“In the Style of an Independent Sovereign”

Abstract

This chapter talks about municipal and territorial authorities that declared martial law within the United States, in which two occurrences involved members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1840s and 1850s. It investigates Mormon cases that are set against the context of contemporaneous debates about martial law that illuminate antebellum power politics. It also analyzes the perception of Latter-day Saints and minority groups in general during the era of American political culture. The chapter discusses the duality of the rhetoric surrounding martial law, which elucidates a shifting American mindset that clung to the revolutionary-era ideology invested in a weak government. It describes the tensions among local, state, and federal governments that deal with martial law declarations and reveal the fragility of sovereignty in antebellum America.