City of to transact important business without being betrayed, except in this council. It was but last Sunday when I was speaking before the High Priests quorum, one of the most important quorums of this church, I let out some feelings of my mind concerning some mean men in our midst, and that same day those very men were told all that was said in that meeting. But the time will come when the quorums will have to be as confidential as we are here in this council, or they will lose their heads. There is no safety in our midst. When I heard that those things had been told out of that honorable quorum I felt mad, and I felt to damn those characters who profess to be in good standing and are all the while betraying us to the lowest hell. When I have seen my brethren massacred through the influence of traitors and see [p. [4]]
In an address given at a meeting of the high priests quorum on 23 February 1845, Kimball stated that he “would not patronize those who were not friends of his brethren,” though the minutes do not indicate if he named particular individuals. (High Priests Quorum Record, 23 Feb. 1845.)
Nauvoo High Priests Quorum. Record, 1840–1891. CHL. CR 1000 2.
At a meeting of the high priests the day following this Council of Fifty meeting, George Miller “alluded to the circumstance of matters which had been mentioned in this quorum being reported, abroad, so that our foes could take advantage of it.” In the same high priests meeting, Samuel Bent likewise “said a few words upon the propriety of every one who comes in to the meetings of this quorum keeping to themselves the matters that transpire here.” (High Priests Quorum Record, 2 Mar. 1845.)
Nauvoo High Priests Quorum. Record, 1840–1891. CHL. CR 1000 2.
Kimball reportedly made a similar statement about confidentiality to the Nauvoo high priests quorum. (High Council of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints [Strangite], Minutes, 6 Apr. 1846, [6].)
High Council of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite). Minutes, 6 Apr. 1846. James Jesse Strang Collection, 1835–1920, Western Americana Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT.