https://www.npr.org/2020/07/15/891563719/peter-hardeman-burnett-californias-1st-governor-and-a-noted-racist

According to the historian interviewed (it's a footnote in the NPR story), Peter Hardman Burnett was the man who defended Joseph Smith when the latter ran in to trouble in Missouri (trouble he created for himself, naturally). This story focuses on what Mr. Burnett did after as governor of both Oregon and California (separately). Apparently, outside of his work defending Mormonism's founder, Mr. Burnett was a really terrible person in his own right.

What a nice guy!

From the Wikipedia entry:

"While in the Legislature, and later as Provisional Supreme Judge, Burnett signed Oregon's first exclusion laws. Under an 1844 law passed by the provisional government—just after the same government abolished slavery—slave holders could keep their slaves for up to three years, after which all black people, free or slave, had to leave Oregon Country or face flogging."
  -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hardeman_Burnett

and

"In 1851, federal commissioners negotiated treaties with Native tribes in California, which were then blocked by ... governor (Burnett) for being too generous in reserving land for the tribes. Instead, the greed for gold wealth led to a second option, which he called a 'war of extermination.' He declared that warfare would not cease with Native Americans 'until the Indian race becomes extinct.'"
  -- ibid


Isn't that fascinating?

Manifest Destiny in the making. I see the hand of God.