As an American, I have always been fascinated that our nation has spawned its own home-grown world religion, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The history is rich and interesting, and my favorite parts are during the Utah years, especially the Civil War era. Here is my personal list of top ten favorite historical facts about LDS History.
1. The Mormons believed it was their charge to establish the literal Kingdom of God on earth.
2. The governor of Missouri issued an extermination order for Mormons.
3. After moving west to the Great Basin, the Mormons originally called their state "Deseret." It contained most of what is today Utah and Nevada, with parts of Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California, including a sea port near San Diego.
4. The Mormons had their own written alphabet, their own private army, and engaged in a series of communitarian economic experiments. Election ballots typically featured only one candidate.
5. The Mormons have long tried to micro-manage their image in the media. It started early, and included the destruction of the printing press of the Nauvoo Expositor, the newspaper that revealed their practice of polygamy.
6. In 1844, Joseph Smith predicted that the Civil War would start in South Carolina. He believed it would escalate into a World War that would destroy all nations, and that the neutral Mormons would emerge to restore the U.S. Constitution.
7. The Republican Party got its start with an anti-Mormon platform. The earliest party platforms of the Republican Party in 1856 and 1860 called for the end of "the twin evils of slavery and polygamy."
8. Two American presidents sent forces to occupy the Utah Territory. In 1858, President James Buchanan sent a massive army under Gen. Sidney Albert Johnston. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln sent a smaller force under Col. Patrick Edward Connor to protect the mail and telegraph lines.
9. In response to conditions on the ground, Connor expanded his mission to become a major counterinsurgency effort aimed at bringing the Mormons into the American mainstream. He created his own newspaper, sent his soldiers out prospecting in hopes of creating a mining boom, and eventually helped develop a second political party.
10. After the Civil War, the Mormons fought for their religious, political, and economic liberty for another 30 years, giving up polygamy in 1890 only after Congress threatened legal dissolution of their church.
There is a lot more too that didn't make the top ten list (#11: Joseph Smith ran for President of the United States). Every one of these facts deserves a book of its own to tell the tale.
John Q. Murray is author of The War of Constitutional Stewardship: The 2012 Presidential Election and The Civil War in the West.
Word. Great post.
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