Chapter XVII: Section I: Be it ordained by the city council of the city of Nauvoo

that the Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Latter-day
Saints, Quakers, Episcopalians, Universalists, Unitarians,
Mohammedans, and all other religious sects and denominations,
whatever, shall have free toleration and equal privileges in this
city; and should any person be guilty of ridiculing and abusing,
or otherwise deprecating another, in consequence of his religion,
or of disturbing or interrupting any religious meeting within the
limits of this city, he shall, on conviction before the mayor or
municipal court, be considered a disturber of the public peace, and
fined in any sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisoned
not exceeding six months, or both, at the discretion of said mayor
and court.

The second section made it the duty of all municipal officers to notice and report any violation of the law--and in fact, of any other law of the city--to the mayor; and the municipal officers were authorized to arrest all violators of this law, either with or without process; so that the fullest religious liberty was secured to all sects, and all religions, and to people of no religion at all if any such there should be. Under such an ordinance, people could worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their consciences, without fear of molestation from any one; but they were restrained from interfering with the religion or mode of worship of their fellows--they were told, in a manner, that their liberties ended where those of other people commenced.

On the first of February, 1841, the first election for members of the city council took place, as provided by the city charter. John C. Bennett was chosen mayor; William Marks, Samuel H. Smith, D. H. Wells, and N. K. Whitney, aldermen; Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Chas. C. Rich, John T. Barnett, Wilson Law, Don C. Smith, J. P. Greene and Vinson Knight, councilors. On the third of the month the city council was organized, by appointing the following officers: marshal, H. G. Sherwood; recorder, James Sloan; treasurer, R. B. Thompson; assessor, James Robinson; supervisor of streets, Austin Cowles.

Mayor Bennett, the same day, delivered his inaugural address. After making several recommendations to the council relative to the establishment of an educational institution, a militia, the enactment of a temperance ordinance, and other measures affecting the manufacturing and commercial interests of the city; and further recommending that the protecting aegis of the corporation be thrown around every moral and religious institution of the day, which was in any way calculated to ennoble or ameliorate the condition of the citizens, he concluded his speech in these words:

As the chief magistrate of your city, I am determined to execute
all State laws, and city ordinances passed in pursuance of law, to
the very letter, should it require the strong arm of military power
to enable me to do so. As an officer, I know no man; the peaceful,
unoffending citizen shall be protected in the full exercise of all
his civil, political and religious rights, and the guilty violator
of the law shall be punished without respect to persons.

The first act of the city council, after its organization, was to express its gratitude for its privileges and powers conferred upon the city by its charter. For this purpose the following resolution was introduced by Joseph Smith, and adopted:

_Resolved_, by the city council of the city of Nauvoo, that the
unfeigned thanks of this community be respectfully tendered to the
governor, council of revision, and legislature of the State of
Illinois, as a feeble testimonial of their respect and esteem of
noble, high-minded, and patriotic statesmen; and as an evidence of
gratitude for the signal powers recently conferred--and that the
citizens of Quincy be held in everlasting remembrance for their
unparalleled liberality and marked kindness to our people, when in
their greatest state of suffering and want.

The next move was to pass a temperance ordinance, which practically made Nauvoo a prohibition city--that is, so far as prohibitory ordinances prohibit.