A more remarkable scheme of independent local government could not have been devised even by the leaders of this Mormon church, and the shortsightedness of the law makers in consenting to it seems nothing short of marvellous. Under it the mayor, who helped to make the local laws (as a member of the City Council), was intrusted with their enforcement, and he could, as the head of the Municipal Court, give them legal interpretation. Governor Ford afterward defined the system as "a government within a government; a legislature to pass ordinances at war with the laws of the state; courts to execute them with but little dependence upon the constitutional judiciary, and a military force at their own command." * * A bill repealing this charter was passed by the Illinois House on February 3, 1843, by a vote of fifty-eight to thirty-three, but failed in the Senate by a vote of sixteen ayes to seventeen nays. This military force, called the Nauvoo Legion, the City Council was authorized to organize from the inhabitants of the city who were subject to military duty. It was to be at the disposal of the mayor in executing city laws and ordinances, and of the governor of the state for the public defence. When organized, it embraced three classes of troops--flying artillery, lancers, and riflemen. Its independence of state control was provided for by a provision of law which allowed it to be governed by a court martial of its own officers. The view of its independence taken by the Mormons may be seen in the following general order signed by Smith and Bennett in May, 1841, founded on an opinion by judge Stephen A. Douglas:--"The officers and privates belonging to the Legion are exempt from all military duty not required by the legally constituted authorities thereof; they are therefore expressly inhibited from performing any military service not ordered by the general officers, or directed by the court martial."* * Times and Seasons, Vol. II, p. 417. Governor Ford commissioned Brigham Young to succeed Smith as lieutenant general of the Legion from August 31, 1844. To show the Mormon idea of authority, the following is quoted from Tullidge's "Life of Brigham Young," p. 30: "It is a singular fact that, after Washington, Joseph Smith was the first man in America who held the rank of lieutenant general, and that Brigham Young was the next. In reply to a comment by the author upon this fact Brigham Young said: 'I was never much of a military man. The commission has since been abrogated by the state of Illinois; but if Joseph had lived when the (Mexican) war broke out he would have become commander-in chief of the United States Armies.'"