On 30 January 1843, as mayor of , Illinois, JS signed an omnibus ordinance that attempted to regulate increasingly concerning behaviors in the city as Nauvoo’s population grew. Owing to its wide-ranging purposes, the ordinance is made up of six divisions, each split into its own sections establishing laws on a different issue. The Nauvoo City Council approved the new measures with the goal of increasing law and order in the city amid rapid population growth. Extant records indicate that during 1842 and early 1843, the arrival of Latter-day Saints from Great Britain may have added more than 1,800 people to Nauvoo and the surrounding regions. The additions represented a dramatic population increase for a city that, according to the national census, had approximately 2,450 residents in 1840.
As ’s population grew, city and leaders became increasingly preoccupied with disorderly conduct in the city. In an attempt to solve these problems, on 14 November 1842 the city council appointed , , and as “a select Committee to prepare a Code of Criminal Laws.” Two months later, on 14 January 1843, the city council added and to the committee. On 30 January, the city council met at six o’clock in the evening, and the committee presented a bill titled “Laws and Ordinances of the City of Nauvoo” for the council’s approval.
The proposed ordinances included several provisions intended to maintain order in the city. The ordinances were designed to help the city handle the population increase by enumerating disturbances of the peace, keeping streets and alleys free of construction supplies and other impediments, preventing fires, granting the city council power to regulate the night watch, and furthering regulations on the public market and the disposal of garbage and other nuisances. The city council passed the proposed ordinances, whereupon JS signed them.
A preliminary draft of the ordinances, which the committee presumably used during its proposal to the city council, was filed with other municipal documents. On 8 February 1843, the Wasppublished a copy of the ordinances, evidently basing its version upon the draft copy or another manuscript copy that is not extant. City recorder recorded a fair copy of the ordinances in the Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, presumably on or shortly after 30 January. The fair copy recorded in the Nauvoo City Council Minute Book is featured here as the official ordinances by which the city was governed. Because it is not possible to feature each of the city ordinances passed during this time period, these ordinances represent a sample of the kinds of ordinances and laws the Nauvoo City Council passed between September 1842 and February 1843.
No reliable count of Nauvoo’s population during the 1840s exists. Different estimates of the city’s population range from 12,000 to 15,000. In January 1843, for instance, JS estimated the population was about 12,000. Nearly three years later, however, an actual count of city residents reported a population of only 11,057. (Black, “How Large Was the Population of Nauvoo?,” 91–94; JS, Journal, 5 Jan. 1843; “Mobocracy,” Times and Seasons, 15 Nov. 1845, 6:1031; “Nauvoo,” Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1842, 3:936.)
Godfrey, “Crime and Punishment in Mormon Nauvoo,” 198–212. Available evidence does not suggest higher crime rates in Nauvoo than in surrounding areas with comparable populations, but critics of JS and the church denounced Nauvoo as crime ridden, causing city authorities to try to reassure observers that order reigned there.
countenance, or assist in making any improper noise, Riot, disturbance, or diversion in the Streets, or elsewhere, & all persons who shall collect in bodies or crowds, for unlawful purposes, to the annoyance or disturbance of Citizens or travellors, shall for each offence forfeit & pay a penalty not exceeding fifty dollars, in the discretion of the Court convicting.
Sec. 3. No person shall use any abusive, indecent, or threatening words to another individual without being deemed a disturber of the peace, & shall forfeit & pay a penalty of not less than one dollar & not exceeding twenty dollars, and shall moreover be bound to keep the peace in the discretion of the Court.
Sec. 4. If any person shall injure another by quarrelling, fighting, assaulting, beating, or otherwise, the person so offending shall on conviction forfeit & pay a penalty not less than three dollars, & not exceeding one hundred Dollars, and moreover may be imprisoned not exceeding six Months, in the discretion of the Court convicting.
Second Division.
Sec. 1. Of Streets and Alleys.
No person shall place or cause to be placed, any Stones, timber, lumber, plank, boards, or other materials for building, in or upon any Street, lane, Alley, or public Square, without a written permission for that purpose first obtained from the Mayor, or one of the Aldermen, under the penalty of two dollars for each offence, & the further penalty of two dollars for each & every forty eight hours during which the articles or materials aforesaid shall be or remain in any such Street, lane, Alley, or public Square, (without permission as aforesaid,) after notice from the Mayor, any Alderman, the supervisor of Streets, or any police officer to remove the same.
Sec. 2. The Mayor or any of the Aldermen, is authorized to grant to any person permission in writing to [p. 152]
This section expanded on a provision against rioting passed in March 1841. On 14 January 1843, the Nauvoo City Council passed an ordinance that regulated city elections and that included a provision authorizing election officers to preserve order during elections by fining “any person or persons, who shall conduct in a disorderly and riotous manner.” (Minutes, 1 Mar. 1841; Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 14 Jan. 1843, 135.)
This section’s provisions likely arose out of various court cases based on ordinances only obliquely related to slander. Notably, the previous November, JS had accused Amos Davis of using slanderous language against him. In the absence of a city ordinance broadly outlawing such language, the city based its case against Davis on the 1 March 1841 ordinance titled “An Ordinance in Relation to Religious Societies,” which outlawed “depreciating another in consequence of his religion.” JS claimed that by slandering his character, Davis had deprecated his “moral and religious Character” in violation of the ordinance. Similarly, Thomas Hunter was accused of violating the Nauvoo city ordinance pertaining to religious societies by using “ridiculous and abusive language” toward JS. Although the municipal court convicted both men under the ordinances, the trials made clear the need for a more explicit prohibition against abusive language generally. The new ordinance explicitly prohibited all abusive language, removing the qualifications contained in the previous ordinances. (Complaint against Amos Davis, 29 Nov. 1842; Complaint against Thomas Hunter, 29 Nov. 1842.)