Inaugural Address

City of Nauvoo, Illinois, Feb. 3rd, 1841. Gentlemen of the City Council;

Aldermen and Councillors [Councilors]:-

Having been elected to the Mayoralty of this city by the unanimous suffrages of all parties and interests, I now enter upon the duties devolving upon me as your Chief Magistrate under a deep sense of the responsibilities of the station.-I trust that the confidence reposed in me, by my fellow citizens, has not been misplaced, and for the honor conferred they will accept my warmest sentiments of gratitude. By the munificence and wise legislation of noble, high-minded, and patriotic statesmen, and the grace of God, we have been blessed with one of the most liberal corporate acts ever granted by a legislative assembly. As the presiding officer of the law making department of the municipal government, it will be expected that I communicate to you from time to time, by oral or written messages, for your deliberative consideration and action, such matters as may suggest themselves to me in relation to the public weal; and upon this occasion I beg leave to present the following as matters of paramount importance.

The 21st Sec. of the addenda to the 13th Sec. of the City charter concedes to you plenary power "to tax, restrain, prohibit and suppress, tippling-houses, dram-shops," etc. etc., and I now recommend, in the strongest possible terms, that you take prompt, strong and decisive measures to "prohibit and suppress" all such establishments. It is true you have the power "to tax," or license and tolerate, them, and thus add to the city finances; but I consider it much better to raise revenue by an ad valorem tax on the property of sober men, than by licensing dram shops, or taxing the signs of the inebriated worshippers at the shrine of Bacchus. The revels of

bacchanalians in the house of blasphemy and noise will always prove a disgrace to a moral people. Public sentiment will do much to suppress the vice of intemperance, and its concomitant evil results: but ample experience has incontrovertibly proven that it cannot do all-the law must be brought to the rescue, and an effective prohibitory ordinance enacted. This cannot be done at a better time than at the present. Let us commence correctly, and the great work of reform, at least so far as our peaceful city is concerned, can be summarily consummated. It would be difficult to calculate the vast amount of evil and crime that would be prevented, and the great good that would accrue to the public at large by fostering the cause of temperance; but suffice it to say that the one would be commensurate to the other.-No sales of spirituous liquors whatever, in a less quantity than a quart, except in cases of sickness on the recommendation of a physician or surgeon duly accredited by the Chancellor and Regents of the University, should be tolerated. The liberty of selling the intoxicating cup is a false liberty-it enslaves, degrades, destroys and wretchedness and want are attendant on every step,-its touch, like that of the poison Upas, is DEATH. Liberty to do good should be cheerfully and freely accorded to every man; but liberty to do evil, which is licentiousness, should be peremptorily prohibited. The public good imperiously demands it-and the cause of humanity pleads for help. The protecting ægis of the corporation should be thrown around every moral, and religious institution of the day, which is in any way calculated to ennoble, or ameliorate the condition of the human family.

The immediate organization of the University, as contemplated in the 24th Sec. of the act incorporating our city, cannot be too forcibly impressed upon you at this time.-As all matters in relation to mental culture, and public instruction, from common schools up to the highest branches of a full collegiate course in the Arts, Sciences, and Learned Professions, will devolve upon the Chancellor and Regents of the University, they should be speedily elected, and instructed to perfect their plan, and enter upon its execution with as little delay as possible. The wheels of education should never be clogged, or retrograde, but roll progressively from the Alpha to the Omega of a most perfect, liberal, and thorough course of university attainments. The following observations in relation to false education, from Alexander's Messenger, so perfectly accords with my feelings and views on this highly important subject, that I cannot do better than incorporate them in this message.

"Among the changes for the worse, which the world has witnessed within the last century, we include that specious, superficial, incomplete way of doing certain things which were formerly thought to be deserving of care, labor and attention. It would seem that appearance is now considered of more moment than reality. The modern mode of education is an example in point. Children are so instructed as to acquire a smattering of every thing; and, as a matter of consequence, they know nothing properly. Seminaries and academies deal out their moral and natural philosophy, their geometry, trigonometry, and astronomy, their chemistry, botany, and mineralogy, until the mind of the pupil becomes a chaos; and, like the stomach when it is overloaded with a variety of food, it digests nothing, but converts the superabundant nutriment to poison. This mode of education answers one purpose:-it enables people to seem learned; and seemingly, by a great many, is thought all-sufficient. Thus we are schooled in quackery, and are early taught to regard showy and superficial attainments as most desirable. Every boarding school Miss is a Plato in petticoats, without an ounce of that genuine knowledge, that true philosophy, which would enable her to be useful in the world, and to escape those perils with which she must necessarily be encompassed. Young people are taught to use a variety of hard terms, which they understand but imperfectly;-to repeat lessons which they are unable to apply;-to astonish their grand-mothers with a display of their parrot-like acquisitions;-but their mental energies are clogged and torpified with a variety of learned lumber, most of which is discarded from the brain long before its possessor knows how to use it. This is the quackery of education.

The effects of the erring system are not easily obliterated. The habit of using words without thounht [thought], sticks to the unfortunate student through life, and should he ever learn to think, he cannot express his ideas without the most tedious and perplexing verbosity. This is, more or less, the fault of every writer in the nineteenth century. The sense is encumbered with sound. The scribbler appears to imagine that if he puts a sufficient number of words together he has done his part; and, alas! how many books are written on this principle. Thus literature, and even science itself, is overloaded with froth and flummery. Verbalizing has become fashionable and indispensable, and one line from an ancient author will furnish the materials for a modern treatise."

Our University should be a "utilitarian" institution-and competent, industrious, teachers, and professors, should be immediately elected for the several departments. "Knowledge is power."-foster education and we are forever free! Nothing can be done which is more certainly calculated to perpetuate the free institutions of our common country, for which our progenitors "fought and bled, and died," than the general diffusion of useful knowledge amongst the people. Education should always be of a purely practical character, for such, and such alone, is calculated to perfect the happiness, and prosperity, of our fellow-citizens-ignorance, impudence, and false knowledge, are equally detestable,-shame and confusion follow in their train. As you now possess the power, afford the most ample facilities to the Regents to make their plan complete; and thus enable them to set a glorious example to the world at large. The most liberal policy should attend the organization of the University,

and equal honors and privileges should be extended to all classes of the community.

In order to carry out the provisions of the 25th Sec. of the act incorporating our city, I would recommend the immediate organization of the Legion. Comprising, as it does the entire military power of our city, with a provision allowing any citizen of Hancock county to unite by voluntary enrollment, early facilities should be afforded the court Martial for perfecting their plan of drill, rules, and regulations. Nothing is more necessary to the preservation of order, and the supremacy of the laws, than the perfect organization of our military forces, under a uniform and rigid discipline, and approved judicious drill; and to this end I desire to see all the departments, and cohorts of the Legion put in immediate requisition. The Legion should be all powerful, panopled [panoplied] with justice and equity, to consummate the designs of its projectors-at all times ready, as minute men, to serve the state in such way and manner as may, from time to time, be pointed out by the Governor. You have long sought an opportunity of showing your attachment to the state government of Illinois-it is now afforded: the Legion should maintain the constitution and the laws, and be ready at all times for the public defence [defense]. The winged warrior of the air perches upon the pole of American liberty, and the beast that has the temerity to ruffle her feathers should be made to feel the power of her talons; and until she ceases to be our proud national emblem we should not cease to show our attachment to Illinois. Should the tocsin of alarm ever be sounded, and the Legion called to the tented field by our Executive, I hope to see it able, under one of the proudest mottos [mottoes] that ever blazed upon a warrior's shield-Sicut Patribus sit Deus nobis: as God was with our fathers, so may he be with us-to fight the battles of our country, as victors, and as freemen: the juice of the uva, or the spirit of insubordination should never enter our camp,-but we should stand, ever stand, as a united people-ONE AND INDIVISABLE [indivisible].

I would earnestly recommend the construction of a wing-dam in the Mississippi, at the mouth of the ravine at or near the head of Main street, and the excavation of a ship-canal from that point to a point terminating in a grand reservoir on the bank of said river, east of the foot of said street, a distance of about two miles. This would afford, at the various outlets, the most ample water power for propelling any amount of machinery for mill and manufactoring [manufacturing] purposes, so essentially necessary to the building up of a great commercial city in the heart of one of the most productive and delightful countries on earth. I would advise that an agent be immediately appointed on behalf of the city corporation, to negotiate with eastern capitalists for the completion of this great work, on the most advantageous terms, even to the conveyance of the privilege for a term of years. This work finished, and the future greatness of this city is placed upon an imperishable basis. In addition to the great advantages that will otherwise accrue to the city and country by the construction of this noble work, it would afford the best harbor for the steam-boats, for winter quarters, on this magnificient [magnificent] stream.

The public health requires that the low lands, bordering on the Mississippi, should be immediately drained, and the entire timber removed. This can and will be one of the most healthy cities in the west, provided you take prompt and decisive action in the premises. A Board of Health should be appointed and vested with the usual powers and prerogatives.

The Governor, Council of Revision, and Legislature of Illinois, should be held in everlasting remembrance by our people-they burst the chains of slavery and proclaimed us forever free! A vote of thanks, couched in the strongest language possible, should be tendered them in our corporate capacity; and, when this is done, Quincy, our first noble city of refuge, when we came from the slaughter in Missouri with our garments stained with blood, should not be forgotten.

As the Chief Magistrate of your city I am determined to execute all state laws, and city ordinances passed in pursuance to 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 violater [violator] of law shall be punished, without respect to persons.

All of which is respectfully submitted,

JOHN C. BENNETT.