Lincoln and Nauvoo

Lincoln and Nauvoo. Looking for Lincoln. , (left panel:), Lincoln was in the Illinois House of Representatives when the controversial Nauvoo City Charter was granted in 1840. Although Lincoln did not have the opportunity to view Nauvoo's panoramic vista in person, as a former surveyor, he had the capacity through maps and descriptions to conjure in his mind's eye the beauty and potential of the place. As a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, he voted with the majority on December 16, 1840 when the state legislature in Springfield granted a charter incorporating Nauvoo as a city. Initially the charter was not controversial, it being similar in most respects to charters granted to other Illinois cities. Eventually, however, it became a point of contention. Opponents perceived in the charter a dangerous concentration of legislative, executive, and judicial powers in the hands of a few - while Joseph Smith and other interpreted the charter in ways they believed necessary to protect the community from the kinds of abuses Mormons had suffered in other locations. The Illinois legislature revoked the Nauvoo Charter seven months after Joseph Smith's death. Lincoln played no part in revoking the charter - his last legislative term having expired before the controversy erupted. , (center:), Drawings and maps such as this circa 1846 plat map are the only ways that Abraham Lincoln could have visualized Nauvoo, since he never visited. Right: A Democratic "Van Buren ticket" and a Whig "Harrison ticket" from the 1840 presidential election. People voted for president by selecting the slate of electors pledged to vote for their candidate in the Electoral College. Mormon voters amended such ballots by crossing out Lincoln's name and writing in the name of Democratic elector James H. Ralston. , (right panel:), Some two hundred Nauvoo voters scratched Lincoln's name from their ballots during the November 1840 presidential election. Lincoln was one of the electors for Whig candidate William Henry Harrison - whom most Mormons supported. But to demonstrate a degree of political even-handedness and to express gratitude for bipartisan sympathy received on their arrival in Illinois, Mormon voters wrote in the name of Quincy Democrat James H. Ralston in place of Lincoln (whose name was listed last on the Whig ticket). Lincoln apparently took no offense. Nauvoo's lobbyist in Springfield, John C. Bennett, reported: "…Lincoln, whose name we erased from the electoral ticket in November had the magnanimity to vote for [the Nauvoo Charter], and came forward, after the final vote to the bar of the house, and cordially congratulated me on its passage…"