On 18 January 1845 Babbitt introduced legislation to “legalize” earlier transactions in which JS had sold property as the church’s trustee-in-trust. After passage by the Illinois house on 11 February and the senate on 19 February, the bill was signed into law on 28 February. Willard Richards wrote that Babbitt said the “Legislature had confirmd the doings of Prest Joseph Smith as Trustee in trust &c.” (An Act to Legalize the Sale of Property Made by Joseph Smith [28 Feb. 1845], Laws of the State of Illinois [1844–1845], p. 134; Journal of the House of Representatives . . . of Illinois, 18 Jan. 1845; 6 and 28 Feb. 1845; 1 Mar. 1845, 230, 359, 401, 471, 579, 586; Journal of the Senate . . . of Illinois, 17, 18, 19, and 28 Feb. 1845, 327, 337, 341, 408; Richards, Journal, 1 Mar. 1845.)
Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Fourteenth General Assembly, at Their Regular Session, Began and Held at Springfield, December 2nd, 1844. Springfield, IL: Walters and Weber, 1845.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Fourteenth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their Regular Session, Begun and Held at Springfield, December 2, 1844. Springfield, IL: Walters & Weber, 1844.
Journal of the Senate of the Fourteenth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their Regular Session, Begun and Held at Springfield, December 2, 1844. Springfield, IL: Walters & Weber, 1844.
Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.