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| - On April 25, Joseph and the other leaders selected a town named Commerce in Hancock County, Illinois, to be their new city. It was a beautiful, though swampy location overlooking a large bend in the Mississippi river. They bought the land and began settling there. The Twelve Apostles soon left again to preach the Gospel. Joseph Smith remained behind to help build up the new city. Joseph changed the name to Nauvoo, which comes from the Hebrew word meaning beautiful . The Mormons were still anxious either to return to their lands in Missouri or get just compensation. Joseph directed them to write down everything that had happened and to try to account for all that they had lost. In October, 1839, Joseph Smith took these affidavits to Washington, D.C., where he spoke with members of the U.S. Congress and met with President Martin Van Buren. They told them that since Missouri was a sovereign state, only Missouri could redress their wrongs. Though Joseph told them that Governor Boggs refused, President Van Buren still said he could not help the Mormons. Joseph returned to Nauvoo. He and the other leaders determined that they would not let themselves be driven and harassed by illegal mobs again. They petitioned for and obtained a charter for their own city, which gave them the legal right to defend themselves against attacks both from the law and from mobs. The charter for Nauvoo created a city militia, which was very common at the time, and also established a university. It also stated that no resident of Nauvoo could be arrested without a writ of habeas corpus before a city judge. This meant that no person living in Nauvoo could be dragged off by mobs or sheriffs without getting a fair chance to hear the charges against them. Nauvoo prospered, and soon immigrants began arriving from England and Canada. In 1840, the Church was ten years old and had grown from a mere 6 members in April, 1830, to over 16,000 by the end of 1840. There were now enough Mormons in England that the Church began publishing its own newspaper in that country, The Millennial Star. In the fall of that year, the Mormons began building the Nauvoo Temple, and Joseph Smith announced a revelation teaching baptism for the dead. This meant that all those who had ever lived without having had a chance to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, could still accept it through a vicarious ordinance. By 1841, the number of Mormons had grown, so that they spilled over into Hancock County and across the Mississippi into Iowa. Persecution followed them, and the Missouri state government tried multiple times to extradite Joseph Smith and the other leaders back to Missouri. Someone had attempted to assassinate Governor Boggs, and though there was no evidence, Boggs was convinced Joseph Smith was behind it. Fortunately, the Missourians could never extradite anyone, because they had no evidence, and the Nauvoo charter required some proof before the person could be extradited. Also in 1841, the Twelve Apostles continued their missions in Europe. Elder Orson Hyde, one of the Apostles, traveled throughout Europe and even visited Palestine, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. In November of 1841, Joseph Smith dedicated part of the new Nauvoo Temple so it could be used for baptisms for the dead. The early part of 1842 was relatively peaceful. In the spring, a newspaper man in Chicago named John Wentworth requested from Joseph Smith a brief summary of the history of the Church and what it believed. Joseph complied. The letter, known as the Wentworth letter, is an important document from Mormon history; it also contains the Articles of Faith. On March 17, 1842, Joseph Smith organized the Women’s Relief Society. Emma Smith, Joseph’s wife, became the first president. The Relief Society organized the women. They thereafter appointed teachers, taught one another the gospel, and organized relief and service programs. One of their early missions was to provide relief for the poor in Nauvoo and assist in building the Nauvoo Temple; hence the organization was called the Relief Society. Today the Relief Society is among the largest and oldest women’s organizations in the world. The remainder of 1842 and most of 1843 were not so peaceful. While construction of the new town and especially the temple continued, Joseph and other leaders were often forced into hiding. In May, John C. Bennett, who had become a close associate and friend of Joseph Smith, was excommunicated from the Church because of adultery. He tried to claim that Joseph had given him permission to do this, but ultimately he confessed. After he left the Church, he became very bitter and began writing attacks on Joseph Smith and the Church. This forced Joseph to spend much of the fall in hiding. From his hiding places, Joseph continued writing letters to the Church. In 1843, Joseph continued to alternate periods of hiding from his persecutors and publicly teaching the Gospel, often in groves of trees for groups too large to be accommodated in any local building. Joseph taught about the importance of gathering all Mormons together and building temples. In July, he recorded a revelation about polygamy, or plural marriage as Mormons usually called it. Joseph had been troubled by Old Testament accounts about prophets like Abraham who had multiple wives. He asked the Lord about this. The Lord responded that sometimes he commands men to take more than one wife, but that they can only do this when God commands them and they must be very careful. Joseph was still troubled by this, but he began teaching it to some of his most loyal associates. After much prayer, most of them accepted it as a revelation from God. Some, however, were not pleased. Since John C. Bennett, who had been mayor of Nauvoo, left after being excommunicated, Joseph Smith became mayor. Some felt that he had too much power. Joseph replied that he was not autocratic, but that he taught the people principles and left them to govern themselves. In early 1844, Joseph Smith appointed seven men to oversee the Seventy. This corresponds to the seven men the Apostles in Jesus’ time appointed (see Acts 7:3). Early 1844 was a trying time. Some people dissented from the Church because they either opposed polygamy or felt that Joseph Smith had fallen from being a prophet. Anti-Mormons and ex-Mormons like Bennett continued to stir up trouble by publishing scandalous and libelous reports about the Mormons and Joseph Smith, whom they mockingly called Joe Smith or Peepstone Joe. Joseph decided that to respond to these critics, he needed a national forum. He therefore decided to run for President of the United States. It is unlikely he expected to win, but he and the Church used this as a platform to express their views. Joseph Smith promised that if elected, he would use the government to protect minorities. He also planned to end slavery by establishing a fund to buy slaves from slave owners, and then free them. The slave owners could use the money to transform their estates so that they would no longer need slaves.
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