On 3 February 1841, the newly constituted city council of , Illinois, met for the first time and began to establish the organizational foundations of the municipal government. Two days earlier, a municipal election for the city council was held in accordance with the legislature’s 16 December 1840 act establishing the city of Nauvoo, known as the Nauvoo charter. Section 4 of the charter specified that the city council would consist of “a Mayor, four Aldermen, and nine Councillors.” From the ballot, voters selected as mayor; , , , and as aldermen; and JS, , , , , , , , and as councilors.
The charter for the city of , which was modeled on other liberal city charters in , granted a large variety of powers to the city council. JS and the commented that the Nauvoo charter contained “the most plenary powers, ever conferred by a legislative assembly on free citizens.” Among the powers vested in the city council was the authority to establish and execute city ordinances—so long as they were “not repugnant to the Constitution of the ” or to the Illinois state constitution. In essence, the municipal government had the power to create any legislation it deemed “necessary for the peace, benefit, good order, regulation, convenience, and cleanliness, of said city; for the protection of property therein from destruction by fire, or otherwise, and for the health, and happiness, thereof.” The charter also authorized the city council to organize a militia and a university and to impose and collect taxes, to license and regulate commerce, to regulate police, and to impose fines and penalties for violating city ordinances. Other enumerated powers included the license to appoint “a Recorder, Treasurer, Assessor, Marshal, Supervisor of Streets, and all such other officers as may be necessary, and to prescribe their duties, and remove them from office at pleasure.”
The minutes of this first city council meeting indicate that much of the council’s business related to remarks made by Mayor in his inaugural address. JS played an active role as a city councilor in this opening meeting. He presented two bills: one to organize the and the other to organize the University of the City of . After those ordinances were passed, JS proposed and the council passed a resolution of gratitude to the citizens of , Illinois, and to the state government for the assistance rendered to the Saints upon their arrival in the state. Finally, the city council established five committees, all of which JS was appointed to serve on as a member or chairperson.
After this initial meeting of the City Council, , editor of the Times and Seasons, published the mayor’s inaugural address, some of the ordinances passed by the city council, and an editorial that predicted the council would create wise laws and regulations that would lead Nauvoo to “prosper and increase in population to an extent unparallelled by any city.” The editorial further expressed the hope that such governance would help Nauvoo “become the brightest ‘star in the west.’”
recorded the meeting’s original minutes in a notebook. Sloan then used those original minutes to record the official minutes in the council’s ledger, titled “A Record of the proceedings of the City Council of the City of .” The official 3 February minutes include the text of city ordinances, which is not found in the original minutes. Because the ledger contains a more comprehensive version of the council’s discussion and decisions and represents the official minutes, that version is featured here.
And cited parts of the City Charter, observing as to what he considered should be done in the forthwith, &c &c.
Counsellor Joseph Smith presented a Bill to Organize the , which was read three times, the rules were dispensed with, & it passed unanimously. To wit.
An Ordinance Organizing the “Nauvoo Legion.”—
Sec. 1. Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of , that the Inhabitants of the City of , and such Citizens of as may unite by Voluntary Enrollment, be, & they are hereby organized into a Body of independent Military Men, to be called the “Nauvoo Legion,” as contemplated in the 25th. Section of “An act to incorporate the City of ,” approved December, 16th., 1840.
Sec. 2. The Legion shall be, and is hereby, divided into two Cohorts,— the Horse Troops to constitute the first Cohort, & the foot Troops to constitute the second Cohort.
Sec. 3. The General officers of the Legion shall consist of a Lieutenant General, as the Chief Commanding & reviewing officer, & president of the Court Martial, & Legion; a Major General, as the second in Command of the Legion, the Secretary of the Court Martial, & Legion, & Adjutant & Inspector General; a Brigadier General, as Commander of the first Cohort; & a Brigadier General, as Commander of the second Cohort.
Sec. 4. The Staff of the Lieutenant General shall consist of two principal Aids-de-Camp, with the Rank of Colonels of Cavalry, & a guard of twelve Aids-de-Camp, with the Rank of Captains of Infantry, & a drill officer, with the rank of Colonel of Dragoons, who shall likewise be the Chief officer of the Guard.
Sec. 5. The Staff of the Major General shall consist of an Adjutant, a Surgeon in Chief, a Cornet, a quarter Master, a Pay Master, a Commissary, & a Chaplain, with the Rank of Colonels of Infantry; a Surgeon for each [p. 2]
Mayor John C. Bennett covered several topics in his inaugural address, including the power of the city relative to taxation and finances (section 13 of the charter), the suppression of intemperance, and the betterment of the city through city council ordinances. He spent the majority of the address speaking about the importance of the university (section 24 of the charter) and the organization of the legion (section 25 of the charter). Bennett also highlighted the role that the Illinois governor, Council of Revision, and state legislature played in assisting the Latter-day Saints when they arrived in the state as refugees. In contrast to those in Missouri, the governmental bodies of Illinois, Bennett stated, “should be held in everlasting remembrance by our people—they burst the chains of slavery and proclaimed us forever free!” One Illinois newspaper reported Bennett’s address as being “bombastic” but a “creditable production” with a “high moral bearing.” (John C. Bennett, “Inaugural Address,”Times and Seasons, 15 Feb. 1841, 2:316–318; “The Mormons,” Western World [Warsaw, IL], 24 Feb. 1841, [2]; for another regional report of the address, see “The Mormons,” North Western Gazette and Galena [IL] Advertiser, 2 Apr. 1841, [4].)
Western World. Warsaw, IL. 1840–1841.
North Western Gazette and Galena Advertiser. Galena, IL. 1838–1845.
JS and the First Presidency emphasized the importance of the Nauvoo Legion in a proclamation written just a few weeks earlier. The legion, the First Presidency informed the Saints, “embraces all our military power, and will enable us to perform our military duty by ourselves, and thus afford us the power, and privilege, of avoiding one of the most fruitful sources of strife, oppression, and collision with the world. It will enable us to show our attachment to the state and nation as a people, whenever the public service requires our aid—thus proving ourselves obedient to the paramount laws of the land, and ready at all times to sustain and execute them.” (Proclamation, 15 Jan. 1841.)
Section 25 of the charter gave the city council authority to “organize the inhabitants of said city, subject to military duty, into a body of independent military men to be called the ‘Nauvoo Legion,’” which would form a “Court Martial . . . with full powers and authority to make, ordain, establish, and execute, all such laws and ordinances as may be considered necessary for the benefit, government, and regulation of said Legion.” Section 25 continued: “The said Legion shall perform the same amount of military duty as is now or may be hereafter required of the regular militia of the State, and shall be at the disposal of the Mayor in executing the laws and ordinances of the City Corporation, and the laws of the State, and at the disposal of the Governor for the public defence, and the execution of the laws of the State or of the United States, and shall be entitled to their proportion of the public arms; and Provided, also, that said Legion shall be exempt from all other military duty.” (Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840.)