Part 2: 6 November–10 December 1842

In November and early December 1842, JS was back in , Illinois, after spending much of September and October in hiding. He still feared for his safety, however, as governor had informed JS’s wife that he would not relent in his efforts to have JS arrested and extradited to .

In order to remain in and attend to critical ecclesiastical and civic matters, JS sought stronger legal protection. This protection came principally through the Nauvoo City Council’s passage of a new ordinance. Designed by JS and other city leaders and clearly prompted by the ongoing efforts to arrest JS and extradite him to , the ordinance expanded the power of Nauvoo’s municipal court to issue writs of habeas corpus. According to , after the city council passed the ordinance on 14 November, JS “felt secure to stay at home as the law protected him as well as all other citizens.” Although JS again went into hiding two days later—presumably at ’s home in Henderson County, Illinois—he returned to Nauvoo after less than a week, on 22 November, and immediately began attending to and city business, including dealing with debts he was responsible for as the trustee-in-trust for the church and passing ordinances to regulate the development of Nauvoo.

Meanwhile, JS used civic channels to shore up his leadership in . On 6 November, after months of tension and accusations, he wrote to —a former church member who assisted his father-in-law, , in the Nauvoo post office—accusing him of stealing from and conspiring against JS. Two days later, JS collected affidavits attesting to the alleged misconduct happening in the post office and drafted a petition to the postmaster general of the requesting that JS replace Rigdon as Nauvoo’s postmaster. In addition, JS was involved in several legal cases against prominent dissenters in Nauvoo, acting as both a complainant in some and a justice for the peace in others. More than one of these cases involved , a merchant and tavernkeeper in Nauvoo who was charged multiple times with insulting JS’s character and violating various city ordinances, including those concerning religious societies, slander, and temperance.

Due to heavy ecclesiastical and civic demands, JS relinquished control of certain responsibilities. In November, for example, a notice in the Times and Seasons announced the end of JS’s eight-month tenure as the newspaper’s editor. In December he leased the newspaper and the rest of the to his former editorial assistants, and .

Part 2 of this volume consists of twenty documents. In addition to documents associated with the events already described, the part includes a notice in which JS denied authorizing the publication of a controversial pamphlet and correspondence with leaders in concerning the state of their congregations.