Extermination Order (Mormonism)

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The "Extermination Order" is known in Latter Day Saint history as the executive order issued on October 27, 1838 by Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs to have Mormons driven from the state in response to what he termed "open and avowed defiance of the laws, and of having made war upon the people of this State ... the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace—their outrages are beyond all description."

Accusations from both Mormon and anti-Mormon parties and repeated conflicts prompted the state to forcibly relocate Mormons from Jackson County, Missouri north to areas which had not been not previously settled. The extermination order came on the heels of the Battle of Crooked River, a skirmish between state militia who had taken Mormon hostages and a small group from the Mormon militia, which was also recognized by Missouri at the time. The brief battle claimed casualties of 4 men, including 1 state militia and 3 Mormon militia. Sworn statements and word of the battle convinced Boggs that the Mormons were warring against the State and should be removed altogether.

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Subsequent history

The order directly preceded the Haun's Mill Massacre, which occurred three days later. This mob killing of 17 Mormon men and boys underscored the seriousness of the threat. Thousands of faithful Latter Day Saints crossed the Missouri River out of the state even as their leader and purported prophet Joseph Smith Jr. faced capital punishment.

Smith was never tried and managed to escape with help from sympathetic guards. Smith and the other Mormons resettled in Nauvoo, Illinois beginning in 1839.

Governor Boggs survived an assassination attempt, despite buckshot wounds to his head and neck. Porter Rockwell, an associate of Joseph Smith, was arrested for the crime, but was later released without indictment after having spent months in jail. His alleged involvement in the assassination attempt is one reason Missouri dispatched bounty hunters to (unsuccessfully) bring Joseph Smith back to Missouri. Modern historians discount Rockwell's involvement, pointing instead to rivalry in the political arena. Monte B. McLaws, in the Missouri Historical Review, determined that while there was no clear finger pointing to anyone, Governor Boggs was running for election against several violent men, all capable of the deed.

The Extermination Order remained active, though likely legally invalid, until it was rescinded by Governor Christopher S. Bond on June 25, 1976, 137 years after being signed. In late 1975, RLDS (now Community of Christ) Far West, Missouri Stake President Lyman F. Edwards invited Governor Bond to participate in the RLDS annual stake conference in 1976. In his address at that conference, Bond presented an Executive Order which noted that "...Governor Boggs' order clearly contravened the rights to life, liberty, property and religious freedom as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, as well as the Constitution of the State of Missouri; and ... (that) the exercise of religious freedom is without question one of the basic tenets of our free democratic republic". He also expressed regret for the "...injustice and undue suffering which was caused by the 1838 order."

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