The Saints and the State : The Mormon Troubles in Illinois

Authors

James Simeone

Files

Series

New Approaches to Midwestern Studies

Description

A compelling history of the 1846 Mormon expulsion from Illinois that exemplifies the limits of American democracy and religious tolerance.

When members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (known as Mormons) settled in Illinois in 1839, they had been persecuted for their beliefs from Ohio to Missouri. Illinoisans viewed themselves as religiously tolerant egalitarians and initially welcomed the Mormons to their state. However, non-Mormon locals who valued competitive individualism perceived the saints‘ western Illinois settlement, Nauvoo, as a theocracy with too much political power. Amid escalating tensions in 1844, anti-Mormon vigilantes assassinated church founder Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum. Two years later, the state expelled the saints. Illinois rejected the Mormons not for their religion, but rather for their effort to create a self-governing state in Nauvoo.

Mormons put the essential aspirations of American liberal democracy to the test in Illinois. The saints’ inward group focus and their decision to live together in Nauvoo highlight the challenges strong group consciousness and attachment pose to democratic governance. The Saints and the State narrates this tragic story as an epic failure of governance and shows how the conflicting demands of fairness to the Mormons and accountability to Illinois’s majority became incompatible.

Copyright Statement

The Saints and the State © 2021 by Ohio University Press is licensed under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language

eng

ISBN

9780821447383

Publication Date

5-5-2021

Publisher

Ohio University Press

City

Athens

Keywords

history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormon War in Illinois, Nauvoo, death of Joseph Smith, Mormons expelled, developing democracy, Illinois political history, settler states, civic narratives, American political development, second party system, failed governance, religious tolerance, vigilantism, state capacity, LDS history, religious persecution in the United States, religion in the 19th century United States

Disciplines

Christianity | History of Religion | Mormon Studies | Political History | Political Science | United States History

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Simeone, James, "The Saints and the State : The Mormon Troubles in Illinois" (2021). Ohio University Press Open Access Books. 112.
https://ohioopen.library.ohio.edu/oupress/112