Sometime around 19 May 1842, and , city recorder of , Illinois, inscribed a document giving notice that Bennett had resigned as mayor of Nauvoo and been replaced by JS. Bennett had been accused of seducing women in Nauvoo and telling them that JS sanctioned such practices. In the fallout from these accusations, Bennett, who had been elected mayor on 1 February 1841, resigned from office on 17 May 1842. On that same day, his name was removed from the records of the . Despite the accusations against him, Bennett proclaimed at the 19 May meeting of the Nauvoo City Council that he had “no difficulty with the heads of the church,” that JS never gave him “authority to hold illicit intercourse with women,” and that JS was “strictly virtuous” both in “public and in private.” Bennett later claimed that he made such statements only because JS had threatened to kill him if he did not, but members of the city council swore in an affidavit that Bennett had never been “threatened menaced or intimidated” to make his statements. During the 19 May meeting, the city council voted to accept Bennett’s resignation. The city council then elected JS (who had been vice mayor) as the new mayor, city councilor as vice mayor, and as city councilor, filling the vacancy left by JS.

composed the notice featured here about the election of JS and to their respective offices. , possibly acting under the direction of the new mayor, completed the document by adding a copy of the city council’s resolution of thanks to Bennett for his service. Sloan then signed JS’s name to the document “by his direction.” The notice was published in the 21 May 1842 issue of the Wasp.