The published version of the city council minutes expands this sentence to read “Alderman Bennett referred to the statement of the ‘Expositor’ concerning the Municipal Court in the case of Jeremiah Smith as a libel.” On 30 May 1844, Jeremiah Smith was discharged by the Nauvoo Municipal Court in two habeas corpus hearings after being arrested for the alleged crime of fraudulently obtaining money from the United States government in 1843. The Nauvoo Expositor contained two articles that criticized the Nauvoo Municipal Court’s actions in relation to Smith. (“For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1]; Docket Entry, 18–31 May 1844; Docket Entry, 30–31 May 1844; Sylvester Emmons, “Introductory,” Nauvoo Expositor, 7 June 1844, [2]; Editorial, Nauvoo Expositor, 7 June 1844, [3].)

Illinois state law stipulated that “every person, whether writer or publisher, convicted of this offence [libel], shall be fined in a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisoned not exceeding one year.” The libel ordinance passed earlier in this meeting specified that persons convicted of violating the ordinance “shall be fined in any sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisoned six months, or both, at the discretion of said mayor or court.” (An Act Relative to Criminal Jurisprudence [26 Feb. 1833], Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois [1839], p. 220, sec. 120; Ordinance, 10 June 1844.)

The Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois: Containing All the Laws . . . Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at Their First Session, Commencing December 1, 1834, and Ending February 13, 1835; and at Their Second Session, Commencing December 7, 1835, and Ending January 18, 1836; and Those Passed by the Tenth General Assembly, at Their Session Commencing December 5, 1836, and Ending March 6, 1837; and at Their Special Session, Commencing July 10, and Ending July 22, 1837. . . . Compiled by Jonathan Young Scammon. Chicago: Stephen F. Gale, 1839.

The published version of the city council minutes renders this paragraph as follows: “Councillor Warrington considered his a peculiar situation, as he did not belong to any church or any party; though[t] it might be considered rather harshly for the council to declare the paper a nuisance, and proposed giving a few days’ limitation and assessing a fine of $3,000 for every libel and if they would not cease publishing libels to declare it a nuisance, and said the statutes made provisions for a fine of $500.” (“For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1].)

This line was not included in the published city council minutes. (“For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1].)

On 27 May 1844, JS traveled to Carthage to answer indictments for perjury and adultery at the Hancock County Circuit Court. While in Carthage, JS and John P. Greene were warned by Charles A. Foster and Robert D. Foster, respectively, that there was a conspiracy to kill JS. (JS, Journal, 27 May 1844; Affidavit, 21 June 1844; John P. Greene, Affidavit, Nauvoo, IL, 21 June 1844, copy, JS Collection, CHL.)

The published version of the city council minutes renders this passage as “and read a libel from the ‘Expositor’ concerning the imprisonment of Jeremiah Smith.” The rest of this paragraph is not included in the published minutes. (“For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1].)

The Nauvoo Expositor published an article focused on Jeremiah Smith that claimed he was “secreted in Nauvoo, under the immediate protection of the Prophet.” (Editorial, Nauvoo Expositor, 7 June 1844, [3].)

The published version of the city council minutes renders this passage as follows: “Councillor H. Smith spoke of the Warsaw Signal and disapprobated its libellous course.” The 12 June 1844 issue of the Warsaw Signal reported several comments that Hyrum Smith supposedly made about the newspaper and its editor, Thomas Sharp, including that “we had better send a message to long nosed Sharp, that if he does not look out, he might be visited with a PINCH of SNUFF. that will make him SNEEZE.” Smith also reportedly stated that “if any person would go to Warsaw, boldly, in daylight, and BREAK the PRESS of the SIGNAL OFFICE, with a sledge hammer, he would BEAR HIM OUT in it, if it cost him his farm. He could only be taken with a warrant, at any rate and what GOOD will that DO?” The Warsaw Signal’s 14 June 1844 extra subsequently listed Smith’s reported threats against Sharp and the Warsaw Signal as justifications for various resolutions made by residents of Hancock County, Illinois, opposed to the Latter-day Saints. A number of individuals later published a statement in the 17 June 1844 extra of the Nauvoo Neighbor certifying “that Hyrum Smith did not make any threats nor offer any reward against the Signal, or its Editor, in the City Council.” (“For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1]; “Further Particulars from Nauvoo,” Warsaw [IL] Signal, 12 June 1844, [2], emphasis in original; Warsaw Signal, Extra, 14 June 1844, [1]; “To the Public,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1].)

Warsaw Signal. Warsaw, IL. 1841–1853.

Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

The published version of the city council minutes expands this section to read “Mayor remarked he was sorry to have one dissenting voice in declaring the ‘Expositor’ a nuisance.” (“For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1].)

The published version of the city council minutes renders this passage as follows: “Councillor Warrington did not mean to be understood to go against the proposition; but would not be in haste in declaring it a nuisance.” (“For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1].)

The published version of the city council minutes expands this section to read “referred to the mortgages and property of the proprietors of the ‘Expositor’ and thought there would be little chance of collecting damages for libels.” (“For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1].)

The published version of the city council minutes renders this passage as follows: “Aldermen E. Smith considered there was but one course to pursue that the proprietors were out of the reach of the law; that our course was to put an end to the thing at once.” (“For the Neighbor,” Nauvoo Neighbor, Extra, 17 June 1844, [1].)

In the United States, there were instances of mobs silencing newspapers they deemed offensive. (Hickey, War of 1812, 52−65; Kielbowicz, “Law and Mob Law,” 559−600; Oaks, “Suppression of the Nauvoo Expositor,” 874.)

Hickey, Donald R. The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012.

Kielbowicz, Richard B. “The Law and Mob Law in Attacks on Anti-Slavery Newspapers, 1833–1860.” Law and History Review 24, no. 3 (Fall 2006): 559–600.

Oaks, Dallin H. “The Suppression of the Nauvoo Expositor.” Utah Law Review 9 (Winter 1965): 862–903.

In 1842 an attempt was made to extradite JS to the state of Missouri in connection with the failed assassination of former Missouri governor Lilburn W. Boggs. JS allowed himself to be arrested in December 1842 and then petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus from the United States Circuit Court for the District of Illinois. Judge Nathaniel Pope presided over JS’s habeas corpus hearing in January 1843 in Springfield, Illinois. Pope ultimately discharged JS from arrest, explaining that both Boggs’s affidavit and Missouri governor Thomas Reynolds’s requisition were defective. Pope’s ruling on the case included a discussion of the writ of habeas corpus. (Historical Introduction to Extradition of JS for Accessory to Assault; JS, Journal, 4–5 Jan. 1843; “Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Illinois,” Wasp, 28 Jan. 1843, [1]−[2].)

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

JS’s journal notes that Higbee testified before the grand jury as part of the May 1844 session of the Hancock County Circuit Court. (JS, Journal, 25 May 1844.)