 Smith, as mayor of the town of Nauvoo, Illinois, had ordered the destruction of the facilities producing the "Nauvoo Expositor", a newly established newspaper set up by a group of non-Mormons and people who had seceded from the church.The newspaper's first (and only) issue was highly critical of Smith and other church leaders—reporting that Smith was practicing polygamy and claiming he intended to set himself up as a theocratic king.In response, a democratic vote was held, and Smith declared the paper a public nuisance and ordered its press destroyed.