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Minutes, 10 June 1844

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Minutes, 10 June 1844

Source Note

Nauvoo City Council, Minutes, [, Hancock Co., IL], 10 June 1844. Featured version copied [ca. 10 June 1844] in Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 10 Feb. 1844–13 Jan. 1845, pp. 19–[31]; handwriting of ; Nauvoo, IL, Records, 1841–1845, CHL. Includes use marks. For more complete source information, see the source note for Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, Feb. 1844–Jan. 1845.

Historical Introduction

On 10 June 1844, the , Illinois, city council met to consider what action it should take in response to the publication of the Nauvoo Expositor. The first issue of this newspaper was published on 7 June. The city council subsequently gathered on 8 June for its regularly scheduled meeting and, among other things, heard from witnesses JS had brought in to testify about the character of certain individuals associated with the Expositor. During this meeting, JS stated his belief that the newspaper and its proprietors intended to destroy the peace in Nauvoo and that it was not safe to have this type of publication in the city, as it could lead to mob violence. Moreover, he explained that his statements and the testimony of the witnesses were meant to prepare the city council to act on the matter. In particular, JS urged the city council to pass an ordinance against libels, and city councilor and , who was a city councilor as well as the city’s attorney, received the assignment to craft this legislation. Later during the meeting, Phelps read a draft of the libel ordinance, and JS and city councilor requested certain additions to it. The council then adjourned until 10 June.
The city council held two sessions on 10 June, most likely in the . The first session lasted from ten o’clock in the morning until shortly after one o’clock in the afternoon, when the council adjourned for a recess. At half past two o’clock in the afternoon, the second session began, and it lasted until a little after six o’clock in the evening. During these sessions, the city council heard additional testimony about various men connected to the Nauvoo Expositor and unanimously approved the newest draft of the libel ordinance. At JS’s suggestion, the city council also discussed the possibility of suppressing the Nauvoo Expositor. Most of the council’s members expressed their approval of this course of action. Only , a city councilor who was not a member of the , urged caution and suggested instead giving the proprietors “a few days” notice to desist publishing the alleged libels and assessing heavy fines for noncompliance. After deliberating, the city council rejected Warrington’s suggestion. It then passed a resolution declaring the Expositor a nuisance and ordering JS as mayor to remove any printing equipment and copies of the newspaper found in its office in a manner of his choosing.
City recorder appears to have taken notes during the 10 June city council meeting on loose leaves of paper, one of which is still extant. It seems he then used these notes to craft the minutes of the 10 June city council meeting, which he recorded in the city council’s rough minute book. Later, on 15 and 16 June, Richards prepared a revised version of the minutes for the 8 and 10 June meetings focused on the city council’s deliberations regarding the Nauvoo Expositor. The Nauvoo Neighbor then published the revised version of the minutes in its extra issue dated 17 June and its regular issue dated 19 June. The version in the 19 June issue is identical to the version in the extra, except for some stylistic and clarifying changes. The 10 June minutes that Richards recorded in the city council’s rough minute book are featured here, with significant differences between them and the version published in the Neighbor’s 17 June extra noted.

Footnotes

  1. Nauvoo Expositor, 7 June 1844, [1]; see also Historical Introduction to Minutes, 8 June 1844.

  2. Minutes, 8 June 1844.

  3. Ordinance, 10 June 1844.

  4. Resolution, 10 June 1844.

  5. This loose leaf rests between pages [22] and [23] of Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, Feb. 1844–Jan. 1845.

  6. Richards, Journal, 15–16 June 1844. A synopsis for a portion of the manuscript version of the 8 June minutes is extant; however, the manuscript version of the last portion of the 8 June minutes and the entirety of the 10 June minutes has not been located. (Synopsis of Nauvoo City Council Proceedings, 8 June 1844, JS Office Papers, CHL.)

    Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.

  7. “For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1]; “For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 19 June 1844, [2]–[3].

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. Minutes, 10 June 1844, Partial Draft Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, February 1844–January 1845 *Minutes, 10 June 1844 Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, February 1844–January 1845 Minutes, 10 June 1844, Extract, as Published in Nauvoo Neighbor Revised Minutes, 17 June 1844 Revised Minutes, 17 June 1844, as Published in Nauvoo Neighbor History, 1838–1856, volume F-1 [1 May 1844–8 August 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”
<​C.​> — referd to the scurry at — & the death of his son at that place.— said he could not sit still when he saw the same spirit aris[i]ng in this place.— and he conside[re]d the publis[h]ers of the Expostors as much murdere[r]s at heart as David was before the death of Uriah. <​was for making a sho[r]t wo[r]k of it—​> was prepar[e]d to take his sta[n]d by th[e] Mayor & whatev[e]r he propo[sed] wo[u]ld st[an]d by by him to the last— the qui[c]ker it is stopped the bette[r].—
— had invstigatd the constituti[o]n. Cha[r]ter, & laws.— the power to declare that office a nuisac [nuisance] is gra[n]ted to us in the Cha[r]ter, and a relolutin [resolution] d[e]claring it a nuisan[c]e is all that is req[u]ired.
John Birney Sworn & said th[e]y had comenced their operati[o]ns and would car[r]y them out Law or no law—
.— Swo[r]n said the Inhabates [inhabitants] of th[i]s is done the minut[e] a hand is laid on th[i]s press—
continud.— and referd to in destroyi[n]g the char[a]cter of a child.— who had the child <​charge of​> anoth[er] child.—
Sworn.— came to me and poposd [proposed] to have me go in as a ptnr [partner] Maki[n]g Bogus Mon[e]y.— wo[u]ld not wo[r]k for a livi[n]g witness might go in with him. if witn[e]ss wo[u]ld advne [advance] $50. and shew me 1/2 a dollar he said was made by his dies.—
continued had felt deeper this day than he ever felt before.— wanted to know by yes if there was any one prese[nt] to <​who​> wanted to avenge the blood of that Innocent female— Yes ascended f[r]om ev[er]y qu[ar]ter of the room.— referrd to the Tea plot at [p. [30]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Minutes, 10 June 1844
ID #
17544
Total Pages
13
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • Willard Richards

Footnotes

  1. The published version of the city council minutes expands this passage to read “Councillor Phineas Richards said that he had not forgotten the transactions at Hauns mills, and that he recollected that his son George Spencer, then lay in the well referred to, on the day previous, without a winding-sheet, shroud, or coffin.” Richards’s teenage son George Spencer Richards was killed on 30 October 1838 when more than two hundred vigilantes attacked the settlement at Hawn’s Mill in eastern Caldwell County, Missouri. In total, the vigilantes killed ten Latter-day Saint men and boys and fatally injured seven others. Another thirteen were wounded. The survivors of the attack interred the dead in a nearby well that served as a mass grave. (“For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1]; Joseph Young and Phineas Richards, “An Appeal, to the Inhabitants of Massachusetts,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 7 Feb. 1844, [2]; Rockwood, Journal, 2 Nov. 1838; “Part 3: 4 November 1838–16 April 1839.”)

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

    Rockwood, Albert Perry. Journal Entries, Oct. 1838–Jan. 1839. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2606.

  2. The published version of the city council minutes substitutes the word “raging” here. (“For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1].)

  3. See 2 Samuel 11:14–17. The published version of the city council minutes renders this passage as follows: “he considered the publication of the Expositor as much murderous at heart as David was before the death of Uriah.” (“For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1].)

  4. Nauvoo’s city charter granted the city council the power “to exercise such other legislative powers as are conferred on the City Council of the City of Springfield,” including the ability “to declare what shall be a nuisance, and to prevent and remove the same.” The power to abate nuisances was commonly granted to cities in Illinois. (Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840; An Act to Incorporate the City of Springfield [3 Feb. 1840], Laws of the State of Illinois [1839–1840], p. 9, art. 5, sec. 7; see also, for example, An Act to Incorporate the City of Chicago [4 Mar. 1837], Laws of the State of Illinois [1836–1837], pp. 56–58, sec. 28; and An Act to Incorporate the City of Quincy [3 Feb. 1840], Laws of the State of Illinois [1839–1840], p. 116, art. 5, sec. 7.)

    General Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Eighteenth General Assembly, Convened January 3, 1853. Springfield: Lanphier and Walker, 1853.

  5. At a 6 May Council of Fifty meeting, Sidney Rigdon reported that William Law had “said that if they would not buy out his property &c he would set up a press and go it to the death to get satisfaction.” (Council of Fifty, “Record,” 6 May 1844.)

  6. The published version of the city council minutes renders this passage as follows: “Francis M. Higbee said the interest of this city is done, the moment a hand is laid on their press.” (“For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1].)

  7. The phrase “an orphan child” is inserted at this point in the published version of the city council minutes. (“For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1].)

  8. This refers to Jane and Ruth Smith, whom the council had discussed earlier in the meeting.

  9. Warren Smith was a member of the Nauvoo police. In January 1844 he was involved in a controversy surrounding rumors that JS secretly instructed the Nauvoo police to kill William Law and William Marks because they were traitors. (Dunham, Account Book, [93]; Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 5 Jan. 1844, 36–40.)

  10. Bogus was another name for counterfeit coins. (See “Argument to Argument Where I Find It; Ridicule to Ridicule, and Scorn to Scorn,” Elders’ Journal, Aug. 1838, 58.)

  11. The published version of the city council minutes renders this phrase as follows: “Higbee said he would not work for a living.” Higbee was apparently practicing law in 1844. (“For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1]; JS, Journal, 26 Feb. 1844.)

  12. This refers to the Boston Tea Party. In December 1773 a group of about fifty colonists, disguised as American Indians, dumped about ninety thousand pounds of tea into Boston Harbor as a challenge to Parliament’s right to tax them. (Middlekauff, Glorious Cause, 219–220, 222, 224–226.)

    Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.

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