|
 Jesus Lopez is a
sophomore English major at William Jewell College. His plans are to become a
successful columnist and published author. Currently, he writes for the Hilltop Monitor newspaper and disc jockeys for the campus radio station.
In his free time, Jesus enjoys reading, thinking critically and
procrastinating on his X-Box. His role models include H. D. Thoreau,
Abraham Lincoln and Vincent Van Gogh.
David Rice Atchison: A Champion of the People
Though better recognized as President for a Day, David Rice Atchison is
more than a trivia fact or novel historical tidbit. Atchison was an
outstanding scholar and champion for the oppressed Mormons of Missouri.
He went from dominating the classrooms at a prestigious private school in
Kentucky to using his knowledge in law to defend a persecuted religious
group in the frontier state of Missouri. In the grand scheme of history,
Atchison will not be remembered for his short-lived presidency - Rice was
quoted as naming his brief seizure of power “The most honest
administration to date” (Parrish) -but for his efforts in academia and
trying to make Missouri a safer place for people of different beliefs.
David
Rice Atchison was born to a moderately successful Irish farmer who
immigrated to the United States in the last half of the 18th
century. When William David and Catherin Allen gave birth to their firstborn
on August 11, 1807, they named him David after David Hot Rice, the
Presbyterian minister in their hometown of Frogtown, Kentucky (Parrish).
William Atchison, wishing to grant little David a proper education,
enrolled him in the Presbyterian preparatory school, the Transylvania
University, conveniently located five miles away from their house. Young
David made the five mile commute on horseback everyday from the time he was
enrolled to the time he finished his preparatory work at the ripe age of
14 (which was exceptional progress for the time). In the fall of 1821, he
entered Transylvania again as a freshman (“President for a Day”).
In
David’s first year, Transylvania had an enrollment of 282 students which
ranked it slightly below both Yale and Harvard’s classes of 1820. When
David entered his senior class three years later, the University stood
just short of 400. There, David studied law (“David Rice Atchison”).
During those three years, he attended class with five future United States
Senators. All, including David, were instructed by an esteemed staff of
professors comparable to Transylvania's eastern sisters. Students who knew David
described him as “true-hearted and honest, with many virtues but without
grace or tact.” Little is known of David’s academic progress at
Transylvania because of the accidental fire to most of the school’s
academic records in the 1820’s, but the few remaining records indicate
that young David passed the traditional courses of study (which included
Latin grammar, a review of ancient and modern Geography, Algebra, History
and Declamation) with little apparent difficulty (Parrish).
During the month before graduation, David completed the traditional Latin
thesis as required of seniors. David also endured the grueling
examination which consisted of 14-hour sessions over the span of two
days. They were administered by the college’s president, Dr. Horace
Holley. He graduated on July 13, 1825. Though his parents had
originally intended for him to go into the field of ministry in the steps
of Father David Rice, David decided his future career lay in practicing
law. He began his study under Judge Jesse Bledsoe, a member of the
faculty’s law department, eventually deciding to take his practice to a
little-known budding frontier town located in the newly created state of
Missouri, Liberty (Parrish).
As
Atchison began to make a name for himself in Clay County, he soon met
Joseph Smith, the self-proclaimed prophet and founder of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. When the Mormons established
themselves in 1830, Smith had revealed two things to its members: one
being that the second coming of Christ was at hand and the second being
that he believed this coming would occur near present-day Independence,
Missouri. With this knowledge, the Mormons migrated from Kirkland, Ohio,
to Jackson County seeking a haven for their faith (”Joseph Smith’s
Relationship to the Danites”).
As
the Mormons began to flourish in Western Missouri, the arrival of other
members promised perpetuity and fruitfulness to the “New Zion.” However,
this new denomination began to have problems almost immediately. The
first was that the Mormons acted as a group in political matters and voted
in blocs destabilizing whatever political equilibrium had existed before.
The second was that the first wave of Mormons to arrive bought large
quantities of land to establish communes of which their non-Mormon neighbors did
not approve. The last and most important conflict the Mormons had with
the citizens of the area was that their teachings advocated
abolitionism; this was in stark contrast with the dominating view of the
time (Parrish).
There
also remained the issue of religion. Many people were very critical of
the Latter-Day Saints’ views, especially those in the clergy. In fact,
when Joseph Smith was condemned to death in Far West, 17 signatures
belonging to preachers of the gospel were on the court martial (“Troubled
Beginnings).”
After
misinterpreting a piece of literature released by the church, a
destructive mob dumped the printing press of a local Mormon office into
the Missouri River on the night of July 20, 1833. They
continued on their warpath, vandalizing Mormon shops and leaving their
goods strewn about the street. The mob then turned to the leading members
of the church, tarring and feathering them. Three days later, the “Saints”
gave in to the pressure by their neighbors and signed an agreement stating
that they would leave the county by the following year (“President for a
Day”).
When
Smith learned of these atrocities, he sent two emissaries to try to appeal
to the governor’s better nature. The Missouri governor of the time,
Daniel Dunklin, suggested that the Mormons should seek to redress their
grievances in the courtroom. Smith set out to find sympathetic attorneys
and gathered a legal force of four lawyers. Among them stood a young but
talented attorney named David Rice Atchison (Parrish).
Meanwhile, violence again erupted in Jackson County between the Mormons
and their hostile peers. This forced the Mormons into Clay County where
they,
with the help of their newly formed legal force, appealed to Governor
Dunklin for aid. Atchison opined that the Mormons should be granted the
right to arm themselves and return to their homes ready to defend them.
The governor reluctantly approved. After arming the Mormons, the governor
ordered a hearing to be held to try the Mormons for the charges that had
been brought against them. Dunklin thought that once these so-called
crimes had been dissected by the legal system, they would be seen as
unfounded and absurd. Unfortunately, rationality had been overtaken,
bound and gagged in favor of a new vehicle of justice: hatred. With their
enemies at either side, who was to guarantee their safety? In response to
this concern, Dunklin also instructed the Liberty Blues, a local civilian
militia commanded by Atchison, to protect the Mormons and see that they
got to and from the trial unharmed. Though the hearing was scheduled to
begin February 24, 1834, the court was left waiting. Outside of the
courthouse in Jackson Country, an angry mob had gathered. Circuit Judge
John F. Ryland decided that the situation was beyond saving and called off
the trial citing the impossibility to be able to come to a fair ruling due
to the mob's influence on the jury sitting in on the trial. Atchison, the
Blues and the Mormons were stationed at Jackson County briefly before the
attorney general forwarded the judge's decision to the party. They
marched out of Jackson County to the tune of "Yankee Doodle" (Parrish).
After
a series of similarly failed attempts to establish a medium of discussion
(including one meeting where the Mormon's opening statement was, "peace is
what we desire," and Jackson County's closing statement was stabbing one
of them in the chest), Joseph Smith raised a small army of Mormons from
their homeland of Kirkland, Ohio and marched south into Missouri. By June
25, Zion's Camp and its prophet leader had trekked to within five miles of
Liberty with an intention to settle the dispute by force. Atchison went
to the Camp's residence and persuaded Smith into staying out of the city.
Though Zion's Camp remained, the threat of disease and counteraction from
the citizens of Clay County forced Joseph Smith to disband the army
(Parrish).
Throughout the next few years, the status quo remained though Atchison
continued to fight for change in his newly elected position in the
Missouri General Assembly. Meanwhile, the western frontier had remained
quiet mostly due to the continued checks by Atchison. During the summer
of 1836, he helped the Mormons reach an agreement with their neighbors to
create a County exclusively for the Mormons (Parrish).
In
the fall of 1836, legislation to create Caldwell County specifically for
the Mormons was passed with the county seat being Far West. The Mormons
migrated to Caldwell in droves. By 1838, the county's population stood
just shy of 5,000 with 4,900 of these individuals being Mormons. Until
their expulsion, Far West was the official headquarters of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Parrish).
The
situation seemed to have resolved itself until 1838 when the Mormons began
to leak out of the boundaries of Caldwell County and assert their
influence elsewhere. The situation came to a head on August 6 when a riot
broke out between the two religious sects. That morning, William
Penniston had delivered an anti-Mormon speech to a crowd of drunken voters
who, with the help of much whiskey, were inspired to take up arms against
the Saints. Riots ensued while several more conflicts broke out in the
area (“The Election Day Battle”).
Though Atchison wished to aid the Mormons, he now found himself caught in
a precarious situation as he had ascended in the military to command the
state militia, which would soon be called on to take measures against the
group he had vowed to protect. In addition to this new problem, Governor
Dunklin had been replaced by Lilburn W. Boggs, a member of the original
mob who had incited the violence in the years of the Mormon establishment
(Parrish).
Matters worsened as the Saints were cornered in Far West with a court
martial for Joseph Smith’s execution. The saint kneeled to pray the
morning the execution was scheduled to occur and, as if to answer these
cries for help, Brigadier General Doniphan, upon received the order to
terminate Smith, defied the order issued from his superiors on moral
grounds. After much pushing from both parties, the citizens of Caldwell
County were satisfied with solely having the residents of Far West lay
down their arms (“The Imprisonment of Church Leaders”).
After
another failed trial and having a state force raised against them, the
non-Mormons surrounded the Saints at DeWitt, Missouri, with the intention
of driving them out. Denying the request of David and General Henry G.
Parks to appear on the battlefield and settle this disagreement, Governor
Boggs simply ordered the two generals to travel to DeWitt and resolve the
dispute bloodlessly. Atchison failed to arrive in time and the Mormons
were forced to sell their lands at break-neck prices and left the town on
October 11 (Parrish).
Matters continued to worsen as the militia turned anti-Mormon, General
Parks turned to anti-Mormonism and the citizens of Ray continued to write
to Governor Boggs about the outrages being perpetrated by the Mormons.
The resolution came when the governor communicated his latest order:
extermination (“President for a Day”)
On
October 26, the governor released this directive which would be known as
the "Exterminating Order”:
Your orders are,
therefore, to hasten your operations with all possible speed. The Mormons
must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the
State if necessary for the public peace—their outrages are beyond all
description (Missouri Extermination Order).
On
the 28th, Atchinson and General Samuel B. Lucas raised their respective
troops in response to a plea of aid by Clark. They had not yet received
the same orders General Clark had. When he learned of his troop's
intended use, he stopped appalled. Atchinson believed the militia was
being invoked wrongfully in this case and could not be brought to partake
in this tour. The governor released him of his obligations due to the
legislature (which he was a part of) meeting shortly after (Parrish).
By
the end of that year, the Mormons had left the state. Atchison, not
wanting to let the matter go unnoticed, sparked a debate in the General
Assembly, which went unresolved due to the fact that the governor refused
to publish any of the documents regarding the Mormon War. The Assembly
agreed on forming an investigation committee that went nowhere. The
Mormons continued to have problems in the state of Utah (“Mormon War”).
Though Atchison never succeeded in establishing a haven for the Mormons,
he left behind a monumental story of a man fighting for what was right.
The conflict lasted until 1876 when the Extermination Order was rescinded
and the Mormons were finally allowed peace within Missouri’s borders, just
as Atchison had intended (Kit Bond).
Works Cited
"David Rice Atchison." Library Think Quest. 11 May 2007
<http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312172/atchison.html>.
"David Rice Atchison."virtuatolology.com.
3 May 2007
"Joseph Smith’S Relationship to the Danites." Mormons and Danites.
11 May 2007 <http://www.jefflindsay.com/LDSFAQ/FQ_Missouri.shtml#exterminator>.
"Kit Bond." Answers.Com.
8 May 2007 <http://www.answers.com/topic/kit-bond>.
"Mormon War." Answers.Com. 11 May 2007
<http://www.answers.com/topic/mormon-war>.
"President
for a Day." U. S. Senate. U. S. Government. 1 May 2007
<http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/President_For_A_Day.htm>.
"The Election Day Battle."
Mormons and Danites: the Historical Background in Missouri. 11 May
2007. <http://www.jefflindsay.com/LDSFAQ/FQ_Missouri.shtml#trouble>.
"The
Imprisonment of Church Leaders." Mormons and Danites. 11 May 2007
<http://www.jefflindsay.com/LDSFAQ/FQ_Missouri.shtml#exterminator>.
"Troubled Beginnings." Mormons and Danites: the Historical Background
in Missouri. 11 May 2007 <http://www.jefflindsay.com/LDSFAQ/FQ_Missouri.shtml#beginnings>.
“Missouri Extermination
Order.” quaqua.org. 1 May 2007. <http://www.quaqua.org/extermination.htm>
Parrish, William E.
David Rice Atchison of Missouri: Border Politician. Columbia:
University of Missouri Press, 1961.
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