This possibly refers to a location near the Nauvoo temple where other meetings with large attendance had previously been held. Franklin D. Richards also referred in a July 1840 letter to a meeting ground near Sidney Rigdon’s house in the southwest part of the Nauvoo peninsula. (Woodruff, Journal, 7 Nov. 1841; Franklin D. Richards, Walnut Grove, IL, to Levi Richards, West Stockbridge, MA, 21 July 1840, CHL.)

Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

Richards, Franklin D. Letter, Walnut Grove, IL, to Levi Richards, East Stockbridge, MA, 21 July 1840. CHL.

Both men were city aldermen. Spencer and Hills had previously signed a statement attesting that Bennett had admitted before the city council that JS was a “strictly virtuous” man. Hills had previously served as one of the clerks of the church’s October 1841 general conference. (“Officers of the City of Nauvoo,” Times and Seasons, 15 Dec. 1841, 3:638; Letter to the Church and Others, 23 June 1842; Minutes and Discourse, 1–5 Oct. 1841.)

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

Some of the charges that Bennett and others levied against JS were that he considered himself above the law and refused to give up arms to the state of Illinois. The Nauvoo City Council had passed a resolution on 5 July 1842 stating “that no Citizen of this City shall be taken out of the City by any Writs, without the privilege of investigation before the Municipal Court, and the benefit of a Writ of Habeas Corpus, as granted in the seventeenth Section of the Charter of this City.” Referring to this ordinance, Bennett declared, “This is a ‘pretty kettle of fish,’ for Joe Smith to issue a Habeas Corpus to take himself from under the Executive writ!!” (John C. Bennett, Carthage, IL, 2 July 1842, Letter to the Editor, Sangamo Journal [Springfield, IL], 15 July 1842, [2]; “From Nauvoo,” Sangamo Journal, 15 July 1842, [3]; Ordinance, 5 July 1842; John C. Bennett, St. Louis, MO, 15 July 1842, Letter to the Editor, Sangamo Journal, 22 July 1842, [2].)

Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.

The version of these minutes in the Wasp renders this question as, “Have you personally a knowledge of any immoral act in me?” (Minutes, 22 July 1842, in Wasp, 23 July 1842, [3].)

The version of these minutes in the Wasp gives Pratt’s reply as, “Personally, I have not.” (Minutes, 22 July 1842, in Wasp, 23 July 1842, [3].)

According to JS’s journal, he and other church leaders responded to Pratt’s speech by “correcting the public mind with regard to reports put in circulation by Bennett & others.” Some of the “others” may have included Sidney Rigdon, George W. Robinson, and Francis M. Higbee, who, according to Bennett’s letters to the Sangamo Journal, had “astounding facts” relating to JS’s alleged marriage proposal to Nancy Rigdon and to JS’s alleged land frauds. Robinson, who apparently had been providing Bennett with information about JS since early July, wrote a letter to James Arlington Bennet on 27 July outlining his views on JS and Nancy Rigdon. (JS, Journal, 22 July 1842; John C. Bennett, Nauvoo, IL, 27 June 1842, Letter to the Editor, Sangamo Journal [Springfield, IL], 8 July 1842, [2]; John C. Bennett, Carthage, IL, 4 July 1842, Letter to the Editor, Sangamo Journal, 15 July 1842, [2]; George W. Robinson, Nauvoo, IL, to John C. Bennett, 3 July 1842, in Bennett, History of the Saints, 44–45; George W. Robinson, Nauvoo, IL, to James Arlington Bennet, 27 July 1842, in Bennett, History of the Saints, 245–247.)

Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.

Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.

On 22 July 1842, the city council assigned John Taylor, William Law, and Brigham Young “to prepare a Petition to lay before the Governor of this State,” asking him to protect JS “from arrest under any Writ from Missouri, and the Inhabitants of this City and its vicinity from the intrigues of evil designing Men.” According to JS’s journal, the petition was prepared in the afternoon of 22 July. A copy of the petition is in the Nauvoo City Council records. (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 22 July 1842, 95–97; JS, Journal, 22 July 1842.)

The version of the minutes in the Wasp omits that eight hundred people signed the petition, saying only that the petition “was read approved, and signed by,” before going to another line listing Orson Spencer as the chairman. (Minutes, 22 July 1842, in Wasp, 23 July 1842, [3].)

According to a biographical sketch of Amanda Barnes Smith, a member of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, “In July 1842 it was suggested that some measurs be taken by the Relief Society to interest the Government of Illinois in protecting the Prophet Joseph from his enemies in Missouri; it was decided that a petition from the Relief Society be presented to Thomas Carlin Governor of the State of Illinois claiming his protection as chief magistrate.” (“Amanda Smith,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 June 1881, 10:13; see also Nauvoo Female Relief Society, Petition to Thomas Carlin, ca. 22 July 1842, in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 139–141.)

Woman’s Exponent. Salt Lake City. 1872–1914.

Derr, Jill Mulvay, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016.

This paragraph is not included in the version of the minutes in the Wasp. The Nauvoo citizens’ petition is apparently not extant. (Minutes, 22 July 1842, in Wasp, 23 July 1842, [3].)