Posted by:
randyj
(
)
Date: January 28, 2016 05:56PM
Frequent threads on this BB discuss the possible causes of the MMM. My reading on the subject taught me that the MMM was the direct product of Joseph Smith's teachings and policies which he enacted in Missouri as early as 1832, which included the formation of the Danite paramilitary band.
In 2001, I was debating these issues with Mormon apologists on the alt.religion.mormon newsgroup. One Mormon named Glenn Thigpen threw out a list of names of famous anti-or-ex-Mormons on the thread, apparently thinking that that would somehow explain the origin of the Danites (read: blame the whole thing on lies of anti-Mormons.) In this post, I rebut Glenn. Hopefully, some readers here will learn a little from it. I've made a few minor edits to make for easier reading.
Glenn Thigpen wrote:
<< And finally, on the Danite question, Randy does not understand why
and how the following list of names effectively refute his (and that of
many others) writings on the Danite question.
Philastus Hurlbut
John C. Bennett
William Law
Wilson Law
Thomas B. Marsh
Orson Hyde
Sampson Avard
Hans B. Freece
Charles Ivins
Charles Foster
Robert Foster
Francis Higbee
Chauncey Higbee
J. H. Beadle
William "Wild Bill" Hickman
Warren Parrish
W.W. Phelps
David Whitmer
William McLellin
Burr Riggs
> If any of you do not know, do a little research and the light might dawn.
>Glenn
For those new to ARM, this is the second time Glenn has thrown out this list of
names. I asked him previously to provide us with specific information as to
how these names relate to the origins of the Mormon Danite band, or how those
names refute the documentation I provided on the subject. He has not done so.
Instead, what Glenn is doing here is typical Mormon apologetic tactics: He
thinks that by simply throwing out a list of characters from the annals of
Mormon history---some of whom abandoned Mormonism and exposed its secret,
criminal activities---that that will somehow, magically make readers believe he
knows what he is talking about. Unfortunately, what Glenn doesn't realize is
that his tactic works only on dull-minded TBMs (two of whom have responded to
this thread with their typical ignorant comments). But it doesn't work on
rational, independent thinkers.
Also, Glenn doesn't tell us---because he doesn't know---that the testimonies of
those dissident Mormons who told of Danite activities in Missouri in 1838 were
corroborated by other Mormons who remained active and faithful in the church.
For instance, Glenn includes Burr Riggs in his magic list; but Glenn has no
clue that Riggs' testimony of events is identical on many points to that of W.
W. Phelps, who remained a Mormon, and is a highly regarded figure in Mormon
history. Glenn also doesn't list David Whitmer or John Whitmer (two of the
"Book of Mormon witnesses"), who also recounted the activities of the Missouri
Danite band; nor does Glenn list Bishop John Corrill, Reed Peck, George M.
Hinkle, Ebenezer Robinson, John D. Lee, or John Cleminson, all of whom figured
prominently in the early days of the Danite band, and who provided rich
testimony about Danite activities which led to the Mormons' expulsion from
Missouri.
Amusingly, Glenn includes Philastus Hurlbut in his magic list; however, Glenn
is too ignorant to understand that Hurlbut left the Mormonite
movement in 1833, five years before the Danite band was even instituted.
Hurlbut knew nothing about the Danites, and he wrote nothing about the Danites.
Glenn just included Hurlbut in his list because he thought he could fool some
dull-minded readers into believing Hurlbut had some relevance to the subject.
In my original series of posts to Glenn on the MMM, I documented the facts
surrounding the founding of the Danite band, including Smith's and Rigdon's
parts in it. Since Glenn has provided nothing in rebuttal to contradict my
documentation, I'll merely re-post it below for new readers. Also, as Glenn has
included Thomas B. Marsh in his magical list of names---I recently wrote some
material on Marsh's activities in Missouri, which I will re-post in a separate
post entitled "Tom Marsh and the milk strippings."
Origin of the Danites
Randy wrote:
The secret teachings and practices that ultimately caused the MMM were
instituted by Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon in Missouri in 1838. They started
the Danite band, which called for vengeance against dissenters and "Gentiles";
that same period also brought the Mormon culture of "theocratic ethics," which
held that it was proper for Mormons to "consecrate" (steal) goods from
"Gentiles". Those practices were the main causes of the Mormons being driven
from Missouri and Illinois. The Mormon depradations against the Aiken and
Fancher parties were merely a repetition of those earlier practices.
Glenn wrote:
>You are again making assertations without documentation.
Nonsense. I've written dozens of posts to ARM documenting the facts. The
possibility that you haven't read them, or that you are in intellectual denial
of them, does not make them "assertions without documentation."
>Stating opinions as facts.
Nonsense. I have researched and posted documented the FACTS from numerous
historians, including LDS ones.
>It is pretty much established that there was a group that called themselves
"Danites". That is an entirely different subject and deserves a better
treatment
than we have the space for.
To the contrary, the institution of the Mormon "Danites", and their activities,
is not a different subject from the MMM, but instead, the MMM was the natural
product of the Danite organization. The causes for the MMM cannot be
understood without having a working knowledge of the "Danites," and their
origin, activities, and leadership.
I'll assume that you, like most other brainwashed Mormons on ARM, believe that
the "Danites" were an unauthorized band, founded and led by Sampson Avard; and
that as soon as Joseph Smith discovered that they were committing crimes, he
ordered them to stop, and he excommunicated Avard. That is the line of lies
that has been spread by Mormon apologists since 1838, beginning with Smith
himself. Some time ago, I wrote of the origin of the "Danites":
To understand the root causes of the MMM, one must examine LDS teachings and
policies that were enacted in 1838, 19 years before the massacre. In the
spring of 1838, LDS leaders Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, having been run out
of Ohio because of the failure of their 'Anti-Banking Safety Society' and their
'United Order' communitarian system, escaped to the only other significant
group of Mormons, in western Missouri. Upon arriving, they immediately
attempted to institute a new version of a communistic system among their
Missouri disciples. Many of those disciples had been settled in Clay County,
after having been driven from Jackson County in 1834, and had bought land and
begun farms. Several of them, including leaders such as David Whitmer, W. W.
Phelps, John Whitmer (who were the Missouri stake presidency), Oliver Cowdery,
Lyman Johnson and others, were not interested in joining another communitarian
plan, perceiving that it would produce the same failures and financial disaster
that plagued the Kirtland attempt. Smith and Rigdon realized that if they
failed to gain full cooperation from them, that their dream of building their
"New Jerusalem", with them at the head of both 'spiritual' and 'temporal'
affairs of a hoped-for financial empire, would be dashed.
To prevent the same failures and apostasy that had plagued the Kirtland plan,
Smith and Rigdon implemented policies that called for unquestioning obedience
to leaders. Those who dissented from orders of superiors would be punished by
being driven from the area and/or "cut off" from the church.
In his "Brief History of the Church," former Mormon bishop John Corrill
recounted the situation:
"The Church in Caldwell had been doing well, with the exception of these
little difficulties among themselves, until the First Presidency came to
the Far West, and began to move things to their own notions. Many of the
Church had settled in Davies [Daviess] County, and to all appearance,
lived as peaceably with their neighbors as people generally do; but not
long after Smith and Rigden [Rigdon] arrived in Far West, they went to
Davies [Daviess] County and pitched upon a place to build a town.
L.[Lyman] Wight was already on the ground with his family. They laid out
a town and began to settle it pretty rapidly; Smith gave it the name of
Adamondiaman [Adam-ondi-Ahman], which he said was formerly given to a
certain valley, where Adam, previous to his death, called his children
together and blessed them. The interpretation in English is, "The valley
of God, in which Adam blessed his children." Many of the Church became
elated with the idea of settling in and round about the new town,
especially those who had come from Kirtland, as it was designed more
particularly for them. This stirred up the people of Davies [Daviess] in
some degree; they saw that if this town was built up rapidly it would
injure Gallatin, their county seat, and also that the Mormons would soon
overrun Davies [Daviess], and rule the county, and they did not like to
live under the laws and administration of "Joe Smith." Lyman Wight also
would frequently boast in his discourses of what they would do if the
mob did not let them alone,--they would fight, and they would die upon
the ground, and they would not give up their rights, etc.; when, as yet,
there was no mob. But this preaching inspired the Mormons with a
fighting spirit, and some of the other citizens began to be stirred up
to anger."
On Sunday, June 17, Sidney Rigdon delivered what has become known as his
infamous "Salt Sermon": "He mounted the speaker's stand in the town square and
exhorted his listeners to crush dissension and apostasy with cruel
determination....Selecting for his oration the theme, 'Ye are the salt of the
earth,' Rigdon, in a thinly-veiled threat to the dissenters, warned: 'if the
salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth
good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under the foot of
men.'...[Reed] Peck fills in the details of Rigdon's rhetoric: 'From this
scripture (Rigdon) undertook to prove that when men embrace the gospel and
afterwards lose their faith, it is the duty of the Saints to trample them under
their feet that have dissented from the church and were doing all in their
power to destroy the presidency...(he) called on the people to rise en masse
and rid the country of such a nuisance He said it is the duty of this people to
trample them into the earth and if the county cannot be freed from them any
other way I will assist to trample them down or to erect a gallows on the
square of Far West and hang them up---and it would be an act at which the
angels would smile with approbation.' (Reed Peck Manuscript, pp. 24-25.)
"John Corrill sought out John Whitmer and warned him that trouble was in the
air. But the former church historian, unconvinced the Saints would turn on
him, refused to flee Far West...The following day the dissenters were handed an
ultimatum, drafted by Rigdon, demanding they pack and leave Far West."
("Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God, Son of Thunder," Harold Schindler, pp.
38-39.)
Rigdon then persuaded some 84 loyal Mormons to affix their signatures to a
"Warning Against Dissenters," which read in part:
"To Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, John Whitmer, William W. Phelps, and Lyman
E. Johnson, greeting: Out of the county you shall go, and no power shall save
you. And you shall have three days after you receive this communication...for
you to depart with your families peaceably;...and unless you heed us,...there
shall be no escape; for there is but one decree for you, which is depart,
depart, or a more fatal calamity shall befall you...we will put you from the
county of Caldwell: so help us God."
"The document was signed by 84 men, more or less prominent in the
church....those 84 citizens of Caldwell County were not justified in taking the
law into their own hands and under threats of vengeance driving these
dissenters from Far West..." (B. H. Roberts, "Comprehensive History of the
Church," vol. 1, 439.)
"In all probability, the eighty-three signers of the ultimatum comprised the
charter members of the Danite Society which grew to include an estimated four
hundred men. Ebenezer Robinson, a close associate of Joseph's during these
troubled times, said, 'The above manifesto was signed by 83 determined men.
Among the names we recognize some of the members of the high council, and
others holding high positions in the church, including that of Hyrum Smith, one
of the First Presidency.' Robinson himself was one of the letter's
signatories." (Schindler, p. 39.)
David Whitmer added his own account of those times:
"In the spring of 1838, the heads of the church and many of the members
had gone deep into error and blindness. I had been striving with them
for a long time to show them the errors into which they were drifting,
and for my labors I received only persecutions. In June, 1838, a secret
organization was formed, Doctor Avard being put in as the leader of the
band; a certain oath was to be administered to all the brethren to bind
them to support the heads of the church in every thing they should
teach. All who refused to take this oath were considered dissenters from
the church, and certain things were to be done concerning these
dissenters, by Dr. Avard's secret band."
David's brother and counselor John, who was also the official church historian, added to David's account:
"Joseph Smith, Jr., S. Rigdon and Hyrum Smith moved their families to
this place, Far West, in the spring of 1838. As soon as they came here,
they began to enforce their new organized plan, which caused dissensions
and difficulties, threatenings and even murders. Smith called a council
of the leaders together, in which council he stated that any person who
said a word against the heads of the Church, should be driven over these
prairies as a chased deer by a pack of hounds, having an illusion to the
Gidionites, as they were termed, to justify themselves in their wicked
designs. Thus on the 19th of June, 1838, they preached a sermon called
the salt sermon, in which these Gideonites understood that they should
drive the dissenters, as they termed those who believed not in their
secret bands, in fornication, adultery or midnight machinations."
After the end of the Missouri conflict, several former Danites revealed the
wording of the secret initiation oath to which David Whitmer referred:
"In the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, I now promise and swear, truly,
faithfully, and without reserve, that I will serve the Lord with a perfect
heart and a willing mind, dedicating myself, wholly, and unreservedly, in my
person and effects, to the upbuilding of His kingdom on earth, according to His
revealed will. I furthermore promise and swear that I will regard THE FIRST
PRESIDENT OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, as the SUPREME
HEAD OF THE CHURCH on earth, and OBEY HIM the same as the Supreme God, IN ALL
WRITTEN REVELATIONS given under the solemnities of a 'Thus saith the Lord,' and
that I WILL ALWAYS UPHOLD THE PRESIDENCY, RIGHT OR WRONG. I furthermore
promise and swear that I will never touch a daughter of Adam, unless she is
given me of the Lord. I furthermore swear that no Gentile shall ever be
admitted to the secrets of this HOLY INSTITUTION or participate in its
blessings. I furthermore promise and swear that I will assist the Daughter of
Zion [Sons of Dan] in the utter destruction of apostates, and that I will
assist in setting up the kingdom of Daniel in these last days, by the power of
the Highest and the sword of His might. I furthermore promise and swear that I
will never communicate the secrets of this degree to any person in the known
world, except it be to a true and lawful brother, binding myself UNDER NO LESS
PENALTY THAN TO HAVE MY BLOOD SHED. So help me God and keep me faithful."
(Schindler, pp. 46-47.)
Upon Smith's arrest and incarceration in Liberty Jail, he claimed in his legal
defense that Sampson Avard, not himself or Rigdon, was the instigator of the
Danite band and its violent acts. While in jail, Smith wrote a letter in which
he purported to disavow "secret combinations":
"I would further suggest the impropriety of the organization of bands or
companies, by COVENANT OR OATH, by PENALTIES OR SECRECIES; but let the time
past of our experience and sufferings by the wickedness of Doctor Avard suffice
and let our covenant be that of the Everlasting Covenant, as contained in the
Holy Writ and the things that God hath revealed to us. Pure friendship always
becomes weakened the very moment you undertake to make it stronger by PENAL
OATHS AND SECRECY." ("Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 146.)
Research reveals that Smith's denial of responsibility for the Danites
was an outright falsehood, designed purely to shift blame for his insurrection
in Missouri onto the subordinate Avard. Note that in his defense, Smith
purportedly disavowed "covenants or oaths....penal oaths and secrecy." Those familiar with Mormon culture are well aware that Smith's
temple endowment ceremony, which he introduced a mere three years later in
1842, included exactly what he had publicly purported to discourage---"penal oaths and
secrecy." Also, the Danite initiation oath quoted above reveals similiarities
to wording, concepts, and oaths in Smith's later temple ceremony, which further
indicates that the two oaths originated in the same mind--Joseph Smith's.
In addition, Smith's own journal reveals that he spoke approvingly of the
"Danites," from this entry:
"27 July 1838--Friday--Some time past the brethren or saints have come up day
after day to consecrate, and to bring their offerings into the store house of
the lord, to prove him now herewith and see if he will not pour us out a
blessing that there will not be room enough to contain it, They have come up
hither (p. 60) Thus far, according to the (Revelater) [revelation] order of
the Danites, we
have a company of Danites in these times, to put right physically that which is
not right, and to cleanse the Church of very great evils which hath hitherto
existed among us inasmuch as they cannot be put right by teachings and
persuasions, This company or a part of them exhibited on the fourth of July
They come up to consecrate, by companies of tens, commanded by their captain
over ten."
("The Papers of Joseph Smith," vol. 2, p. 262, Deseret Book, 1992, ed. by Dean
Jessee.)
LDS historian Jessee's footnote to this entry reads:
"The part of this entry following 'p. 60' has been crossed out in the original
manuscript, evidently by a later hand."
The crossing out of Smith's favorable reference to the "company of the Danites"
is proof positive that someone---likely Smith himself---did so to eliminate
evidence of Smith's involvement with the criminal band. Fortunately, Dean
Jessee has restored the entry to its original, so we can see that Smith lied in
Liberty Jail when he attempted to cast Avard as the founder of the Danites.
A lifelong faithful Mormon, Allen Stout, told of the founding and purpose of
the Danites in his journal:
"The Church was organized under captains tens, fifties, one hundreds, and one
thousands. This made the inhabitants mad to see us making ready to defend
ourselves. They called our organization the Danite band. I belonged to the
third fifty led by Reynolds Cahoon. On the 4th of July [1838], Sidney Rigdon
delivered his declaration of independence, which enraged the mob worse than
ever, so that by fall the whole country was under arms."
Note Stout's confirmation that "the Church" itself organized the Danites,
rather than the alleged "renegade" Avard. The organization into "tens,
fifties, one hundreds, and one thousands," is the same setup that the Mormon
military units continued into Illinois and then Utah, and was still in force
during the Utah War, and the MMM. IOW, "Danites" was really just the Missouri
period secret name for the military arm of Smith's organization. LDS historian
Leland Gentry wrote that some members of the "Danite" band also served in the
state-run militia:
"The so-called 'Armies of Israel' created at Far West and Adam-ondi-Ahman by
order of General Alexander Doniphan were later confused with the Danites. The
confusion was natural, since both groups were broken down into smaller units
and since many Danites also belonged to the legitimte militia." ("A History of
the Latter-Day Saints in Northern Missouri," p. 362.)
Thus, while some Mormon men served in the official state militia, they
simultaneously and surreptitiously held membership in the underground
"Danites," who swore complete obedience to the "First Presidency of the
Church." The "Danites" were in effect, Joseph Smith's private army. It was
those "Danites" who brought out oaken clubs during the August 8 election in
Gallatin, beating "Gentiles" senseless; it was "Danites" who burned and looted
"Gentile" towns of Millport and Gallatin that fall; and it was "Danites," led
by Mormon apostles David Patten, Lyman Wight, and Parley P. Pratt, who attacked
state militiamen at Crooked River, which spurred Governor Boggs to issue his
"Extermination Order." Apostle Patten was mortally wounded in the battle, and
as he lay dying on October 28, he was treated by none other than Dr. Sampson
Avard---with Joseph Smith standing by his side. That fact further makes
Smith's later assertion that he excommunicated Avard as soon as he found out
what the "Danites" were doing a complete lie. Smith and his top leaders were
arrested on October 31, and Avard was still treating wounds from the "Danite"
battle of October 28, just three days earlier. That makes it obvious that
Smith concocted the idea to blame the "Danites" on Avard only after he had been
arrested and was facing charges of treason and murder.
Randy J.