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S2E26 · 4th of July Extravaganza
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Standard of Truth · Season 2 · Episode 26 · 1:03:49

4th of July Extravaganza

After years of huge Fourth of July bashes in Nauvoo, the Saints marked July 4, 1845, with silence: "No noise or firing of guns in the city."

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The question ·

How did the early Latter-day Saints feel about the Fourth of July?

Richard

For a Fourth of July special, Richard reads Tanner's email, waiting seven months for an answer on Missouri, and Gerrit talks about his recent Church history site tour and a possible listener tour. Gerrit explains that early Latter-day Saints were patriotic Americans who saw the gospel as part of their Americanism, and Nauvoo threw big Independence Day celebrations. But after the Missouri losses, Joseph's murder and growing threats, the Saints marked July 4, 1845, with silence, and the Nauvoo Neighbor explained why. Gerrit ends with his father, a Dutch immigrant who loved the Fourth, and says the point isn't to skip the holiday but to sympathize with those the government has failed.

Who comes upJoseph SmithBrigham YoungGeorge A. SmithJohn C. BennettMinor Deming
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Intro Welcome to the Standard of Truth Podcast, hosted by historian Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat, where we explore the early days of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and gain rare historical insights into how a young farm boy was able to establish a new church and grow it by way of visions, manifestations and miracles.
Gerrit Hi, welcome to another episode of the Standard of Truth podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat, and I'm joined by my friend, Professor Richard LeDuc.
Richard Hello, Gerrit. This podcast is our Fourth of July spectacular podcast. Hopefully, you're going into the Fourth of July weekend, and you have wonderful plans. We're here to tell you about the early churches' feelings on the Fourth of July. But before we get to that, we received an email that we wanted to read. This comes to us from Tanner. In December, seven months ago, I emailed you and asked you if you could discuss the violence in Missouri and why it occurred. I've waded through conversations about rice tariffs and townships, just hoping I would hear the desired topic in my lifetime. Well, first of all, that's, just pausing really quickly, you hoping that you'd hear it in your lifetime. You're really wishing on a star there.
Gerrit Well, I don't know. For all I know, Tanner's 97, 98 years old. I mean, I think you're being a little ageist in your assumptions that maybe he's, maybe he's 99 years old and he's. Oh, no, no, no.
Richard I'm just saying, I'm just saying that he was really, showed a lot of hope that he would ever hear it. And he could have been 11 and possibly not heard it.
Gerrit There's a lot of misplaced hope on a lot of listeners. I mean, right now, they said, I thought we were gonna talk about something important.
Richard Especially Tanner, even as I'm reading his email, he's like, oh geez.
Gerrit He's like, why did I email?
Richard Well, then finally, the first episode arrives. I anxiously listened through five long episodes and finally got my answer. We don't know. I guess you did try to warn me. On a serious note, thank you for just addressing the Missouri topic. Not just for addressing the Missouri topic, but for all you do, I have learned so much. I appreciate having more complete picture of the early Missouri era and knowing that even the prophet Joseph didn't have all the answers. I wish we had those journal entries in our scriptures. It has allowed me to have a more eternal view of the era. I am excited for the episodes about the second era of Missouri violence. So now, one of the reasons that we read that is first of all, thank you very much, Tanner, for sending the email.
Gerrit Again, because it's a positive one.
Richard We only read the positive one. But we get hundreds of emails a day.
Gerrit All negative.
Richard All of them.
Gerrit All of them asking us, why are you on the air?
Richard That's right. But the reason we bring this particular one up is, Gerrit, you just got back from the state of Missouri.
Gerrit Yes, I was in misery. We don't wanna pronounce it incorrectly, because then we'll get another set of emails that we'll have to respond to. But yeah, I was just with a group. We went to various of the church sacred sites, and there's something about going to these places where these events actually took place. You know, it's one thing to just read and study about these things. It's quite another, the feeling that you have when you go to them. You go to the temple site where they dedicated the temple to be built in the land of Zion in Missouri. But before that, we actually went to the various church history places in the East as well. We went to Harmony and Palmyra and Fayette. And, you know, when you're out walking in the Sacred Grove or when you are there in the Grandin print shop or when you're on the Hill Cumorah, you have a special feeling because you study these things and you think about them and you read about them.
Gerrit And when you go to the actual place, I feel like it's kind of like the difference between reading the transcript of a letter Joseph wrote and then reading the actual handwritten copy of the letter that he wrote. There's something about the original that there's a greater power in it. Now it's a lot harder to read, right? I mean, plus there's a lot more spelling errors and whatnot, but there's a power in the, I don't know, in getting back to that original. So it was awesome. I had a great time with some great people and we went to Nauvoo and met some other great folks there. So it was awesome. My son, Kai, was taught how to play various card games by Denise and Nate and her family.
Gerrit And I still think that he'll be working off whatever debt that he lost to you. I was told that it wasn't for gambling, but then Denise sent us a bill. So that was odd. It was odd that, I'm not sure what Kai was doing, but no, it was tons of fun. And it's cool to have those experiences because you get to, when you go on a tour with people who are members of the church, you have that shared collective spiritual experience because everyone with you also reveres these places and these people. And they respect the sacrifices of these women who buried children along the way. And the sanctity and horror of places like Carthage Jail. So it's a pretty cool experience. But yes, I was in Missouri, Tanner, and I thought about you while I was there. I thought, I'll bet Tanner would like to have this conversation about the Missouri violence here, right where the Saints were getting driven out of Jackson County or in Far West or whatever.
Richard And one of the reasons that I brought it up here at the beginning was that we actually have received a lot of requests through emails or messages about Gerrit maybe doing a tour and kind of hosting one, maybe to Palmyra or whatever. And I was curious, in terms of the leading of a tour, Gerrit, what are some of your... In terms of going to the sites, that's obviously the highlight, but what are some of your... kind of the highlights or best memories in terms of things that you've done or places...
Gerrit Each one's different and there's all kinds of special things. I mean, I don't know. I think when you go to the site of the priesthood restoration in Harmony, I mean, there's a special feeling to know that most of the Book of Mormon's written there. I mean, when you go to Fayette, you feel a special feeling that this is the actual place where the Book of Mormon translation is completed and the church is founded. So, I mean, I think that, you know, for me, there probably really isn't anything that's better than the Sacred Grove. I mean, the Sacred Grove is special. I mean, you go to it and you think and reflect. And not every place has the same feeling. I mean, you know, I get a lot of mixed feelings if you haven't already picked that up when I go to Missouri, because there's some sacred and holy things there.
Gerrit And then there's also, boy, a lot of pain and a lot of suffering that you studied about. And so you kind of get both. But yeah, they've all been great experiences.
Richard Well, so one thing that I wanted to do, and we'll put the link in the description of this podcast, the Fourth of July Spectacular. But just to know if any of the listeners would be interested in Dr. Dirkmaat, Dr. Dirkmaat, excuse me.
Gerrit It really does.
Richard It was Dirkmaat, and then you got your PhD, and it became Dirkmaat.
Gerrit Just call me Al.
Richard That's right. Well, so if there is interest, it'd be great. And we might even be able to put something like that together.
Gerrit I'd love to try to take a group of listeners or people who want to hear. I mean, that would be awesome. It's a pretty cool experience. So at least we can get people, get Brady out there, and get a few people out there that we know. And I'd be tons of fun.
Richard Well, so then leading then into kind of the main topic for this particular episode, what is it that you kind of at the heart of the message that you're trying to give here?
Gerrit Well, so the Latter-day Saints have a kind of, you know, you can already tell from, if you've listened to our Lincoln episodes, which makes it sound like we have some kind of secret Watergate Nixon tapes, right? But if you've listened to our Lincoln episodes, you already know that the Latter-day Saints have a difficult relationship when it comes to the United States. And so sometimes, you know, I've had people ask, well, when does that manifest itself most? I mean, aren't they patriotic Americans? Yes, I mean, one of the places we went a few weeks ago was to Topsfield, Massachusetts, where they just dedicated the new Smith family monument and there in Topsfield, Joseph Smith's, you know, grandfather is one of the people who's, you know, a militiaman serving in the American Revolution. So Joseph and early Latter-day Saints generally, they are patriotic Americans.
Gerrit They consider themselves Americans. In fact, they see the gospel as being a part of their Americanism. They see the United States as being this first land with the land of liberty, and then the Book of Mormon talking about how important religious liberty is. I mean, that they see a connection between their nation and their faith. So that is what is going to actually cause a great deal of growing pains for them. And frankly for Joseph, it seems like he never quite fully comes to terms with just how corrupt the 19th century political system is. Joseph has a lot of faith, it seems, that at some point somebody is going to just do the right thing and help the saints get their lands back that have been stolen in Missouri, prosecute people for the murders and the assaults that were committed in Missouri.
Gerrit And it seems like, you know, again, as a historian, we know it all, right? So we get to look back and go, I don't know why he ever thought that would work. But, you know, you look back and you say, man, Joseph really seemed to think that at some point, some politician would intervene and come to the Saints' rescue. And look, they do have occasional politicians who for a very brief time help them, but no one's ever petitioning to get their land back for them. No president's mobilizing troops to take the Saints back to their Jackson County lands. And so I wanted to talk a little bit about this, the difficult nature that the Saints find themselves. And I know I've shared part of this in previous podcasts, but I thought I'd go a little bit more in depth. So in 1841, so this is in Nauvoo, 1841, the Saints have the Nauvoo Charter.
Gerrit They are rapidly expanding as a city, rapidly becoming the largest city in western Illinois, and soon they'll be nearly the size of the largest city, Chicago. And more and more converts are coming. Joseph already received a revelation to build the Nauvoo Temple, to build the Nauvoo House, and to establish this great city. And you get an idea of how they see what they're doing as intertwined with the idea of Americanism by the Fourth of July celebration that they hold in 1841. And it's this massive celebration. If you've ever seen the images of Joseph with his, he's on the horse outside. It's supposedly an image of this reviewing of the Nauvoo Legion during this time, right? And there are state legislators who come for this celebration.
Gerrit They fire cannons off. The Nauvoo Legion drills around. And there are all kinds of speeches that are made all about patriotism. In fact, Joseph is going to speak. And according to the Nauvoo Legion records, Joseph strongly testified of his regard for our national welfare and his willingness to lay down his life in defense of his country. And he closed with these remarkable words, I would ask no greater boon than to lay down my life for my country. So you have Joseph openly stating that he'd be willing to die for the United States. This celebration is actually on the 3rd of July. Occasionally, I will hear people very upset, you know, living in Utah. I don't know why we don't celebrate the 4th of July on the 4th of July. That's ridiculous. It's only because they're Mormons. Actually, it was a very common practice in 19th century America to not celebrate it when the 4th of July landed on a Sunday, that you celebrate it either on the 3rd or on the 5th.
Gerrit And that's what's going on here. This is the 4th of July lands on a Sunday, so they're having their celebration on the 3rd. At any rate, so you really have this strong, powerful patriotic fervor. In 1838 in Missouri, they hold a huge 4th of July celebration. They cut down a poll. They give speeches about the country. In many respects, the celebration of the 4th of July is a way of demonstrating, even though they're this hated religious minority group, it's a way of Latter-day Saints to participate in the culture of America. And it's also what they had already done their whole lives. Now, of course, as more and more British converts arrive, probably many of them in Nauvoo aren't super excited about celebrating the 4th of July. That's not a huge holiday in Great Britain, if you're wondering. Although we did steal this music, you know, My Country Tis of Thee, right, from God Save the King.
Gerrit So it makes sense that we could at least play that, and they might think that we're celebrating monarchyism. But at any rate, Joseph and the Latter-day Saints generally certainly see the problems in the American political landscape, but they also believe that things are going to change. And so it's an interesting turn of events. From 1841, really 1841 is kind of like the last hurrah of hope for the Saints in the United States. It's while Nauvoo is still building, it's after the horrors of Missouri, it's while the politicians in Illinois are still friendly, dispose at least many of them towards the Saints because they want their Democratic votes. But before, you really start to hit some headwinds in 1842.
Gerrit 1842 is a year of multiple large apostasies, including John C. Bennett's and all kinds of slander that's put out by the church. It's also the same year that Lilburn Boggs, the former governor of Missouri, who issued the extermination order, he's going to be shot and Porter Rockwell, as we've talked about on the previous episode, is going to be accused of that murder. But Joseph is also going to be indicted by Missouri for essentially ordering Rockwell to murder him. Now, there's no evidence of any of this at all, except for John C. Bennett saying, Oh, yes, Joseph did that. I mean, a lot of hearsay evidence. But Missouri, desperate to hide and get out from behind this kind of growing negativity surrounding what happened to the Mormons in Missouri. As the years go by and more and more understanding comes of just how violent and awful the expulsion of the Mormons was, the more Missouri doesn't look very good.
Gerrit So indicting Joseph Smith is a way of kind of resetting that public relations campaign. Because if Joseph's guilty of trying to murder Lilburn Boggs, well, then all the things we ever said about the Mormons and all the things we ever did to the Mormons, including stealing all of their land, well, that was justified because the Mormons are a bunch of murderers that need to be dealt with. And Joseph's going to spend the next year dodging, you know, attempts to extradite him, to be kidnapped, to be drugged back to Missouri. And for some crazy reason, Joseph thinks if he goes back to Missouri, he might be ordered to be shot. And so, you know, 1841 is really this, it's almost like this high point before you start to go down towards this, the events that will eventually all spiral into Joseph Smith being murdered at Carthage.
Gerrit But Joseph still seems to believe that at some point, some politician is going to intervene because he believes in American democracy. That belief, as we talked about in Joseph Smith's election campaign episodes, if you haven't heard that one, you might want to go back and listen to that. Or I can give you the Cliff Notes version, Joseph Smith ran for president. And one of the reasons why he did was because he wanted to bring attention to the plight of the Latter-day Saint cause. But even in that presidential campaign, even when Joseph is essentially running as a third party, as a protest movement against the other political parties of the day, how does Joseph open that? He opens it with a call to the most iconic American document that exists, which actually isn't the Constitution. Yes, Americans love the Constitution, but the Declaration of Independence is the document that people have memorized.
Gerrit Outside of the First and Second Amendment of the Constitution, most Americans probably can't quote very many parts of the Constitution to anyone, or the preamble to the Constitution. But almost every American knows the words that Joseph quotes when he opens his presidential campaign. He says, My cogitations like Daniel's have for a long time troubled me when I viewed the condition of men throughout the world, and more especially in this boasted realm, where the Declaration of Independence, quote, holds these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But at the same time, some two or three millions of people are held as slaves for life, because the spirit of them is covered with a darker skin than ours. I mean, Joseph's very bold proclamation against slavery in his presidential campaign also shows that Joseph is not protesting against the United States.
Gerrit He's quoting from the Declaration of Independence because what his protest is, is that Americans aren't living up to the standards of the document that was created. And he's pointing out the hypocrisy that's there. Here's the hypocrisy. Your founding document says we are all equal, and you hold three million people in chains. So I guess we're not all equal, are we? He's not hating what the United States idea is. He's hating the fact that we have politicians who are so feckless and leaders who are so spineless that they're unwilling to do what's right for lack of popular appeal. I mean, look, it's really, really popular in America today to have a problem with slavery. I know we all want to believe that in the 1840s, most Americans also had a problem with slavery.
Gerrit And historians will tell you that that's just not true. Yes, there are some incredible men and women who are abolitionists and are helping on the Underground Railroad and are adamant and opposed to slavery. And they are the smallest fraction of a minority in 1840 in the United States. So the reality is politicians didn't act on slavery because it wasn't popular to do so, or because they were afraid of what might happen if they did. So Joseph is quoting from this founding document in the United States to point out some of the problems with it. Now, of course, Joseph has already made the decision. He's not planning on winning the campaign. He's already made the decision that, in fact, the Latter Day Saints are not going to be able to get freedom of religion, freedom from mobbing, freedom to practice the religion as they please inside the United States. So in 1841, Joseph is leading this gigantic Independence Day bash.
Gerrit By 1844, Joseph is running for president on a protest candidacy, protesting the failure of American democracy to live up to its ideals. Now Joseph is never going to get to see the end of that campaign. In fact, it's that summer that delegates are supposed to meet in Baltimore to determine whether or not they elect Joseph to be their candidate for his reform party that he's launched, because Joseph is going to be murdered before anyone will get to see how that campaign would have fared. And he's going to become the first declared presidential candidate in American history to be murdered. And it's interesting that that's actually how his murder is reported by some newspapers, is as an awful assassination, which has more political connotonance than just a murder.
Gerrit Joseph, in February of 1844, writes in his journal, I instructed the Twelve to send out a delegation and investigate the locations of California. And the scribe here began to write Mexico, but then kind of crossed it out and wrote Oregon, and Oregon to find a good location where we can remove after the temple is completed and build a city in a day and have a government of our own in a healthy climate. So by February 20th of 1844, Joseph has already, they've not already made that decision. He's sending out a delegation or they intend to send out a delegation at any rate to go find a new place to live outside of the United States. So that's where the Quorum of the Twelve is at. It's where the leadership of the church is at. Joseph's running for president in the short term, but in the long term, we've got to get out of Dodge. We can't let the sun go down on us here. We've got to find somewhere else to live that's safe.
Gerrit And the aftermath of Joseph's murder does nothing to convince the saints that Joseph was wrong about feeling like they needed to leave. In fact, only a few short months after Joseph is murdered, the state is going to rescind the Nauvoo Charter. Now, what does that mean? It means that the second largest city in the state of Illinois no longer had the ability to field its own police force or to raise taxes for the various goods and services that the town provided. They rescinded that charter, and Nauvoo became an unincorporated part of Hancock County. Now, of course, opponents of the Nauvoo Charter and the power of the Latter-day Saints had in Nauvoo applauded this, that we don't have to worry about the dreaded Nauvoo Legion anymore.
Gerrit That same Nauvoo Legion, by the way, that the governor had been worried about, but that actually hadn't done anything after Joseph was murdered. Right? It's a very interesting thing that in the violence in Illinois, it's always the Mormons that are the real threat, but somehow they're not the ones killing people, right? The Mormons are the threat. The Mormons are the threat. They're just not the ones dying. Similarly in Missouri, you know, yeah, there's fighting on both sides, Mormons and non-Mormons, and there are Mormons killed and there are mobbers killed at the Battle of Crooked River. But there's only one Hans Mill Massacre, and it's not perpetrated by the Latter-day Saints. It's perpetrated by the state militia, the Livingston County militia of the state of Missouri. So it's kind of a tired thing that people do when we're talking about conflicts in the past to say, well, you know, there were faults on both sides.
Gerrit There's always going to be some kind of fault on both sides. But there's also a disproportionate level of power. There's also an asymmetry of power, you might call it, where one side has all of it, and the other side that doesn't have it isn't sure what to do about it. If you petition, well, if you bought your land legally, and the state government is the one that recognized that you owned that land, and then a mob comes and drives you off of it with a gun, and no judge and no police force and the governor refuse to give you your lands back, what exactly do you have as a recourse? Well, you might start to yell and holler and say, I hate these Missourians, what have they done taking our land? Well, does that get your land back for you? No. Does it make the Missourians hate you more? Yes. But it doesn't actually make anything better.
Gerrit And the Latter-day Saints find themselves in the same position of hated minority groups everywhere. When you are a minority that is despised by the majority, you don't really have a recourse. You can petition the government, but the government is, of course, peopled by that majority. If you go out, if your petitions are going to be rejected, of course, because the majority runs that government. So then you can start to protest. But the very act of protesting against the government and its actions is taken as further proof by the majority that you weren't good citizens in the first place. In which case, if you go through official channels, nothing will be done. And if you go unofficially in protest, nothing will be done. And you'll continue to be hated by that majority or even more so. And that is exactly the position that the Latter-day Saints find themselves in after Joseph Smith's murder.
Gerrit Things don't get better. In fact, it almost emboldens the antagonist. Some people thought that Mormonism would just disintegrate and fade away. We're pretty disappointed to find that, in fact, the Latter-day Saints still plan to stay in the state. Now, they were, of course, making plans to leave, but they hadn't left yet. And so right after the Nauvoo Charters rescinded in January of 1845, Brigham Young will say, The nation has severed us from them in every respect and made us a distinct nation just as much as the Lamanites. And it's my prayer that we may soon find a place where we can have a home and live in peace according to the law of God. I hope to find a place where no self-righteous neighbors can say that we are obnoxious to them. This idea that Brigham Young has that we're going to find a place where there isn't other people is really driving force like we talked about in that Exodus.
Gerrit In fact, as the time goes on, as they get closer to that Exodus, as they get closer to the summer of 1845, Brigham Young is going to reiterate this in the Council of Fifty Minutes. He's going to say that Gentiles have rejected the Gospel, they've killed the prophets, and those who have not taken an active part in the murder all rejoice in it and say Amen to it. And that is saying that they are willing, the blood of the prophets should be shed. The Gentiles have rejected the Gospel. And where should we go to preach? We cannot go anywhere but to the House of Israel or to the American Indians, what he's saying. We can't get salvation without it. We can't get salvation anywhere else. He reiterated that the Mormons needed to, quote, get out of the jurisdiction of the United States. So it kind of gives you an idea of where they're at. He'll in fact tell the members of the Council of 50 when they're saying, well, how far do we need to go? Brigham will say, if we can get 100 miles beyond the jurisdiction of the United States, we're safe for the present, and that is all we ask.
Gerrit We want to get between some of those mountains where we can fortify ourselves and erect the standard of liberty on one of the highest mountains we can find. That feeling is what people are going to feel in Nauvoo as the summer of 1845 grows on and as you come closer to the Independence Day of 1845. Now, it's not going to be that surprising that Independence Day was kind of skipped over in 1844 because it was right on the heels of the murder of Joseph. Joseph was murdered June 27th, and it's only a few days later that you have the Independence Day. And there really isn't any discussion of celebrating it, of course. But what's going to happen as you approach July 4th, 1845? Well, the Latter-day Saints will find themselves in a very hostile state, in a nation that is not in any way helping them.
Gerrit They have not only had their lands stolen from them in Missouri and people murdered, now you have threats of further extermination that are coming from Illinois, but also that are agreed upon by other people. So for instance, there's a New York newspaper in 1845 that will say, It is not very likely that these creatures can ever muster strength enough to do anything very alarming to the peace of the whole country, speaking about Mormons. But they are likely enough to make mischief to their near neighbors. And we are ourselves of the opinion that they will never rest quiet till they commit some overactive outrage, formidable enough to earn themselves a sound thrashing by military force. They only have the force probably, the only force probably that will even have much effect on them, for they seem to entertain very loose notions on everything in the shape of merely civil and legal authority. A band of ignorant fanatics like these Mormons ought to be well watched and not to be permitted to gather too dangerous ahead in the very midst of a more rational and civilized society.
Gerrit We have no doubt that they have in some instances been misused by those who surround them. But making the best estimate that can be made of their character, they are a disgusting and troublesome band of absurd fanatics. And we do not wonder at the feeling that is enlisted against them by their neighbors. So here, this newspaper is actually acknowledging that the Latter-day Saints have been wronged. Actually acknowledging that the violence that's been enacted against them is not appropriate, but then immediately justifies that violence by saying, well, I mean, what do you expect their neighbors to do? I mean, they're crazy. I mean, that's probably what I'd like to name a book actually, disgusting and troublesome band of absurd fanatics. If I ever own a baseball team, that's what I'd like to name them. Maybe we see if we can get that on the books. But the reality is the Latter-day Saints are hated.
Gerrit They feel that hatred, and it's coming from all places in the country. It's not just what people think about them. I mean, you're probably thinking as you listen, I don't know if Latter-day Saints are too terribly loved now. Yeah, but it's not just this feeling that people don't like Mormons. It's also that they are on a political level having people refuse to even enforce the laws. Are any of Joseph's murderers, are any of Hiram's murderers convicted? No. But boy, we'll sure make sure that we indict the people who destroyed that Nauvoo Expositor. That, now that's the crime that we need to make sure is prosecuted to the fullest extent. But murder, what's a little bit of Mormon murder among friends basically, right? So, this sentiment is actually captured by non-Latter-day Saints. Minor Deming, who is the non-Latter-day Saint Sheriff of Hancock County throughout 1845, and throughout 1845, the violence against the Mormons is just growing and growing and growing.
Gerrit Deming is a religious man himself. He's not a Latter-day Saint. He doesn't want to become a Latter-day Saint. But having been elected to this office, he's just stunned at how ridiculously the Mormons are being treated. And so he's going to write a letter to his parents in July of 1845 where he explains the things that are going on. He writes to him, The mob party that murdered the Smiths in jail tried and hoped to burn out and expel the Mormon population of the county, amounting to about 12 or 15,000 people with their friends and its political influences makes a violent, desperate and lawless faction. The mob with their friends and political influence make a violent, desperate and lawless faction. These men have declared that they will not regard law, and so they beat, threaten, insult and injure whom they choose with impunity.
Gerrit So in the summer of 1845, if you're a Latter Day Saint living in Nauvoo, your prophets have been murdered, your lands have been stolen in Missouri, you have threats of extermination coming not just from newspapers in Illinois, but also from newspapers in New York saying that only a military thrashing will do. You have the politicians in Illinois that have completely abandoned you. You have the executive office of the United States seemingly unwilling to care at all about this violence being perpetrated. And then you have the Fourth of July come rolling around. In George A. Smith's journal, he writes about the Fourth of July. He said that he spent it visiting my friends, and then wrote, No noise or firing of guns in the city. You went from Nauvoo having this spectacular Independence Day bash every year to July 4th of 1845, silence.
Gerrit In fact, George A. Smith will go on to make a commentary in his journal that, in fact, he heard that there was a terrible accident in one of the surrounding counties where there was a cannon that exploded and a man was injured by it. Cannons did explode in the 19th century. They didn't have the best OSHA standards, honestly, and when those cannons were formed, they could either through overuse or for being treated badly develop a crack in them, or they could load them improperly and they could explode. And when they did, of course, the cannon then became shrapnel. It was very dangerous. It happened lots of times during the American Civil War. But he tells the story of this cannon being exploding because he says that it's one of the cannons that were confiscated from the Latter-day Saints last year and stolen by the mob, and they went to fire off one of these Mormon cannons and it blew up.
Gerrit So he's seeing it as kind of some poetic justice. That was what a lot of communities did. They didn't have as many fireworks celebrations, but you don't need a black cat bottle rocket when you have a six-pounder cannon. You just load that up and boom, and that's how you'd celebrate. There would be firing of guns and cannons to celebrate the Fourth of July. That's why George A. Smith makes such a particular mention of the fact that the city was silent. There wasn't any celebrating like that. I've read her letter before, but Irene Haskell writes to her parents, and she makes it very explicit that the fact the Latter-day Saints didn't celebrate the Fourth of July was because they didn't feel like there was anything to celebrate. The Fourth of July has just passed, and I suppose there were balls and tea parties and the like in the East, but here there was nothing of the kind. The Mormons think the liberty and independence of the United States has been too long trampled upon to be celebrated.
Gerrit This idea of not celebrating the Fourth of July is something that is repeated in the Nauvoo Neighbor, the church newspaper on the 9th of July. So many accidents having been perpetrated up to the Latter-day Saints for the past 15 years that independence, in quotes, or as it is commonly called, the Fourth of July, had very few charms as a nation's holiday or a patriotic holiday. The extermination from Missouri, the assassination at Carthage of Joseph and Hyrum Smith with impunity, the repeal of our city charter by might to rob us of right, gave the noise of shouting and the firing of cannon throughout the nation the appearance of a great gun that had been fired for joy a long while ago, but is now silent. Here you can tell that the Nauvoo Neighbor is trying to make clear the point. Hey, we used to celebrate this day more than anybody did, but listen to what has happened to us just in the past seven, eight, nine years.
Gerrit Truly, we have entered upon the 70th year of liberty or Republican administration of government, but from the intestine commotions and divisions, religious and political, we may safely quote the psalmist words, the days of our years are three score years and ten, and if by reason of strength, they be four score years, yet it is their strength, labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger, even according to they fear, so is thy wrath. The United States is, in comparison, a poor, weak, old man in his 70th year, adjusting his spectacles to read the fires, murders, storms and calamities, with which a just God is vexing his prodigal now. It was once said, every heart knows its own sorrow. But while we, as a people and a portion of this government, are witnesses of the disease that is wasting the whole nation, who save the saints, acknowledge that the sweeper is at the door?
Gerrit You can see there that they see the United States has essentially fallen into disrepair. That idea of the 70-year-old man is weak and looking at his spectacles. And that terminology, the phraseology in the Nauvoo neighbor, that a just God is vexing his prodigal now. The Latter-day Saints in 1845 see the United States as having been a great land that had a noble birthright and having thrown it away over politics, over money, over whatever, but having cast aside that birthright just like the prodigal son who said, give me my money now and spent his strength with harlots, right? That's their view. So it seems to be an almost coordinated thing in Nauvoo in 1845 that they weren't going to celebrate the Fourth of July.
Gerrit Now, what happens, of course, is that that lack of celebration, that silent protest, they don't go around attacking other people and saying, what are you doing celebrating the Fourth of July? They're not burning flags in Main Street. They simply do nothing. And what happens? Well, there are multiple newspapers that decide to take notice. The same newspapers who couldn't be bothered with the fact that people are being murdered and houses are being burned down, we're not going to report on that. But boy, they sure can report on things going on in the Nauvoo area of Illinois when it's not celebrating the Fourth of July. The St. Louis New Era reported, Fourth of July in Nauvoo, we are informed by a gentleman who spent the birthday of American independence in that city of fanatics, that no notice whatever was taken of it. The usual business of the place was carried on without interruption.
Gerrit A large number of persons were at work on their holy temple on that day, and our informant inquired of some of the principal ones, why was the day not observed? Their reply was that they considered this no land of freedom, but of despotism, and besides, they had no part or lot in the government.
Richard So, Gerrit, that's the second time the word fanatics is used. I assume that they're referencing the baseball mascot.
Gerrit Yeah, they're big Philadelphia Phillies fans. They're so excited. They knew that one day they'd have a Latter-day Saint on the team.
Richard Yeah, exactly. They're very excited about it. It seems to be used again and again. Where does it get its genesis?
Gerrit Yeah, the term fanatic today still has a negative connotation. Outside of being a Phillies fan, it has a negative connotation, but you actually most often hear it today in terms of political extremism, right? But frankly, the term fan, when we talk about baseball fans, comes from the term fanatic. That's actually where it comes from. That's where we get, when we say, oh, there's fans in the stands, it's these people that are really zealous. So if you go back to the 1828 definition, which would have been more in line with what they were talking about, you'll notice that it is much more religiously based. And so these papers are making this criticism as a religious criticism. So we read from the Webster's Dictionary, a person affected by excessive enthusiasm, particularly on religious subjects, one who indulges in wild and extravagant notions of religion, and sometimes exhibits strange motions and postures, and vehement vociferation in religious worship.
Gerrit Fanatics sometimes affect to be inspired or to have intercourse with superior beings. Well, boy, that's almost like he wrote that after the church was founded in 1830 as a way of describing it. They're claiming that, you know, it kind of gives you an idea of just how closed many 19th century Americans think the heavens are, that the definition of someone who's a fanatic is someone who claims that they've had conversation with superior beings. But yeah, these newspapers are using that as in the most derogatory way possible, that they have a fanatical zeal. But you'll already notice that the Latter-day Saints decided that they weren't going to celebrate the Fourth of July as a silent protest of how horribly they'd been treated. The response from the St. Louis New Era isn't to say, man, I mean, I know we've been treating these people bad, but I didn't know it was that bad.
Gerrit But it's instead to say, huh, this is perfect proof of what terrible people they are. I always knew they were terrible. Now I know how terrible they are. Here's another one from the Galena Gazette. After criticizing the Mormons' failure to properly celebrate the Fourth of July, this paper wrote, yet these men hold the controlling potential influence in this congressional district. Because again, politics, you know, it's hard to imagine a world where people would hate one another on the basis of how they vote alone. But imagine that world where someone could care so much about politics that you would hate another human being because they don't agree with you on it. But in the Galena Gazette's world, that is a big deal. What's the real problem with the Mormons? Well, they're going to vote in this congressional district. We're going to let these people vote. These men hold the controlling potential influence in this congressional district.
Gerrit And the last two elections, the member now representing us was elected by their votes. How highly must the elective franchise be prized when the will of the people can be counteracted by an influence such as this? It is strange that laws should be disregarded and trampled underfoot as they have been recently when those who make and execute our laws receive their power from such hands. Well, here the Galena Gazette is turning around the other way. How is it possible that we keep getting a Democrat as a representative instead of a Whig because we let these crazy Mormons vote? These same Mormons who don't even respect our country enough to celebrate the Fourth of July properly. Now, of course, the Mormons had been celebrating the Fourth of July properly. In fact, they had been celebrating with such a gusto that one of the things that first causes Thomas Sharp of the Warsaw Sentinel to become worried about the growing power of Nauvoo is he attends one of these Fourth of July celebrations and decides that they're far too fanatical.
Gerrit And this is one of the things that sets him on the road towards his overt anti-Mormonism. The Latter-day Saint response to these papers that were acting outraged that the Mormons weren't properly celebrating the Fourth of July the way they should, is, I mean, there's enough sarcasm here to, if it were fertilizer, it could turn the Sinai Desert into the Snake River Plain in Idaho. There's a lot of sarcasm. This is the response. The above quills of the inner man pricking through the hypocrites' hides make the saints feel all over. After having been robbed of one or two millions of dollars worth of property, been murdered and exterminated by executive authority from the quote independent republic of Missouri, and after having had a city charter either given or taken surreptitiously, besides the martyrdom of two of their best men, while under the plighted faith of the state, yea, verily the celebration of the Fourth of July, heretofore more than any other people, and throughout the Union except Nauvoo, the past anniversary by the Mormons is all chaff, stealthily forcing our guns from us in Missouri and taking the state arms and cannon from us in Illinois, so that had the pimps of the new era and the gazette and those in juxtaposition with their mind, we might celebrate the Fourth of July with pop guns, vote as they say for nabobs to rule over us, and please to the last, we crop the flowing food and lick the hand that just raised to shed our blood.
Gerrit Crying, freedom, freedom, oh the blessings of liberty! If you lynch men to death at Vicksburg for gambling or burn a negro alive in St. Louis or massacre men for being Catholics and foreigners in Philadelphia, it is all in the way of independence.
Richard So I feel like you need to defend or define a word there. I'm speaking obviously of nabobs.
Gerrit I thought you were going to have me define pimps.
Richard No, I am.
Gerrit Okay, well, let's define both just for everybody. The nabob, of course, is just, it's a reference to a sub-prince in India, you know, wealthy prince. And so it's usually used in this kind of pejorative as an autocratic person, right? So you'll have us vote for someone who isn't going to actually enforce the rules of democracy. That's the point of that. The pimps, well, what has the same definition as it does now, essentially? Yes, someone who is selling things. Certain things. So that had the pimps of the new era in the Gazette and those in juxtaposition in their mind. I love the response here is, you took our cannons from us. You took our guns from us. And now you're complaining that we're not celebrating the 4th of July by firing off our guns and our cannons that you stole from us.
Gerrit Do you want us to celebrate it with pop guns? What do you want us to do? And then, you know, very, you know, to kind of give a poignancy to the fact that this isn't just a Mormon problem in the United States. It is a problem of the tyrannical Protestant majority, the Protestant white majority.
Richard That's what stood out to me. It was interesting. They listed several grievances of other groups.
Gerrit These are things that had all just recently occurred, that they're reading in the newspapers. They are things that are outside of the realm of justice, right? You're going to lynch a man to death in Vicksburg for gambling. What does that mean? Did he have a trial? Is the punishment of death what's meted out for gambling? Nope. But guess what got meted out to that guy? Death, right? Burn a Negro alive in St. Louis. So some black man is murdered by a mob in St. Louis in Missouri, and of course that doesn't matter. Or the massacre of men for being Catholics and foreigners. It's not just Catholics and other religions, but also foreigners. Most of the foreigners at this time that they're going to be talking about are primarily going to be both Irish immigrants who are coming, then also some Germans, right? That they're rejected as not being true Americans, and therefore not entitled to the protection of the law.
Gerrit The writer of this is making a very clear connection that there's a sickness inside the American democracy. That sickness is that only the rights of the Protestant white majority are going to be defended. The laws only exist to protect those who are in the majority. And if you happen to be a Catholic, or if you happen to be an immigrant, or if you happen to be black, or if you happen to be a Mormon, you'll be lucky if those laws ever apply equally to you. And so the Latter-day Saints find out through their Fourth of July protest what minority groups have often found out throughout the history of the United States. And that is that there actually isn't an effective way to protest your ill treatment at the hands of the majority.
Gerrit If you do nothing, if you just let all the violence pass over you, you let all the injustices, you let the many murders go by without any indictments, you let the destruction and stealing of property to go without any repercussion, well then nothing happens. No one's ever prosecuted. Everyone just says you're fine, you're fine. I think you're overreacting. If you do protest in any way that catches notice of the majority, they then turn around and attack you further for being a bad American for the very fact that you protested. It's really a no-win situation for these despised groups that are in the minority. If they do nothing, their treatment never changes. If they protest, the very fact that they're protesting is proof to the majority that they are the terrible people we already thought they were.
Gerrit And so, there's a reason why the Latter-day Saints, when they leave the United States, they're not leaving, crying as they leave the land of their first inheritance. Yeah, there are Americans, many of them, although there are many British converts by that point. And of course, they miss their families. Of course, they don't want to leave the country. But like Orson Pratt said in his last address that he published before they left, he was happy to go because he would rather die in the wilderness than to be destroyed by these mobs in this supposed land of liberty. The Latter Day Saints find out that they aren't able to get freedom of religion inside the United States. And when they tried to protest the treatment that they've received, not by going and setting fire to the state house in Springfield, but just by not celebrating the way the rest of the people around them are, they're immediately attacked as being even greater traitors than we ever thought they were.
Gerrit Now, I'm not saying that people can't celebrate the Fourth of July. If you're wondering, we do again begin celebrating the Fourth of July. We get to Utah territory, and the Latter-day Saints have a history of celebrating the Fourth of July to various degrees all the way up through to the present. But this is an interesting historical example of when Latter-day Saints as a community said, we are not going to celebrate a nation which refuses to recognize the laws of the country. We are not going to celebrate the independence of a nation that is murdering our people and refusing to enforce the laws. So hopefully everyone got a nice little tidbit there. You are still welcome to celebrate the Fourth of July.
Richard Happy Fourth of July everybody.
Gerrit We will also be celebrating. My dad, the irony of this is my dad loved the Fourth of July. It was his favorite holiday. He loved Fourth of July and Christmas. My dad was born in another country. He was born in the Netherlands in Nazi occupied Holland. And I don't know if that was it, but I think so. He just had a profound love of the United States. He loved it. He loved it to the point where he felt it was disrespectful if people wore like an American flag T-shirt because that's the flag of this country and you're going to spill your hot dogs ketchup on it. You know what I mean? Like that flags aren't to be worn. Flags are flown. And he put a flag pole up at our house, and he would dutifully put up and take down that flag. And so the point of this wasn't to say, no one should celebrate because there have been horrible things that have happened in the United States.
Gerrit There's obviously been some wonderful things that have happened in the United States as well. And despite the horrors that the Latter-day Saints went through, in the end, this did seem to be the land, the only land at the time that God could have reestablished his church in. So, you know, that there's positives and there's negatives, but it is important to take that perspective, especially if you're going to study 19th century history. Otherwise, you might not understand why when you read Brigham Young's journals from 1845, he's not trying to plan out how he can buy more fireworks for the great celebration they're about to have, because he's too busy trying to figure out how can I build more wagons to get the poor people out of Nauvoo because we're being exterminated from the state of Illinois. And I think it's always important to take a step back and to realize that just because you might have a certain experience with the nation doesn't mean that every other person at every other time in American history has had that experience.
Gerrit Latter-day Saints should be especially sympathetic to people who feel like they're being abused by the government. We should feel that way because we have a long history of having been the objects of that abuse. And hopefully that causes us to be sympathetic and willing to hear, at least hear out, what it is that these other people are saying is happening to them. So thank you for joining us. Next week we'll find some other holiday. What's coming up next? Can we find another holiday to talk about?
Richard Well, Pioneer Day.
Gerrit Well, we won't do that one. Well, maybe we will. Should we do that one? Should we do what causes the runaway officials issue in Utah territory?
Richard Oh, I think the people cry out for that.
Gerrit They cry out, as my brother says, the people cry out. Well, thank you so much for listening.
Intro Thank you for listening to the Standard of Truth podcast, hosted by historian, Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat. If you know anybody that could benefit from the material in this episode, please share it with them. And for more resources, visit standardoftruth.com. Until next time.

Quote board

Make a share card from any line

For all I know, Tanner's 97, 98 years old.

GerritBanter

And when you go to the actual place, I feel like it's kind of like the difference between reading the transcript of a letter Joseph wrote and then reading the actual handwritten copy of the letter that he wrote.

GerritInsight

He's not hating what the United States idea is.

GerritInsight

The Mormons are the threat. The Mormons are the threat. They're just not the ones dying.

GerritInsight

If I ever own a baseball team, that's what I'd like to name them.

GerritBanter

but you don't need a black cat bottle rocket when you have a six-pounder cannon.

GerritBanter

So, Gerrit, that's the second time the word fanatics is used. I assume that they're referencing the baseball mascot.

RichardBanter

If they do nothing, their treatment never changes.

GerritInsight

Flags aren't to be worn. Flags are flown.

GerritBanter

Latter-day Saints should be especially sympathetic to people who feel like they're being abused by the government. We should feel that way because we have a long history of having been the objects of that abuse.

GerritInsight

More from this episode

Claim checkThings people say, and what the episode shows.

Claim check

What critics say, and what the episode found
Early Latter-day Saints were anti-American.
Utah moves the Fourth of July to the 3rd or 5th just because of Mormons.
In conflicts like Missouri and Illinois, both sides were equally at fault.
Take it to classReady to use in a lesson or a talk.

Take it to class

Ready to copy into a lesson or a text

Early Latter-day Saints loved America; in 1841 Joseph said, "I would ask no greater boon than to lay down my life for my country."

By July 4, 1845, after Carthage and the loss of the Nauvoo Charter, Nauvoo was silent as a peaceful protest, and newspapers attacked them for it.

Joseph's 1844 campaign quoted the Declaration of Independence to condemn slavery; his protest was that the nation wasn't living up to its own ideals.

Because of their own history, Latter-day Saints should be especially willing to hear out others who feel abused by the government.

Banter binThe funniest moments in this episode.

Banter bin

The running jokes, for people who skip ahead
Episodes promised, never madeTanner waded through rice tariffs and townships for seven months waiting for Missouri, and got "we don't know" (0:39, 1:57).
Japanese rice tariffsNamed in Tanner's email as one of the detours he endured (0:39).
Hundreds of emails a dayAll negative, all asking why they're on the air; they only read the positive one (2:42, 2:49).
Missouri or miseryGerrit was "in misery" and won't risk a mispronunciation email (3:01).
Kai's card debtsGerrit's son learned card games on tour, and then Denise sent a bill (5:15).
Doctor inflationRichard flubs "Dr. Dirkmaat," and Gerrit says to just call him Al (8:24, 8:51).
It always comes back to politicsIt's hard to imagine a world where people hate each other over how they vote (48:33).
The Disgusting and Troublesome Band of Absurd FanaticsGerrit's name for a future book or baseball team, and the Phillies fans who knew they'd one day get a Latter-day Saint (34:20, 45:59).
IdahoEnough sarcasm to turn the Sinai Desert into the Snake River Plain (50:54).
The people cry outFor a Pioneer Day episode on the runaway officials, as Gerrit's brother says (63:12, 63:14).
The Phebe Draper Palmer Brown MailbagSend Gerrit and Richard your question.

The Phebe Draper Palmer Brown Mailbag

Your question could be next week’s episode
Questions from Litners drive a lot of episodes. Send yours. If it makes the show, Richard reads it on air.
Go deeperWhere to read more.

Go deeper

Deep dives the episode points toward
Read Joseph Smith's 1844 campaign pamphlet and how it uses the Declaration of Independence against slavery (20:13).
Look up Minor Deming, the non-member Hancock County sheriff who tried to stop the violence in 1845 (35:25).
Read the full Nauvoo Neighbor of July 1845 on why Nauvoo didn't celebrate the Fourth (41:02).
Compare Brigham Young's Council of Fifty plans in 1845 to get beyond the reach of the United States (30:59).
SOT Litner · S2E26.