Legal Events

June 4, 1844

Joseph Smith met with Hyrum, John Taylor and others. Concluded to go to Quincy and "give up my Bonds of guardianship, etc." so that Taylor as new Guardian on behalf of Maria Lawrence and Joseph Smith in his own right could pursue Perjury and Slander actions against the Laws and Foster.

June 8, 1844

Nauvoo City Ordinance: Established the duties of the City Attorney of Nauvoo to advise the officers within Nauvoo, to prosecute in all cases for breaches of Nauvoo City Ordinances, and to collect fines. Also established a salary of one hundred dollars annually for his services.

June 10, 1844

Nauvoo City Ordinance: Provided that if any person or persons should write or publish any false statement or libel against another citizen for the "purpose of exciting the public mind against the chartered privileges, peace, and good order of the city" or should slander another, they would be deemed disturbers of the peace and fined up to five hundred dollars, and imprisoned for up to six months.

June 12, 1844

Joseph Smith was arrested by officers from Carthage and charged with riot for the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor, and he went before Justice Aaron Johnson in Nauvoo on a writ of habeas corpus. He was "honorably discharged from the accusations and of the writ."

June 17, 1844

Joseph Smith was arrested again (see June 12) along with sixteen others for the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor and taken before Daniel H. Wells, justice of the peace, who discharged the prisoners. The Warsaw Signal called for the extermination of the Latter-day Saints from Illinois.

June 18, 1844

Truman Gillett Jr. gives an affidavit that William Law had been involved in a plot to abduct Joseph Smith in June 1842, but Gillett had discounted the tale until learning of Law's later misdeeds.

June 23, 1844

With the promise of full protection pledged by Illinois Governor Thomas Ford, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum decided to turn themselves in at Carthage, Illinois, for a hearing.

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