On 10 June 1844, the , Illinois, city council passed an ordinance penalizing libel, slander, and other actions that disturbed the peace. The ordinance was created in direct response to the first issue of the Nauvoo Expositor, which was published on 7 June 1844. The Nauvoo City Council discussed the Expositor as well as the character of various individuals associated with it at the council’s regularly scheduled meeting on 8 June. During the afternoon session, JS, Nauvoo’s mayor, suggested that the city pass an ordinance against misrepresentations and libelous publications “to p[r]eve[n]t all. conspiracy against the peace of the city.” City councilor and , a city councilor and the city’s attorney, were appointed to a committee to write the ordinance. Before the end of the meeting, they produced an initial draft. Phelps read this draft to the city council, after which JS requested that the committee add a preamble. Alderman , who was acting as president pro tempore during the meeting, then suggested that city councilor be added to the drafting committee to write the preamble. City councilor also suggested that the committee add language to “prevent attempts to take away” Nauvoo’s city charter, the legislative act incorporating the city of Nauvoo. Harris then told the committee to make every effort to provide a “full report” on the ordinance, presumably at the council’s next meeting.

Two days later, on 10 June, the city council met again to discuss the Nauvoo Expositor. During the morning session, the committee presented its latest draft of the ordinance, which included a preamble detailing the alleged motives of the Expositor’s proprietors. Later, in the afternoon session, the ordinance was read a second time, and JS and suggested certain additions. It was then read a third time, and JS motioned that the council approve it. JS’s brother , a city councilor, seconded the motion, and the ordinance passed unanimously. , who was again serving as president pro tempore for the meeting, then signed it. The final version declared that anyone guilty of libeling, slandering, or bribing ’s citizens with the intent of raising opposition to the city’s charter or undermining its peace could be fined up to $500, be imprisoned for six months, or be both fined and imprisoned.

The state of already had a statute against libel. However, the act incorporating Nauvoo, often called the charter, permitted the Nauvoo City Council to pass any ordinance deemed “necessary for the peace, benefit, good order, regulation, convenience, and cleanliness” of the city, as long as the ordinance was “not repugnant” to the or Illinois constitutions. By adopting a libel ordinance, the city council ensured that persons responsible for alleged libelous publications, including any future issues of the Expositor, would be prosecuted within Nauvoo’s court system rather than in the state courts.

The libel ordinance, however, was ultimately not used against those involved with the Nauvoo Expositor. Instead, JS suggested that the council suppress the Expositor. The city council then passed a resolution declaring the Expositor’s printing equipment and any copies of the newspaper in its printing office a nuisance and ordering JS as mayor to remove them in a manner of his choosing.

The passage of the libel ordinance apparently encouraged some of the Nauvoo Expositor’s proprietors to abandon . , for instance, claimed that the libel ordinance “was resorted to” so the mayor and city council “might by a form of law rob us of our property, and get us into their prisons to take away our lives.” According to Law, these suspicions led him and others involved with the Expositor to leave Nauvoo on 12 June.

, who served as a clerk for JS, made a fair copy of the ordinance sometime between 8 and 10 June, which was most likely the version presented to the city council on 10 June. An insertion in the ordinance’s text corresponds with an addition that JS requested during the 10 June 1844 city council meeting. A published version of the ordinance appeared in the 12 June 1844 edition of the Nauvoo Neighbor. McEwan’s fair copy is featured here because it was the version of the ordinance passed by the council and signed by .