DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE CHURCH Volume V, Ch. XVI
[JOSEPH SMITH IN THE NAUVOO CITY COUNCIL, FEB. 4, 1843.]
GOLD AND SILVER ALONE MADE LEGAL TENDER IN NAUVOO.
In reply to some of the councilors, who thought it impolitic to stop circulating bank notes as currency at once, I replied, I would use a figure, and talk like some foolish fathers do to their children. If you want to kill a serpent, don't cut off his head, for fear he will bite you; but cut off his tail, piece by piece, and perhaps you won't get bit. It is the same with this bill. I say, if paper currency is an evil, put it down at once.
When councilors get up here, I want them to speak sense. Great God, where is common sense and reason? Is there none on the earth? Why have the canker remaining any longer to sap our life? If you get hold of a $5 bill, you can get nothing with it:. There is no one who dares to touch it, fearing it to be a counterfeit, or the note of a broken bank.
I wish you had my soul long enough to know how good it feels., I say it is expedient when you strike at an enemy, to strike the most deadly blow possible.
Councilor Hyde asked me what an editor should do. I told him,
advertise in your next paper to your agents to send you gold and silver, as paper will no longer be taken as pay.
The ordinance regulating currency in the city passed by a unanimous vote, as follows:--
ORDINANCE.
Sec. 1. Be it ordained by the City Council of the city of Nauvoo, that, from and after the passage of this bill, gold and silver coin only can be received a lawful tender in payment of city taxes and of debts, and also of fines imposed under the ordinances of the city.
Sec. 2. That city scrip shall not hereafter be emitted as monied currency; provided, however, that nothing in this bill shall be so construed as to prevent the redemption of previous emissions.
Sec. 3. That any person passing counterfeit gold, or silver, or copper coin, or counterfeit or spurious paper currency, or aiding or abetting therein, or holding the same with intent to pass it, knowing it to be such, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or to imprisonment or hard labor in the city, for a term not exceeding fourteen years, or all these penalties at the discretion of the court.
Sec. 4. That any person passing a paper currency, or aiding and abetting therein, or holding the same with intent to pass it within the bounds of this city corporation, shall be liable to a fine of one dollar for every dollar thus offered or passed, to be recovered as in action of debt; one-half of said fine to be paid to the complainant, the other half to the said corporation.
JOSEPH SMITH, Mayor.
(Emphases added.)
