religious institutions which have been established by men, as the only means of maintaining those social blessings which are so indispensably necessary for our happiness.” Reporting on a well-attended “anti-Mormon convention” in Carthage in September 1843, Gregg asserted that it was time “to take a firm and decided stand against the high pretension and base designs of this latter-day would-be Mahomet.”
One controversial element of Mormon doctrine gained notoriety in Hancock County: the Saints’ penchant for “consecrated thieving.” This murky doctrine, repeatedly denied by Joseph Smith and others, purportedly allowed Mormons to steal from Gentiles. There was a material incentive; the Mormons believed that Missouri had stripped them of almost $3 million worth of land and property during the 1839 expulsion. They were nearly destitute upon arriving in Nauvoo, and the Gentiles owed them. There was also a dubious spiritual imperative. Stolen goods were said to be “consecrated” if a certain portion—one quarter, or one-third—was donated to the Nauvoo Temple construction fund. “To take from the Gentiles [is] no sin,” Joseph told Justus Morse in 1838. Morse reported Smith’s policy, that
the Church should “suck the milk of the Gentiles,” that we had been injured by the mob in Missouri . . . but should we get caught in this work . . . to swear to a lie, to do so, and to do it with such positiveness and assurance that no one would question our testimony.
Any time a Hancock County farmer lost a horse, or a heifer, or a valuable farm tool, he blamed Mormon thieves. Sometimes he was right. In 1840, church leaders dissolved the entire stake in nearby Ramus, Illinois, and excommunicated the bishop, the first counselor, and a captain in the Nauvoo Legion for stealing. A few years later, these men rejoined the church, which never spoke with one voice on the question of thievery. In 1843, Joseph condemned stealing at a church conference. “I despise a thief above ground,” he preached. “He would betray me if he could get the opportunity. If I were the biggest rogue in the world, he would steal my horse when I wanted to run away.” But many Gentiles thought Joseph turned a blind eye to Saintly thieves. Apostle Orson Hyde famously remarked that he “would never institute a trial against a brother for stealing from the Gentiles.”
Similarly, accusations of counterfeiting dogged the Saints in Nauvoo. Two members of Joseph’s secret Council of Fifty had experience in “bogus making.” Edward Bonney, a distant relation of Billy the Kid, “was not averse to passing the ‘long green’ of counterfeit bills when it suited his purpose,” according to one biographer. New York state was pursuing Fifty member Marinus Eaton on counterfeiting charges. Eaton served as a personal aide to Joseph Smith, alongside Joseph Jackson, whose “principal business” was “trying to make bogus,” according to Hyrum Smith. Jackson, a provocateur with complicated allegiances—he alternately claimed to be a Catholic priest and a Missouri spy—wrote a memoir claiming that he and Joseph Smith made bogus on the second floor of the Old Homestead, Smith’s first log cabin home in Nauvoo. Jackson wrote that Smith imported a $200 German press from St. Louis, which resulted in “an excellent specimen of base coin produced.” Jackson reported that Joseph, aided by ten of the twelve apostles, fabricated about $350,000 worth of false coin, half of which they spent in Hancock County, and half of which they sent east to finance church purchases.
The truth is elusive. But it hardly mattered; as the years progressed, Hancock County husbandmen found plenty of reasons to dislike the Mormons, and they added thievery, often alleged, more rarely proved, to the list. Governor Thomas Ford thought the accusations sprang from prejudice. “I have investigated the charge of promiscuous stealing and find it to be greatly exaggerated,” he
One controversial element of Mormon doctrine gained notoriety in Hancock County: the Saints’ penchant for “consecrated thieving.” This murky doctrine, repeatedly denied by Joseph Smith and others, purportedly allowed Mormons to steal from Gentiles. There was a material incentive; the Mormons believed that Missouri had stripped them of almost $3 million worth of land and property during the 1839 expulsion. They were nearly destitute upon arriving in Nauvoo, and the Gentiles owed them. There was also a dubious spiritual imperative. Stolen goods were said to be “consecrated” if a certain portion—one quarter, or one-third—was donated to the Nauvoo Temple construction fund. “To take from the Gentiles [is] no sin,” Joseph told Justus Morse in 1838. Morse reported Smith’s policy, that
the Church should “suck the milk of the Gentiles,” that we had been injured by the mob in Missouri . . . but should we get caught in this work . . . to swear to a lie, to do so, and to do it with such positiveness and assurance that no one would question our testimony.
Any time a Hancock County farmer lost a horse, or a heifer, or a valuable farm tool, he blamed Mormon thieves. Sometimes he was right. In 1840, church leaders dissolved the entire stake in nearby Ramus, Illinois, and excommunicated the bishop, the first counselor, and a captain in the Nauvoo Legion for stealing. A few years later, these men rejoined the church, which never spoke with one voice on the question of thievery. In 1843, Joseph condemned stealing at a church conference. “I despise a thief above ground,” he preached. “He would betray me if he could get the opportunity. If I were the biggest rogue in the world, he would steal my horse when I wanted to run away.” But many Gentiles thought Joseph turned a blind eye to Saintly thieves. Apostle Orson Hyde famously remarked that he “would never institute a trial against a brother for stealing from the Gentiles.”
Similarly, accusations of counterfeiting dogged the Saints in Nauvoo. Two members of Joseph’s secret Council of Fifty had experience in “bogus making.” Edward Bonney, a distant relation of Billy the Kid, “was not averse to passing the ‘long green’ of counterfeit bills when it suited his purpose,” according to one biographer. New York state was pursuing Fifty member Marinus Eaton on counterfeiting charges. Eaton served as a personal aide to Joseph Smith, alongside Joseph Jackson, whose “principal business” was “trying to make bogus,” according to Hyrum Smith. Jackson, a provocateur with complicated allegiances—he alternately claimed to be a Catholic priest and a Missouri spy—wrote a memoir claiming that he and Joseph Smith made bogus on the second floor of the Old Homestead, Smith’s first log cabin home in Nauvoo. Jackson wrote that Smith imported a $200 German press from St. Louis, which resulted in “an excellent specimen of base coin produced.” Jackson reported that Joseph, aided by ten of the twelve apostles, fabricated about $350,000 worth of false coin, half of which they spent in Hancock County, and half of which they sent east to finance church purchases.
The truth is elusive. But it hardly mattered; as the years progressed, Hancock County husbandmen found plenty of reasons to dislike the Mormons, and they added thievery, often alleged, more rarely proved, to the list. Governor Thomas Ford thought the accusations sprang from prejudice. “I have investigated the charge of promiscuous stealing and find it to be greatly exaggerated,” he
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