THE PROS AND CONS OF ARBITRATION PROPOSITION.

Having related the principal events connected with the meeting held at Liberty, we must consider the propositions made by the Jackson people to the saints, for the peaceful adjustment of their difficulties. To have the lands owned by the saints and the improvements thereon valued by disinterested arbitrators, and the amount paid with one hundred per cent added within thirty days, looks like a very fair proposition; but still the saints could not accept such terms; as the condition upon which the proposition was made required the surrender of some of their rights as citizens of the United States and freemen.

The Constitution of the United States says expressly: "The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States." ^[A] The saints were citizens of the United States, possessing all the rights and franchises thereof, and they had a right—an indefeasible one, too—to settle in whatever State they saw proper to choose for their abode; and they had a right to settle in whatever part of the State pleased them best; and, as Governor Dunklin admitted, they had a right to call their habitation "ZION, the Holy Land, or Heaven itself," so long as in doing so, they interfered not with the property and rights of others. To accept the proposition of the Jackson people, therefore, and bind themselves never again to make any effort to settle collectively or individually within the limits of Jackson County, would be a surrender of their dearest rights of citizenship; and would be permitting mobocrats and murderers to dictate them in the exercise of their liberties; binding not only themselves, but their children as well, to the dictum of these wretches. To accept such a settlement of their troubles, would have been a covenant with death, an agreement with hell! To their honor be it said, they spurned the proposition with the contempt it deserved.

[Footnote A: Const. Art. IV, Section 2.]

But the surrender of some of their rights as citizens of the United States was not the only difficulty involved in the settlement of the Jackson troubles by the saints selling their possessions. God had revealed it to them that Jackson County was the place where is to be built the Zion of their God. For them to sell their lands then, and agree never after to make a settlement there, collectively or individually, would be a denial of their faith and bring upon them the displeasure of their God. For them to sell their lands was entirely out of the question.

But the mob offered not only to buy, but to sell upon the same conditions that they proposed to buy. Why did not the saints accept this offer? Simply because they could not, and the citizens of Jackson knew very well they could not. The old settlers of Jackson owned many times more the amount of land than was possessed by the saints, say thirty acres to one. The saints were not wealthy to begin with; and now, after they had been driven from their homes, robbed of their goods, their cattle driven away, their houses, stables, and stacks of grain burned, they are asked to buy nearly the whole of Jackson County, for which they must pay double price, because they were to add one hundred per cent to the appraised value—in thirty days! I don't believe the people of Jackson County were sincere in making the proposition. They knew the saints could not sell their lands without surrendering many of their rights as free men and citizens of the United States; and without being untrue to their God, by virtually denying their faith in the revelations he had given regarding the building up of Zion in Jackson County. This the old settlers knew the Mormons would not do. They had tried to whip and frighten too many of them into a denial of their religious convictions, to think for one moment that money would be any inducement for them to deny that faith. On the other hand, they determined to put the price of their own land beyond the possibility of the saints purchasing it.

The whole scheme was concocted with a view of covering up their outrages against the people of God, under an appearance of fairness. "In the corrupted currents of this world, where Offense's gilded hand may shove by justice," where hypocrisy is often mistaken for piety, and cunning for fairness, the subterfuge may have served its purpose; but when the wretches who would have murdered the saints and plundered them of their goods shall stand before the bar of God where there is "no shuffling," but where the actions of men "lie in their true light," they will find their refuge of deceit will not shield them from the justice of Him who has declared, "vengeance is mine, I will repay!"

The saints refused to accept the terms of settlement made by the people of Jackson, but they themselves proposed terms of adjustment, as follows:

Twelve disinterested men were to be chosen, six by the exiles, six by the people of Jackson County. These twelve men were to say what the possessions of those men were worth that would not consent to live with the "Mormon" people, and they should receive the money for the same in one year from the time the treaty was made, none of the saints to enter Jackson County to reside until the money was paid.

This same company of twelve men was to be empowered to say what the damage was which the "Mormons" sustained in being driven from their homes and in the destruction of their property, the said amount allowed for damages to be deducted from the amount paid for the lands of those who would not consent to live with the saints.

The only reply received to this proposition was in a letter from S. C. Owens to Mr. Amos Reese, which plainly said the Jackson people would listen to nothing like the proposition made by the "Mormons;" and here the hopes of settling the Jackson County trouble by arbitration ended.