[Hemidakota]

Part-2

activity
two parliamentary rules governed the council of fifty: It could convene only when it had a quorum (fifty percent of membership) in attendance, and it existed officially only when it convened to conduct business. Thus, the council of fifty had only a technical, non-functioning existence when its members did not meet with or report to convened sessions of the council.
Although the murder of joseph smith and other mob actions threatened the existence of both the church and civil order at nauvoo, william clayton recorded that the council of fifty met on 4 february 1845 for the first time since the death of the prophet the previous june. 38 during these critical months, the quorum of twelve apostles acted virtually alone in stabilizing nauvoo's religious and civil society. From 1 march through may 1845, the council of fifty convened nearly every week to respond to current crises and to plan for the westward movement. After may 1845 the council met sporadically until its final pre-exodus meetings in the nauvoo temple on 11, 13, and 18 january 1846.

For nearly three years after january 1846, the council of fifty had few meetings because its members were widely scattered during the pioneer exodus, making it difficult to obtain a quorum for meetings. For example, apostle john e. Page, a member of the council, was dropped from church office and disfellowshipped in february 1846 and was excommunicated from the church in june 1846. Even though council of fifty members regarded john e. Page as a traitor to both the church and the kingdom, it was not until 12 november 1846 that a quorum (twenty-six members) of the council of fifty could convene to drop him from the council. 39

the council of fifty did not meet regularly again until december 1848 and therefore exerted minimal direction of the mormon pioneer exodus. An examination of the attendance at the scores of "council" meetings which supervised the pioneer exodus from february 1846 to december 1848 shows a consistent pattern: The apostles summoned these pioneer "council" meetings and invited members as well as non-members of the council of fifty to participate at the direction of the apostles. 40 the inclusion of non-members of the council of fifty actually diminished the status of council members who regarded the exodus as their primary mission. This situation undoubtedly was what prompted george miller's sarcastic comment in 1855 that the council of fifty [in 1846-1847] "swelled to a great crowd under brigham's reign." 41 miller's disgruntled remark certainly did not describe an actual enlargement of the council. Although brigham young's additions to the council of fifty increased its membership to a temporary high of sixty men in 1845, deaths and disaffections soon reduced the membership to the mid-fifties level established by joseph smith. President brigham young convened the council of fifty occasionally during the pioneer exodus of 1846-1848, but the consistent supervision of the exodus was provided by members of the quorum of the twelve apostles, to which other members of the council of fifty were subordinate.

After an initial flurry of activity from 1848 to 1850 in utah, the council of fifty became a virtual relic during the remainder of brigham young's leadership. It met weekly from december 1848 through the end of 1849 to provide the foundation for utah's civil government. The council did not convene again until 21 august 1851. One comment during the 1851 meetings demonstrates that the council of fifty had ceased to function while it was unconvened during this year-and-a-half period: "s. Roundy, was appointed on a mission east two years ago and never made any report, if they want it he is ready to make a report." 42 the council of fifty met periodically until 4 october 1851, when most members seemed to lose interest: "oct. 4. 1851 10 1/2 a.m. Nine persons only having met--on motion adjourned to 1 p.m. 1 p.m. Again met--roll called--not a quorum--on motion adjourned to the call of the president." 43 brigham young showed as little interest in calling another meeting for the council of fifty as its members had shown for attending its last meeting in 1851. He did not bother to reconvene the council for more than fifteen years.

When the council of fifty met on 23 january 1867 for the first time "since the last meeting of the council on the 4th. October 1851," brigham young gave council members no encouragement about the importance of their role.["[h]e was not aware of any particular business to be brought before the council, further than to meet and renew our acquaintance with each other in this capacity. Had no doubt but brethren had often inquired in their own minds when the council would again be called together." 44 the council of fifty met only eight times from this date until 9 october 1868, when it met and voted to establish zion's co-operative mercantile institution (zcmi). The council of fifty apparently conducted no other substantive business during the 1867-1868 period but occupied itself primarily with the admission of new members to fill vacancies. 45 interest in these perfunctory meetings of the council was so low that on 4 april 1868 the "council of fifty met this p.m., but few attended consequently it was turned into a testimony meeting for a short season." 46 brigham young tired of the council of fifty and ignored it after october 1868.

His successor, john taylor, revitalized the council of fifty by reconvening it on 10 april 1880 for the first time "since last met, in oct. 68." 47 under president taylor's direction, the council assembled for five consecutive years, a record of activity for the council unequalled since 1849.

Nevertheless, the council of fifty met only infrequently in the 1880s: Five days in 1880, four days in 1881, ten days in 1882, ten days in 1883, and four days in 1884. 48 it was indeed functioning in "regular" meetings during the 1880s, but the council of fifty convened less than any other civil or religious body in utah during the period.

Those who have regarded the council of fifty as the central policy-making body for mormon theocracy from 1844 to the 1880s must reckon with the periods in which the council never convened or conducted business. Amid the tumult at nauvoo, the council of fifty did not meet from june 1844 to february 1845, even though most of its members had returned to the city by august 1844. During the pioneer exodus, it rarely met and its members simply joined with other trusted mormons in ad hoc meetings convened and directed by the apostles. From 1850 to 1880, the council of fifty met on fewer than twenty days, despite the fact that utah and the church had a very active political and economic life during those thirty years. Finally, in the early 1880s when the u.s. Government was beginning its campaign against mormon theocracy, john taylor resurrected the council of fifty to meet on only thirty-three days during a four-year period. The evidence of official meeting dates alone argues for the insignificance of the council of fifty in practical terms, rather than for its awesome influence as suggested by earlier writers. Instead of the council of fifty, it was the council of the first presidency and the quorum of the twelve apostles that provided continuous leadership for the mormons in religious, economic, political, and social matters.

supervision
without question, at certain times the council of fifty was centrally involved in extremely important activities of mormonism. It convened to discuss, approve, and carry out the 1844 campaign for joseph smith's presidential candidacy, the 1845 preparations at nauvoo for the westward exodus, the formation of civil government in utah in 1849, and the selection of candidates for public office in utah and the surrounding territories in the 1880s. Nevertheless, even when it was so actively involved, the council of fifty was actually under the supervision of the lds church leadership. At times, the council of fifty was even a rubber stamp for prior decisions of the first presidency and the quorum of the twelve apostles.

From the beginning, the lds presidency and apostles directed the council of fifty to predetermined ends. On 29 january 1844, the quorum of the twelve apostles nominated joseph smith for the u.s. Presidency and on 4 march nominated his vice-presidential running mate. After the council of fifty was formed in march 1844, that body simply repeated what had already been decided and continued the political campaign begun by the first presidency and the quorum of the twelve. 49 on 21 february 1844, joseph smith gave to the apostles the responsibility to plan an exodus into the american west, and they initially chose eight men to act as scouts. After the turmoil of the ill-fated presidential campaign and the succession crisis, the council of fifty decided on 1 march 1845 to select nine men to act as scouts for a new location in the far west, and the council of fifty "selected" nearly all of the eligible men originally chosen by the quorum of the twelve. 50 moreover, when twenty members of the council of fifty met for prayer with their wives in the nauvoo temple on 11 december 1845, brigham young asked only ten members of the group (seven apostles, two general bishops, and a clerk) to join him for a council about an urgent letter which warned then that the u.s. Government opposed the westward exodus of the mormons. Because the exodus from nauvoo was the primary concern of the council of fifty meetings in 1845, this exclusion of nine of its members from this crucial meeting is an important evidence of the subordination of the council of fifty to church authority at nauvoo. 51

the diminished role of the council of fifty from 1846 to 1848 angered council members who did not have the powerful status of the apostles during the mormon exodus. George miller complained: "when we arrived at winter quarters the council convened, but their deliberations amounted to nothing. But however, i was not wholly overlooked in their deliberations." 52

george miller's apostasy from the church in 1847 resulted from his dissatisfaction with the exclusion of the council of fifty from governing the pioneer exodus, and other subordinate members of the council of fifty soon followed that disaffection. When the high council in iowa tried peter haws and lucien woodworth in february 1849, haws "persisted that the fifty should be called together. He said had never been legally adjourned [sic] he said that brigham had pledged himself to carry out the measures of joseph and intimated that it had not been done and that twelve men had swallowed up thirty eight." and then, "elder g. A. Smith interrupted him by telling him that the fifty was nothing bu [sic] a debating school." 53 these crucial comments indicate how frustrated some council of fifty members felt toward the supremacy of the quorum of the twelve apostles, as well as underscore the attitude of the apostles toward the subordinate role of the council of fifty.

Even when president john taylor revitalized the council of fifty in the 1880s, he continued to maintain actual power in the first presidency and the quorum of the twelve apostles, and he allowed only symbolic power to the council. On 1 april 1880, the quorum of the twelve considered who should fill vacancies in the council of fifty. When the council reconvened on 10 april for the first time in nearly twelve years, the non-apostles members of the council of fifty had only a perfunctory role in selecting new members of the council: The day before the council met, the apostles notified the initiates to attend the meeting. 54 the most striking example of this rubber-stamp quality of the council of fifty occurred in october 1882.

The first presidency and quorum of the twelve discussed on 4 october who should be the candidate for utah's delegate to congress, and in the morning of 11 october 1882, the presidency and apostles voted that john t. Caine be the delegate. Three hours later, at the direction of the lds hierarchy, the council of fifty convened, discussed who should be the delegate to congress, "nominated" john t. Caine, and appointed a committee to inform the nominating committee of the church's political party, the people's party. 55

members of the council of fifty who were not in the first presidency or the quorum of the twelve were probably unaware of the extent to which those authorities manipulated meetings of the council of fifty so as to arrive at predetermined decisions. Therefore, the unsophisticated council members developed unrealistic views. It is no coincidence that the most effusive descriptions of the council of fifty's allegedly supreme role in the latter-day kingdom of god were written by john d. Lee, benjamin f. Johnson, george miller, and others who were not privy to orchestration of council of fifty meetings by the lds presidency and apostles. Even apostles lyman wight exaggerated the council of fifty's importance because his long absences from nauvoo during 1844 and 1845 prevented his seeing the extent to which the presidency and apostles constituted a shadow government behind the council of fifty's shadow government. These overly enthusiastic council of fifty members simply did not understand that the mormon hierarchy was supreme in both church and kingdom, and that it allowed no rival.

The council of fifty was prosaic rather than awesome. At the most practical level, the council of fifty was the "debating school" apostle george a. Smith called it in 1849. Buttressed by oaths of secrecy, the council of fifty provided a forum to give the church hierarchy different views on pressing questions of political, economic, and social significance for the latter-day saints. Undoubtedly, the presidency and apostles of the church did not prearrange all the deliberations and decisions of the council of fifty, but the opinions and recommendations of the presidency and apostles carried conclusive weight in the discussions of the council of fifty.

The council of fifty also provided three dozen reliable men to carry out the political and economic programs of the first presidency and the quorum of the twelve apostles, who simply "honored" individual council of fifty members with positions of public prominence but did not allow the council itself to rival the mormon hierarchy's exercise of power.

The council of fifty had a minimal role in the actual exercise of political power but served as an important symbol of the unattained ideal of a democratically functioning kingdom of god. Like its economic counterpart, the united order of enoch and law of consecration, the council of fifty required greater perfection in the saints than existed during the years of mormon isolation in the great basin of the american west. Created according to the uncompromising millennial context of divine revelation, the council had only a sporadic existence which was compromised by the imperfections of its members for whom power and prestige became ends in themselves. Those who most successfully fulfilled their role in the council of fifty recognized it as a symbol of what could and would transpire when the hearts of a sinful world and imperfect church members turned sufficiently to christ the king. 56 those who were least successful in that trust were the men who accepted that symbol in literal terms and thereby became discouraged and bitter at the disparity. In like manner, the greatest weakness of the "kingdom school" among recent interpreters of mormon history lies in the confusion of symbol and substance, in the failure to separate the temporal realities of the mormon kingdom of god from its unachieved millennial anticipations.

membership
admission to the council of fifty came in three stages, which could occur on one day or on three separate days--a man's name was proposed (most often by the lds president as standing chairman of the council), and then voted on, and then the man was formally initiated into the council. On the day of their admission, new members affirmed that they were in fellowship with all other council members, and then an officer or the council of fifty proceeded in "giving them the 'charge,' 'the name,' & 'key word,' and the 'constitution,' and 'penalty.'" 57 once admitted, men remained members of the council of fifty for life, unless they were dropped by the council for disaffection. Not until 1882 did the council add the option of release due to old age and disability. 58

the specific membership of the council of fifty has been another area in which there has been inaccuracy. Part of the problem arose when historians identified men as members on the basis of attendance at "council" meeting that were not meetings of the council of fifty. Even some members of the council made misstatements about its membership when they sought to remember back thirty to sixty years: John d. Lee erroneously indicated that joseph h. Jackson was admitted to the council of fifty, and benjamin f. Johnson mistakenly claimed that sidney rigdon, william marks, and members of the nauvoo high council were not members of the council of fifty. 59

moreover, the general silence about membership of the council of fifty in utah has allowed rampant speculation and rumor. However, it is now possible to compare abundant diaries and other sources on the council of fifty in order to establish the exact dates of admission or at least the periods of service for all members of the council throughout its history.

The first evident characteristic of the council of fifty's membership is the extent to which church office was important. From 1844 to 1884 the council of fifty included every contemporary member of the first presidency except the disaffected william law, every member of the quorum of the twelve apostles, every presiding patriarch except john smith (b. 1832, son of hyrum smith), every member of the presiding bishopric except jesse c.
Little, and more than forty-four percent of the first council of the seventy. 60 of local officers during the period, forty-eight percent of the stake presidents and a much smaller percentage of the ward bishops were members of the council of fifty during their ecclesiastical service in these positions. This church identity of members of the council of fifty was mentioned in an 1882 revelation:

Behold you are my kingdom and rulers in my kingdom and then you are also, many of you, rulers in my church according to your ordinations therein. For are you not of the first presidency, and of the twelve apostles and some presidents of stakes, and some bishops, and some high priests and some seventies and elders therein? And are ye not all of my church and belong to my holy priesthood? 61