Two incidents are particularly dramatic in this volume, thanks to the careful work of clerks who took the minutes, bringing to life some key moments in LDS history. One of the most memorable meetings of the city council occurred on June 10, 1844; the minutes capture the emotions as members debate whether to detroy the opposition newspaper, the Nauvoo Expositor. The publisher of the paper, Sylvester Emmons, had been a councilman until his June 8 expulsion for having "lifted his hand against the municipality of God Almighty." As the hawkish councilmen became increasingly agitated, they began shouting slogans, asking whether the others had the neve to do what was right and crush the newspaper. The answer was a sustained, raucous cheer. Yes resounded from every quarter of the room," the clerk, Willard Richards, wrote. "Are we offering ... to take away the right[s] of anyone [by] this [action] [to]day?" one of the city councilmen, William Phelps, shouted. "No!!!" was the answer "from every quarter." Should they also tear down the barn of newspaper editor Robert Foster? Yes! they said. By the time the meeting was over, the Nauvoo police, assisted by 100 soldiers of the Nauvoo Legion, had "tumbled the press and materials into the street and set fire to them, and demolished the machinery with a sledge-hammer. Another gripping event occurred on September 8, 1844, when the high council gathered outdoors to accommodate large crowds for the trial of Sidney Rigdon of the First Presidency. A behind-the-scenes power struggle became evident as Brigham Young stepped forward to take control of the meeting, culminating in a request for a vote from the audience. Young asked everyone to "place themselves so that [he] could see them, so he would "know who goes for Sidney." There followed a flurry of denunciations of various Church members who were summarily excommunicated by acclimation rather than by trial in a meeting lasting six hours.

Best Book Award • Mormon History Association A brilliant young historian excavates the brief life of a lost Mormon city, uncovering a “grand, underappreciated saga in American history” (Wall Street Journal). In Kingdom of Nauvoo, Benjamin E. Park draws on newly available sources to re-create the founding and destruction of the Mormon city of Nauvoo. On the banks of the Mississippi in Illinois, the early Mormons built a religious utopia, establishing their own army and writing their own constitution. For those offenses and others—including the introduction of polygamy, which was bitterly opposed by Emma Smith, the iron-willed first wife of Joseph Smith—the surrounding population violently ejected the Mormons, sending them on their flight to Utah. Throughout his absorbing chronicle, Park shows how the Mormons of Nauvoo were representative of their era, and in doing so elevates Mormon history into the American mainstream.

Excerpt from Ordinances of the City of Nauvoo: Passed by the City Council, at Different Meetings, A. D. 1849 Sec. 1. That every tavern, grocery, house, shop or alley, that shall be kept for the purpose of selling any spirituous, vinous, mall or mixed 1 liquors, under any pretence whatsoever, in quantities less than one quart, within the limits of trie City of Nauvoo, without a license from the City Council cf the City of Nauvoo, shift be considered a public nuisance, and every person keeping the same as principal or agent, shall be deemed guilty of a violation of this ordinance, and subject to a fine of Five Dollars, for every day such tavern, grocery, house, shop, or alley, or beer house, shall be kept open. Sec. 2. All applications for a license to keep a tavern, grocery, coffee house or dram shop, shall be by petition presented in writing to the City Council of the City of Nuuvoo, setting forth where such tavern, grocery, coffee house, or dram shop is to be kept, and the name of the applicant, and if the City Council of the City of Nauvoo shall consider such license ought to be granted; they shall order the clerk to issue said licence. Provided, said Applicant does first pay into the city treasury the sum of forty-five Dollars, and execute his bond with one or more sureties to be approved by the Mayor of said city, according to the statute in such case made and provided, and the applicant shall pay the City Clerk the further sum of fifty cents for issuing the said license. Provided, also, that any applicant who applies for a license, for keeping and retailing beer and cider, excluding all wines and distilled liquors, shall be entitled to receive the same on payment of Ten Dollars into the treasury, and complying with all other conditions contained in this section. Sec. 3. That in all cases where the applicant has an alley, commonly called a "Nine pin Alley," containing any number of pins attached or contigious to said tavern, grocery, coffee house, or beer house, where he permits people to play for amusement, he ha l pay into the City treasury the sura of Fifteen Dollars in addition to the sum required in the preceding section, before receiving his license. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.