'One of the damndest rascals that ever went unhung'

Yeah, if you read up on the history, ole governor Cummings didn't stay in Utah for very long. Brigham and the church members made sure he was really just a figurehead, virtually powerless in every local matter, other than having the title "governor". Even though he was officially stripped of the title "Territorial Governor", Brigham still had total control of all matters behind the scenes. Funny that in this film, the members are quoted as saying they just wanted fair and equal treatment in all the states they lived in prior to moving to Utah territory. One of the reasons every state drove them out was the fact that they'd vote en masse at elections to make sure every elected official would be a Mormon. As far as Missouri goes, they really put a burr under everyone's saddle there by claiming that Missouri is supposedly the original location of the Garden of Eden, which they still believe to this day, and being such, all the land in that area rightfully belonged to their church. Then you have old Brigham saying in the film that every member in their church is supposed to be equal and share all. This may be somewhat true among the members themselves, but ask any non-Mormon who's ever lived in Utah how hard it is to get any advancement or promotion in a job with any company that's Mormon owned or run. You can also ask these non-Mormon residents if their kids can even join the Boy Scouts in Utah(they're all ran by church wards), or how many of their kids are ever allowed to associate or play with any other kids who are Mormon. While I agree that they were persecuted relentlessly everywhere they settled before Utah, it's pretty obvious the only way they could ever have a peaceful existence was to move to a place so God-forsaken at the time that nobody else had any desire to live there!