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Bill to Incorporate the Church, 14 December 1840

Source Note

Bill to Incorporate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, , Sangamon Co., IL, 14 Dec. 1840, in Bills, Resolutions, and Related General Assembly Records, 1st–88th Bienniums, 1819–1994, Record Series 600.001; handwriting of ; two pages; Illinois State Archives, Springfield. Includes dockets and endorsement.
Bifolium of lined paper measuring 12⅞ × 8 inches (33 × 20 cm). The document was written by in blue ink, except for a redaction in brown ink, in an unidentified hand. The text is written on the recto and verso of the first leaf. The second leaf is blank except for dockets and an endorsement on the verso. The first docket was written in graphite in unidentified handwriting: “[S. B 43]”. The second docket is in blue ink, also in unidentified handwriting: “No. 37— | A bill for an act | incorporating a | church at ”. The endorsement is in blue ink, likely in Meritt L. Covell’s handwriting. The document was trifolded horizontally. The two leaves were separated at some point and have since been reattached and mended with Japanese paper.
The document has been in continuous custody of the state of , filed with engrossed bills.

Historical Introduction

On 14 December 1840, state senator Sidney Little, a Whig representing and counties, introduced before the state senate a bill titled “An act incorporating the at .” The bill was submitted in behalf of the church to the Twelfth Illinois General Assembly among other pieces of legislation, including Nauvoo’s city charter and the articles of incorporation for the Nauvoo House Association. Neither the manuscript of the bill nor the senate journal identifies the bill’s primary author, though the bill’s content and its introduction to the Illinois legislature concurrently with Nauvoo’s charter suggest that JS and his counselors in the approved the bill.
It is uncertain why the Latter-day Saints chose winter 1840–1841 as the time to make such a concerted effort to incorporate their various organizations. Following the Saints’ expulsion from in winter 1838–1839, church leaders selected the area of , Illinois, as the new gathering place for church members, a decision ratified by a general of the church in October 1839. Although the legislature met from 9 December 1839 to 3 February 1840, during which time the Saints could have submitted the bills, church leaders did not submit them until the first session of the Illinois Twelfth General Assembly, held in from 23 November to 5 December 1840. The timing was likely related to ’s move to in late summer 1840. Bennett, who served as quartermaster general of the Illinois militia and joined the church shortly after arriving in Nauvoo, advocated for the city’s incorporation and assisted in drafting and securing Nauvoo’s charter. It is also possible that church leaders considered the need to clear land and build homes during the Saints’ first winter in Nauvoo more pressing than crafting legislation.
The proposed act would allow the church to own property as a corporation. More specifically, the bill designated the members of the church’s as trustees of the organization. The bill indicated that the “officers and members” of the church would constitute the corporation, but aside from the First Presidency the group of men listed in the bill did not constitute any church leadership body. The , , is identified by name, as is the “president of the ,” , and one of Nauvoo’s three , . However, only three members of the Nauvoo (, , and ) are named, and only one member of the () appears in the list. Others identified in the bill—, , , , , , and —though prominent members of the Nauvoo community, held no ecclesiastical leadership positions at the time. Had the bill been enacted, the new organization would have been legally created six months later at its first meeting, on Independence Day 1841.
On 15 December 1840, the day after it was introduced to the senate, the bill was read before that body. During this meeting, Senator Little recommended that the entire content of the proposed act, excluding the title, be eliminated and replaced with a proposal to appoint a notary public in . The senate read and passed the revised act on 17 December 1840, changing its name to “An act for the appointment of a notary public in the city of Nauvoo.”
The brief summaries of action recorded in the senate journals do not indicate why the act was completely revised, but the legislature apparently considered the original bill to incorporate the church unnecessary because of a previous Illinois statute. In 1835 the legislature passed “An Act concerning Religious Societies,” which granted a default set of powers and responsibilities to any religious organization seeking incorporation, provided that the society file certification of the election or appointment of the organization’s trustees with the appropriate county’s recorder. It is likely that sometime during the senate’s review of the initial bill it was pointed out that the 1835 law eliminated the need for the senate to further consider the bill as originally drafted. Consequently, JS was elected as sole trustee-in-trust for the church on 30 January 1841 to satisfy the requirements of the 1835 law and apparently in place of the bill to incorporate the church. Notice of JS’s election was filed with the , Illinois, recorder three days later.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Gregg, History of Hancock County, Illinois, 277–278; Journal of the Senate . . . of Illinois, 14 Dec. 1840, 3. 74. The title “A Bill to incorporate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” on the featured manuscript may reflect an earlier intended title for the act, but the Illinois Senate journal consistently and exclusively refers to the act as “An act incorporating the church at Nauvoo.”

    Gregg, Thomas. History of Hancock County, Illinois, Together with an Outline History of the State, and a Digest of State Laws. Chicago: Charles C. Chapman, 1880.

    Journal of the Senate of the Thirteenth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their Regular Session, Begun and Held at Springfield, December 5, 1842. Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1842.

  2. [2]

    Journal of the Senate . . . of Illinois, 27 Nov. 1840, 23; 6 Feb. 1841, 248; 24 Feb. 1841, 384; see also Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840; and “A Bill for an Act to Incorporate the Nauvoo House Association,” 12th General Assembly, House Bill no. 352 [Senate Bill no. 160], Illinois General Assembly, Bills, Resolutions, and Related General Assembly Records, 1st–98th Bienniums, 1819–2015, Illinois State Archives, Springfield.

    Journal of the Senate of the Thirteenth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their Regular Session, Begun and Held at Springfield, December 5, 1842. Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1842.

    Illinois General Assembly. Bills, Resolutions, and Related General Assembly Records, 1st–98th Bienniums, 1819–2015. Illinois State Archives, Springfield.

  3. [3]

    Minutes, 24 Apr. 1839; Minutes and Discourses, 5–7 Oct. 1839.

  4. [4]

    Journal of the House of Representatives . . . of Illinois, 9 Dec. 1839 and 3 Feb. 1840, 3, 340; Journal of the Senate . . . of Illinois, 5 Dec. 1840, 3, 47.

    Journal of the House of Representatives of the Twelfth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, Convened By Proclamation of the Governor, Being Their First Session, Begun and Held in the City of Springfield, November 23, 1840. Springfield, IL: Wm. Walters, 1840.

    Journal of the Senate of the Thirteenth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their Regular Session, Begun and Held at Springfield, December 5, 1842. Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1842.

  5. [5]

    Letters from John C. Bennett, 25 July and 15 Aug. 1840; Minutes and Discourse, 3–5 Oct. 1840; Ebenezer Robinson, “Items of Personal History of the Editor,” Return, June 1890, 285.

    The Return. Davis City, IA, 1889–1891; Richmond, MO, 1892–1893; Davis City, 1895–1896; Denver, 1898; Independence, MO, 1899–1900.

  6. [6]

    Alanson Ripley, although not an ecclesiastical leader in Nauvoo, or even in Illinois, had been appointed as a bishop for the branch of the church across the Mississippi River in Iowa Territory on 5 October 1839 and was also identified by name in the bill. (Minutes and Discourses, 5–7 Oct. 1839.)

  7. [7]

    Journal of the Senate . . . of Illinois, 15 Dec. 1840, 81. The text of the new bill read: “Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly, That it shall be the duty of the Governor by a[n]d [wi]th the advice and consent [of] the Senate, to appoint one Notary Public in the City of Nauvoo in Hancock County, whose duties, and term of service, shall be the same as are now required, and prescribed by law in respect to other Notaries Public.” (“A Bill for the Act for the Appointment of a Notary Public in the City of Nauvoo,” 12th General Assembly, House Bill no. 250 [Senate Bill, no. 37, revised no. 43], Illinois General Assembly, Bills, Resolutions, and Related General Assembly Records, 1st–98th Bienniums, 1819–2015, Illinois State Archives, Springfield.)

    Journal of the Senate of the Thirteenth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their Regular Session, Begun and Held at Springfield, December 5, 1842. Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1842.

    Illinois General Assembly. Bills, Resolutions, and Related General Assembly Records, 1st–98th Bienniums, 1819–2015. Illinois State Archives, Springfield.

  8. [8]

    Journal of the Senate . . . of Illinois, 17 Dec. 1840, 87.

    Journal of the Senate of the Thirteenth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their Regular Session, Begun and Held at Springfield, December 5, 1842. Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1842.

  9. [9]

    Records of floor debates, which would have captured the explanation for the act’s changes, were not required to be kept by the house and senate until Illinois passed its fourth constitution in 1970. (Miller, 1970 Illinois Constitution Annotated for Legislators, p. 31, art. 4, sec. 7b.)

    Miller, David R. 1970 Illinois Constitution Annotated for Legislators. 4th ed. [Springfield, IL]: Illinois General Assembly, Legislative Research Unit, 2005. Digital copy available at http://www.ilga.gov/commission/lru/ILConstitution.pdf.

  10. [10]

    An Act concerning Religious Societies [6 Feb. 1835], Laws of the State of Illinois [1834–1835], pp. 147–149. The preamble to the act clarified that it was created because “petitions are frequently presented to the legislature of the State to incorporate religious societies,” and that “if said acts of incorporation were granted, it would lead to an endless system of partial legislation.”

    Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at Their First Session, Commencing December 1, 1834, and Ending February 13, 1835. Vandalia, IL: J. Y. Sawyer, 1835.

  11. [11]

    Appointment, 2 Feb. 1841, Hancock Co., IL, Bonds and Mortgages, 1840–1904, vol. 1, p. 95, microfilm 954,776, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

Page [1]

A Bill to incorporate the
Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of , represented in the General Assembly, That Joseph Smith, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and their associates and successors, the officers and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly called Mormons, are hereby created, constituted and declared to be, a body corporate and politic, with perpetual succession, with all and singular the powers, privileges, and prerogatives, of a corporation, by the name of the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,” the of which, in conjunction with the General Assembly of said church, or the General of said church, shall constitute the law-making department of the corporation for all secular purposes, with full power and authority to do all such acts as they may consider necessary for the welfare and prosperity of said church, and the [p. [1]]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Bill to Incorporate the Church, 14 December 1840
ID #
9508
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D7:450–455
Handwriting on This Page
  • John C. Bennett

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