The City Council of Nauvoo was organized; the opening prayer was offered by myself, after which the Mayor-elect delivered his inaugural address as published in the Times and Seasons, page 316, as follows:
Inaugural Address.
City Of Nauvoo, Illinois, Feb. 3rd, 1841.
Gentlemen of the City Council, Aldermen and Councillors:
Having been elected to the Mayoralty of this city by the unanimous suffrage of all parties and interests, I now enter upon the duties devolving upon me as your Chief Magistrate under a deep sense of the responsibilities of the station. I trust that the confidence reposed in me, by my fellow citizens, has not been misplaced, and for the honor conferred they will accept my warmest sentiments of gratitude. By the munificence and wise legislation of noble, high-minded, and patriotic statesmen, and the grace of God, we have been blessed with one of the most liberal corporate acts ever granted by a legislative assembly. As the presiding officer of the law-making department of the municipal government, it will be expected that I communicate to you, from time to time, by oral or written messages, for your deliberative consideration and action, such matters as may suggest themselves to me in relation to the public weal; and upon this occasion I beg leave to present the following as matters of paramount importance:
The 21st section of the addenda to the 13th section of the City Charter, concedes to you plenary power "to tax, restrain, prohibit and suppress, tippling houses, dram shops," etc., etc., and I now recommend, in the strongest possible terms, that you take prompt, strong, and decisive measures to "prohibit and suppress" all such establishments. It is true you have the power "to tax," or license and tolerate, them, and thus add to the city finances; but I consider it much better to raise revenue by an advalorem tax on the property of sober men, than by licensing dram shops, or taxing the signs of the inebriated worshipers at the shrine of Bacchus. The revels of bacchanalians in the houses of blasphemy and noise will always prove a disgrace to a moral people. Public sentiment will do much to suppress the vice of intemperance, and its concomitant evil results; but ample experience has incontrovertibly proven that it cannot do all—the law must be brought to the rescue, and an effective prohibitory ordinance enacted. This cannot be done at a better time than at the present. Let us commence correctly, and the great work of reform, at least so far as our peaceful city is concerned, can be summarily consummated. It would be difficult to calculate the vast amount of evil and crime that would be prevented, and the great good that would accrue to the public at large by fostering the cause of temperance; but suffice it to say that the one would be commensurate to the other. No sales of spirituous liquors whatever, in a less quantity than a quart, except in cases of sickness on the recommendation of a physician or surgeon duly accredited by the Chancellor and Regents of the University, should be tolerated. The liberty of selling the intoxicating cup is a false liberty—it enslaves, degrades, destroys; and wretchedness and want are attendant on every step,—its touch, like that of the poison upas, is death. Liberty to do good should be cheerfully and freely accorded to every man; but liberty to do evil, which is licentiousness, should be peremptorily prohibited. The public good imperiously demands it—and the cause of humanity pleads for help. The protecting aegis of the corporation should be thrown around every moral and religious institution of the day, which is in any way calculated to ennoble, or ameliorate the condition of the human family.
The immediate organization of the University, as contemplated in the 24th section of the act incorporating our city, cannot be too forcibly impressed upon you at this time. As all matters in relation to mental culture, and public instruction, from common schools up to the highest branches of a full collegiate course in the arts, sciences, and learned professions, will devolve upon the Chancellor and Regents of the University, they should be speedily elected, and instructed to perfect their plan, and enter upon its execution with as little delay as possible. The wheels of education should never be clogged, or retrograde, but roll progressively from the Alpha to the Omega of a most perfect, liberal, and thorough course of university attainments. The following observations in relation to false education, from Alexander's Messenger, so perfectly accords with my feelings and views on this highly important subject, that I cannot do better than incorporate them in this message.
"Among the changes for the worse, which the world has witnessed within the last century, we include that specious, superficial, incomplete way of doing certain things, which were formerly thought to be deserving of care, labor and attention. It would seem that appearance is now considered of more moment than reality. The modern mode of education is an example in point. Children are so instructed as to acquire a smattering of everything, and as a matter of consequence, they know nothing properly. Seminaries and academies deal out their moral and natural philosophy, their geometry, trigonometry, and astronomy, their chemistry, botany, and mineralogy, until the mind of the pupil becomes a chaos; and, like the stomach when it is overloaded with a variety of food, it digests nothing, but converts the superabundant nutriment to poison. This mode of education answers one purpose—it enables people to seem learned; and seemingly, by a great many, is thought all sufficient. Thus we are schooled in quackery, and are early taught to regard showy and superficial attainments as most desirable. Every boarding school Miss is a Plato in petticoats, without an ounce of that genuine knowledge, that true philosophy, which would enable her to be useful in the world, and to escape those perils with which she must necessarily be encompassed. Young people are taught to use a variety of hard terms, which they understand but imperfectly—to repeat lessons which they are unable to apply—to astonish their grandmothers with a display of their parrot-like acquisitions; but their mental energies are clogged and torpified with a variety of learned lumber, most of which is discarded from the brain long before its possessor knows how to use it. This is the quackery of education.
"The effects of the erring system are not easily obliterated. The habit of using words without thought, sticks to the unfortunate student through life, and should he ever learn to think, he cannot express his ideas without the most tedious and perplexing verbosity. This is, more or less, the fault of every writer in the nineteenth century. The sense is encumbered with sound. The scribbler appears to imagine that if he puts a sufficient number of words together he has done his part; and, alas! how many books are written on this principle. Thus literature, and even science itself, is overloaded with froth and flummery. Verbalizing has become fashionable and indispensable, and one line from an ancient author will furnish the materials for a modern treatise."
Our University should be a "utilitarian" institution—and competent, industrious teachers and professors should be immediately elected for the several departments. "Knowledge is power,"—foster education and we are forever free! Nothing can be done which is more certainly calculated to perpetuate the free institutions of our common country, for which our progenitors "fought and bled, and died," than the general diffusion of useful knowledge amongst the people. Education should always be of a purely practical character, for such, and such alone, is calculated to perfect the happiness and prosperity of our fellow-citizens—ignorance, impudence, and false knowledge, are equally detestible,—shame and confusion follow in their train. As you now possess the power, afford the most ample facilities to the Regents to make their plans complete; and thus enable them to set a glorious example to the world at large. The most liberal policy should attend the organization of the University, and equal honors and privileges should be extended to all classes of the community.
In order to carry out the provisions of the 25th section of the act incorporating our city, I would recommend the immediate organization of the Legion. Comprising, as it does, the entire military power of our city, with a provision allowing any citizen of Hancock county to unite by voluntary enrollment, early facilities should be afforded the court martial for perfecting their plans of drill, rules, and regulations. Nothing is more necessary to the preservation of order and the supremacy of the laws, than the perfect organization of our military forces, under a uniform and rigid discipline and approved judicious drill; and to this end I desire to see all the departments and cohorts of the Legion put in immediate requisition. The Legion should be all powerful, panoplied with justice and equity, to consummate the designs of its projectors—at all times ready, as minute men, to serve the state in such way and manner as may, from time to time, be pointed out by the Governor. You have long sought an opportunity of showing your attachment to the state government of Illinois—it is now afforded; the Legion should maintain the constitution and the laws, and be ready at all times for the public defense. The winged warrior of the air perches upon the pole of American liberty, and the beast that has the temerity to ruffle her feathers should be made to feel the power of her talons; and until she ceases to be our proud national emblem we should not cease to show our attachment to Illinois. Should the tocsin of alarm ever be sounded, and the Legion called to the tented field by our Executive, I hope to see it able, under one of the proudest mottoes that ever blazed upon a warrior's shield—Sicut patribus sit Deus nobis; "as God was with our fathers, so may He be with us"—to fight the battles of our country, as victors, and as freemen; the juice of the uva, or the spirit of insubordination should never enter our camp,—but we should stand, ever stand, as a united people—one and indivisible.
I would earnestly recommend the construction of a wing-dam in the Mississippi, at the mouth of the ravine at or near the head of Main street, and the excavation of a ship canal from that point to a point terminating in a grand reservoir on the bank of said river, east of the foot of said street, a distance of about two miles. This would afford, at the various outlets, the most ample water power for propelling any amount of machinery for mill and manufacturing purposes, so essentially necessary to the building up of a great commercial city in the heart of one of the most productive and delightful countries on earth. I would advise that an agent be immediately appointed on behalf of the city corporation, to negotiate with eastern capitalists for the completion of this great work, on the most advantageous terms, even to the conveyance of the privilege for a term of years. This work finished, and the future greatness of this city is placed upon an imperishable basis. In addition to the great advantages that will otherwise accrue to the city and country by the construction of this noble work, it would afford the best harbor for steamboats, for winter quarters, on this magnificent stream.
The public health requires that the low lands, bordering on the Mississippi, should be immediately drained, and the entire timber removed. This can and will be one of the most healthful cities in the west, provided you take prompt and decisive action in the premises. A board of health should be appointed and vested with the usual powers and prerogatives.
The Governor, council of revision, and legislature of Illinois, should be held in everlasting remembrance by our people—they burst the chains of slavery and proclaimed us forever free! A vote of thanks, couched in the strongest language possible, should be tendered them in our corporate capacity; and, when this is done, Quincy, our first noble city of refuge, when we came from the slaughter in Missouri with our garments stained with blood, should not be forgotten.
As the Chief Magistrate of your city I am determined to execute all state laws and city ordinances passed in pursuance to law, to the very letter, should it require the strong arm of military power to enable me to do so. As an officer I know no man; the peaceful, unoffending in the full exercise of all his civil, political, and religious rights, and the guilty violator of law shall be punished, without respect to persons.
All of which is respectfully submitted.[[2]]
John C. Bennett.
The following persons were elected by the council to their offices, to-wit—Henry G. Sherwood, marshal; James Sloan, recorder; Robert B. Thompson, treasurer; James Robinson, assessor; Austin Cowles, supervisor of streets. I presented to the city council the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted:
Resolved by the City Council of the City of Nauvoo, that the unfeigned thanks of this community be respectfully tendered to the Governor, Council of Revision, and Legislature of the state of Illinois, as a feeble testimonial of their respect and esteem for noble, high-minded, and patriotic statesmen; and as an evidence of gratitude for the signal powers recently conferred; also that the citizens of Quincy be held in everlasting remembrance, for their unparalleled liberality and marked kindness to our people, when in their greatest state of suffering and want.
I presented a bill for an ordinance concerning the University of Nauvoo, which passed as follows:
Sec.1. Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Nauvoo, that the "University of the City of Nauvoo," be, and the same is hereby organized by the appointment of the following Board of Trustees, to-wit—John C. Bennett, chancellor; William Law, registrar; and Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Hyrum Smith, William Marks, Samuel H. Smith, Daniel H. Wells, Newel K. Whitney, Charles C. Rich, John T. Barnett, Wilson Law, Don Carlos Smith, John P. Greene, Vinson Knight, Isaac Galland, Elias Higbee, Robert D. Foster, James Adams, Robert B. Thompson, Samuel Bennett, Ebenezer Robinson, John Snider, George Miller, and Lenos M. Knight, Regents of the "University of the City of Nauvoo;" as contemplated in the 24th section of "An Act to incorporate the City of Nauvoo," approved December 16, 1840.
Sec. 2. The board named in the first section of this ordinance, shall hold its first meeting at the office of Joseph Smith, on Tuesday, the 9th day of February, 1841, at 2 o'clock p. m.
Passed February 3, 1841.
John C. Bennett, Mayor.
James Sloan, Recorder.
I also presented a bill for an ordinance organizing the Nauvoo Legion, which passed the same day, as follows:
Sec. 1. Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Nauvoo, that the inhabitants of the City of Nauvoo, and such citizens of Hancock county as may unite by voluntary enrollment, be, and they are hereby organized into a body of independent military men, to be called the "Nauvoo Legion," as contemplated in the 25th section of "An Act to incorporate the City of Nauvoo," approved December 16, 1840.
Sec. 2. The Legion shall be, and is hereby divided into two cohorts; the horse troops to constitute the first cohort, and the foot troops to constitute the second cohort.
Sec. 3. The general officers of the Legion shall consist of a lieutenant-general, as the chief commanding and reviewing officer, and president of the court martial and Legion; a major-general, as the second in command in the Legion, the secretary of the court martial and Legion, and adjutant and inspector-general; a brigadier-general, as the commander of the first cohort; and brigadier-general, as commander of the second cohort.
Sec. 4. The staff of the lieutenant-general shall consist of two principal aids-de-camp, with the rank of colonels of cavalry; and a guard of twelve aids-de-camp, with the rank of captain of infantry; and a drill officer, with the rank of colonel of dragoons, who shall likewise be the chief officer of the guard.
Sec. 5. The staff of the major-general shall consist of an adjutant, a surgeon-in-chief, a cornet, a quarter-master, a paymaster, a commissary, and a chaplain, with the rank of colonels of infantry; a surgeon for each cohort, a quarter-master-sergeant, sergeant-major, and chief musician, with the rank of captains of light infantry, and two musicians, with the rank of captains of infantry.
Sec. 6. The staff of each brigadier-general shall consist of one aid-de-camp, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel of infantry, provided that the said brigadiers shall have access to the staff of the major-general, when not otherwise in service.
Sec. 7. No officer shall hereafter be elected by the various companies of the Legion, except upon the nomination of the court-martial; and it is hereby made the duty of the court-martial to nominate at least two candidates for each vacant office, whenever such vacancies occur.
Sec. 8. The court-martial shall fill and supply all offices ranking between captains and brigadier-generals by granting brevet commissions to the most worthy company officers of the line, who shall thereafter take rank, and command according to the date of their brevets, provided that their original place in the line shall not thereby be vacated.
Sec. 9. The court-martial, consisting of all the military officers, commissioned or entitled to commissions, within the limits of the city corporation, shall meet at the office of Joseph Smith, on Thursday, the 4th day of February, 1841, at 10 o'clock a. m.; and then and there proceed to elect the general officers of the Legion, as contemplated in the 3rd section of this ordinance.
Sec. 10. The court-martial shall adopt for the Legion, as nearly as may be, and so far as applicable, the discipline, drill, uniform, rule, and regulations of the United States army.
Passed February 8, 1841.
John C. Bennett, Mayor.
James Sloan, Recorder.
Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Don C. Smith, and Charles C. Rich were duly sworn as members of the City Council.[[3]]
The following addition has been made to the Charter of the Nauvoo Legion by the legislature—