Missouri Executive Order 44
1838 state executive order / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Mormon extermination order?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Missouri Executive Order 44 (known as the Mormon Extermination Order) was a state executive order issued by Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs on October 27, 1838, in the aftermath of the Battle of Crooked River—a clash between members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a unit of the state militia in northern Ray County during the 1838 Mormon War.[1]
Claiming that the Latter-day Saints had committed open and avowed defiance of the law and had made war upon the people of Missouri, Governor Boggs directed that "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".[2]
The order was directed to General John Bullock Clark, and it was implemented by the state militia to forcefully displace the Latter-day Saints from their lands in Missouri. In response to the order, the Mormons surrendered and subsequently sought refuge in Nauvoo, Illinois.
The language of the order, particularly the use of the term "extermination," has been a subject of debate.[3] While the order authorized the use of force to remove the Latter-day Saints from Missouri, Boggs himself later clarified that he did not seek bloodshed or the annihilation of the Latter-day Saint population should they surrender.[4] In 1976, citing its unconstitutional nature, Missouri Governor Kit Bond formally rescinded it.