Mayor’s Order to City Watch, 20 May 1842
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Source Note
JS, Mayor’s Order, to City Watch, , Hancock Co., IL, 20 May 1842. Featured version published in Wasp, 21 May 1842, vol. 1, no. 6, [3]. For more complete source information, see the source note for Notice, 28 Apr. 1842.
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Historical Introduction
On 20 May 1842, JS as mayor issued an order in , Illinois, assigning a schedule for members of a newly formed city watch. City watches, also known as night watches, had been common in Europe and for centuries. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the state legislature allowed cities, through their governing bodies, the ability to “establish night watches” to help ensure public security. Likewise, the 1840 act incorporating Nauvoo included public security provisions that authorized the city council to “establish, support, and regulate night watches.” Accordingly, by late 1841 the council created a city watch.In response to perceived threats to JS, a new night watch was established in May 1842. The Sangamo Journal later reported that the watch was formed to protect JS from possible retaliation for his rumored involvement in the attempted assassination of , former governor of . In the city council meeting held on 19 May 1842, the day JS was elected mayor, JS “spoke at some length concerning the evil reports which were abroad in the city concerning himself— & the nec[e]ssity of counteracting the designs of our enemies. establishing a night watch &c.” At the same meeting, moved that the city council establish “a night Watch.” The council then passed a resolution to that effect and stipulated “that the number of Persons to Compose said Watch, & the Regulations & Duties connected therewith, be at the sole appointment and discretion of the Mayor.”On 20 May, JS, as mayor, ordered , who was still major general of the , to select men for the newly created city watch, which he did. The order to Bennett is not extant. JS then issued the order featured here, telling members of the watch when and where to report for duty each day and when their shift would end. The order was published in the city newspaper, the Wasp, in the issue dated 21 May 1842. The 3 June issue of the Sangamo Journal also published JS’s order, which the paper’s editor viewed as evidence that the Latter-day Saints were “keeping up a military organization for their own particular purposes!” JS’s original order to the city watch is apparently not extant. The version published in the Wasp is featured here.
Footnotes
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1
See, for example, Beattie, Policing and Punishment in London, 169–256; and Bridenbaugh, Cities in the Wilderness, 63–68, 215–220, 375–379.
Beattie, J. M. Policing and Punishment in London, 1660–1750: Urban Crime and the Limits of Terror. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Bridenbaugh, Carl. Cities in the Wilderness: The First Century of Urban Life in America, 1625–1742. New York: Knopf, 1955.
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2
See, for example, An Act to Incorporate the Town of Macomb [27 Jan. 1841], Laws of the State of Illinois [1840–1841], p. 318, sec. 5; An Act to Amend an Act, Entitled, “An Act to Incorporate the Town of Kaskaskia, Approved, January 6, 1818” [20 Feb. 1841], Laws of the State of Illinois [1840–1841], p. 328, sec. 2; and An Act to Incorporate the Town of Tremont [27 Feb. 1841], Laws of the State of Illinois [1840–1841], p. 345, sec. 7.
Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at Their First Session, Commencing December 1, 1834, and Ending February 13, 1835. Vandalia, IL: J. Y. Sawyer, 1835.
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3
Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840. These provisions were adopted from those found in the city charter of Springfield, Illinois. The Nauvoo charter also gave the city council power to “regulate the police of the city” and to organize the Nauvoo Legion, which was to be “at the disposal of the Mayor.” (Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840.)
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4
John C. Bennett, as mayor and major general of the Nauvoo Legion, disbanded a city watch on 9 December 1841. On the same date, Bennett ordered the creation of a new watch, to be placed under the command of JS as lieutenant general of the legion. (John C. Bennett, Nauvoo, IL, to “Gentlemen of the City Watch,” 9 Dec. 1841, in Times and Seasons, 15 Dec. 1841, 3:637.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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5
“The Mormons,” Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 3 June 1842, [2]; see also Letter to Sylvester Bartlett, 22 May 1842; and Times and Seasons, 1 June 1842.
Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.
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8
John C. Bennett, Nauvoo, IL, to “the Citizens of the City of Nauvoo,” 20 May 1842, in Wasp, 21 May 1842, [3]. In his notice, Bennett identified the eight men appointed to the city watch and directed the citizens of Nauvoo to obey and respect them.
The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.
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9
“The Mormons,” Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 3 June 1842, [2]. This article was subsequently republished in the New York Herald. There are no substantive differences between the letter featured here and the other versions. (“Highly Important from the Mormon Empire,” New York Herald, 17 June 1842, [2].)
Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.
New York Herald. New York City. 1835–1924.
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