Extermination Order

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Missouri Executive Order 44[1] also known as The "Extermination Order" (alt. Exterminating Order) in Latter Day Saint history was an executive order issued on October 27, 1838 by Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs. ^[1] The order was in response to what Boggs termed "open and avowed defiance of the laws, and of having made war upon the people of this State ... the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace—their outrages are beyond all description." The order was not formally rescinded until 1976.^[2]

The law made it legal to kill anyone who belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the state of Missouri. At least 60 Mormons were killed and dozens of women and girls raped, and countless others died from exposure in 1838 under the executive order and resulting forced evacuation from the state (See History of the Church Volume III, preface).

Photo of original document in possession of the Missouri State Historical Society

1 Background for Order
2 Consequences of the Order
3 Post evacution
4 Notes
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Background for Order

Accusations from both Mormon and anti-Mormon parties and repeated conflicts prompted the state to forcibly relocate Mormons from Jackson County, Missouri to areas further north which had not been previously settled. The Order came on the heels of the Battle of Crooked River, a skirmish between state militia, which had taken Mormon hostages, and a small group from the Mormon militia, which was also a state authorized militia at the time. The brief battle claimed casualties of four men, including one state militia and three Mormon militia. Sworn statements and word of the battle convinced Boggs that the Mormons were warring against the State and should be removed altogether.

[edit] Consequences of the Order

The order directly preceded the Haun's Mill Massacre, which occurred three days later. However, the militia responsible for the massacre was not yet aware of the order at this time.^[3] This mob killing of 17 Mormon men and boys underscored the potential seriousness of the order.

Mormons were arrested and forced to gather to the town of Far West, Missouri by a state militia organized in early 1838 by Governor Boggs to deal with an "Indian uprising" in the Western reserves of Missouri. However, there are no records of an Indian uprising in recorded history. Church leaders were tried under a military tribunal, convicted of high treason against the state of Missouri as a result of their membership in the Church and sentenced to death. General Alexander W. Doniphan refused to carry out the order of death given by his superiors stating it was illegal and "cold-blooded murder," as he felt that Mormon leaders should not be tried by a military tribunal ^[4] ^[5]

Mormons were further ordered to leave the State in October and November 1838. Church members crossed a frozen Mississippi River to seek refuge in Quincy, Illinois. During the evacuation older Mormons died from exposure and more Mormon men were killed by mobs.^[6]

About two dozen church leaders, including Latter Day Saint prophet Joseph Smith Jr. faced capital punishment and were sent to Prison at Richmond, Missouri and later the Liberty Jail. ^[7] During a transfer to another prison, Smith was allowed to escape with help from sympathetic guards. Smith and the other Mormons resettled in Nauvoo, Illinois beginning in 1839.

[edit] Post evacution

Governor Boggs survived an assassination attempt, despite buckshot wounds to his head and neck. Porter Rockwell, an associate of Joseph Smith, was arrested for the crime, but was later released by the state of Missouri without indictment after having spent months in jail. His alleged involvement in the assassination attempt is one reason Missouri dispatched bounty hunters to (unsuccessfully) bring Joseph Smith back to Missouri. Modern historians discount Rockwell's involvement, pointing instead to rivalry in the political arena. Monte B. McLaws, in the Missouri Historical Review, determined that while there was no clear finger pointing to anyone, Governor Boggs was running for election against several violent men, all capable of the deed.^{[citation needed]} Rockwell himself treated the accusation as an insult, saying "I never shot AT anything in my life!" implying that if he had been out to kill Boggs, he would have been successful.

The Extermination Order remained active until it was rescinded by Governor Christopher S. Bond on June 25, 1976, 137 years after being signed. In late 1975, RLDS (now Community of Christ) Far West, Missouri Stake President Lyman F. Edwards invited Governor Bond to participate in the RLDS annual stake conference in 1976. In his address at that conference, Bond presented an Executive Order which noted that "...Governor Boggs' order clearly contravened the rights to life, liberty, property and religious freedom as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, as well as the Constitution of the State of Missouri; and ... (that) the exercise of religious freedom is without question one of the basic tenets of our free democratic republic". He also expressed regret for the "...injustice and undue suffering which was caused by the 1838 order."

[edit] Notes

^ Copy of a Military Order by the Governor of Missouri. HEAD QUARTERS, MILITIA, City of Jefferson, Oct. 27, 1838. Sir:--Since the order of the morning to you, directing you to cause four hundred mounted men to be raised within your division, I have received by Amos Rees, Esq. and Wiley E. Williams Esq., one of my aids, information of the most appalling character, which changes the whole face of things, and places the Mormons in the attitude of an open and avowed defiance of the laws, and of having made open war upon the people of this state. Your orders are, therefore, to hasten your operations and endeavor to reach Richmond, in Ray County, with all possible speed. The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state, if necessary, for the public good. Their outrages are beyond all description. If you can increase your force, you are authorized to do so to any extent you may think necessary. I have just issued orders to Maj. Gen. Wallock, of Marion County, to raise 500 men and march them to the northern part of Daviess, and there unite with Gen. Doniphan, of Clay, who has been ordered with 500 men to proceed to the same point, for the purpose of intercepting the retreat of the Mormons to the North. They have been directed to communicate with you by express. You can also communicate with them if you find it necessary. Instead, therefore, of proceeding, as at first directed, to reinstate the citizens of Daviess in their homes, you will proceed immediately to Richmond, and there operate against the Mormons. Brig. Gen. Parks, of Ray, has been ordered to have four hundred men of his brigade in readiness to join you at Richmond. The whole force will be placed under your command. L. W. BOGGS, Gov. And Command-in-chief. To Gen. Clark.
^ Whitman, Dale A.. Gospel Link. Retrieved on February 4, 2007.
^ Hartley, p. 6
^ Katt, Krass. Missouri: 1831-1839. Retrieved on December 31, 2006.
^ Davis, Inez Smith. The Story of the Church:Far West. Retrieved on December 31, 2006.
^ Green, John P. (1839). "Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons or Latter Day Saints, from the State of Missouri, under the "Exterminating Order"". R. P. Brooks. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
^ Autobiographical Remarks by Ebenezer Robinson(1832-1843) "General Clark made the following speech to the brethren on the public square:...The orders of the governor to me were, that you should be exterminated, and not allowed to remain in the state, and had your leaders not been given up, and the terms of the treaty complied with, before this, you and your families would have been destroyed and your houses in ashes."