Page:History of Utah.djvu/169



TOWN BUILDING. 117

any reports of misconduct, however exaggerated, won Id, if possible, be accepted as reliable. Such reports wer j accordingly circulated, and without much regard to truth. Right or wrong, law or no law, and whether in accord with the letter or spirit of the constitution or government of the United States or not, the peo- ple of Missouri had determined that they would go any length before they would allow the saints to obtain political ascendency in that quarter. It was well understood that war on the Mormons, war on their civil, political, and religious rights, nay, on their presence as members of the commonwealth, or if need be on their lives, was part of the policy of the admin- istration.

Thereupon the Mormons petitioned the legislature to assign them a place of residence, and the thinly populated region afterward known as Caldwell county was designated. Moving there, they bought the claims of most of the inhabitants, and entered several sections of government lands. Almost every member of the society thus became a landholder, some having eighty acres, and some forty. A town was laid out, called Far West, which was made the county seat; they were allowed to organize the government of the county, and to appoint from among their own people the officers.' Again they found peace for a season, during which their numbers increased, while settlements were made in Daviess county and elsewhere.^" Those in Daviess county were on terms of amity with their gentile neigh- bors. Wight was there, and when Smith and Rigdon arrived from the east they laid out a town named Diah- man," which soon rivalled Gallatin, and gradually the

^Jolm Hyde, Mormonism, 203, says that on their arrival in Missouri, Smith and Eigdon began 'to scatter the saints in order to obtain political ascendency in other counties. '

'"Of the officers then appointed, two of the judges, thirteen magistrates, all the military officers, and the county clerk were Mormons. 'These steps were taken, bo it carefully observed, by the advice of the state legislature, and the officers were appointed in the manner directed by law.' Greene's Farts, IS. The gentiles murmur because of their being under Mormon rule. Hyde's Mormonism, 203.

^' 'Smith gave it the name of Adamondiamou, which he said was fonnerly