On 4 April 1844, JS attended two meetings of the , one in the morning and one in the afternoon, in , Illinois, to discuss the drafting of a constitution for the council and other matters. The council was founded in mid-March 1844 by JS and other leading men in Nauvoo in part to explore possible settlement sites for the outside of the territorial boundaries of the . The council also saw itself as the beginnings of the political kingdom of God on earth and aspired to create a new constitution that would improve upon the Constitution. In an 11 March meeting, the council tasked a committee made up of , , , and with drafting a constitution, “which should be perfect, and embrace those principles which the constitution of the United States lacked.”

In the morning meeting on 4 April, held from nine o’clock to noon, the council accepted two new members, and ; discussed public reaction to JS’s presidential campaign platform; and reviewed a letter from representative . While was addressing various topics, a delegation of Potawatomi Indians arrived at the meeting. Potawatomi delegations had sought an audience with JS in on at least three occasions during spring and summer 1843. On 18 April 1843, Potawatomi chief Paicouchaiby, along with two other chiefs, met with JS in Nauvoo. They told JS that they were “dissatisfied with the white people bordering on their lands,” complained that they had suffered from the theft of cattle and horses, and stated that they wanted JS’s advice because they had heard that he could talk to the “G[reat] Spirit.” Another small Potawatomi delegation—reportedly including Paicouchaiby and the same chiefs who had visited in April, as well as a half-white, half-Indian interpreter from their tribe—met with JS on 2 July 1843. The chiefs told him that they “as a people have long been distressed and oppressd— we have been driven from our lands many times . . . the white man has hated us & shed our blood untill it has appeared as though their would be no Indian Left.” Later that summer, an additional Potawatomi delegation arrived in Nauvoo with a letter for JS.

In their brief meeting with the council on 4 April, the Potawatomi shared their friendly intentions with the Latter-day Saints and stated that they did not want to be coerced into selling any more of their land to a government that was oppressing them. JS told the Potawatomi that the Saints were doing all that they could in the tribe’s behalf and that peace among Native American peoples would be pleasing to God. After the Potawatomi left, the council discussed politics relating to and before adjourning until the afternoon. During the afternoon meeting, held from one o’clock to four o’clock, members of the committee assigned to draft the constitution reported their lack of progress. After several council members remarked on the need for a constitution during the afternoon meeting, JS gave a discourse that clerk summarized in the meeting minutes on why organizations struggle to produce governing rules.

recorded notes at these meetings and later copied them into a small bound volume that he titled “Record of the Council of Fifty or Kingdom of God.” These minutes are included in this volume as a representative sample of JS’s involvement with the .