# The Rocky Mountain Saints/Chapter 15

* THE CHURCH IN DANGER.
* Apostles apostatize
* Marsh and Hyde make Affidavits against the Prophet
* Charge him with aiming to be a Second Mohammed
* The Danite Band
* Its Name and Origin
* Dr. Avard's Statements
* The Doctor's Speech
* Joseph denies the Paternity of the Band
* Great Excitement throughout the State
* A Sensational Report
* More Fighting
* The Apostle Patten killed
* The Saints to be rooted out.
After the dispersion of the mob, Joseph returned to Far West in hopes of finding rest; but there was none for him. Troubles were gathering thickly around him, but still he was confident that "the Lord was on his side." When he saw Far West literally crowded with refugees, he remembered that "the word of the Lord" had commanded the Saints to gather into the cities some months before, but they had been slow to obey. He did not relish the hasty fulfilment of the commandment, but even in the midst of discomforts and sufferings it was something to know that "the Lord" had willed it.
Affidavits of the most inflammatory kind were now made by the leading mobocrats. Upper Missouri was on fire, and nothing but the utter expulsion of the Saints from the State would satisfy their enemies. At this very moment of trial, when fidelity was but a common virtue, some of the leading Mormons deserted Joseph, and made affidavit against him. It is claimed that Thomas B. Marsh, the first President of the Twelve Apostles, and Orson Hyde, another of the apostles who made these affidavits against him, were in peril of their ​lives when they signed the document, and this was probably true, for it was a very unsafe time; but there is no evidence to show that either Marsh or Hyde was in any more jeopardy than the rest of the Mormons, and could not have been spared as well as any of the brethren who bravely faced death rather than deny their faith.
As a page of history, the affidavits are interesting:
   AFFIDAVIT OF THOMAS B. MARSH.
   "They have among them a company, considered true Mormons, called the Danites, who have taken an oath to support the heads of the Church in all things that they say or do, whether right or wrong. Many, however, of this band are much dissatisfied with this oath, as being against moral and religious principles. On Saturday last, I am informed by the Mormons, that they had a meeting at Far West at which they appointed a company of twelve, by the name of the Destruction Company, for the purpose of burning and destroying, and that if the people of Buncombe came to do mischief upon the people of Caldwell, and committed depredations upon the Mormons, they were to burn Buncombe; and if the people of Clay and Ray made any movement against them, this destroying company were to burn Liberty and Richmond.
   "The plan of said Smith, the Prophet, is to take this State; and he professes to his people to intend taking the United States, and ultimately the whole world. This is the belief of the Church, and my own opinion of the Prophet's plans and intentions. The Prophet inculcates the notion, and it is believed by every true Mormon, that Smith's prophecies are superior to the laws of the land. I have heard the Prophet say that he would yet tread down his enemies, and walk over their dead bodies; that if he was not let alone he would be a second Mohammed to this generation, and that he would make it one gore of blood from the Rocky ​Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean; that like Mohammed, whose motto in treating for peace was 'the Alcoran or the Sword,' so should it be eventually with us, 'Joseph Smith or the Sword.' These last statements were made during the last summer. The number of armed men at Adam-Ondi-Ahman was between three and four hundred.
   Thomas B. Marsh.
   "Sworn to and subscribed before me, the day herein written.
   "Henry Jacobs, "J. P., Ray County, Missouri.
   "Richmond, Missouri, October 24, 1888."
   AFFIDAVIT OF ORSON HYDE.
   "The most of the statements in the foregoing disclosure I know to be true; the remainder I believe to be true.
   Orson Hyde.
   "Richmond, October 24, 1888.
   "Sworn to and subscribed before me, on the day above written.
   "Henry Jacobs, J. P."
To these affidavits is appended a "certificate" of seven persons, a "committee on the part of the citizens of Ray county," who assure the world that Marsh was President of the Twelve Apostles, that Hyde was one of the Twelve, that they had left the Church, "and abandoned the faith of the Mormons from a conviction of their immorality and impiety."
It mattered little whether there were a word of truth or not in these affidavits, they served the purpose of inflaming the Missourians, and they furnish the reader with the actual thoughts of the people about the purposes and programme of the modern Prophet. There is much in the first part of the document that sounds like truth; for it would be very strange if the Mormons had not organized some means for making reprisals. Whatever might have been the commencement of the war in Missouri, at that date the Mormons had only the option of self-defence, butchery, or banishment. With mobocracy that had neither respected the virtue of women, the innocence of children, nor the helplessness of age, the Mormons would ​have been despicable if they had done less. The rest of the document is such extravagant nonsense that sober people could well have afforded to laugh at it; but, to the excited populace who received it as true, it was considered to be a full justification of and incitement to the annihilation of the Saints.
Much has been written about the existence of a Danite Band among the Mormons. It is said to be composed of reliable men who are ever ready to "take off" inimical persons, and plunder or destroy the property of the offenders. Marsh makes affidavit to the fact of its existence in Missouri, but Joseph denies that the Church had any such organization. He says that at one time a certain Dr. Sampson Avard did plan the formation of such a band, and for the purposes stated by Marsh, but "when a knowledge of Avard's rascality came to the Presidency of the Church, he was cut off."
At or about the time of Marsh's statement, Dr. Avard was in full fellowship with Joseph. He was with the Prophet at the house of Adam Black, the Justice of the Peace, and introduced him to that dignitary. He was unquestionably believed by the Mormons to be in the confidence of "the heads of the Church." He organized the brethren into companies of tens and fifties, appointed captains over each company, gave "signs" and "grips" by which they should know each other by day or by night, binding themselves by the most sacred oaths to preserve in secrecy their works of darkness.
Every Mormon who realizes, as indeed nearly all of them must, the strict surveillance which "the authorities" exercise over the actions of individuals, will have difficulty in believing that Dr. Avard was alone in the organization of the Danite Band. It is very improbable that he or any other individual could impose upon the Saints to such an extent as to introduce the organizations that are admitted to have existed without some show of authoritative recognition. The historian again charges "Satan" with being in this way "busy in striving to stir up mischief in the camp of the Saints," but Dr. Avard was more direct and avers that "he had received his authority from Sidney Rigdon;" and as Avard's projects and Sidney's Declaration of Independence have a strong family resemblance, there is no question that the Doctor thought that he was acting ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/126 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/127 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/128 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/129
* ↑ This is very characteristic of the Mormon Prophets. The people are always in the wrong. In this particular, Brigham Young is still worse than Joseph Smith When any of his schemes fail [and many have failed], the responsibility is always saddled upon the people—"Had they hearkened to counsel all would have been right."
* ↑ It is somewhat singular that Robert Southey, the Poet Laureate of England, should, thirteen months before the organization of the Mormon Church, have in his "Colloquies" put the following words into the mouth of Sir Thomas More: "America is in more danger from religious fanaticism. The Government there, not thinking it necessary to provide religious instruction for the people in any of the new States, the prevalence of superstition, and that perhaps in some wild and terrible shape, may be looked for as one likely consequence of this great and portentous omission. An Old Man of the Mountain might find dupes and followers as readily as the All-friend Jemima; and the next Aaron Burr who seeks to carve a kingdom for himself out of the overgrown territories of the Union, may discern that fanaticism is the most effective weapon with which ambition can arm itself; that the way for both is prepared by that immorality which the want of religion naturally and necessarily induced, and that camp-meetings may be very well directed to forward the designs of military prophets. Were there another Mohammed to arise, there is no part of the world where he would find more scope or fairer opportunity than in that part of the Anglo-American Union into which the older States continually discharge the restless part of their population, leaving laws and Gospel to overtake it if they can, for in the march of modern colonization both are left behind." A prediction as early fulfilled as this was would have made Joseph a great Prophet.