The language of Governor Boggs's letter to General Clark cannot be defended. The Mormons have always made great capital of his declaration that the Mormons "must be exterminated," and a man of judicial temperament would have selected other words, no matter how necessary he deemed it, for political reasons, to show his sympathy with the popular cause. But, on the other hand, the governor was only accepting the challenge given by Rigdon in his recent Fourth of July address, when the latter declared that if a mob disturbed the Mormons, "it shall be between us and them a war of extermination, for we will follow them till the last drop of their blood is spilled, or else they will have to exterminate us." What compromise there could have been between a band of fanatics obeying men like Smith and Rigdon, and the class of settlers who made up the early Missouri population, it is impossible to conceive. The Mormons were simply impossible as neighbors, and it had become evident that they could no more remain peaceably in the state than they could a few years previously in Jackson County. General Atchison, of Smith's counsel, was not called on by the governor in these latest movements, because, as the governor explained in a letter to General Clark, "there was much dissatisfaction manifested toward him by the people opposed to the Mormons." But he had seen his mistake, and he united with General Lucas in a letter to the governor under date of October 28, in which they said, "from late outrages committed by the Mormons, civil war is inevitable," and urged the governor's presence in the disturbed district. Governor Boggs excused himself from complying with this request because of the near approach of the meeting of the legislature. General Lucas, acting under his interpretation of the governor's order, had set out on October 28 for Far West from near Richmond, with a force large enough to alarm the Mormon leaders. Robinson, speaking of the outlook from their standpoint at this time, says, "We looked for warm work, as there were large numbers of armed men gathering in Daviess County, with avowed determination of driving the Mormons from the county, and we began to feel as determined that the Missourians should be expelled from the county."* The Mormons did not hear of the approach of General Lucas's force until it was near the town. Then the southern boundary was hastily protected with a barricade of wagons and logs, and the night of October 30-31 was employed by all the inhabitants in securing their possessions for flight, in anticipation of a battle the next day. * The Return, Vol. I, p. 189. CHAPTER IX. -- THE FINAL EXPULSION FROM THE STATE At eight o'clock the next morning the commander of the militia sent a flag of truce to the Mormons which Colonel Hinckle, for the Mormons, met. General Lucas submitted the following terms, as necessary to carry out the governor's orders: 1. To give up their leaders to be tried and punished.