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Minutes, 8 December 1843

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Minutes, 8 December 1843

Source Note

Nauvoo City Council, Minutes, [, Hancock Co., IL], 8 Dec. 1843. Featured version copied [ca. 8 Dec. 1843] in Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, Nov. 1842–Jan. 1844, pp. 23–24; handwriting of ; Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, Feb.–Dec. 1841.

Historical Introduction

On 8 December 1843, at the request of JS as mayor, the , Illinois, city council met in a special session to conduct city business and pass legislation in response to the kidnappings of residents and . Earlier that morning, JS met with unidentified individuals to discuss a potential ordinance to create a wing dam on the , ongoing threats presented by the Avery kidnappings, and rumors of a new attempt to extradite JS to . JS then requested that the city council assemble that afternoon to prepare “for any invasion from Missouri” and issued orders to the city marshal, , and Major General to mobilize a portion of the to protect the city and its citizens.
The city council assembled at four o’clock in the afternoon. After conducting procedural measures, the council read and passed two ordinances. The first ordinance sought to protect JS and other from extradition to , threatening life imprisonment to anyone attempting to make arrests related to the “Missouri difficulties.” The second ordinance authorized JS to build a dam on the . JS then proposed protective measures, including a request that Congress grant the rights and powers of a federal territory to the city of .
The city council concluded the meeting by resolving to publicize the ordinance to protect JS and other Latter-day Saints by printing it in an extra issue of the city newspaper and holding a public meeting. The council then adjourned until 12 December 1843.
City recorder recorded the meeting minutes in the city council’s rough minute book.

Footnotes

  1. For more information on the Avery kidnappings, see “Part 5: December 1843.”

  2. JS, Journal, 8 Dec. 1843; Mayor’s Order to Henry G. Sherwood, 8 Dec. 1843; Military Order to Wilson Law, 8 Dec. 1843; see also Requisition from Henry G. Sherwood, 8 Dec. 1843.

  3. Ordinance, 8 Dec. 1843.

  4. Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 8 Dec. 1843, 192–193.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. Minutes, 8 December 1843 Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, November 1842–January 1844
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Page 24

in this , also the idea of petitioning congress to receive us <​the ​> <​​> under their protection, and <​acknowle[d]ge the , as troops, and assist in fortifying <​fortifications,​>​> <​& other purposes and​> a messenger be sent to congress for this purpose at the expence of the .— — & approved, also C[ounselor] .—
Mess , & were appointed a committee to draft a memorial according to the mayors Suggestion as above.
Resolved that the Citizens of this be called together. tomorrow morning to hear read the <​extra​> ordinanc[e] for the extra case of Joseph Smith & others, also that <​the​> Same be printed immediately
Adjourned to till Monday <​Tuesday​> <​morning next​>. at 10 A M . . . [p. 24]
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Source Note

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Page 24

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Minutes, 8 December 1843
ID #
13342
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D13:338–341
Handwriting on This Page
  • Willard Richards

Footnotes

  1. See Ordinance, 21 Dec. 1843.

  2. In June 1843, Phelps began serving as an alderman pro tempore in the absence of regularly elected aldermen. (See Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 1 and 10 June 1843, 18; 18 Aug. [Sept.] 1843, 21.)

  3. See Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 16 Dec. 1843–12 Feb. 1844.

  4. See Discourse, 9 Dec. 1843.

  5. Wilford Woodruff, joint manager of the Nauvoo printing office, recorded in his journal entry for 8 December that the office published a one-page extra of the Nauvoo Neighbor. The issue was dated 9 December 1843, however. The extra contained the minutes and resolutions of a 7 December public meeting, the two city council ordinances passed on 8 December, selections from the United States Constitution, and two letters from Illinois’s attorney general and his predecessor on the independent nature of the Nauvoo Legion. (Woodruff, Journal, 8 Dec. 1843; Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 9 Dec. 1843, [1].)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

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