Sunday · September 27, 2026
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19761776 Club

Missouri rescinds its order to exterminate the Mormons; Bond signs a formal apology after 138 years

Governor Kit Bond voids Executive Order 44, Lilburn Boggs's 1838 command that Mormons be "exterminated or driven from the State," as part of the nation's Bicentennial celebrations.

For 137 years, a standing executive order on the books of the state of Missouri commanded that its Mormon residents be "exterminated or driven from the State." Governor Kit Bond signed the rescission on June 25, 1976 — part of the U.S. Bicentennial celebrations — formally apologizing on behalf of all Missourians for "the injustice and undue suffering" caused by Governor Lilburn Boggs's Executive Order 44, issued October 27, 1838. The gesture arrived 138 years late, but it arrived…

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