Referred to in Mormon publications as the “Mob Manifesto” or “The Secret Constitution” the following document was circulated by the citizens of Jefferson County, Missouri for the purpose of gathering the following Saturday to address concerns stated therein. The following text was preserved in the History of the Church and reads:
We, the undersigned, citizens of Jackson county, believing that an important crisis is at hand, as regards our civil society, in consequence of a pretended religious sect of people that have settled, and are still settling in our county, styling themselves “Mormons;” and intending, as we do, to rid our society, “peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must,” and believing as we do, that the arm of the civil law does not afford us a guarantee, or at least a sufficient one, against the evils which are now inflicted upon us, and seem to be increasing, by the said religious sect, deem it expedient, and of the highest importance, to form ourselves into a company for the better and easier accomplishment of our purpose–a purpose which we deem it almost superfluous to say, is justified as well by the law of nature, as by the law of self-preservation.
[page 375]
It is more than two years since the first of these fanatics, or knaves, (for one or the other they undoubtedly are) made their first appearance amongst us, and pretended as they did, and now do, to hold personal communication and converse face to face with the Most High God; to receive communications and revelations direct from heaven; to heal the sick by laying on hands; and, in short, to perform all the wonder-working miracles wrought by the inspired Apostles and Prophets of old.
We believed them deluded fanatics, or weak and designing knaves and that they and their pretensions would soon pass away; but in this we were deceived. The arts of a few designing leaders amongst them have thus far succeeded in holding them together as a society; and since the arrival of the first of them, they have been daily increasing in numbers; and if they had been respectable citizens in society and thus deluded, they would have been entitled to our pity rather than to our contempt and hatred; but from their appearance, from their manners, and from their conduct since their coming among us, we have every reason to fear that, with but very few exceptions, they were of the very dregs of that society from which they came, lazy, idle, and vicious. This we conceive is not idle assertion, but a fact susceptible of proof, for with these few exceptions above named, they brought into our country little or no property with them and left less behind them, and we infer that those only yoke themselves to the “Mormon” car who had nothing earthly or heavenly to lose by the change; and we fear that if some of the leaders amongst them, had paid the forfeit due to crime, instead of being chosen ambassadors of the Most High, they would have been inmates of solitary cells. But their conduct here stamps their characters in their true colors. More than a year since, it was ascertained that they had been tampering with our slaves, and endeavoring to sow dissensions and raise seditions amongst them. Of this their “Mormon” leaders were informed, and they said they would deal with any of their members who should again in like case offend. But how spacious are appearances. In a late number of the Star, published in Independence by the leaders of the sect, there is an article inviting free negroes and mulattoes from other states to become “Mormons,” and remove and settle among us. This exhibits them in still more odious colors. It manifests a desire on the part of their society, to inflict on our society an injury that they know would be to us entirely insupportable, and one of the surest means of driving us from the country; for it would require none of the supernatural gifts that they pretend to, to see that the introduction of such a caste amongst us would corrupt our blacks, and instigate them to bloodshed.
They openly blaspheme the Most High God, and cast contempt on
[page 376]
His holy religion, by pretending to receive revelations direct from heaven, by pretending to speak unknown tongues, by direct inspiration, and by divers pretenses derogatory to God and religion, and to the utter subversion of human reason.
They declare openly that their God hath given them this county of land, and that sooner or later they must and will have possession of our lands for an inheritance; and, in fine, they have conducted themselves on many other occasions, in such a manner, that we believe it a duty we owe to ourselves, our wives, and children, to the cause of public morals, to remove them from among us, as we are not prepared to give up our pleasant places and goodly possessions to them or to receive into the bosom of our families, as fit companions for our wives and daughters, the degraded and corrupted free negroes and mulattoes that are now invited to settle among us.
Under such a state of things, even our beautiful county would cease to be a desirable residence, and our situation intolerable. We, therefore, agree that after timely warning, and receiving an adequate compensation for what little property they cannot take with them, they refuse to leave us in peace, as they found us–we agree to use such means as may be sufficient to remove them, and to that end we each pledge to each other our bodily powers, our lives, fortunes and sacred honors.
We will meet at the court house, at the town of Independence, on Saturday next, the 20th inst., [July], to consult on subsequent movements.
Among the hundreds of names attached to the above document were:
Lewis Franklin, jailor; Samuel C. Owens, county clerk; Russel Hicks, deputy county clerk; R. W. Cummins, Indian agent; James H. Flournoy, postmaster; S. D. Lucas, colonel and judge of the court; Henry Chiles, attorney-at-law; N. K. Olmstead, M. D.; John Smith, justice of the peace; Samuel Weston, justice of the peace; William Brown, constable; Abner F. Staples, captain; Thomas Pitcher, deputy constable; Moses G. Wilson and Thomas Wilson, merchants.1
In preface to the above citation the editors of the Church History wrote:
Yet, because the Saints in spiritual things believed and taught differently from their neighbors–although both the faith and the teachings of the Saints were according to the laws of heaven–the mob drew up and published the following manifesto.2
Concern for their lives and property was the main concern due to the following published revelation by Joe (aka Joseph) Smith:
Wherefore, the land of Zion shall not be obtained but by purchase or by blood, otherwise there is none inheritance for you. (D&C 63:29)
Which church President in Zion and Book of Mormon Witness David Whitmer warned if published would cause the Missourians to kick them out – in defense of their families and property:
Brother Joe (aka Joseph) said as follows:
“Any man who objects to having these revelations published, shall have his part taken out of the Tree of Life and out of the Holy City.”
The Spirit of God came upon me (David) and I prophesied to them IN THE NAME OF THE LORD:
That if they sent those revelations to Independence to be published in a book, the people would come upon them and tear down the printing press, and the church would be driven out of Jackson County.
BROTHERS JOSEPH AND SIDNEY LAUGHED AT ME.3
What happened at the following Saturday meeting was widely published in the Western Monitor – Fayette Missouri on 2 August 1833.
NOTES
1Joseph Smith, History of the Church, vol. 1, Chapter 27, pp. 374-376; see also Richard L. Bushman, “Mormon Persecutions in Missouri, 1833,” BYU Studies, vol. 3, 1960-1961, no. 1, Autumn 1960.
2Ibid, p. 374.
3David Whitmer, An Address to all Believers in Christ, 1887, p. 55.