Nauvoo was built with borrowed money. With the prophet dead, there was the option of skipping town yet again. Did the church’s creditors call in their loans? The death of Joe caused a huge mess because his finances were so mixed in with the church’s. It makes sense that they left Nauvoo because they couldn’t pay their bills. Kind of like a 19th century subprime meltdown. It had nothing to do with persecution.

Brigham Young was "following up" on establishing a "Mormon Kingdom" in the Rocky Mountains, and Governor Ford used his position to secure the latest maps, information, etc. Clearly there was a power play between Young's group and others (including the Strangites), and as I recall, only about half of the original Illinois Saints left with BY...

Samuel W. Taylor's "Nightfall at Nauvoo" is out of print, but excellent.

SL Cabbie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ... and as I recall, only
> about half of the original Illinois Saints left
> with BY...

I think it split mostly along the lines of pro-polygamy vs. anti-polygamy.

Polygamy was still a secret practice at the time of Joseph Smith's death and the succession crisis. Although there were lots of rumors -- and some accounts from whistle blowers -- the church publicly denied the practice of polygamy until 1852, five years after it had abandoned Nauvoo.

Most of the rank and file members who followed Brigham Young to Utah did not believe the rumors of official church polygamy.

I think that the financial aspect was only part of the reason why they left Nauvoo. There were many other reasons so it is difficult to isolate a single cause for the saint's exodus.

Joseph Smith actively taught that it was okay for the saints to lie, cheat, and steal from the Gentiles. The result was that the entire surrounding Gentile region was tired of their crimes. As well, it was taught that it was okay to have sexual relations with any Gentile in order to gratify oneself. It did not constitute any violation of God's commandments to violate a Gentile woman. Using the Gentiles by any means necessary to build up the kingdom of God was justified by Joseph Smith.

It sounds much like ISIS, doesn't it?

Wow.

I've read a lot and never seen "...it was okay to have sexual relations with any Gentile in order to gratify oneself."



I guess my right hand is a gentile....

I've remarked in the past that when I confessed to my bishop, his main concern was the religion of the young lass... When I said she wasn't mormon, all the tension seemed to leave the room.

No penalty except a six month mission postponement.

Taken from Bennett's book...

“Are the people of Iowa prepared to submit to such treatment
from an Impostor as vile as ever disgraced humanity? Are we to
be told that “if you choose to sell, we will buy your possessions, if
not, we will have them any how '? Is the title to land hereafter
to be settled by revelation through Joe Smith? Has the time indeed
arrived when ‘the kingdom is to be set up by forcible means if
necessary, and when the riches of the Gentiles are to be conse
crated to the true Israel? Such were the teachings of the leaders
of this society in Missouri, and the facts here stated show con
clusively that such are their teachings and practices now.
“Have we not some reason to believe that their Missouri troubles
were not solely for righteousness' sake, but that they there, as here,
disregarded all law, human and divine, and by their conduct brought
down upon their own heads the vengeance of an outraged and
insulted people? Robbery and theft with them are called ‘consecrating' the property of the Gentiles.

“The undersigned, however, are not the only sufferers; this our
* Gentile’ neighbors know by sad experience. The four wheels of
a new farm wagon were stolen from the yard of Harman Booth,
Esq., a few nights since; and the week previous, all the tools of the
blacksmith shop of Mr. S. H. Burtis, with a fine two-horse wagon,
were taken. Is it not a singular fact that the enclosures of the
‘Gentiles, and their buildings even, are entered, and property
stolen, while the wagons and farming utensils of these ‘Latter Day
Saints’ stand exposed in the open street, far from any dwelling, and
yet are perfectly secure?
“Why is it that those who oppose this swindle are the principal,
if not the only, sufferers?
“D. W. KILBoURN,
“EDwARD KILBourn
“MonTRose, Iowa, October 13, 1841.”

I just quickly copied and pasted this excerpt from the book written by Brigham Young's 19th wife:

"It is not very long since I was talking with a person who
was with the Mormons in Missouri and Illinois. He said
that Joseph not only advised his people publicly to plunder
from the Gentiles, but privately ordered them to do so. At
one time he was himself sent by the Prophet to steal lumber
for coffins. He went with a party of men down the
river, loaded a raft with lumber from a Gentile saw-mill,
and brought it up to the "City of the Saints."

"Another man,
now a bishop in the Mormon Church, told my mother that
he was deputed by Joseph to go and take some cattle, and
drive them to the city. As he was entering the town on
his return from his successful marauding trip, he was called
into a house, where there were sick persons, to anoint and
pray for them in connection with another elder. On meeting
this elder afterwards, he remarked,
"I have often wondered
that the Lord listened to our prayers in behalf of the
sick under such circumstances. The elder replied, quietly,
"I had not been stealing."

Another good read...

https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2017/03/31/what-were-the-origins-of-mormonnon-mormon-conflict-in-1840s-nauvoo/

I believe that around the time of the LDS split in Nauvoo that the size of the Church in Great Britian was bigger than it was in the USA. Also keep in mind that it was the Apostles, not the "Apostates", who were running the missionary work in Great Britian and most of the rest of the USA/world. So yes a great number of LDS in the Nauvoo area did not go west with Brigham Young. But the majority of those who still called themselves Mormon where the Church was did indeed end up following Brigham Young.

I got to imagine how surprised so many of the Saints from Great Britian were when they got to Utah and found out that the Church really was doing polygamy & a lot of other crazy things. By then they owed a lot of money to the Perpetual Emigration fund. They almost certainly couldn't go to the Bishop and say "can I borrow money to go East or go to California". Nope they were stuck :(

Briggy and most of the twelve were under indictment or soon to be so at the time of the great skedaddle.

My own g-g-grandfather didn't even wait for the river to freeze over before he got the flock out of Nauvoo

I hadn't seen mention that BY was involved in counterfeiting, but the information from the following is illuminating. It's written against the backdrop of the Mark Hofmann scandal and draws some interesting comparisons.

http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/trackingch7.htm

>> When it comes to counterfeiting Mormon money, Mark Hofmann may have learned a great deal from Church history. Mr. Hofmann was undoubtedly familiar with the story of Joseph Smith's Kirtland bank notes because he bought and sold them. William E. McLellin, who had served as an Apostle in the early Mormon Church, made this statement concerning the Kirtland Bank:

>>"Soon, therefore, it is determined that a Kirtland Bank must be established, to hold their treasures; and to aid them to get more. So eager were they, and so sanguine of success, that they did not even wait to get a charter from the State, but seemed to think that everything must bow at their nod—thus violating the laws of the land in which they live, which in the end brought upon them swift destruction." (Ensign of Liberty, Kirtland, Ohio, March 1847, page 7)

>>Sidney Rigdon's son claimed that his father opposed the idea of operating without a charter: "He said it would not be legal as they had no charter. He did not wish to have anything to do with it, but Joseph Smith thought differently and persuaded Father to sign bills as president and Joseph signed them as cashier." (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Winter 1966, pages 27-28) The plates had already been made to print the "Bank" notes, but then, in an obvious attempt to get around the law, it was decided that the organization should be called an "Anti-Banking Co." Max Parkin gives this interesting information: "To avoid wasting the money expended on the production of the bank plates the necessary prefix, 'anti,' and suffix, 'ing Company,' added to the name 'Bank'—to read 'Anti-Banking Company'—was stamped on the bills.

Young later redeemed a number of these bills for hard money when the Saints arrived in Salt Lake City.

>>The United States Government has preserved some important records concerning the indictment of the Mormon leaders for counterfeiting. In Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? page 539, we have a photograph of a U.S. Government record which shows that Brigham Young and four of the other Mormon Apostles (Willard Richards, John Taylor, Parley P. Pratt and Orson Hyde) were indicted for counterfeiting. Among the list of others indicted we find the name "Joseph H. Jackson." This is very interesting, for Jackson, as I have already shown, admitted that he "consented" to help Joseph Smith in "the manufacture of bogus." Jackson also stated that "Barton and Eaton" were in on the bogus operation in Nauvoo. Among the list of those indicted we find the names "Augustus Barton" and "Gilbert Eaton." The name "Peter Hawes" also appears on the list. Maus J. Hansen shows that he was a member of the "Council of Fifty under Joseph Smith" (Quest For Empire, page 223). The "Manuscript History of Brigham Young" makes it very clear that Peter Haws was involved in the "bogus" business even after the Mormons left Nauvoo...

>>According to the United States Government records, the Mormon leaders were indicted for counterfeiting on Dec. 18, 1845. In 1846 they fled from Nauvoo and headed west. While the anti-Mormons were demanding that the Mormons leave Illinois, the indictments for counterfeiting apparently speeded things up. The Mormon writer Kenneth W. Godfrey commented: "Warrants pending for the arrest of Brigham Young and other leaders on charges of counterfeiting were among the reasons for the early departure of the Saints from the 'city of Joseph' in February rather than in the spring as originally proposed." (Brigham Young University Studies, Winter 1968, page 215) The Mormons continued west until they were completely outside the territorial limits of the United States.

>>In 1859 the Mormon people again found themselves in serious trouble because of the exposure of a counterfeiting operation. Mormon historian B.H. Roberts gives this information:

>>"Two incidents happened in the troublesome fall of 1859 that threatened for a time to bring on a conflict between citizens of Utah and the army at Camp Floyd. One of these is known...as the Spencer-Pike affair; the other was a plot to arrest Brigham Young in connection with a case of alleged counterfeiting of government drafts....

Roberts "neglected" to identify the individual who produced the counterfeit currency, but others tracked down his identity. He was identified as David McKenzie, and he lived with BY's family in the Beehive House...

Brigham Young, John Taylor, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Hyde, and others were wanted for Counterfeiting. They were fleeing the Federal Marshals. Jerald and Sandra Tanner had a photocopy of the arrest warrant in one of their books (I think it was "Mormonism: Shadow or Reality?" but i can't remember for sure.).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2018 06:36PM by brigidbarnes.

I remember that as a teen convert, feeling once I had joined that the wonders of the church and membership in it had been exaggerated in order to get people in. And of course information had been hidden. I had heard of Mormons having a priesthood restriction. They said that the restriction was temporary and they did not know why it had happened, but "the Lord" would tell us why once the restriction was lifted. They then proclaimed that Mormons regarded all races as equal and so did God.

So I let them baptize me, relieved that the Church believed in racial equality. Maybe God had withheld the priesthood because Blacks were special and needed a test of their faith. Maybe God would make it up to them with double rewards later, like he did with Job?

A few months later, when I was deep into LDS relationships, I found a copy of the 1958 edition of McConkie's Mormon Doctrine and learned the real story. Mormons, it turned out, were more racially bigoted than any other church on the planet. But how was I going to extricate myself now? I had no other systems of support. In those days public high schools did not extend help to students from wildly dysfunctional families. I had nowhere to turn. In my small town, pastors treated me funny because I had joined that "Mormon cult". There was nobody to talk to. I ended up blanking the horrible truth from my mind out until the ban was lifted 4 years later.

The point is, Mormon leadership was always dishonest. They lied like a rug to their rank and file members. They lied about why Joseph was killed, why Brigham demanded to leave when he did.The mob had calmed down after killing Joseph and Hyrum. Brigham had no qualms about putting people in danger by leaving when he did. He couldn't wait for better preparation; oh, no.

When I was at work a colleague was very interested in genealogy and told me one of her ancestors had been a Mormon and went to America. She also said his life story was featured in a church magazine and she had a copy. I said as an ex Mormon I would love to read it. She said she had shown it to some Mormon friends and they weren't very interested, which I found strange! When she showed me the article I wasn't surprised! The Magazine was ,The Saints Herald, the magazine of the Reorganised church, now the Community of Christ. The article told how the ancestors had become Mormons in Britain and be active in the church there. Then emigrated to Utah. When they got there they were so shocked by Brigham young and his teachings and what the Church in Utah was teaching compared to what they were used to in Britain they left Utah. They then sought out Joseph Smith III and joined the Reorganised church saying it was the same as what they had been taught and practised in Britain!

I have often wondered why the Re-Organized church wasn't more successful than the crappier one in Utah. Is it because they were more honest? Did the name "Re-Organized" set people back? I know that they sent missionaries out too, and to different countries.

I think one of the major reasons for the initial success of the Utah church was geographic isolation coupled with national instability prior to, during and immediately after the Civil War. This allowed a relatively small community to grow in cultural isolation.

The Midwest Based Church wasn’t like the current C of C. Although they didn’t accept plural marriage they were still way out of the mainstream. Although they eschewed the Book of Abraham they embraced the Book of Mormon with as much enthusiasm as the Utah Church. They were more prolific with their additions to scripture as seen by the numerous additional Doctrine and Covenants sections. Also, they chose Joseph Smith’s version of the Bible, the so-called Inspired Version. At least the Utah church could claim some common ground with mainstream Christianity by their use of the KJV. The RLDS had no such scriptural common ground.