Without Disclosing My True Identity
and feathered Edward Partridge, destroyed the partially completed printing of the Book of
Commandments and burned down the printing office, destroying the press.^99 A few of the
original books were saved and later published—after significant changes and additions
were made—in 1835 as the Doctrine and Covenants. The members of the Church were
eventually expelled from Jackson County, and their prophecy of establishing the city of
Zion was never fulfilled.
The modern LDS/Mormon people still “believe in the literal gathering of Israel
and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon
this [the American] continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that
the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.”^100 The former “saints,” as
well as the LDS/Mormons today, do not properly read the Book of Mormon; nor do they
understand anything about its purpose. Sure, Joseph gave them what they desired to
hear, as he was mandated, but the citizens of Missouri and the rest of the United States
had their own way of looking at things, beyond the mark of what was offered to them in
the context of the Book of Mormon.
Regardless of the shortcomings of the early LDS members, none should have
been treated badly; and as long as they obeyed the laws of the land (which their own
revelations commanded of them) in acquiring lands, then they should have been
protected by those laws, including the federal protections granted under the United
States Constitution. The harm initiated by the Missourians was now ripe in the
members’ minds. Later chapters will describe the events of subsequent years, when the
LDS people did not obey the laws of the land, including their involvement in land
speculation, credit, and even printing their own money.^101
Joseph’s Focus Turns to the Injustice of the Government and its People
The mob violence against the believers of Mormonism and the assault against Joseph
and Sidney the year before^102 eroded Joseph’s mortal patience. Although felony crimes of
assault were committed, no one had been brought to justice. Joseph was becoming angered
at the injustice of the American government—even more so than he was saddened that the
members of the Church were headed down the wrong spiritual path. He had a role to
continue to fulfill; and to ease his mind of the constant need to give his followers what their
hearts desired, Joseph began to concentrate his efforts on the injustice his people received at
the hands of a so-called “Christian Nation” and its Republican form of government.^103 He
continued to give the people the desires of their hearts, but he used their own just
punishments from their disobedience to the Law of the Gospel as given by Christ as a means
to call the rest of the American people to justice.
With the escalating violence and tragic events of 1833, the twenty-eight-year-old’s
mind was increasingly turned more towards social justice than fighting the Saints’ desire to
have their religion and church. Joseph’s energy was now being directed and condoned by
the advanced monitors of his work as a desire to fight to protect the Saints, in spite of their
spiritual weaknesses. The Mormon people had every right to the full exercise of religious
freedom, equally, as enjoyed by all other popular religions of the day in the United States.
And, as they pursued that right, the American people began to show the true colors of their
own pride, arrogance, and outright inhumanity. The Saints might have rejected the “simple
words of Christ” to guide them, but the American people took the same words and
trampled all over them during these early years as the church evolved.