The Nauvoo City and High Council Minutes

By John S. Dinger

Reviewed by Roy Schmidt
On 2/2/2012

Signature Books, 2011 Hardcover:
616 pages
ISBN-10: 1-56085-2143
ISBN-13: 978-1-56085-2148 Price: $49.95

Reviewed by Roy Schmidt for the Association for Mormon Letters

When I first heard Signature Books was to publish The Nauvoo City and High Council Minutes, I was very excited. While these records have been partially published in the past, they were not easily accessible. I could not be more pleased with this publication.

Editor John S. Dinger is a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for Ada County in Boise, Idaho. He is also a member of the editorial board for the Mormon History Association. He has, in my opinion, done a remarkable job in presenting the material contained in the book in a professional and highly competent way.

The book itself is nicely bound and attractive. There is an excellent index, and footnotes are used throughout. In addition, appendices include the complete Nauvoo City Charter, the Prospectus of the Nauvoo Expositor, as well as excerpts from the first (and only) edition of that newspaper. These resources aid in our understanding of many of the items addressed by the City Council, and to some degree the Nauvoo High Council.

Dinger has included short biographical sketches of those who served as City and Stake Councilmen. Many of the names will be familiar to readers: John C. Bennett, Ezra T. Benson, Zebedee Coltrin, Heber C. Kimball, the Pratt brothers, and brothers Don Carlos, Hyrum, Joseph, Samuel Harrison, and William Smith. Others, such as Samuel Bent, Phillip Hammond Buzzard, Noah Packard, and Leonard Soby, will probably be less familiar. To give a idea as to the quality of these sketches, I present that of Samuel Bent mentioned above:

"Samuel Bent was born in March 1798 in Concord, Vermont. In 1833 he converted to Mormonism and moved to Kirtland, Ohio, three years later, then to Missouri, where he became a paramilitary Danite from June – October 1838. In the 1840s he lived twenty miles southeast of Nauvoo in Ramus, Illinois, and then on to a farm a few miles south of Nauvoo. In September 1847 he arrived in Utah, right behind the original pioneer company and settled in what became Bingham Canyon. Later he helped settle Ogden and became a ward bishop, stake patriarch, and territorial legislator. He died in May 1882." (xlvii)

I find it interesting to note several of those serving on the City Council also served on the Nauvoo High Council, such as William Marks, Ezra T. Benson, Shadrach Roundy, David Fullmer, and Reynolds Cahoon. Some nonmembers, like Daniel H. Wells who later joined the LDS Church, also served on the Nauvoo City Council.

All sorts of things came before both councils. I noted one of my personal heros, Elder Elijah Abel, was paid a sum for building a coffin (349). Elder Abel made his living in Nauvoo as a mortician. Readers may recall Abel as an African-American who held the Melchizedek Priesthood. He was ordained a Seventy, and served several missions for the Church. He and members of his family are buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Then there was the case of one Henry Lyman Cook, who was brought before the high council for selling his wife for her weight in catfish. The record reads, in part, as follows:

“Upon examination of the case, it appeared, from the evidence, that Cook had lost his wife not long since and was left with three children [,] and being in destitute circumstances, and not in condition to keep house, thought that he best get married again and advised with who also thought best if he could get a suitable companion. Not long afterwards, upon a short acquaintance of some of his friends, he got married to Mary. Not long after this he found she was in the habit of traveling about of nights when there was no need of it&c. and that she would shamefully use his children & set bad examples before them, use very indecent language to them &c and also would abuse & insult him without a cause and entirely refuse to be subject to him or be under his control, boasting that she would not be governed by no man and threaten[ed] to use violence on him and his children[,] and that she would go off and leave him, but come back again and many such like improprieties, and that he had remonstrated against such proceedings with as much patience as could be expected under the circumstances[,] and used every method to bring her to her duty that he thought would avail any thing with her[,] and afterwards that he had whipped her pretty sevearly (which was his own testimony)[,] thinking that it might bring her to her duty. [He said] that he did not sell her but something had been said about it which was understood as a joke by himself and the witness[,] but the party making the offer held it as a bargain & so did she. It also appeared that he had formerly been a civil upright man who desired to live in peace and good order, all of which was abundantly proven.

“President Hyrum Smith spoke at some length on the subject, and, after giving Cook a very appropriate and severe reprimand for whipping his wife, he thought that Cook had acted as well as could be expected under his circumstances and decided that he should be acquitted. The vote was then put to the council by Pres[iden]t Mark[s] and carried unanimously(438-439).” (Note: spelling as in original.)

While many important cases were brought before the Nauvoo City Council, none were more important than those involving habeas corpus, and the Nauvoo Expositor. Regarding the former, Editor Dinger writes: “The habeas corpus acts passed in Nauvoo were so expansive that the municipal court could review not only the legality of the arrest warrant but determine the guilt or innocence of the defendant, eliminating the possibility for a later trial regardless of where the crime occurred or where the warrant was issued. No other American city possessed such broad laws. This enabled Nauvoo's Mormon-dominated municipal court to try all cases against Joseph Smith and other LDS leaders (xxi-xxx).” Many objected to these expansions which was one of the reasons the Illinois Legislature eventually repealed the Nauvoo City Charter.

The case of the Nauvoo Expositor is most interesting. On June 7, 1844 the Expositor published its first and only issue. In it, Joseph Smith was accused of teaching and practicing plural marriage, theocracy, and the plurality of gods, etc. It is fascinating to note the charges were mostly true. Nonetheless, Joseph and other leaders took exception, and deigned to have the Nauvoo Expositor declared a public nuisance, and its press destroyed. I was under the impression the case was brought before the City Council in sort of a kangaroo court, and the press simply ordered destroyed, and that was the end of it. The story is more complicated than that. On June 10, 1844, the City Council met, and continued their meeting of the 8th which was adjourned. Joseph brought up the Expositor: “The Mayor said – if he had a council who felt as he did, the establishment (referring to the Nauvoo Expositor) would be [declared] a Nuisance before night . . . .(254).” After some discussion, the council adjourned for an hour. After coming back into session, the council considered passages from James Kent's Commentaries on American Law, and portions of Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England. Satisfied the law was on their side, the council passed an ordinance to destroy the press.

One councilor, Benjamin Warrington, argued against the destruction, feeling a fine of $500 would suffice should suffice. The discussion became quite heated at times: “C[ouncillor] Phelps continued [that he] felt deeper this day than he ever felt before. - [He] wanted to know by yes if there was anyone here who to avenge the blood of that Innocent female. Yes, resounded from every quarter of the room. - [He] referred to the Tea Plot at Boston[.] Are we offering[,] or have we offered[,] to take away the right of anyone [by] this [action] 2 day [today]? No!! from every quarters. - N[o] – Refered to [the] Laws grinding the poor – and spoke at great length – in support of active measures to put down iniquity (262).” The ordinance, as noted above, passed and the press destroyed, and the type scattered. In a footnote on page 266, Editor Dinger finds: “Before the city council had adjourned at about 6:00 p.m., the police had already entered the Expositor offices on Mulholland Street, and, as described by Francis Higbee, 'tumbled the press and materials into the street and set fire to them, and demolished the machinery with a sledge-hammer, and injured the building.'”

This review is already too long, but I would call attention to the trial of Sidney Rigdon before the High Council as found on pages 505-25. Several things impressed me. The trial was held in public as opposed to the closed sessions found in the church today. Sidney chose not to attend the court. Rigdon's excommunication was a foregone conclusion as everyone but Stake President William Marks spoke against him. I find myself having a much higher opinion of Marks than I had heretofore. Most important is that the Quorum of the Twelve took over the meeting from the Nauvoo High Council, and did much to establish itself as the presiding council of the church.

One final remark. The original records of the Nauvoo City Council, and High Council Minutes are held by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. John Dinger was denied access to these records. He writes: “In preparing the minutes for publication, I relied on typescripts, photocopies, and photographs. In addition, as we were preparing to go to press, other researchers achieved access to some digital scans that helped clarify questions I had (xvi).”

The Nauvoo City and High Council Minutes, is, I believe a most important work. Scholars, researchers, and other interested parties will gain a much deeper understanding of the goings-on of the church and its leaders at a most important time. Although somewhat pricy, a purchase of this work will be money well spent.


Copyright 2012