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Flogging those out of fellowship | A FAIR Analysis of: One Nation Under Gods, a work by author: Richard Abanes
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Counterfeiting apostles and Joseph |
The "whittling and whistling brigades" were a novel, non-violent means of community protection on the nineteenth-century American frontier in the absence of any civil government. In a situation where dispossession, extermination, and civil war were very real risks, the brigades seem to have worked surprisingly well, with few casualties. They were inadequate, of course, to deal with real armed aggression, and mob action forced the Saints to evacuate their lands and homes the following spring.
Similar issues are also ignored by the author elsewhere (see here.)
ONUG fails to provide us with several of the necessary facts.[1]
In January 1845, the Nauvoo charter was repealed. This left Nauvoo without a city government, and without a legal militia or police force. This was done despite the warnings of members of the state legislature that law and order would break down.
Wandle Mace's diary reads:
This, then, was the quandary in which the LDS leaders found themselves:
The twofold goal of the groups was to (1) care for the poor, and (2) keep the streets of Nauvoo safe, especially at night. The bishops and deacons assigned to this type of activity evolved into what became known as the "whistling and whittling brigades."
As one author described the tactics decided upon:
Notes
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