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From: jdj55611@ihuxk.UUCP (J. D. Jensen)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Re: Have Christians been 'harrassed' - (nf)
Message-ID: <584@ihuxk.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-Mar-84 13:29:46 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxk.584
Posted: Wed Mar 21 13:29:46 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 22-Mar-84 01:38:06 EST
References: <1692@pur-ee.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 61

>>
>>	/***** ee:net.flame / ihuxv!cuda / 10:11 pm  Mar 15, 1984 */
>>	Think of all the Mormons who were massacred and driven from their 
>>	homes in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois.  Up until 1976 it was legal
>>	to shoot a Mormon on sight in Missouri.
>>	
>>					Mike Nelson
>>					ihuxv!cuda
>>	/* ---------- */
>>
>>1976?????? I can't believe it was LEGAL to KILL any mormon you happened to
>>meet. Can you give sources/cases where it was applied???
>>
>>					Thomas Ruschak
>>					ecn-ee!kechkayl
>>					"Aiee! A toy robot!" 
>>
>>

The following is a portion of the text of the order sent to General
John B. Clark of the Missouri State Militia dated October 26, 1838:

...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
Major-General Wallock, of Marion County, to raise five hundred men,
and to march then to the northern part of Daviess and there to unite with
General Doniphan, of Clay, who has been ordered with five hundred men to
proceed to the same point for the purpose of intercepting the retreat
of the Mormons to the north...

The order was signed:
                      L. W. Boggs,
                          Governor and Commander-in-Chief

This order was not rescinded until 1976 by the Governor of Missouri 
(I think his name was Carlyle(sp?)). I know of no recent cases in which
this was used, but it did cause considerable hardship to the 12,000
men, women and children driven from the state during the winter of 1838.

The first application of this order resulted in what is known as the
`Haun's Mill Massacre.' Seventeen men and boys were killed in this 
attack on the `Mormon' community. The following description is taken from
the `History of Caldwell County:'

"...Wm. Reynolds, a Livingston County man, killed the little boy Sardius
Smith, 10 years of age. The lad had run into the blacksmith shop and
crawled under the bellows for safety. Upon entering the shop the militiaman
discovered the cowering, trembling little fellow, and without even
demanding his surrender, fired upon and killed him, and afterwards boasted
of the atrocious deed to Charles R. Ross and others. He described with
fiendish glee, how the poor boy struggled in his dying agony, and justified
his savage and inhuman conduct in killing a mere child by saying, `Nits
will make lice, and if he had lived he would have been a Mormon...'"

			J. D. Jensen
			AT&T Bell Labs
			Naperville, IL