On 30 January 1843, as mayor of , Illinois, JS signed an omnibus ordinance that attempted to regulate increasingly concerning behaviors in the city as Nauvoo’s population grew. Owing to its wide-ranging purposes, the ordinance is made up of six divisions, each split into its own sections establishing laws on a different issue. The Nauvoo City Council approved the new measures with the goal of increasing law and order in the city amid rapid population growth. Extant records indicate that during 1842 and early 1843, the arrival of Latter-day Saints from Great Britain may have added more than 1,800 people to Nauvoo and the surrounding regions. The additions represented a dramatic population increase for a city that, according to the national census, had approximately 2,450 residents in 1840.
As ’s population grew, city and leaders became increasingly preoccupied with disorderly conduct in the city. In an attempt to solve these problems, on 14 November 1842 the city council appointed , , and as “a select Committee to prepare a Code of Criminal Laws.” Two months later, on 14 January 1843, the city council added and to the committee. On 30 January, the city council met at six o’clock in the evening, and the committee presented a bill titled “Laws and Ordinances of the City of Nauvoo” for the council’s approval.
The proposed ordinances included several provisions intended to maintain order in the city. The ordinances were designed to help the city handle the population increase by enumerating disturbances of the peace, keeping streets and alleys free of construction supplies and other impediments, preventing fires, granting the city council power to regulate the night watch, and furthering regulations on the public market and the disposal of garbage and other nuisances. The city council passed the proposed ordinances, whereupon JS signed them.
A preliminary draft of the ordinances, which the committee presumably used during its proposal to the city council, was filed with other municipal documents. On 8 February 1843, the Wasppublished a copy of the ordinances, evidently basing its version upon the draft copy or another manuscript copy that is not extant. City recorder recorded a fair copy of the ordinances in the Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, presumably on or shortly after 30 January. The fair copy recorded in the Nauvoo City Council Minute Book is featured here as the official ordinances by which the city was governed. Because it is not possible to feature each of the city ordinances passed during this time period, these ordinances represent a sample of the kinds of ordinances and laws the Nauvoo City Council passed between September 1842 and February 1843.
No reliable count of Nauvoo’s population during the 1840s exists. Different estimates of the city’s population range from 12,000 to 15,000. In January 1843, for instance, JS estimated the population was about 12,000. Nearly three years later, however, an actual count of city residents reported a population of only 11,057. (Black, “How Large Was the Population of Nauvoo?,” 91–94; JS, Journal, 5 Jan. 1843; “Mobocracy,” Times and Seasons, 15 Nov. 1845, 6:1031; “Nauvoo,” Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1842, 3:936.)
Godfrey, “Crime and Punishment in Mormon Nauvoo,” 198–212. Available evidence does not suggest higher crime rates in Nauvoo than in surrounding areas with comparable populations, but critics of JS and the church denounced Nauvoo as crime ridden, causing city authorities to try to reassure observers that order reigned there.
to place & keep any building materials in any of the public Streets, for a period not exceeding four months, but such permission shall not Authorize the obstructing of more than one half the side walk, & one half the Street, on the side next the lot on which a building is to be or being erected, by the person to whom such permission is granted, & such permission may be revoked at any time by the City Council, in their discretion.
Sec. 3. Every person to whom permission is granted as aforesaid, shall cause all the timber, building materials, & rubbish arising therefrom to be removed from the Street by the expiration of the time limited in such permission, as aforesaid, under the penalty of One dollar for every forty eight hours the timber, materials, or rubbish aforesaid shall be and remain in such Street after the expiration of the time limitted in the permission granted, but no single recovery shall exceed the sum of twenty five dollars.
Sec. 4. All ornamental or shade trees hereafter placed or set out in any street, shall be placed within one foot of the outer line of the side walk of such Street, under the penalty of five Dollars for each offence, & the further penalty of one dollar for each week any such tree shall be suffered to remain contrary to the prohibition contained in this section.
Sec. 5. All side walks in said shall be at least eight feet in width where the Streets are three Rods wide, but where the Streets shall exceed that width, ten feet shall be the width.
Sec. 6. Any person who shall injure or tear up any pavement side or cross walk drain or sewer or any part thereof, or who shall dig any hole, ditch, or drain in any street, without due authority, or who shall hinder or obstruct the making or repairing any pavement, side or cross walk, which is or may be making under any law or [p. 153]