Brigham Young and George A. Smith made similar statements in later discourses. Young numbered the lawsuits against JS at approximately forty-eight and reiterated, “Not one action could ever be made to bear against him.” George A. Smith stated that about fifty “vexatious law suits” had targeted JS. Editors with the Joseph Smith Papers have identified roughly half this number of criminal cases against JS; documents related to these cases will be forthcoming on the Joseph Smith Papers website. Other cases against JS may have been brought before local justices of the peace who were not required to keep records, who may have refused to keep them in some cases, or whose records may have been lost. (Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 11 July 1852, 1:40; Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 5 Mar. 1860, 8:16; George A. Smith, in Journal of Discourses, 8–9 Oct. 1868, 13:104; see also, for example, John C. Dowen, Statement, 2 Jan. 1885, Collection of Manuscripts about Mormons, 1832–1954, Chicago History Museum.)

Journal of Discourses. 26 vols. Liverpool: F. D. Richards, 1855–1886.

Manuscripts about Mormons at Chicago History Museum, Research Center, ca. 1832–1954. Microfilm. Chicago Historical Society.

JS was never convicted in any known criminal trial with the possible exception of an 1826 trial in South Bainbridge, New York, in which he was charged with being a “disorderly person.” The charge related to JS’s employment by Josiah Stowell in 1825 to use a seer stone in an attempt to find buried treasure. Accounts of the trial are contradictory, with some indicating that JS was found guilty, another that he was acquitted, and yet another that he was simply discharged. (See Trial Proceedings, Bainbridge, NY, 20 Mar. 1826, State of New York v. JS [J.P. Ct. 1826], in “The Original Prophet,” Fraser’s Magazine, Feb. 1873, 229–230; Oliver Cowdery, “Letter VIII,” LDS Messenger and Advocate, Oct. 1835, 2:201; W. D. Purple, “Joseph Smith, the Originator of Mormonism,” Chenango Union [Norwich, NY], 2 May 1877, [3]; and [Abram W. Benton], “Mormonites,” Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate, 9 Apr. 1831, 120; see also Madsen, “Being Acquitted of a ‘Disorderly Person’ Charge in 1826,” 71–92.)

“The Original Prophet. By a Visitor to Salt Lake City.” Fraser’s Magazine 7, no. 28 (Feb. 1873): 225–235.

Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.

Chenango Union. Norwich, NY. 1868–1890.

Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate. Utica, NY. 1830–1850.

Madsen, Gordon A. “Being Acquitted of a ‘Disorderly Person’ Charge in 1826.” In Sustaining the Law: Joseph Smith’s Legal Encounters, edited by Gordon A. Madsen, Jeffrey N. Walker, and John W. Welch, 71–92. Provo, UT: BYU Studies, 2014.

When the letters were again read to the council a month later, Brigham Young objected to this language and had the words “or rather his religious opponents” inserted into the letter after the word “enemies.” (Council of Fifty, “Record,” 11 Apr. 1845.)

The Nauvoo charter authorized the mayor and aldermen to hold “all the powers of justices of the peace” within the city and established a municipal court to hear appeals of their judgments. With the charter repealed, the citizens of Nauvoo were deprived of municipal legal protection. During the legislative debates over the charter in January 1845, David L. Gregg, a non-Mormon state representative from northern Illinois, similarly complained, “It is said that the people of Nauvoo should be put upon the same level as the other people of Hancock county. Is not Carthage, is not Warsaw incorporated? Do they not possess chartered rights? And shall these remain, while the Nauvoo charter is repealed? . . . I am unwilling to leave the people of Nauvoo a prey to mobs or a lawless rabble. I cannot consent to deprive them of the proper laws and regulations for the government of their city.” (An Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo [16 Dec. 1840], Laws of the State of Illinois [1840–1841], p. 55, secs. 16–17; “Illinois Legislature,” Sangamo Journal [Springfield, IL], 20 Feb. 1845, [1].)

Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Twelfth General Assembly, at Their Session, Began and Held at Springfield, on the Seventh of December, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty. Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1841.

Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.