wished to explain his motives in making the remarks he did. When he gets his feelings excited he can fight as well as any other man. We come together here to council and express our feelings and views on the subjects befores us. We come to council, and to lay aside our natural feelings and deliberate upon the wisest course to be adopted for the temporal salvation of a large multitude of people, not only men, but women and children. We can accomplish a great deal by calling into requisition the spirit of God and deliberating calmly upon a matter. When a revelation comes from the that is the law to him, but he understands that when a subject is presented is presented before this council we have to investigate it and when we agree upon it that is a revelation; that is the mind of God. [p. [97]]
Since the early 1830s conferences and councils had been seen as a means to obtain the “mind of the Lord” on a given subject. This function was reinforced in JS’s 25 April 1844 revelation, which identified the Council of Fifty as the “spokesmen” of God. (Minutes, 1–2 Nov. 1831; Darowski, “Seeking After the Ancient Order,” 97–113; Council of Fifty, “Record,” 25 Apr. 1844.)
Darowski, Joseph F. “Seeking After the Ancient Order: Conferences and Councils in Early Church Governance, 1830–34.” In Brigham Young University Church History Symposium; A Firm Foundation: Church Organization and Administration, edited by David J. Whittaker and Arnold K. Garr, 97–113. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011.