Mayor John C. Bennett covered several topics in his inaugural address, including the power of the city relative to taxation and finances (section 13 of the charter), the suppression of intemperance, and the betterment of the city through city council ordinances. He spent the majority of the address speaking about the importance of the university (section 24 of the charter) and the organization of the legion (section 25 of the charter). Bennett also highlighted the role that the Illinois governor, Council of Revision, and state legislature played in assisting the Latter-day Saints when they arrived in the state as refugees. In contrast to those in Missouri, the governmental bodies of Illinois, Bennett stated, “should be held in everlasting remembrance by our people—they burst the chains of slavery and proclaimed us forever free!” One Illinois newspaper reported Bennett’s address as being “bombastic” but a “creditable production” with a “high moral bearing.” (John C. Bennett, “Inaugural Address,” Times and Seasons, 15 Feb. 1841, 2:316–318; “The Mormons,” Western World [Warsaw, IL], 24 Feb. 1841, [2]; for another regional report of the address, see “The Mormons,” North Western Gazette and Galena [IL] Advertiser, 2 Apr. 1841, [4].)

Western World. Warsaw, IL. 1840–1841.

North Western Gazette and Galena Advertiser. Galena, IL. 1838–1845.

JS and the First Presidency emphasized the importance of the Nauvoo Legion in a proclamation written just a few weeks earlier. The legion, the First Presidency informed the Saints, “embraces all our military power, and will enable us to perform our military duty by ourselves, and thus afford us the power, and privilege, of avoiding one of the most fruitful sources of strife, oppression, and collision with the world. It will enable us to show our attachment to the state and nation as a people, whenever the public service requires our aid—thus proving ourselves obedient to the paramount laws of the land, and ready at all times to sustain and execute them.” (Proclamation, 15 Jan. 1841.)

Section 25 of the charter gave the city council authority to “organize the inhabitants of said city, subject to military duty, into a body of independent military men to be called the ‘Nauvoo Legion,’” which would form a “Court Martial . . . with full powers and authority to make, ordain, establish, and execute, all such laws and ordinances as may be considered necessary for the benefit, government, and regulation of said Legion.” Section 25 continued: “The said Legion shall perform the same amount of military duty as is now or may be hereafter required of the regular militia of the State, and shall be at the disposal of the Mayor in executing the laws and ordinances of the City Corporation, and the laws of the State, and at the disposal of the Governor for the public defence, and the execution of the laws of the State or of the United States, and shall be entitled to their proportion of the public arms; and Provided, also, that said Legion shall be exempt from all other military duty.” (Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840.)