Babbitt was apparently the speaker here. According to an advertisement dated 23 March 1845, Joseph W. Coolidge, a member of the council and the administrator of JS’s estate, organized a 12 April 1845 estate sale of “three stoves, and all the interest of Joseph Smith deceased in the Nauvoo House Association.” (“Administrator’s Sale,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 2 Apr. 1845, [4].)
Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.
Both the January 1841 revelation and the legal charter promised a suite of rooms to JS and his heirs. JS’s 19 January 1841 revelation stated, “Let my servant Joseph and his seed after him have place in that house, from generation to generation, forever and ever, saith the Lord.” Similarly, the charter for the Nauvoo House Association stated that “whereas Joseph Smith has furnished the said association with the ground whereon to erect said house it is further declared that the said Smith and his heirs shall hold by perpetual succession a suit of rooms in the said house to be set apart and conveyed in due form of law, to him and his heirs by the said trustees as soon as the same are completed.” Babbitt appears to have been arguing that by abandoning the charter, they could prevent JS’s interest in the house from being seized by creditors. (Revelation, 19 Jan. 1841, in Doctrine and Covenants [103]:18, 1844 ed. [D&C 124:59]; An Act to Incorporate the Nauvoo House Association [23 Feb. 1841], Laws of the State of Illinois [1840–1841], p. 132, sec. 10.)
Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Twelfth General Assembly, at Their Session, Began and Held at Springfield, on the Seventh of December, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty. Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1841.
Both the printed version and certified manuscript copies of the statute establishing the Nauvoo House Association erroneously state that the Nauvoo House would be built on the southern portion of lot 56 in Nauvoo, rather than lot 156. This was almost certainly a clerical mistake. The articles of agreement for the construction of the house stated that it would be built “near the foot of Main Street,” a description that matches its location on the southern portion of lot 156. (“An Act to Incorporate the Nauvoo House Association,” 23 Feb. 1841, copies certified by Stephen A. Douglas and Lyman Trumbull, CHL; An Act to Incorporate the Nauvoo House Association [23 Feb. 1841], Laws of the State of Illinois [1840–1841], p. 131, sec. 2; Nauvoo House Association, Agreement and Specifications, 26 Apr. 1841, CHL.)
“An Act to Incorporate the Nauvoo House Association,” 23 Feb. 1841. Copies certified by Stephen A. Douglas and Lyman Trumbull. CHL. MS 15558.
Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Twelfth General Assembly, at Their Session, Began and Held at Springfield, on the Seventh of December, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty. Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1841.
Nauvoo House Association. Agreement and Specifications, 26 Apr. 1841. CHL.