A delegation of Illinois officials traveled to Utah to express official regret for the 1844 murder of the founder of the Mormon church and the expulsion of Mormons from Illinois.
Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and others were to meet with Utah officials and leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Wednesday. The trip comes a week after the Illinois House approved a resolution expressing regret for violence against Mormons, including the murder of church founder Joseph Smith Jr.
``The people of Illinois are tolerant,'' Quinn said at a news conference in Chicago on Tuesday. ``They believe in religious freedom, and they are people of many faiths. If there have been wrongs, we should right them.''
Quinn said he hoped the gesture would make Mormons feel welcome in Illinois. Each year, about 350,000 Mormons visit Nauvoo, where Smith settled, and about 51,000 Mormons now live in Illinois.
Mormons built Nauvoo into a city of 20,000, one of the largest in the nation at the time. Their growing power and different beliefs created friction with non-Mormon residents, however. In June 1844, Smith and his brother Hyrum were arrested, and a mob broke into the jail and killed them.
More violence followed and the new church leader, Brigham Young, guided his followers out of the state in February 1846, first to Iowa and then on to Utah, arriving in July 1847.
State Rep. Jack Franks said he sponsored the resolution after friends of his had dinner with Utah Gov. Olene Walker and learned more about Illinois' treatment of the Mormons. Walker said she welcomed the resolution.
Church spokesman Dale Bills said church President Gordon B. Hinckley, 93, was not expected to attend Wednesday's meeting because of the death Tuesday of his wife, Marjorie.