Editor:

This letter is written in response to Jared Johnson’s April 6 letter to the editor (“Mormons should reciprocate Illinois Legislature’s recent apology”). Johnson should have stopped writing at “Knowing what I do about Mormon history,” because clearly he knows very little. I think he only wrote the letter to strike a blow at the dominant religious body here in Utah and on campus. He thinks that the setup of Nauvoo was illegal, that Joseph Smith had a little “dictatorship” and that the Saints were not law-abiding citizens.

The fact of the matter is that Nauvoo was a federal city, like Washington D.C. It had its own charter and did not fall under the jurisdiction of Illinois state law. This upset a lot of people who had it in for the church for whatever reason.

Johnson wrote, “The Mormons brought whatever problems they had in Illinois upon themselves.” He should do a little more research into the atrocities committed by Illinois and other mobs supported by local authorities. The murders, rape, arson and illegal expulsion of thousands of Americans have been a sad commentary and dark chapter in the history of this great country.

Ryan Jolley

Junior, Mass Communication