The Joseph Smith Papers is pleased to announce its latest web release, which includes the entire digital version of Documents, Volume 7, the introduction to and transcription of the Kirtland Safety Society Stock Ledger, Nauvoo City Council documents, introductions for six legal cases, and annotation for Doctrine and Covenants 132.

Documents, Volume 7 contains documents chronicling difficulties Joseph Smith and the church faced establishing Nauvoo, Illinois; efforts to obtain redress for the loss of property and lives of the Saints in Missouri; the missionary efforts in England in 1840; and doctrinal developments preached by Joseph Smith, including the introduction of baptism for the dead. Highlights from this volume include

• Land transactions in Nauvoo and Iowa Territory;
• Documentation of Joseph Smith’s visit to Washington DC to plead for aid from President Martin Van Buren and Congress; and
• The Nauvoo city charter.

The Kirtland Safety Society Stock Ledger contains entries from October 1836 to June 1837, detailing subscriptions from individuals interested in purchasing some of the society’s 80,000 shares of stock for $50 each. The ledger shows that the Safety Society was lenient to those who could not pay their full initial payment; some who subscribed for 1,000 shares paid only a few dollars, and some never paid anything. This created a severe funding problem for the society.

The Nauvoo City Council documents published in this release include minutes from many significant Nauvoo City Council meetings, including meetings on 8 and 10 June 1844 about the Nauvoo Expositor and reorganizational meetings after Joseph Smith’s death.

In the Legal Records series, we have added an introduction for City of Nauvoo v. C. L. Higbee et al. This case is related to another case, City of Nauvoo v. A. Spencer, which involved Joseph Smith instructing Orrin Porter Rockwell to arrest Augustine Spencer without issuing a warrant. Spencer resisted, and the city marshal asked Chauncey L. Higbee, Charles A. Foster, and Robert D. Foster to apprehend Spencer. They refused, and Spencer was arrested anyway. Higbee and the Fosters were also arrested for refusing to help and resisting arrest. The other cases in this release are debt cases, three from Ohio (Underwood et al. v. Rigdon et al., Rigdon et al. for the use of L. Cowdery v. W. Smith, and Commercial Bank of Lake Erie v. Cahoon et al.) and one from Illinois (JS v. O. Cowdery).