Letter, John Taylor and Others to Thomas Ford, 6 June 1843
Source Note
Committee of Vigilance (, , and ), Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to , , Sangamon Co., IL, 6 June 1843. Version copied [between ca. 6 June and 30 July 1843] in Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, pp. 177–179; handwriting of ; CHL.
Vide Sec 11. By reference to Sections 4. 9. & 10 and from the whole tenor and general Spirit of the instrument your we think cannot fail to conclude that it formed no part of the design of the Grantors to impose a single onerous or irksome obligation upon the inhabitants of said , and that it could never have been designed by the general Assembly who granted the Charter, that the bonds of the Mayor and Aldermen required by the 16th. Section of that instrument, should be filed at the office of the Clerk of the County Commissioners Court, is, we think abundantly manifest by the provision for a Recorder, the prescription of his duties, and the express provision of the 10th. Section, that the bonds of all Officers created by this act shall be exacted by the City Council as they may deem expedient.
The Mayor and Aldermen acting under the laws of the are by the 16th. Section required to give the same Bonds to the as are by law enjoined, but it by no means follows we humbly conceive that those Bonds should be lodged with the Officers, indeed we would repeat that it appears in our estimation such was not the design of the legislature nor is it fairly deduceable from the clause in the 16th. Section to which the Secretary of State has referred but that the Rule in all such Cases is to take into consideration the general scope and design of the instrument. We would moreover state that the view we have taken of the matter was that which universally prevailed so far as we know was never questioned until the Secretary of State has raised the objection. If your should persist in refusing to act on the precedent of your predecessor which on a careful reconsideration of the matter we cannot believe you will, the Citizens of this inhabitants of will be thereby placed in a very embarrassing and vexatious position such an one as the [p. 178]