PBA Galleries

The 1840-41 session of the Illinois General Assembly was of prime importance in the history of the Mormon Church. It was at this session that the charter for the establishment of Nauvoo was passed, as well as laws relating to the Nauvoo House Association, the Nauvoo Agricultural and Manufacturing Association, the appointment of a Notary Public of Nauvoo, and a significant attachment to the Road Act relating to the Nauvoo Legion. The "Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo," pp. 52-57, lays out in great detail the form and government of the Mormon city, giving more care and space than one would ordinarily expect. Besides the significant features of the city's corporate powers, elections, court system, and right to establish a university, the Act contains an unusual provision in allowing the organization of a militia: "The city council may organize the inhabitants of said city subject to military duty into a body of independent military men, to be called the `Nauvoo Legion,' the court martial of which shall be composed of the commissioned officers of said legion, and constitute the law making department, 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. Provided said court martial shall pass no law or act repugnant to, or inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States... Said legion shall be exempt from all other military duty..." On pp. 131-2, the "Act to incorporate the Nauvoo House Association," some of the principals are named, "George Miller, Lyman Wright, John Snyder, and Peter Hawes, and their associates, are hereby declared a body corporate under the name and style of the `Nauvoo House Association,' and they are hereby authorized to erect and furnish a public house of entertainment to be called Nauvoo House..." and "whereas Joseph Smith has furnished the said association with the ground whereon to erect said House, it is further declared that the said Smith and his heirs shall hold by prepetual succession a suit of rooms in the said house, to be set apart and conveyed in due form of law..." More names are named in the act incorporating the Nauvoo Agricultural and Manufacturing Association (pp. 139-145), including Sidney Rigdon, Hyrum Smith, Joseph Smith, and Orson Pratt. The attachment to the road act on p.223 provides that "any citizen of Hancock county, may, by voluntary enrollment, attach himself to the Naufoo Legion, with all the privileges which appertain to that independent military body."