On 25 April 1844, JS dictated a revelation directing the members of the to act as a constitution for the political kingdom of God on earth. Before the council was officially organized in March 1844, JS apparently suggested that the Constitution, or possibly even the Constitution, could be amended and used as a starting point for developing a constitution that would serve as a framework for a theocratic government. This proposed constitution would help secure civil rights and liberties for themselves and any who aligned with the kingdom of God. On 11 March, the day the Council of Fifty was founded, a select committee was formed to write a constitution that would be “according to the mind of God,” erected “between the heavens and the earth” like a flag so that “all nations might flow to it.” wrote retrospectively that at the inaugural meeting “it was Resolved to draft a constitution which should be perfect, and embrace those principles which the constitution of the United States lacked, and on motion , and were appointed a committee to draft a constitution and present it to this council for their approval or disaproval.”

This committee worked on the document for several weeks but had to explain in a 4 April council meeting that it had been unable to complete a draft. JS responded by saying that organizations fail to produce “important measures” because “they never could agree to disagree long enough to select the pure gold from the dross by the process of investigation.” At a later meeting, on 11 April, proposed that JS join the committee to draft a constitution for the kingdom of God, but JS declined because as the council’s standing chair, he would not belong to any of its committees.

The committee continued to work on developing a constitution and presented a draft at a council meeting on the morning of 18 April 1844. When discussion of the constitution continued that afternoon, questioned the “necessity to get up a constitution to govern us when we have all the revelations and laws to govern us,” saying, “[I] would rather have the revelations to form a constitution from, than any thing else we can get.” Later in the same meeting, JS stated that the Constitution lacked “the power to carry the laws into effect. We want to alter it so as to make it imperative on the officers to enforce the protection of all men in their rights.” He charged the committee to amend the Constitution to meet those ends.

The council reconvened on 25 April 1844 in both morning and afternoon sessions. Minutes of the afternoon session, held between two o’clock and five o’clock, record that near the end of the meeting JS “made some further remarks and advised that we let the constitution alone. He would tell us the whole matter about the constitution.” JS then wrote a revelation, given in the voice of God, that foreclosed any further drafting or even the idea of a written constitution of the kingdom of God. The revelation stated that the council itself would be the “constitution.” This revelation was apparently read to the council. then motioned for the revelation to be accepted by the council. The vote was unanimous, and the council adjourned.

The revelation as originally written by JS is apparently not extant. , the clerk of the , copied the revelation—from either JS’s original or a previous copy he had already made—into the council’s record as part of the minutes of the 25 April meeting. The recorded copy in the official minutes is featured here.