| 396 this the Clay County people were long intensely hated by their neighbors in Jackson. Some of the Mormons fled to Cass County (then Van Buren), but were again compelled to flee. In after years, during the civil war, when the counties of Cass and Jackson were among those depopulated and devastated by General Ewing's 'order No. 11,' the Mormons declared it a divine judgment on those counties for their persecution of the 'saint' thirty years before.
"The public authorities of the State, or some of them at least, were indignant at these lawless proceedings and sympathized with the efforts of the Mormons to obtain redress. The Attorney-General, Hon. Robert W. Wells, wrote to them that if they desired to be reëstablished in their possessions in Jackson County an adequate public force would be sent for their protection. He also advised them to remain in the State and organize themselves into a regular company of militia, promising them a supply of the public arms if they should do so.
"But the Mormons were averse to fighting or to taking any steps that should lead to further trouble with the citizens of Missouri, whose good will they seemed anxious to secure in order that they might be allowed to remain in the State in peace. The Territory of Kansas then belonged to the Indians and was not open to white settlement; so they began to seek for new homes on the north side of the Missouri. In June, 1834, Joe Smith visited them in Clay County and counseled them to make no violent attempt to recover the 'New Jerusalem,' to which, he assured them, his church should be restored 'in God's own time.'
"As the Jackson County people had seized upon and occupied the houses and lands of the Mormons, and expected to retain them, it was but natural that they should desire some legal title to them. They sent a proposition to the Mormons in Clay to buy their lands, offering them per acre the Government price, $1.25, allowing nothing for improvements The Mormons refused the proposition, and it was finally agreed that the matter should be submitted to certain prominent citizens of Clay for arbitration. The arbiters met at Liberty, and Jackson sent over thirteen commissioners.
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