Under
the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer, 2003, Excerpts
When Mormonism made
its debut, Joseph Smith’s embryonic religion was not welcomed with open arms by
everyone. Joseph’s widespread reputation as a charlatan, along with a rash of
malicious rumors about his “gold Bible,” had fueled animosity throughout the
Palmyra region. In December 1830 Joseph received a revelation in which God,
noting the hostility in the New York air, commanded him to move his flock to
Ohio. So the Latter-day Saints packed up and resettled just east of present day
Cleveland, in a town called Kirtland.
In Ohio the Mormons
found their neighbors to be relatively hospitable, but in the summer of 1831
the Lord revealed to Joseph that Kirtland was merely a way station, and that
the Missouri frontier was in fact “the land which I have appointed and
consecrated for the gathering of the Saints.” Joseph instructed his followers
to assemble in Jackson County and start building a New Jerusalem there. Saints
began pouring into northwestern Missouri, and continued arriving in
ever-greater numbers through 1838.
The people who
already lived in Jackson County were not happy about the monumental influx. The
Mormon immigrants for the most part hailed from the northeastern states and
favored the abolition of slavery; Missourians tended to have southern roots –
many of them actually owned slaves – and were deeply suspicious of the Mormons’
abolitionist leanings. But what alienated the residents of Jackson County most
was the impenetrable clannishness of the Mormons and their arrogant sense of
entitlement: the Saints insisted they were God’s chosen people and had been
granted a divine right to claim northwestern Missouri as their Zion.
This polarizing
mind-set was underscored by a revelation Joseph received in 1831, in which God
commanded the Saints to “assemble yourselves together to rejoice upon the land
of Missouri, which is the land of our inheritance, which is not the land of
your enemies.” When Missourians became aware of this commandment, they regarded
it as an open declaration of war.
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