The following is taken from:
James K. Polk, Journal,
June
3, 1846 :
. . .
I had a conversation with Mr.
Anson Stoddard & Mr. S. C. Phelps of Peterborough, N.H. (a Mormon) to-day:
– They desired to see me in relation to a large body of Mormon emigrants who
are now on their way from Nauvoo & other parts of the U.S. to California,
and to know the policy of the Government towards them. – I stated to Mr. Phelps
that by our Constitution the Mormons would be treated as all other American
citizens were, without regard to the sect to which they belonged, or the
religious creed which they professed, and that I had no prejudices towards them
which could induce a different course of treatment. Mr. Phelps said that they
were Americans in all their feelings & friendly to the U. S. Stated Mr.
Phelps that our men at war with Mexico and ad- vised him if 500. or more of the
Mormons now on their way to California, would be willing on their arrival in
that country to volunteer and enter the U. S. army in that war, under the
command of a U. S. officer. He said he had no doubts they would willingly do
so. He said if the U. S. would bring them into the service he would immediately
forward and muster the emigrants now on the way and make the arrangements with
them to do so. Stated him I would see him tomorrow on the subject. I did not
deem it prudent to tell him of the projected expedition into California under
the command of Col. Kearny, who has instructions to make such an expedition.
This season if practicable. – The Mormons, if taken into service will
constitute not more than ¼ of Col. Kearny’s command, and the main object of
taking them into service would be to conciliate them, and prevent them
after their arrival in California from assuming a hostile attitude towards the
U. S. after their arrival in California. – It may – with the view to
prevent this singular sect from assuming hostility to the U. S. that I started
the conference with Mr. Phelps, and with the same view I saw fit to see him
again tomorrow. – The Mormons landed on the President’s grounds this evening. A
large number of persons, ladies & gentlemen were present.
Noting that Latter-day Saints believed that this meeting
was a sweet vindication long in
coming. After years of ignoring Latter-day Saint persecution and dismissing the
Saints’ petitions for redress for the personal and property crimes perpetrated
against them in Missouri, after the lack of federal intervention in the
decision to drive the Saints from Illinois, and after reports that the U.S.
Army would in fact attempt to prevent them from leaving the nation to Mexico,
Little thought the president was now expressing regret for the wrongs committed
against the Saints.
In actuality, President Polk’s
request for the Mormon Battalion was not an admission of past wrongdoing on the
part of the nation but a culmination of the national political machinations
that had driven the Saints from the country in the first place. (Gerrit J.
Dirkmaat, “‘Obliterated
from the Face of the Earth’: Latter-day Flight and Expulsion,” in Latter-day
Saints in Washington, CD: History, People, and Places, ed. Kenneth L.
Alford, Lloyd D. Newell, and Alexander L. Baugh [Provo, Utah: Religious Studies
Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2021], 52-53)
Dirkmaat also noted that Polk
did indeed see the Saints as
less-than-American citizens and as a possible impediment to his planned
invasion of Northern Mexico. His meetings with Jesse Little in early June 1846
and the subsequent enlistment of the Mormon Battalion were indeed part of wider
duplicitous political machinations directed against the Latter-day Saints.
Although the Saints would reach their new mountain home in the desert high
places of Mexico, temporarily free of the corrupt political institutions that
had driven them there, their respite was to be short-lived. American
imperialism and sovereignty expanded faster than the Latter-day Saints could
run from it. Throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century, clashes
between the Latter-day Saints and the federal government over issues of
individual liberty, voting rights, and religious freedom and sovereignty would
characterize a difficult and painful interaction. The hoped-for kingdom of
God—a popular Latter-day Saint theocracy—was not realized, and Saints had to
look forward to a day when they believed political conflicts, like all other
conflicts, would cease with the promised return of the Messiah. (Ibid., 63-64)
