Alexander Doniphan Committee - The Will of Missouri

Copyright 2020 Alexander Doniphan Committee. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, stored in a database and / or published in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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ISBN 978-1-942337-25-6

First ebook edition January 2021.

Edited by Valerie Abbott of Writing Help KC.

Cover art and layout by Lori Garcia of Lori Garcia Studios.

Woodneath Press

8900 NE Flintlock Road

Kansas City, MO 64157

816.883.4774 | MyStoryCenter.org

A program of The Story Center at Mid-Continent Public Library

The Alexander W. Doniphan Community Service & Leadership Award Committee

The Alexander W. Doniphan Community Service & Leadership Award Committee is dedicated to preserving the legacy of Alexander Doniphan and honoring those in the community who exemplify his outstanding characteristics and personal commitments in one or more of the diverse components of his life, namely Education, Jurisprudence, Statesmanship, Patriotism in Defense of Country, and Integrity in Business. This book is a gift from the Alexander W. Doniphan Committee to the State of Missouri as we commemorate the bicentennial of Missouri's statehood in 2021.

John A. Dillingham and Cynthia McDavitt, Co-Chairs

Rodney Ames, Robert Arter, Raymond Brock Jr., Sheryl Gallagher, Kurt Graham, Laurie Jacobus, Jeremiah J. Morgan, Steven V. Potter, W. Christian Sizemore & Eric Zahnd

Contributors

Alexander L. Baugh, "Alexander W. Doniphan on National Television: The NBC Nationwide Telecast of Profiles in Courage" Copyright 2020

Allen Jones, "Alexander W. Doniphan: American Xenophon Copyright 2020

Caldwell County (MO) Commission, "History of Caldwell County" Copyright 2016

David W. Jackson, "Colonel Alexander William Doniphan: Trials on the Missouri Frontier" Copyright 2020

J. Bradley Pace, "Mr. Doniphan Goes to Court" Copyright 2020

Jeremiah J. Morgan, "Alexander W. Doniphan: The Trial of His Life" Copyright 2020

John Dillingham, Civil War Roundtable of Western Missouri, "Alexander Doniphan Marches to Truman Library" Copyright 2007

Kathleen Bird, "Pick a Side: Doniphans Role in Missouris Loyalty to the Union" Copyright 2020

Kelvin Crow, "Alexander W. Doniphan: Fort Leavenworth and Mexican American War" Copyright 2020

NGP Newspapers, Jack "Miles" Ventimiglia, "Music Perhaps Unheard in 150 Years Plays Sunday" Copyright 2000

Steven V. Potter, "Influential Missourian Alexander Doniphan Copyright 2020

Susan Easton Black, "Alexander W. Doniphan: In Defense of Mormons" Copyright 2020

Taryn Duffy, "Sentiments of Honor" Copyright 2020

W. Christian Sizemore, "Alexander Doniphan: A Path to Follow" Copyright 2020

Foreword

John C. Danforth

Theres a word thats recently gained a lot of currency in America. The word is tribal. You see it all the time. David Brooks has featured it in newspaper columns. Law professor Amy Chua has written about it in a book called Political Tribes. Here in a nutshell is her point.

Everyone in America today feels threatened. African Americans fear that their children will be shot by police. Mexicans are threatened with deportation. Muslims are told their religion should be barred from the country. Women are abused by workplace predators. Poor whites feel left behind by a country that calls them trash. Religious conservatives are threatened by popular culture. Amy Chua notes that when people feel threatened they retreat into tribalism, a hostile world of us against them.

We think of divisive tribalism as a new phenomenon in America, and it has certainly been exacerbated by current rhetoric, both political and academic. But the life and times of Alexander Doniphan tell us that tribalism in America has a long history, bloodier than what we have today.

Doniphan gained fame in 1838 during a largely forgotten crisis in Northwest Missouri known as the Mormon War. Mormons were greatly feared at that time for their growing political and economic power, and it became politically popular to persecute them. They were expelled from Jackson County, and they moved from one county to another in search of safety. Governor Lilburn Boggs ordered their removal from the state or extermination. Fighting broke out between Mormons and the state militia, and 22 people were killed. Joseph Smith and other Mormons were captured, tried by a kangaroo court, and convicted of treason. Alexander Doniphan, a brigadier general, was ordered by his military superior to execute the Mormons. He flatly refused to do so, saying that their execution would amount to cold blooded murder. Doniphan subsequently defended the Mormons at their trial in Liberty.

As Amy Chua has said, when people feel threatened, they resort to tribalism. Thats what happened in Missouri more than 180 years ago. Non-Mormons were afraid that their farms would be taken from them, that they would lose political power, so they turned against the Mormons to the point of bloodshed.

And those in power, the politicians, the governor, the state militia pandered to the fear and sided with the mob.

That was then. This is now. Its an age old political tactic to play to tribal instincts, to turn us against them, and it persists today.

But at our best, we Americans have known that it cannot be us against them. It must be we the people. We must be one nation indivisible. And its our duty as Americans to stand against all who would divide us and to hold ourselves together.

So when politicians encourage tribalism, when they say we should act against Muslims or Mexicans or any other group, its up to us to follow the example of Alexander Doniphan when he refused the order to execute the Mormonsto insist that were not going to do that, were not going to be like that. We come from many different lands, and we are of different races and religions, and we are all Americans. Thats what makes us great, and thats what makes us proud.

John C. Danforth is a highly respected politician, attorney, diplomat and ordained Episcopal priest from St. Louis, Missouri. He served the people in many ways including as Ambassador to the United Nations, United States Senator, Missouri Attorney General, and Special Counsel to the U.S. Justice Department.

Foreword

The Missouri Bicentennial and Community History

Steven V. Potter

At the very core of the human experience is the story. For whatever the reason, stories appeal to us, speak to us, and record our experiences. Stories can do so much. They can entertain, they can inform, they can create a shared experience. Any time I talk about Mid-Continent Public Librarys Story Center Program, I share this observation. Interestingly, this anthology shares all these traits, but it is so much more.

For several years, Jeremiah Morgan and I discussed the idea of developing a writing project about Alexander Doniphan. For many reasons, he and I both believe that Doniphan was an incredible man of his time. As time marched on and despite the efforts of many, people did not know Doniphans story. Jeremiah and I kept talking about this project with our friends and fellow admirers, John Dillingham and Chris Sizemore. The four of us are part of an association dedicated to preserving Doniphans legacy and recognizing community members who exhibit his exceptional traits. The association has many projects in mind, and we had discussed the idea of a writing project for a long time. But the conversation rarely got beyond a conversation. It was the germ of an idea that needed a catalyst to propel this project from idea to reality.