About this episode

This episode explores the early Utah Saints' embrace of cooperative economics and discusses a historical report characterizing them as disloyal to the United States.

In this episode, we tackle the question of why early Utah Saints embraced cooperative economics like the United Order. Gerrit digs into a 1866–67 Inspector General’s report submitted to Congress by Generals Ruesling and Hazen. The document characterizes Latter-day Saints as ”open and avowed foes” of the United States, recommends banning Mormons from government contracts, and bizarrely treats the fact that Mormon contractors underbid Gentile competitors as evidence of disloyalty rather than fiscal responsibility. They close with the Articles of Agreement from the St. George United Order, a digression on the gold standard, and a ranking of the worst Google-reviewed presidential homes (with John Tyler’s Sherwood Forest taking the crown thanks largely to ill-tempered family dogs). Sign up for our free monthly email: ⁠ ⁠⁠https://standardoftruthpodcast.substack.com⁠⁠ If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: ⁠⁠⁠questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat

Topics covered

• cooperative economics
• United Order
• Latter-day Saints
• government contracts
• gold standard
• presidential homes

Keywords

• Utah Saints
• cooperative economics
• Inspector General’s report
• Mormons
• government contracts
• gold standard
• presidential homes

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: United Order, Congress

Places: St. George, Utah, United States

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Standard of Truth podcast page.