Comments about ‘MormonTimes.com: Greed drove 1838 persecution, BYU Studies article says’

Where has Jeffrey been? This information has been available for over 50 years in Fawn Brodies book, No man knows my history.

Same thing that is going on in the housing market right now!

I think the difference between this report, and Fawning all over herself Brodie's book, is: This report uses facts, and Brodie's book uses conjecture. One uses truth, and the other make believe.

No big surprise here, greed was the underlying reason for Hitler's persecution of Jews. He gained tremendous wealth from their forfeited properties. However, just as in Nazi Germany, the masses accepted the actions of their leaders based on their own religious prejudices and NOT because of greed.

What ever profits they made were lost in the civil war. If the president doesn't act, I will vex the nation I think were the words.

In July 1838, Sidney Rigdon gave a speech known as the "salt sermon". In this speech, Rigdon argued that those members (like the Cowderys and Whitmers) who had apostatized should be trod down like salt that had lost it's savor. Feeling threatened, the Cowdery and Whitmer families fled Far West.

A few months later Mormon militia headed up by Lyman Wight and Joseph Smith, if I recall correctly, launched offensive raids against non Mormon living in the county north of Far West. I don't recall the rationale exactly (see Wikipedia and internet articles on "Mormon War in Missouri"). Non Mormon homes were burned and the settlers driven from their homes. At that time the persecutions had come from the southern counties not from the North, these folks were driven from their homes by the Mormons.

As a result of these actions & words, Gov Boggs issued the illegal extermination order against the Mormons. It was wrong and awful but there was wrong on both sides--Mormon & non Mormon. All that is typically presented is the Mormon side and no one will argue in favor of the actions of Gov Boggs but there were two sides to this story.

Whoa Chris....
Facts?????
I think you should study "why" the Mormons were driven away.
Your facts won't shed such in interesting light.

BYU's one sided research is historically suspect!

Real History is correct. Mormons attacked non Mormons and JS threatened to take their homes and property BEFORE the extermination order by Gov Boggs.

if it is on the internet it must be true. sounds like you could do more research that is not internet base, like some actual history.

An interesting article...I enjoy history and appreciate reading about the past. But, we need to seperate the past from the present.

Let's forgive others and move on. There is already too much religiously motivated violence in the world today. Just look at Irag: Shia killing Sunni and Sunni killing Shia. Let's focus on the goodness in others rather than the sins committed in the past. I'm happy that we as an LDS people are generally looking to the future rather than seeking revenge for past wrongs.

I've talked to people that lived in Germany at the time you site.
The citizens of Germany were starving. The jews had jobs and as such gave preferential treatment to other Jews often locking out Germans from working.
The Germans were starving. No work, no food. No food for their children.

This set the stage for bigotry and jealousy. Hilter used this to get the masses behind him.

Hmmmm. not too unlike the hatred toward Mexicans and others in this country illegally right now.

Ernest T bass, all I have to say is

BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA.

As I recall there was pressure from the Daviess Country Missourians on LDS from the North. JS never took part in raids or militia, that was generally Lyman Wight. I believe that they felt justified in taking from the Missourians because their homes had already been torched and felt it was their just compensation as the government ignored their pleas for help.

The Daviess Missourians tried to prevent Mormons from voting in Gallaton and beat them with clubs as they tried to enter the voting area. Daviess felt justified in torching Mormon homes because they were supposed to not leave Caldwell county.

Frontier/mob justice was cruel back then. There were some wrongs committed by the Mormons as well, but I would hardly say that it justified the treatment received. You could see why they felt they were justified after the Jackson County driving out, and then to have Missourians begin the same things in Daviess and Caldwell. Most likely they came to the conslusion the government wouldn't help so they needed to protect themselved. It's hard for us to understand, but there was many motives from both sides.

...isn't ever, EVER on Wikipedia! Full agreement with anonymous@8:11.

'Nuff said.

Yes, Real History, there are two sides to every story, and you have only presented one, and rather badly.

If you look at the Wikipedia articles you mentioned, in detail, the following reasons led to the non-mormons being driven from their homes and the homes being plundered (although you conveniently didn't remember the rationale):

- In Gallatin, over 200 non-mormons attempted to forcibly prevent Mormons from voting because they didn't like who they were going to vote for

-vigilantes harried the Latter-day Saints in DeWitt on and off through September and burned the home and stables of Smith Humphrey on October 1. After a lengthy siege (October 1 October 11) in which hundreds of armed anti-Mormon vigilantes encamped around the town, Mormon leaders agreed to abandon the settlement and move to Caldwell County.

-Meanwhile, a group of non-Mormons from Clinton, Platte, and other counties began to harass Mormons in Daviess County, burning outlying homes and plundering property

Hmmm...seems like the Mormon actions were justified to me

Come on... sounds like someone is trying to come up with a more likeable answer for why Mormons fled Missouri. The fact that the land they gave up went up in value and was eventually sold is a symptom, not a cause of the situation. Mormons were kicked out because they were not liked for their practices... marrying underage girls (lots of them), smashing printing presses and other heavy handed actions.

I've read the same thing about the saints in Missouri. They did attack non-members homes. The carnage was not the result of just one side acting. The ensuing expulsion was unfair to the Mormons, but their hands were not completely clean. And, I did not read this on the internet. FYI.

Is it too late to claim some of the land my ancestors were driven off of? The Mormons could technically file a huge class-action suit against the Missouri government.

You won't find validation of your religious beliefs in a grab for land two centuries ago. If this involved your ancestors, great. Its interesting. But it means nothing to most of today's membership.