were carved off to become parts of Ray and Daviess Counties. They had also founded the Caldwell County town of Far West as their Missouri headquarters. Once they were established in a county of their own, a period of relative peace ensued. According to an article in the Elders' Journal – a Latter Day Saint newspaper published in Far West – "The Saints here are at perfect peace with all the surrounding inhabitants, and persecution is not so much as once named among them..." John Corrill, one of the Mormon leaders, remembered: Friendship began to be restored between (the Mormons) and their neighbors, the old prejudices were fast dying away, and they were doing well, until the summer of 1838 Compromise breaks down, 1838 In 1837, problems at the church's headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio, centering on the Kirtland Safety Society bank, led to schism. The church relocated from Kirtland to Far West, which became its new headquarters. Mormon settlement increased as hundreds of members from Kirtland and elsewhere poured into Missouri. Mormons established new colonies outside of Caldwell County, including Adam-ondi-Ahman in Daviess County and De Witt in Carroll County. In the eyes of many non-Mormon citizens (including Alexander Doniphan), these settlements outside of Caldwell County were a violation of the compromise. Mormons felt that the compromise only excluded major settlements in Clay County and Ray County, not Daviess County and Carroll County. The earlier settlers saw expansion of Mormon communities outside of Caldwell County as a political and economic threat. In Daviess County, where Whigs and Democrats had been roughly evenly balanced, Mormon population reached a level where they could determine election results. Salt Sermon and Danites At the same time, a leadership struggle between the church presidency and Missouri leaders led to the excommunication of several high-placed Mormon leaders, including Oliver Cowdery (one of the Three Witnesses and the church's original "second elder"), David Whitmer (another of the Three Witnesses and Stake President of the Missouri Church), as well as John Whitmer, Hiram Page, William Wines Phelps and others.I These "dissenters", as they came to be called, owned a significant amount of land in Caldwell County, much of which was purchased when they were acting as agents for the church. Possession became unclear and the dissenters threatened the church with lawsuits. The presidency responded by urging the dissenters to leave the county, using strong words that the dissenters