Church History. Mob violence in Missouri:
On
Saturday, July 20, 1833, between 400 and 500 angry Missouri citizens met
at the courthouse in Independence, Missouri. They chose a committee to draft a
document outlining their demands of the Mormons. They demanded that no more
Latter-day Saints be allowed to move to Jackson County and said that those
already living there must pledge to leave as soon as possible. In addition,
they demanded that the Church newspaper stop publication. When these demands
were presented to the Church leaders in Missouri, the Church leaders were
startled and asked for three months to consider the proposition and to consult
with Church leaders in Ohio. The group of Missouri citizens presenting the
demands denied the Church leaders’ request. The Saints then asked for 10 days, but
they were allowed only 15 minutes to respond.
The
Missourians at the meeting in the Independence courthouse quickly turned into a
mob and decided to destroy the printing office and the press. They broke into
the printing office, threw the furniture into the street and garden, broke the
press, scattered the type, and destroyed nearly all the printed work, including
most of the unbound sheets of the Book of Commandments. The mob next went to
destroy the Gilbert and Whitney Store. However, Sidney Gilbert met the mob
before they could carry out their plan and promised that he would pack the
goods and leave in three days.
Three
days later, on July 23, a mob appeared again in Jackson County, Missouri,
this time armed with rifles, pistols, whips, and clubs. They set fire to
haystacks and grain fields and destroyed several homes, barns, and businesses.
They eventually confronted six Church leaders who, seeing that the property and
lives of the Saints were in jeopardy, offered their lives as a ransom.
Rejecting this offer, the mob leaders threatened that every man, woman, and
child would be whipped unless they consented to leave the county. Under
pressure, the brethren signed an agreement to leave Jackson County. Half of the
Church members and most of the leaders would leave by January 1, 1834, and
the rest would leave by April 1, 1834. The mob allowed John Corrill and Sidney
Gilbert to remain to sell the property of the Saints who had been driven out.
(See Church History in the Fulness of Times, 132-134.)
