The Mormon-Missouri War (1838) was a conflict between the Mormon settlers in Missouri and their non-Mormon neighbors, culminating in violent clashes, forced expulsions, and the infamous Missouri Executive Order 44, also known as the so-called “Extermination Order.” While the Mormon Church often portrays itself as the innocent victim of religious persecution, the historical reality is far more complex. The Mormons were not merely victims but also active participants and instigators of the escalating tensions. The word “extermination,” with somewhat softer connotations historically than today, was first used by Sidney Rigdon when talking about what the Mormons had planned for the Missourians. This violent rhetoric stoked the already heightened tensions. Even though Governor Boggs threw the term right back at the Mormons, it wasn’t a license to kill on sight.
The church teaches that members of the church were greatly persecuted by fellow Missourians.
Throughout 1838, vigilantes had threatened and attacked Latter-day Saint settlers in Missouri. By October, civil authority in northwestern Missouri had broken down, and Church members had been expelled from their homes. Appeals by the Saints for protection against mob attacks went largely unnoticed by local militias. Latter-day Saints took self-defense measures, and some struck back at suspected mob havens by burning dwellings and confiscating goods.
LDS Church Website: Church History Topics: Extermination Order
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/extermination-order?lang=eng
The 1838 Missouri Executive Order: Context, Myth, and Misrepresentation
One of the most enduring grievances held by the church was the October 27, 1838, executive order, officially known as Missouri Executive Order 44. It has long been framed as a state-sanctioned license to kill Mormons, reinforcing the LDS Church’s persecution narrative.
I have received by … one of my aids, information of the most appalling character, which entirely changes the face of things, and places the Mormons in the attitude of an open and avowed defiance of the laws, and of having made war upon the people of this state. Your orders are, therefore, to hasten your operation 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 Executive Order Number 44, Lilburn Boggs, October 27, 1838
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Executive_Order_44
An open-minded examination of historical events reveals that the reality was far more complex. The Mormons were not innocent victims of unprovoked aggression but had played an active role in the escalating conflict. Moreover, the term “extermination” had already been introduced into the discourse—not by Boggs, but by Mormon leader Sidney Rigdon, in a fiery sermon advocating violence against Missourians.
The Road to the Executive Order: How the Mormon-Missouri War Began
To understand why the executive order was issued, it is essential to recognize the growing tensions between Mormon settlers and their Missouri neighbors. By 1838, Mormons, led by Joseph Smith, had settled in large numbers in northwestern Missouri, particularly in Caldwell and Daviess counties. Their rapid influx, combined with their bloc voting tendencies and claims of divine entitlement to the land, created friction with longtime Missourians. Political, economic, and religious differences led to repeated clashes between Mormon settlers and Missouri citizens.
Hostilities escalated when Mormon militias engaged in aggressive actions against local Missourians. One of the most notorious incidents was the Battle of Crooked River on October 25, 1838, where Mormon forces attacked Missouri state militia troops, killing several men. The conflict had effectively escalated into open warfare, with both sides committing acts of violence.
Sidney Rigdon First Called for Extermination
Despite the LDS Church long complaining this “extermination” order being evidence of persecution. The term wasn’t first used against the church members; it was actually Sidney Rigdon, Joseph Smith’s fiery second-in-command, who introduced the term in a speech delivered months before the Executive Order regarding what the Mormons should do to those who oppose them. On July 4, 1838, Rigdon warned that if Missourians continued to oppose the Mormons, they would be “exterminated” from the land. This inflammatory rhetoric heightened tensions and made war between the groups increasingly likely. Rigdon’s speech served as a declaration of aggression, effectively challenging Missourians to a fight.
Our God has promised us a reward of eternal inheritance, and we have believed his promise, and thouth we wade through great tribulation, we are in nothing discouraged, for we know he that has promised is faithful. The promise is sure, and the reward is certain. It is because of this, that we have taken the spoiling of our goods. Out cheeks have been given to the smiters, and our heads to those who have plucket off the hair. We have not only when smitten on one cheek turned the other, but we have done it, again and again, until we are wearied of being smitten, and tired of being trampled upon. We have proved the world with kindness, we have suffered their abuse without cause, with patience, and have endured without resentment, until this day, and still their persecutions and violence does not cease. But from this day and this hour, we will suffer it no more.
We take God and all the holy angels to witness this day, that we warn all men in the name of Jesus Christ, to come on us no more forever. For from this hour, we will bear it no more, our rights shall no more be trampled on with impunity. The man or the set of men, who attempts it, does it at the expense of their lives. And that mob that comes on us to disturb us; it shall be between us and them a war of extermination; for we will follow them till the last drop of their blood is spilled, or else they will have to exterminate us: for we will carry the seat of war to their own houses, and their own families, and one party or the other shall be utterly destroyed.—Remember it then all men.
We will never be the aggressors, we will infringe on the rights of no people; but shall stand for our own until death. We claim our own rights, and are willing that all others shall enjoy theirs.
No man shall be at liberty to come into our streets, to threaten us with mobs, for if he does, he shall atone for it before he leaves the place, neither shall he be at liberty, to vilify and slander any of us, for suffer it we will not in this place.
We therefore, take all men to record this day, that we proclaim our liberty on this day, as did our fathers. And we pledge this day to one another, our fortunes, our lives, and our sacred honors, to be delivered from the persecutions which we have had to endure, for the last nine years, or nearly that. Neither will we indulge any man, or set of men, in instituting vexatious law suits against us, to cheat us out of our just rights, if they attempt it we say wo be unto them.
We this day then proclaim ourselves free, with a purpose and a determination, that never can be broken, no never! No Never!! NO NEVER!!!
Sidney Rigdon, July 4th, 1838, Far West, Missouri
https://archive.org/details/orationdelivered01rigd/page/12/mode/2up https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/NCMP1820-1846/id/250
The speech alarmed local non-Mormons attending the celebration. Later, the church published the speech, causing considerable agitation and further stoking anti-Mormon sentiment throughout northwestern Missouri. Missourians took Rigdon’s threat seriously, especially when combined with the Mormon militia’s actions, including the expulsion of non-Mormons from Daviess County and the burning of settlements. In response to the threats and escalating violence, Governor Boggs issued Executive Order 44, stating that Mormons “must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace.”
Religious, political, and social differences between Latter-day Saints and Missourians gave rise to tension from the earliest arrival of Latter-day Saints in Jackson County, Missouri, in 1831. Vigilante threats and mob attacks forced the Saints from the county in 1833. They relocated to neighboring counties to the north, where they continued to face hostility. In 1836, the state created Caldwell County exclusively for the settlement of the Saints, and opponents of the Church objected to any Latter-day Saint settlement outside this new county. But the Saints sought to exercise their constitutional right by establishing settlements in neighboring Carroll and Daviess Counties. By the time Joseph Smith left Ohio for the Latter-day Saint settlement of Far West, Missouri, in the summer of 1838, opposition to the Church’s presence in Missouri had reached a critical point.
On July 4, 1838, Sidney Rigdon warned that the Saints would no longer tolerate persecution or the denial of their rights as citizens of the United States. If mobs gathered, he thundered in a widely publicized oration, “it shall be between us and them a war of extermination.” At the same time, he vowed that the Saints would not be the aggressors: “We will infringe on the rights of no people; but shall stand for our own until death.” During this period, some Latter-day Saint men organized a vigilante group known as the Danites, who pledged to defend the Saints against further violence. Rumors of Danite activity persuaded some Missourians that the Saints threatened violence against neighbors.
LDS Church Website: Church History Topics: Mormon-Missouri War of 1838
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/mormon-missouri-war-of-1838?lang=eng
The church even admits this in a Church History Topic buried in the website. They even acknowledge that this is the time that the infamous Danites, a secretive Mormon vigilante gang, was organized. They don’t admit who organized it or if it was sanctioned by church leaders, but they connect it to this speech by Sidney Rigdon. It’s no wonder the Missourians were persuaded that the Saints threatened violence! First, their leadership calls for the “extermination” of any who oppose them, and then secret vigilante militia bands begin forming in their ranks. This doesn’t quite sound like turning the other cheek.
What Executive Order 44 Actually Meant
Contrary to popular belief, due to the narrative of the church, the so-called “Extermination Order” was not a legalized directive to indiscriminately kill Mormons. Rather, it was a call for state forces to put down what had become an active civil conflict. Boggs’ use of “extermination” was in direct response to Rigdon’s previous threat and referred to ending Mormon military resistance or expelling them from Missouri—not genocide.
The term was common in military and political language at the time, often meaning to remove or eliminate a hostile force, not necessarily to kill all members of a group. So it was first used by Sidney Rigdon and also had a different context than it does today.
The order resulted in the forced removal of Mormons from Missouri, culminating in their resettlement in Illinois. While there were tragic events during this period—such as the Haun’s Mill Massacre, where vigilantes killed 17 Mormon settlers—there is no evidence that Boggs’ order legally sanctioned or even inspired these killings.
Rescinding the Order: An Apology from Missouri
Missouri Executive Order 44 remained technically in effect until 1976, when Governor Christopher S. Bond formally rescinded it. The rescission included an expression of “deep regret for the injustice and undue suffering” caused by the order. By then, the Mormon Church had long since moved westward and established itself in Utah, and the repeal served primarily as a symbolic gesture of reconciliation.
Reclaiming the Narrative
The notion that Missouri’s Executive Order 44 was a legal license to kill Mormons is a distortion of history. The Mormons were not innocent bystanders but active participants in a regional conflict, one that escalated due to their own leadership’s militaristic rhetoric and actions. Governor Boggs’ order was a response to a civil war-like situation, not an endorsement of indiscriminate violence.
Yet, the LDS Church continues to use the “Extermination Order” as a key piece of its persecution narrative, ignoring the fact that their own leaders’ words and deeds contributed significantly to the hostilities. Ironically, while the church protests its treatment in Missouri, it remains silent about its own historical acts of violence against indigenous peoples, such as Brigham Young’s Extermination Order against the Timpanogos people and the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
Understanding history means looking beyond simple victim narratives and acknowledging the full complexity of events. The Mormons’ expulsion from Missouri was a tragic but predictable outcome of their aggressive expansionism and confrontational leadership. The historical record does not support the claim that the order was an invitation to commit genocide, but rather, a call to restore law and order in a deeply fractured frontier society.
The history of the 1838 Missouri Executive Order has long been framed by the Mormon Church as an unjust attack on innocent believers, reinforcing a persecution complex that continues to shape its identity. While the so-called Extermination Order is a tragic representation of the violent “West,” there is still room for honesty when referencing the period. When the church distorts history to serve its own narrative, it not only misrepresents the past but also manipulates the present, using victimhood to shield itself from accountability.
Share Your Story
For too long, the church has controlled the story of its past, painting itself as the eternal underdog while erasing the voices of those harmed by its actions. But we don’t have to let the church be the sole author of this history. By sharing our personal experiences, we disrupt the institution’s monopoly on the “truth.” If you have faced religious trauma, deconstruction, or simply a journey of faith that diverged from the official narrative, your voice matters. Visit wasmormon.org to share your story and be part of a growing movement for transparency, truth, and accountability. Together, we can ensure that history—both past and present—is told by those who lived it.
More reading:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Executive_Order_44
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigdon%27s_July_4th_oration
- https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/NCMP1820-1846/id/250
- https://archive.org/details/orationdelivered01rigd/page/12/mode/2up
- https://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/mormon.asp
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1838_Mormon_War
- https://web.archive.org/web/20100603230035/https://www.deseretnews.com/article/700036138/Former-Missouri-governor-honored-for-rescinding-Mormon-extermination-order.html
- https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2018/09/01/missouri-executive-order-44-mormon-war/1147461002/
- https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/extermination-order?lang=eng
- https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/y8858i/execute_order_44_myths_about_the_extermination/
- https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/mormon-missouri-war-of-1838?lang=eng
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