rescinding Mormon 'extermination order'

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — U.S. Sen. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond, who as Missouri governor in 1976 rescinded the 1838 "extermination order," authorizing the expulsion of Mormons from the state, has been honored by the Mormon History Association for his action 34 years ago.

At the Friday evening awards banquet of its annual conference, the association gave Bond its Thomas L. Kane Award for outstanding service to the Mormon community by a non-Mormon.

Absent because of a scheduling conflict, the senator sent a recorded video message and acceptance of the award.

"You bet I'd do it again," Bond declared regarding his rescission of Gov. Lilburn W. Boggs' 1838 order. "The treatment of the Mormon people in Missouri in the 1830s and beyond was barbaric. Women were raped and tortured. Men were killed by mobs or driven out of state. Their property was stolen. The lucky ones were those who were left alive with nothing and were forced to make their way into a more hospitable state."

What makes it especially hard to understand was that the barbarism was state-sanctioned, Bond said, adding that Boggs' order made it legal to kill anyone who belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"What surprised me was that as late as 1976, the law was still on the books, though thankfully, it had not been enforced and nobody paid attention to it," Bond said.

"We cannot change history, but we certainly ought to be able to learn from it and where possible acknowledge past mistakes," he said. "That was what motivated me to rescind the extermination order in 1976."

Bond said Missouri is now home to more than 100,000 Mormons.

His action rescinding the order was facilitated by a contact from Lyman Edwards, a leader in St. Joseph, Mo., of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Speaking to the audience after Bond's message was shown, Edwards said he contacted then-Gov. Bond in 1975 asking if he would be amenable to rescinding the order. He received an encouraging reply from the governor saying he might be interested.

In February 1976, Edwards recounted that he, his wife and a local Episcopal priest approached the governor at a Republican party banquet about the prospect. Ultimately, Bond attended the conference of Edwards' congregation, and Edwards accepted Bond's executive order "on behalf of the saints of the Restoration movement."

Prior to the presentation to Bond, the association awarded a special citation to the Missouri State Archives for a significant contribution to the study of Mormon history.