The statement that the United States was an “asylum for the oppressed” was frequently coupled in general patriotic discourse with the refrain “the land of the free and the home of the brave” from “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Latter-day Saints used the combined phrase to contrast national ideals with the treatment they had received. Writing from New York around this same time, Orson Pratt included the phrase in a letter to the editor of the New York Tribune condemning the treatment of the Mormons. After recounting their expulsion from Missouri, Pratt inquired, “Is this American liberty? Is this ‘the land of the free—the home of the brave?’ Is this the grand asylum for the oppressed of every clime?” (Orson Pratt, “An American Citizen’s Appeal in Behalf of the Long Persecuted and Exiled Mormons,” New-York Daily Tribune, 15 Oct. 1845, [1]; see also “Address to the Saints,” LDS Millennial Star, Supplement, Aug. 1844, 5:1; and Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 1 Jan. 1839.)

New-York Daily Tribune. New York City. 1841–1924.

Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.