administer oaths, keep a
record, etc.
This bill was introduced on the sixteenth of January, and on the fourth
of February called up for its first reading, but on motion of Mr.
Wright was laid on the table till the fourth of July. He knew that by
that time, since the governor's exterminating order was still in force,
that the "Mormons," in obedience to that cruel edict, would all have
left the State, and then there would be no need of an investigation.
That was the fate of the bill. It was never afterwards brought up.
The legislature in its magnanimity appropriated two thousand dollars to
relieve the sufferings of the people in Daviess and Caldwell Counties,
the "Mormons" were to be included. And now came an opportunity for
the Missourians of Daviess County to display their generosity. Having
filled their homes with the household effects of the saints; their
yards with the stock they had stolen; their smoke houses with "Mormon"
beef and pork; they concluded they could get along without their
portion of the appropriation and allowed the two thousand dollars to be
distributed among the "Mormons" of Caldwell County!
Judge Cameron and a Mr. McHenry superintended the distribution of this
appropriation. The hogs owned by the brethren who had lived in Daviess
County were driven down into Caldwell, shot down and without further
bleeding were roughly dressed and divided out among the saints at a
high price. This and the sweepings of some old stores soon exhausted
the legislative appropriation, and amounted to little or nothing in the
way of relief to the saints.
Subsequently this same legislature, while the petition of the saints
for a redress of their wrongs was lying before it, appropriated two
hundred thousand dollars to defray the expenses incurred in driving the
"Mormons" from the State, and dispossessing them of their property! By
that act the legislature became a party to the deeds of the mob forces,
urged on in their cruelties by the executive of the State; for that
legislature had sealed with its approval all that had been done, by
paying the mob that had executed the plan devised for the expulsion of
the "Mormon" people.