page_title: Nauvoo Expositor
section_title: Background and origins
hierarchical_section_title: Nauvoo Expositor / Background and origins
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of William Law. Early member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and founder of the short-lived True Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
context_page_description: The Nauvoo Expositor was a newspaper in Nauvoo, Illinois, that published only one issue, on June 7, 1844. Its publication, and the destruction of the printing press ordered by Joseph Smith, set off a chain of events that led to the Smith's death.
  The Expositor was founded by several seceders from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and some non-Mormons in the Nauvoo area. The single edition of the newspaper was critical of Smith and other church leaders. Specifically, Smith was criticized for teaching doctrines such as plural marriage and exaltation.
  In response to the newspaper's publication, Smith and the Nauvoo City Council declared the paper a public nuisance, and ordered the press destroyed. The town marshal carried out the order during the evening of June 10.
  The destruction of the press led to charges of riot against Smith and other members of the Council. After Smith surrendered on the charges, he was also charged with treason against Illinois. Smith was killed by a mob while awaiting a trial in Carthage Jail.
context_section_description: A group of former members of the church were in open conflict with Smith for various doctrinal, economic, and political reasons.
  Although he publicly denied being involved in polygamy, it was known within the church that Smith was married to multiple women. In 1842, former church leader John C. Bennett made public allegations of Smith's unorthodox marriages. On August 12, 1843,  Hyrum Smith read Smith's revelation concerning plural marriage to the Nauvoo High Council.
  William Law was a member of the First Presidency. According to Law, Smith had made several proposals to Law's wife Jane, under the premise that Jane Law would enter a polyandrous marriage with Smith. Law's wife later described Smith's proposals, saying that Smith had "asked her to give him half her love; she was at liberty to keep the other half for her husband." On January 8, 1844, Smith removed Law from the First Presidency. On April 18, 1844, Law and his wife were excommunicated from the church, along with his brother Wilson Law, a brigadier general in the Nauvoo Legion. Also excommunicated were Robert D. Foster and Howard Smith.
  On May 1, Francis M. Higbee filed a legal complaint in the Fifth Judicial District of Illinois, suing Smith for slander and requesting damages of five thousand dollars.
  On May 10, a newspaper prospectus was circulated, announcing the creation of the Nauvoo Expositor.
  On May 18, the church excommunicated Higbee, James Blakesley, Charles Ivins, and Austin Cowles for apostasy. On May 29, the high council published a document purporting to show Higbee's brother Chauncey had also committed misdeeds.
  On May 23, Law obtained a grand jury indictment against Smith on the charge of polygamy from the Hancock County Circuit Court. Law swore that Smith had been living with Maria Lawrence "in an open state of adultery" since October 12, 1843.
  The Expositor was planned as an exposé of church practices which Law and his associates opposed.
caption: William Law, former member of the First Presidency and a publisher of the Expositor.
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