Council of Fifty

The Council of Fifty belongs to the Kingdom side of Joseph Smith’s Nauvoo work. It should not be collapsed into the Church of Jesus Christ, nor should it be treated as a merely political club. As Fred C. Collier elucidates, it is the Kingdom-government expression of the higher order restored through Joseph Smith: connected to the Holy Order, but not identical with it.

The treatment below follows notes in Unpublished Revelations of the Prophets and Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, volume 1, the treatment in The Office of the One Anointed and Appointed, and the published Joseph Smith Papers Council of Fifty minutes.

The Revealed Name of the Kingdom

Unpublished Revelations prints the April 7, 1842 revelation giving the name of the Kingdom:

“The Kingdom of God and His Laws, with the Keys and power thereof, and judgment in the hands of his servants, Ahman Christ.”1

That name is important. The Council of Fifty is not merely another committee. It is connected with laws, keys, power, judgment, and the government of Christ. At the same time, the phrase “his servants” shows that this is delegated government under Ahman Christ, not merely unguided human sovereignty.

Organized in March 1844

On March 11, 1844, Joseph Smith and his associates formally organized the body later known as the Council of Fifty. William Clayton’s record says that the brethren looked toward a place where they could “establish a Theocracy” and considered forming a constitution according to the mind of God.2

The March 1844 organization date can be accepted while still reading it as a further development of what had begun earlier in Nauvoo. Fred Collier’s note to the April 7, 1842 revelation explains that the March 1844 organization was “a further organization and development of the Holy Order” organized on May 4, 1842.3

This distinction helps students of the Restoration avoid two incomplete readings. The Council of Fifty is not simply the Holy Order under another name, but neither is it separable from the higher Priesthood, temple, and family-government work Joseph had already begun.

Church and Kingdom Are Distinct

Joseph Smith taught the Council that there was a distinction between the Church of God and the Kingdom of God. The published introduction to the Council of Fifty minutes summarizes Joseph’s statement that the literal Kingdom of God and the Church of God are distinct, because the laws of the Kingdom were not designed to effect salvation hereafter, but to protect the Saints in their religious rights and worship.4

In other words, the Church preaches, baptizes, gathers, and prepares. The Kingdom governs, protects, and administers civil order under divine law. This is why the Council of Fifty belongs beside the Holy Order, the Law of Adoption, and the temple ordinances, while still requiring distinct treatment.

A Living Constitution

One of the most striking Council of Fifty revelations came after failed attempts to draft a written constitution for the Kingdom. Unpublished Revelations prints the April 18, 1844 revelation this way:

“Ye are my Constitution and I am your God and ye are my spokesmen, therefore from henceforth keep my commandments.”5

The April 25, 1844 Council minutes preserve the same revelation in the setting where Joseph advised the brethren to let the constitution alone and receive the Lord’s answer concerning the matter.6

This is more than political theory. The living constitution depends on living, covenant-bound men under Christ. The authority is personal, Priesthood-based, and accountable to the law of God.

What the Council Actually Did

During Joseph Smith’s lifetime, the Council of Fifty discussed proper government, petitioned the United States government, explored possible western gathering places, planned work among American Indians, and supported Joseph Smith’s 1844 presidential campaign.7

Those activities explain why the Council can look political in the ordinary sense. It was political. But in Joseph’s Nauvoo framework, political action was part of a larger Kingdom project: finding a place where the Saints could be protected, governed, and organized according to the laws of God.

Joseph Smith as Prophet, Priest, and King

On April 11, 1844, the Council voted to receive Joseph Smith as “our Prophet, Priest & King.”8 That language can sound alarming if read through worldly monarchy. In this context it belongs to the temple and Kingdom order: kings and priests, queens and priestesses, lawful fathers and mothers in the Church of the Firstborn.

Joseph’s kingship was therefore not a license for domination. It was a Priesthood office inside the Kingdom order, under Ahman Christ, and inseparable from the laws of the Father’s family government.

The Last Charge

Unpublished Revelations of the Prophets and Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, volume 1 also preserves Benjamin F. Johnson’s retrospective account of Joseph Smith’s last charge to the Council of Fifty. Johnson described the Council as the “embryo kingdom of God upon earth” and as an organization distinct from the Church. He then remembered Joseph, at one of the last meetings, placing responsibility on the Council:

“… in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I now place it upon you my brethren of this Council,”9

The Last Charge is not merely Benjamin F. Johnson’s late recollection. Less than a year after the Prophet’s martyrdom, Apostle Orson Hyde presented a formally drafted statement saying that Joseph had spoken in a Council over which he presided, that the Twelve were present, and that Joseph taught how “this power” and “these keys” must be perpetuated upon the earth. Hyde’s statement refers to the ability to lay hands on others and “fill up your quorum,” and it connects the appointment with the holy anointing under the hands of Joseph and Hyrum.10

During a Council meeting on March 25, 1845, while discussing this statement, President Brigham Young stated outright: “[Joseph] said it was this council of fifty which had to bear the responsibility of establishing the kingdom in all the world.”11

Taken together, Hyde’s near-contemporary statement, President Young’s March 25 statement, and Benjamin F. Johnson’s later memory establish that the Council of Fifty bore Priesthood responsibility and carried heavy succession weight in the wake of Joseph Smith’s death, in fulfillment of Joseph’s own prophetic Last Charge. The Quorum of the Twelve was present within the larger Nauvoo order, but Joseph’s last Kingdom work should not be reduced to the ordinary apostolic quorum alone. See the Priesthood Line page for the succession question in its own frame.

After Joseph Smith’s Death

After Joseph’s death, the Council of Fifty reassembled on February 4, 1845, and Brigham Young was sustained as standing chairman. Under his leadership the Council helped supervise the exodus from Nauvoo and establish civil government in Utah.12

President Young’s later role in the Council belongs to the history of the Kingdom body after the martyrdom, but it does not erase Joseph Smith’s birthright expectations concerning his own sons, nor does it reduce the Council of Fifty to a committee of the LDS Church. It remained a Kingdom body with its own history, records, and claims.

How to Read the Council

The Council of Fifty is best read as one part of Joseph Smith’s final Nauvoo architecture:

  • The Holy Order belongs to the higher Priesthood and ordinance order.
  • The Law of Adoption orders the Saints into an eternal Family Kingdom.
  • The Council of Fifty belongs to the Kingdom-government side of that same Restoration.

It is therefore neither a mere historical curiosity nor a license for careless modern political claims. It is a revealed Kingdom pattern that must be read through Joseph Smith’s Priesthood, temple, family, and succession doctrines.

Further Study

Notes

  1. Fred C. Collier, ed., Unpublished Revelations of the Prophets and Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, volume 1, Part 61, 138. ↩
  2. Council of Fifty, Minutes, March 11, 1844, 25, Joseph Smith Papers. ↩
  3. Collier, ed., Unpublished Revelations of the Prophets and Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, volume 1, Part 61 note, 139. ↩
  4. Introduction to Administrative Records: Volume 1, Joseph Smith Papers. ↩
  5. Collier, ed., Unpublished Revelations of the Prophets and Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, volume 1, Part 67, 147. ↩
  6. Revelation, April 25, 1844, Joseph Smith Papers; Council of Fifty, Minutes, April 25, 1844, 216, Joseph Smith Papers. ↩
  7. Introduction to Administrative Records: Volume 1, Joseph Smith Papers; see also Council of Fifty minutes, March 21, 1844, 40; April 4, 1844, 74; letters from Apostle Orson Hyde, April 25–26, 1844, 261. ↩
  8. Council of Fifty minutes, April 11, 1844, 94, Joseph Smith Papers. ↩
  9. Benjamin F. Johnson, as excerpted in Collier, ed., Unpublished Revelations of the Prophets and Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, volume 1, Part 66, 146–47. ↩
  10. Apostle Orson Hyde, Statement about Quorum of the Twelve, circa late March 1845, Joseph Smith Papers. ↩
  11. Council of Fifty minutes, March 25, 1845, 249, Joseph Smith Papers. ↩
  12. Council of Fifty minutes, February 4, 1845, 303, Joseph Smith Papers; March 1, 1845, 372. ↩