1833–1857
Missouri, the Danites, and the Nauvoo Expositor, 1833–1844
21 sources, ordered by evidentiary weight — primary and contemporary first, then documentary editions, then the argument. 18 of them are held as full text in the Mormon Corpus; the other 3 are reached only as quotations inside works that are held, and are marked.
Executive Order of Lilburn W. Boggs, 27 October 1838 (Missouri Executive Order 44), copied in JS Letterbook 2
Lilburn W. Boggs
The exact wording and the stated grounds of the extermination order, and that it was issued to General John B. Clark as a military order.
Oration Delivered by Mr. S. Rigdon on the 4th of July, 1838, at Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri (Far West: Journal Office)
Sidney Rigdon
The 'war of extermination' language, published and circulated with Joseph Smith's endorsement four months before Boggs used the same word.
Elders' Journal of the Church of Latter Day Saints (1837–1838)
Joseph Smith, editor
That the Fourth of July oration was not a rogue speech: the church's own paper, edited by Smith, recommended that members obtain the pamphlet.
Journal, March–September 1838
Joseph Smith
Smith's contemporaneous, favorable reference to 'a company of Danites' — the strongest primary evidence that he knew of and approved the band.
Times and Seasons, vols. 1–6
The church's own serialized 'History of the Persecution' in Missouri, including Joseph Young's Hawn's Mill affidavit and Edward Partridge's account of being tarred in 1833.
Document Containing the Correspondence, Orders, &c., in Relation to the Disturbances with the Mormons (Fayette, Mo.: Boon's Lick Democrat)
Missouri General Assembly
The Missouri government's own assembled evidentiary record of the 1838 war — the single document most quoted by every camp in this dispute.
Nauvoo Expositor, 7 June 1844 (the single issue)
William Law, Wilson Law, Charles Ivins, Francis M. Higbee, Chauncey L. Higbee, Robert D. Foster, Charles A. Foster
Exactly what the dissenters charged in print — plural marriage, the plurality of gods, political revelation, and the Nauvoo charter — in their own words, three days before the press was destroyed.
Nauvoo Neighbor (1843–1845)
John Taylor, editor
How the Nauvoo leadership justified the abatement publicly within a week of the act, expressly invoking the destruction of their own press in Jackson County.
Journal of Discourses, vols. 1–26
The Utah-era blood-atonement rhetoric in its published form, and Brigham Young's later public dismissal of the Danite legend.
A Brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints
John Corrill
A participant-dissenter's description, written within months, of the Danite covenant, the Salt Sermon, and why he could neither defect nor object once the community had militarized.
Minutes and Testimonies, 12–29 November 1838 [State of Missouri v. Gates et al. for Treason]
Sworn testimony taken within weeks of the events — including Reed Peck on the Salt Sermon and on Avard's teaching — and the commitment orders naming who was charged with what.
Revised Minutes, 17 June 1844 [synopsis of Nauvoo City Council proceedings, 8 and 10 June 1844]
The council debate itself: who said what about libel, nuisance, Blackstone and the charter before the vote to abate.
Gospel Topics essay, "Peace and Violence among 19th-Century Latter-day Saints"
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church's formal position that Smith approved of the Danites but probably was not briefed on all their plans.
Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, vol. 1, chs. 27–31
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
What the institution now tells its own members about the Salt Sermon, the Danites, Avard's testimony and the extermination order.
Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling
Richard Lyman Bushman with Jed Woodworth
The standard believing-scholarly reconstruction, including the evidentiary gap at Gallatin and Smith's ambiguous position during the fighting.
"Race, Violence, and the Mormon War," Journal of Mormon History 40/1
T. Ward Frampton
The Gallatin election-day fight and Hawn's Mill in their Missouri racial and frontier-violence context, with the contemporary accounts collated.
Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet
John G. Turner
A recent non-confessional narrative of the Daviess raids, Crooked River and the surrender, using militia correspondence and participant diaries.
"Turning Type into Pi: The Destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor in Historical Context"
Craig L. Foster
The apologetic case that press destruction was a recurrent feature of 1830s–40s American politics rather than a Mormon anomaly.
"The Danite Band of 1838," BYU Studies 14/4
Leland H. Gentry
The classic faithful reading: a three-stage Danite history in which Avard corrupted a defensive brotherhood without the First Presidency's knowledge.
The Mormon Kingdom, Volume 1
Jerald and Sandra Tanner
Verbatim reproductions of the Danite oath, Avard's testimony and Marsh's affidavit — valuable as a finding aid, adversarial in framing.
Charisma under Pressure
Dan Vogel
The most document-dense critical reconstruction of the Danite organization, the Fourth of July oration and the Richmond hearing, with the underlying testimony quoted at length.
