interpreted as threats. In his famous Salt Sermon, Sidney Rigdon announced that the dissenters were as salt that had lost its savor and that it was the duty of the faithful to cast the dissenters out to be trodden beneath the feet of men. At the same time Mormons, including Sampson Avard, began to organize a secret society known as the Danites, whose purposes included obeying the church presidency "right or wrong" and expelling the dissenters from Caldwell County. Two days after Rigdon preached his Salt Sermon, 80 prominent Mormons, including Hyrum Smith, signed the so-called Danite Manifesto, which warned the dissenters to "depart or a more fatal calamity shall befall you". On June 19, the dissenters and their families fled to neighboring counties where their complaints fanned anti-Mormon sentiment. On July 4, Rigdon gave an oration, which was characterized by Mormon historian Brigham Henry Roberts as a Declaration of Independence' from all mobs and persecutions". The text of this speech was endorsed by Joseph Smith, who appeared at the event and participated in the raising of a liberty pole. In the speech, Rigdon declared that the Latter-day Saints would no longer be driven from their homes by persecution from without or dissension from within, and that if enemies came again to drive out the Saints, "And that mob that comes on us to disturb us, it shall be between us and them a war of extermination; for we will follow them until the last drop of their blood is spilled; or else they will have to exterminate us, for we will carry the seat of war to their own houses and their own families, and one party or the other shall be utterly destroyed". The Election Day Battle at Gallatin The "Election Day Battle at Gallatin" was a skirmish between Mormon and non-Mormon settlers in the newly formed Daviess County, Missouri, on August 6, 1838. William Peniston, a candidate for the state legislature, made disparaging statements about the Mormons, calling them "horse-thieves and robbers", and warned them not to vote in the election. Reminding Daviess County residents of the growing electoral power of the Mormon community, Peniston made a speech in Gallatin claiming that if the Missourians "suffer such men as these [Mormons] to vote, you will soon lose your suffrage." Around 200 non-Mormons gathered in Gallatin on election day to prevent Mormons from voting. When about thirty Latter