For many, many decades, the Council of Fifty was a mystery, known only to a few. Who were they? Why did they exist? This is an excerpt from the Extremists Liberty Bootcamp. Take the whole course – for FREE – here: https://treeoflibertysociety.com/courses/liberty-bootcamp/lessons/natural-law/.
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TRANSCRIPT
And so how the council operate, we see that a revelation was given to establish the kingdom of God in 1842, but it was not formed until two years later in 1844.
And it was a secret body, not really known to the church in general.
ˆt was a body of men that the the prophet Joseph called that was not known to the church as Organization and they sworn oath to keep the proceedings of the Action and their actions private and more than half of the members had to be in attendance in attendance to form a quorum to meet.
So it wasn’t like just one guy shows up and he’s like okay.
This is our this is our deal “Seniority was determined by age instead of by appointment, and standing chairman was determined by the unanimous vote of the council.
And the council was given assignments to search for land to settle
where the people could be free.
where the people could be free.
They discussed and established correct principles of government.
They organized and led the state’s westward migration.
They combated efforts of the U .S. government to meddle in local elections.”
Isn’t that interesting?
Even back in the 1840s, 1850s, 1860s, 1870s, 1880s, they had to deal with corrupt officials or conspiring officials that were trying to interfere with elections.
The last meeting that we have on record of the Council of 50 was in 1888.
And of course, unanimity, there wasn’t just a majority rules.
They had to have a unanimous vote to be able to make decisions.
And so in 1888, John Tate was discussing the actions of the Council of 50, and what was their thought process?
Like how did they have to have their minds focused to be able to act appropriately within the Council?
And he said, these words, the Lord’s Constitution that we just read the Revelation for, are pregnant with meaning and full of intelligence and point out our position in regard to these matters.
It is expected of us that we can act right and that our interests are bound up in the kingdom of God.
That we should consider we are not acting for ourselves, but we are the spokesman of God selected for that purpose in the interest of God and to bless and exalt all humanity.
We acknowledge him as our God and all men who enter this body must acknowledge him here.
We must acknowledge God.
We are not here for our own interests.
We have to acknowledge God and His word.
And on another occasion, you have Orson Pratt in the the council meeting talking about this, their mindsets as well, when he explained, “In the church we take the law of God and His priesthood as the constitution of His church,” what we find in the Doctrine & Covenants.
And here in this council, the council of 50, we have a living constitution, not a written one, which we must conform to.
We must conform to the revelations of God.
