Missouri Executive Order 44

[3] The order was directed to General John Bullock Clark, and it was implemented by the state militia to forcefully displace the Mormons from Missouri.

[4] In summer of 1831, Jackson County was designated as the place of Zion, a sacred site where Mormons believed they would eventually gather and prepare for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

[6] Residents of Jackson County, including several public officials, published a manifesto accusing the Mormons of having a "corrupting influence" on their slaves, and calling for their removal: "peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must.

[11] A Mormon armed group from the town of Far West moved south to the militia camp on the Crooked River in order to rescue the hostages, causing rumors of a planned full-scale invasion of Missouri that ran rampant and aroused terror throughout the western part of the state.

These rumors only increased as reports of the Battle of Crooked River reached the capital at Jefferson City, with exaggerated accounts of Mormons supposedly slaughtering Bogart's militia company, including those who had surrendered.

[15] ...The order of the governor was to me, that you should be exterminated, and not allowed to remain in the state; and had not your leaders been given up, and the terms of this treaty[16] complied with, your families before this time would have been destroyed, and your houses in ashes.

There is a discretionary power vested in my hands, which concerning your circumstances I will exercise for a season...[17][18] General Clark explicitly stated that the Mormons should expect no mercy and that their leaders would not be returned to them.

Clark furthermore stated: I do not say you shall go now, but you must not think of staying here another season, or of putting in crops, for the moment you do this, the citizens will be upon you; and if I am called here again, in a case of a non-compliance of a treaty made, do not think I will do as I have now.

As for your leaders, do not think, do not imagine for a moment, do not let it enter into your mind, that they will be delivered and restored to you again, for their fate is fixed, their die is cast, their doom is sealed.Consequently, approximately 15,000 Mormons promptly fled to Illinois, enduring the harsh winter conditions.

[20] Historians Alexander L. Baugh and Steven LeSueur suggest the word 'exterminate' reflects the historical usage of the term, which more broadly encompassed the expulsion or removal of a group or population from an area.

[21][22] The question of whether anyone was directly killed as a result of the Extermination Order between its issuance on October 27, 1838, and the Mormon surrender on November 1, 1838, has been a subject of intense historical debate.

Historian William Alexander Linn wrote: What the total of the pecuniary losses of the members of the Mormons in Missouri was cannot be accurately estimated.

One of the latest appeals was addressed by Smith at Nauvoo in December, 1843, to his native state, Vermont, calling on the Green Mountain boys, not only to assist him in attaining justice in Missouri, but also to humble and chastise or abase her for the disgraces she has brought upon constitutional liberty, until she atones for her sin.

[26] The Mormons in Caldwell County, as part of their surrender agreement, signed over all of their property to pay the expenses of the campaign against them; although this act was later held unlawful.

[29] Although his proposal and similar ones by others went down to defeat, Governor Boggs himself saw his once-promising political career destroyed to the point that, by the next election, his own party was reluctant to be associated with him.

[30] After surviving an assassination attempt in 1842, Governor Boggs ultimately emigrated to California, where he died in relative obscurity in the Napa Valley in 1860.

In witness I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the great seal of the State of Missouri, in the city of Jefferson, on this 25 day of June, 1976.

Gen. John B. Clark: Sir: Since the order of this morning to you, directing you to cause four hundred mounted men to be raised within your division, I have received by Amos Reese, Esq., of Ray county, and Wiley C. Williams, Esq., one of my aids [sic], information of the most appalling character, which entirely changes the face of things, and places the Mormons in the attitude of an open and avowed defiance of the laws, and of having made war upon the people of this state.