The _Expositor_ was produced and read in the council. It was held by some that the purpose for which it was published was to provoke the people to some overt act which would make them amenable to the law, and increase the bitterness of the outside prejudice against them. This was doubtless the case. Such it seems was the understanding of the council. In relation to this circumstance Elder Taylor remarks:
"With a perfect knowledge, therefore, of the designs of these infernal scoundrels who were in our midst, as well as those who surrounded us, the city council entered upon an investigation of the matter. They felt that they were in a critical position, and that any move made for the abating of that press would be looked upon, or at least represented, as a direct attack upon the liberty of speech, and that, so far from displeasing our enemies, it would be looked upon by them as one of the best circumstances that could transpire to assist them in their nefarious and bloody designs."
After spending nearly a whole night in considering the best plan to pursue, it was finally decided to declare the _Expositor_ a nuisance, and order its abatement. Elder Taylor made the motion and it was carried unanimously, with the exception of one vote, and that person acknowledged the righteousness of the movement, but feared it would afford the enemies of the city too great an advantage by giving some ground for the cry that would be raised, that the freedom of the press had been overthrown in Nauvoo. It is quite certain, however, that if the city council had not taken this means of suppressing the _Expositor_, the citizens would have risen _en masse_ and a mob would have destroyed it: and that would have given the enemies of the Saints as good ground for agitation against Nauvoo and her people as the action of the city council did. So Elder Taylor's motion prevailed.
The _Expositor_ Press was destroyed by the city marshal, John P. Green, and a small _posse_ of men he called to his assistance. The type was pied in the streets and the papers in the office taken out and burned. The whole proceeding was done quietly but determinedly. The only force employed was the breaking in of the doors to the _Expositor_ office when admittance was denied. Some of the leading apostates set fire to their houses and fled to Carthage, the county seat of Hancock County, with the lie on their lips that their lives were in danger. Fortunately the police in Nauvoo discovered the houses of these men on fire and extinguished the flames before any material harm was done, so that they had no blackened ruins to point to as a witness of Mormon atrocity.