Joseph Smith Intervenes to Stop Fighting in Nauvoo

One day at Nauvoo, two boys were having a fistfight in front of the Mills City Hotel on Main Street. Joseph Smith, serving as mayor of Nauvoo, was in a City Council meeting on the second floor of his store, a block west of the Mansion House. Looking through the window toward the northeast, Joseph saw the two boys fighting. He quickly turned the meeting over to one of the aldermen to conduct, ran down the stairs, crossed the street, vaulted over a fence, and ran diagonally northeast until he arrived just as the two antagonists had pulled pickets from a fence and were about to continue their quarrel with the pickets as weapons. Joseph grabbed each boy by their shirt collar, ordered them to throw down their weapons, and then, releasing his grip on them, asked with perhaps a twinkle in his eye, 'Don't you know that no one in this town is allowed to fight except me?' When the sheepish boys admitted they did not know this, Joseph offered, 'Next time you feel like fighting come to my home and ask for a fight and I'll fight you, and it will be legal.' The narrator concluded, 'That ended our fighting. We certainly didn't want to fight Brother Joseph.' This account demonstrates Joseph Smith's vigilance as a community leader, his quick action to prevent harm, and his use of humor and personal charisma to redirect the boys' behavior without harsh punishment.