On June 23 (the date of Smith's last quoted "revelation"), the Mormons presented their counter proposition in writing. It was that a board of six Mormons and six Jackson County non-Mormons should decide on the value of lands in that county belonging to "those men who cannot consent to live with us," and that they should receive this sum within a year, less the amount of damage suffered by the Mormons, the latter to be determined by the same persons. The Jackson County people replied that they would "do nothing like according to their last proposition," and expressed a hope that the Mormons "would cast an eye back of Clinton, to see if that is not a county calculated for them." Clinton was the county next north of Clay. Governor Dunklin, in his annual message to the legislature that year, expressed the opinion that "conviction for any violence committed against a Mormon cannot be had in Jackson County," and told the lawmakers it was for them to determine what amendments were necessary "to guard against such acts of violence for the future." The Mormons sent a petition in their own behalf to the legislature, which was presented by Corrill, but no action was taken. CHAPTER V. -- IN CLAY, CALDWELL, AND DAVIESS COUNTIES The counties in which the Mormons settled after leaving Jackson County were thinly populated at that time, Clay County having only 5338 inhabitants, according to the census of 1830, and Caldwell, Carroll, and Daviess counties together having only 6617 inhabitants by the census of 1840. County rivalry is always a characteristic of our newly settled states and territories, and the Clay County people welcomed the Mormons as an addition to their number, notwithstanding the ill favor in which they stood with their southern neighbors. The new-comers at first occupied what vacant cabins they could find in the southern part of the county, until they could erect houses of their own, while the men obtained such employment as was offered, and many of the women sought places as domestic servants and school-teachers. The Jackson County people were not pleased with this friendly spirit, and they not only tried to excite trouble between the new neighbors, but styled the Clay County residents "Jack Mormons," a name applied in later years in other places to non-Mormons who were supposed to have Mormon sympathies. Peace was maintained, however, for about three years. But the Mormons grew in numbers, and, as the natives realized their growth, they showed no more disposition to be in the minority than did their southern neighbors. The Mormons, too, were without tact, and they did not conceal the intention of the church to possess the land. Proof of their responsibility for what followed is found in a remark of W. W. Phelps, in a letter from Clay County to Ohio in December, 1833, that "our people fare very well, and, when they are discreet, little or no persecution is felt."* * Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 646.