According to the minutes of the meeting, Robinson was charged “1st For endeavouring to wrong Nauvoo Lodge by misreprensentations. 2nd For speaking evil of Brethren Master Masons. 3rd For Lying.” The hearing was set and received a series of postponements until, on 1 February 1843, Senior Warden Lucius N. Scovil reported that Robinson “had made ample satisfaction to the aggrieved & injured Brethren,” and the lodge sustained taking no further action against him. (Nauvoo Masonic Lodge Minute Book, 5 Dec. 1842 and 1 Feb. 1843; JS, Journal, 24 Jan. 1843.)  

Nauvoo Masonic Lodge Minute Book. / “Record of Na[u]voo Lodge Under Dispensation,” 1842–1846. CHL. MS 3436

The municipal court, over which JS presided, considered an appeal by Davis of the 2 December verdict of the mayor’s court on charges of selling liquor in small quantities. The judgment of the mayor’s court, fining Davis twenty-five dollars, was upheld. Davis later appealed to the Hancock County Circuit Court at Carthage, where a jury found Davis guilty of breach of the Nauvoo ordinance and fined him six and one-quarter cents. (JS, Journal, 2 Dec. 1842; Davis v. Nauvoo [Nauvoo Mun. Ct. 1842], Nauvoo Municipal Court Docket Book, 14–15 [second numbering]; Hancock Co., IL, Circuit Court Record, vol. C, p. 475, microfilm 947,496, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)  

Nauvoo Municipal Court Docket Book / Nauvoo, IL, Municipal Court. “Docket of the Municipal Court of the City of Nauvoo,” ca. 1843–1845. In Historian's Office, Historical Record Book, 1843–1874, pp. 51–150 and pp. 1–19 (second numbering). CHL. MS 3434.

U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

Hyde left Nauvoo (at that time still officially called Commerce) on 15 April 1840 to serve a mission to Europe and the Holy Land, where on 24 October 1841 he dedicated the land of Jerusalem for the return of the Jews. (Orson Hyde and John E. Page, Quincy, IL, 28 Apr. 1840, Letter to the editor, Times and Seasons, June 1840, 1:116–117; Orson Hyde, “Interesting News from Alexandria and Jerusalem,” LDS Millennial Star, Jan. 1842, 2:132–136.)  

Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.

That is, JS’s and Hyrum Smith’s bankruptcy cases.  

TEXT: The remainder of the entry is in darker ink and was evidently written later.  

A report of William Smith’s 9 December speech before the Illinois House of Representatives is in “Speech of Mr. Smith of Hancock County,” The Wasp, 14 Jan. 1843, [1]–[2]. Residents of Illinois had been criticizing the Nauvoo charter for some time.a The charter was debated in the Illinois legislature on 9 and 10 December, the issue being that the Mormons were allegedly abusing the powers granted in the charter to keep JS from being extradited.b The state senate committee on the judiciary took up the question later and on 19 December reported on the powers given to Illinois chartered cities, concluding that religious prejudice was behind the accusation that Mormons were given special treatment in the Nauvoo charter. However, the committee recommended amending all city charters “to place them all upon an equal footing.”c Ultimately, the Nauvoo city charter was not repealed until after JS’s death.d  

The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.

Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.

Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

Reports Made to Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Illinois, at Their Session Begun and Held at Springfield, December 5, 1842. Springfield, IL: William Waters, 1842.

Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Fourteenth General Assembly, at Their Regular Session, Began and Held at Springfield, December 2nd, 1844. Springfield, IL: Walters and Weber, 1845.

Between 1837, when Chicago was chartered as a city by the Illinois General Assembly, and 1840, when Nauvoo’s charter was drafted, four other Illinois cities—Alton, Galena, Springfield, and Quincy—were granted charters similar to Nauvoo’s. (Kimball, “Nauvoo Charter,” 66–78; Bennett and Cope, “City on a Hill,” 20–21, 33–40.)  

Kimball, James L., Jr. “The Nauvoo Charter: A Reinterpretation.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 44 (Spring 1971): 66–78.

Bennett, Richard E., and Rachel Cope. “‘A City on a Hill’—Chartering the City of Nauvoo.” The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal (2002): 17–42.

In his inaugural address on 8 December 1842, newly elected Illinois governor Thomas Ford said: “A great deal has been said about certain charters granted to the people of Nauvoo. These charters are objectionable on many accounts, but particularly on account of the powers granted. The people of the State have become aroused on the subject, and anxiously desire that those charters should be modified so as to give the inhabitants of Nauvoo no greater privileges than those enjoyed by others of our fellow citizens.” (Journal of the Senate . . . of Illinois, 8 Dec. 1842, 33.)  

Journal of the Senate of the Thirteenth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their Regular Session, Begun and Held at Springfield, December 5, 1842. Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1842.

Although the Springfield and Nauvoo charters were remarkably similar, a significant difference between the two was the authority held by the Nauvoo Municipal Court to issue writs of habeas corpus. The city of Alton had a similar provision. (Kimball, “Nauvoo Charter,” 73–75, 77–78; Bennett and Cope, “City on a Hill,” 35.)  

Kimball, James L., Jr. “The Nauvoo Charter: A Reinterpretation.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 44 (Spring 1971): 66–78.

Bennett, Richard E., and Rachel Cope. “‘A City on a Hill’—Chartering the City of Nauvoo.” The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal (2002): 17–42.