The Jackson people offered to buy all the land of the “Mormons” in Jackson county, paying them a high price for it within thirty days, or the people of Jackson offered to sell all their lands to the “Mormons” at the same high price to be paid for in thirty days.  This offer may seem to be fair, but when it is remembered that the Lord had revealed to them that the city of Zion should be built in Jackson county, and had told the Saints to buy and not sell, it will be seen that this offer was not meant in good faith.  Again, the Saints could not buy out all the mobbers’ land in Jackson, much as they would have liked so to do, as there was so much of it, and they had no money to pay for it in thirty days.  The Saints therefore could not agree to this, but they made an offer to buy out the lands of those who could not live in peace with them, and pay them in one year.

Nothing came of these offers.

And now the people of Clay county asked the Saints to remove from their midst.  The country was again getting excited about the “Mormons,” and the Clay county people were afraid that the mobs would come to disturb them; so in order to be on good terms with the people who had been friends to them, the Saints again left their homes and traveled north-east, away out into the country where there were hardly any settlers.  Here they began to build a city which they called Far West, and after a time they had a county laid off which was named Caldwell.

This movement began in September, 1836, and by the next summer nearly all the Saints had left Clay county.

You will call to mind that the Prophet Joseph, with the brethren in Zion’s Camp had visited the Saints while in Clay county.  In the spring of 1838 Joseph arrived at Far West from Kirtland, and from that time on the Prophet remained with the main body of the Saints in Missouri and Illinois.

The Saints now had peace again for a season.  They gathered to Far West and surrounding places from Kirtland and other eastern localities.  Farms were made, houses built, towns laid out, and it seemed as if the Saints could at last live and enjoy their rights as Americans.

Joseph was busy setting the Church in order and in receiving the word of the Lord for the guidance of the Saints.

One of the most important revelations given at this time was regarding the law of tithing.  This law says that the Saints should first put all their surplus property into the hands of the bishop to be used for the benefit of the Church, and then after that, they should pay one tenth of all they made, as a tithing to the Lord; and the Lord further said that if the Saints did not keep this law, the land whereon they dwelt should not be a land of Zion unto them.

In the year 1838 the Saints in and around Far West numbered about twelve thousand.  Thus you see they began to be a power in the land, especially when it came to voting for officers of the state and county.  At these times the Saints would of course vote for good men, men who were their friends, and this often made the Missourians angry.