We believe that governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man.

Doctrine and Covenants section 134 verse 1.

Hey listeners, this is Nick from Book of Mormon Central,

and today's podcast addresses the question,

why was the Navu City Charter important for protecting the saints?

By 1839, Why was the Navu City Charter important for protecting the Saints?

By 1839, many early members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been forcibly driven from their homes in both Ohio and Missouri.

They sought refuge first in Quincy, Illinois,

and then began to establish their own settlement

in the area around Commerce, Illinois, later named Navu.

By this time, the Saints felt that local officials in Ohio and Missouri had not sufficiently

protected their rights and had in some cases actually colluded with their persecutors.

Furthermore, county militias had been used to

drive them from their homes. Thus, as the saints began to build Navu, they wanted the opportunity

to protect and govern themselves. Historian Milton V. Bachman Jr. explained,

partially because of this persecution, Latter-day Saints who settled Navu were suspicious of some political leaders,

bodies of government and local militias. They were keenly interested in governing themselves without outside interference

and establishing a militia that could defend members from mobsters.

To achieve this goal, Joseph Smith and other important leaders set out to establish

a city charter that would grant them the ability to create their own local laws and raise their

own militia to enforce those laws and protect Navu's citizens. The proposed charter quickly passed

through the Illinois State Legislature in December 1840, passing its final review

...