JS, Motion, to Nauvoo City Council, [, Hancock Co., IL], 5 Mar. 1842; handwriting of JS; one page; Nauvoo, IL, Records, 1841–1845, CHL. Includes endorsement and docket.
Single leaf measuring 2¾ × 7⅝ inches (7 × 19 cm). The motion was inscribed on one side of a slip of paper that was apparently hand cut from a larger sheet. The verso is blank. JS inscribed the document in pencil, edited it in blue ink, and it in blue ink.
The document bears a docket in the lower left corner of the recto probably in the handwriting of , who served as the city recorder from 1841 to 1843. The motion was presumably kept among Nauvoo city records. In 1845 the city of Nauvoo was disincorporated. Many if not most of the city records were listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office (now CHL) in 1846, when they were packed up with church records that were taken to the Salt Lake Valley. Subsequent inventories of church records in Salt Lake City indicate continuous institutional custody.
“Officers of the City of Nauvoo,” Times and Seasons, 15 Dec. 1841, 3:638; “Municipal Court of the City of Nauvoo,” Times and Seasons, 1 July 1843, 4:244.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
“An Act to Repeal the Nauvoo Charter,” 14th General Assembly, 1844–1845, Senate Bill no. 35 (House Bill no. 42), Illinois General Assembly, Enrolled Acts of the General Assembly, 1818–2012, Illinois State Archives, Springfield.
Illinois General Assembly. Enrolled Acts of the General Assembly, 1818–2012. Illinois State Archives, Springfield.
“Inventory. Historian’s Office. 4th April 1855,” [1]–[2]; “Index of Records and Journals in the Historian’s Office 1878,” [11]; “Index to Papers in the Historians Office,” [ca. 1904], 7, Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
Historical Introduction
On 5 March 1842 JS proposed a motion to the , Illinois, city council regarding property sold at sheriff’s sales. JS had been a member of the council since the body’s creation in February 1841 and was elected vice mayor on 22 January 1842. He was an active participant in city council meetings, as demonstrated by this motion, one of at least three that he wrote in his own hand and submitted to the council on 5 March.
The motion proposed that the original owner of property sold at sheriff’s, marshal’s, and constable’s sales could recover it within thirty days, provided the owner pay the principal cost and an additional fifteen percent. The city council passed the motion as a resolution, after which the resolution was inscribed in the city council proceedings volume by recorder . The original motion is featured here.
<Under the ordinances of this > I move that when property is sold at sherriff <marshal’s, or con[s]tables,> sail the persons having their property sold shall have the priviledge the to redeem the same by paying <principle> cost and <fift[e]en per cent. on principal> charges within thirty days after sale
When Sloan entered this text as a resolution in the city council minute book, he placed this insertion further down, before “the persons having their property sold.” The reference to “ordinances of this city” notwithstanding, the city council does not appear to have passed any ordinance related to sheriff’s, constable’s, or marshal’s sales prior to 5 March 1842, and the first two of these were county offices, rather than municipal.
Insertions were made in blue ink in the handwriting of John C. Bennett.
Endorsement in blue ink in the handwriting of James Sloan.