Mormons should bid him a fond farewell. As governor of Missouri in 1976, Bond rescinded the infamous Boggs extermination order issued in 1838 making it legal to kill Mormons. Though unenforced for decades, it was still on the books.
I was told by someone in a position to know, that Bond had received death threats at the time he rescinded the order. He hints at this in the Salt Lake Tribune article but does not say it outright:
“To be quite honest, there were still some people in northwest Missouri who were still carrying a 100-plus-year grudge who were very mad about it,” Bond said, though he did not blame rescinding the order for the defeat [of his gubernatorial reelection bid].Bond is still unapologetic. From Mormon Times:
"You bet I'd do it again!" Bond declared in the recorded message 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.From the Church News:
Sen. Bond said it seems impossible today that such events could happen in a nation founded on religious freedom.Bond confirms that he still gets thanks from individual Mormons as well as receiving gratitude from Mormon organizations. Missouri seems to have finally come to terms with its past. It has recently acknowledged the Bogg's extermination order on Facebook as well as created a special digital site devoted to archival documents from The Missouri Mormon War.
Boggs died a natural death although from what I've read over the years he was always fearful that the Mormons would exact revenge in kind.
They did in a way.
I dated a guy in my Utah singles ward who was a direct descendant of Boggs. Hunt down their posterity and convert them -- that's Mormon revenge. . .
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