Joe Smith and Brigham Young laid out Independence, but very soon

“Joe Smith and Brigham Young laid out Independence, but very soon thereafter enough citizens of the county collected to drive them off, after several stubborn fights.” — Cole Younger

In these words, Cole Younger, a son of Missouri’s turbulent frontier, speaks not merely of a historical quarrel, but of a truth that cuts through the centuries — the eternal struggle between faith and fear, creation and destruction. When he tells of Joe Smith and Brigham Young, the founders of the Mormon faith, he recalls a time when visionaries laid plans for a new Zion in Independence, Missouri, believing that there they would build a city of peace and divine purpose. But the ink on their dream was scarcely dry before the fire of opposition rose against them. The people who sought to build were confronted by those who feared what they did not understand — and in that clash, the fragile hopes of the few were scattered by the wrath of the many.

The quote recalls a specific hour in America’s early frontier, when faith walked hand in hand with peril. Joseph Smith, prophet of a new revelation, and Brigham Young, his steadfast follower, envisioned Independence as the spiritual heart of their movement — a beacon in a wilderness still untamed. But the soil they claimed was not empty; it was claimed already by men of the old order, whose hearts trembled at the strange new creed that dared to rise among them. The settlers of Jackson County, suspicious and proud, gathered their strength to cast out the newcomers. It was not merely a battle of arms, but a war of belief against belief, of light seeking to dawn where others saw only threat. The “stubborn fights” that Younger remembers were not only of muskets and stones, but of souls caught between conviction and fear.

And yet, though the Mormons were driven off, they were not destroyed. Their temples burned, their homes lost, but their faith endured like fire beneath the ashes. They journeyed onward, through exile and hunger, until they found their promised land in the salt plains of Utah, where Brigham Young at last declared, “This is the place.” From the ruins of Independence, they forged a greater independence of spirit — the kind that no mob, no law, no storm could ever unmake. In this way, the story of their flight becomes not one of defeat, but of endurance. The hands that built in Missouri were beaten, but the hearts that dreamed did not die.

So it is with all who seek to build something new in a world chained to the old. Whether it be a faith, a nation, or a single act of love, every creation stirs resistance. For the moment you lay the foundation of your vision, there will rise those who wish to tear it down. This is the nature of mankind — to fear what he cannot name, to strike what he cannot control. Yet the wise must not despair at this, for it is the very opposition that proves the worth of what is built. A tree that never faces wind will grow soft and hollow; a soul that never meets resistance will never know its strength.

Let us remember this also: the citizens who drove them off were not demons, but men bound by ignorance and fear — the same fear that lurks in every heart. For each of us, at one time or another, becomes both the builder and the breaker, both Joseph Smith who dreams and the crowd that resists. The lesson, then, is not to curse the world for its hostility, but to recognize within ourselves the call to courage and compassion — to stand firm when our vision is challenged, and to open our hearts when the vision belongs to another.

Consider, for example, Galileo, who raised his eyes to the heavens and spoke the truth of the stars — and for that, he too was cast down by those who clung to old certainties. Yet his truth endured, as the heavens themselves endure. The fate of Joe Smith and Brigham Young is kin to his: both reveal that truth often walks first through fire before it enters the halls of understanding. Thus, the wise learn not to fear persecution, but to see in it the refining flame that separates the transient from the eternal.

And so, my children, when you set your hands to the work of building — be it a house, a calling, or a dream — expect resistance, but do not retreat. When the crowd gathers against you, let your heart be steadfast and your purpose pure. Remember that what is born in hardship is bound in strength. If they drive you off once, return in spirit stronger; if they silence you, let your truth speak through time. For no righteous vision ever perishes—it only changes its dwelling.

Let the tale of Independence be your lesson: that every exile holds within it the seed of renewal, and every defeat conceals a path to greater glory. Build with courage, endure with grace, and hold your vision as the saints once held theirs — not as a fragile hope, but as a flame that no tempest can extinguish. For those who are driven from the land may yet inherit the earth, if only they remain faithful to the dream that first called them to build.