By Jerald and Sandra Tanner
We are happy to announce that we have now completed the second volume of The Mormon Kingdom. In the first volume of this work (temporarily out of print) we showed that Joseph Smith formed a secret organization known as the “Council of Fifty” and “suffered himself to be ordained king” when he lived in Nauvoo, Illinois. When Fawn Brodie pointed this out in her book No Man Knows My History, Dr. Hugh Nibley claimed that there was not enough evidence to support such a claim (see No Ma’am That’s Not History, page 40).
In our book The Mormon Kingdom, vol. 2, we show that Mormon scholars are now accepting the fact that Joseph Smith was ordained king. The Mormon writer Klaus J. Hansen, for instance, frankly admitted that “Joseph Smith did start a political kingdom of God and a Council of Fifty; he was made king over that organization; . . .” (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Summer 1966, page 104). Kenneth Godfrey, Director of the LDS Institute at Stanford University, also admits that Joseph Smith was “ordained ‘king over the Immediate House of Israel’ by the Council of Fifty” (Brigham Young University Studies, Winter, 1968, pages 212-213). Richard D. Poll, Professor of History and Political Science at Brigham Young University, also seems willing to concede that Smith was ordained king:
That neither the Prophet nor the Council was totally preoccupied with the political race is clear from the investigations of Texas and other possible new homes for the Saints which were in progress, and also from the intriguing and rather convincingly documented report that the Prophet was ordained “King on Earth” in the Council during this period. (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Autumn 1968, page 19, n. 11)
The practice of ordaining the President of the Mormon Church as “King on Earth” did not cease with the death of Smith. The Mormon writer Klaus J. Hansen states: “. . . the prophet apparently had himself ordained as ‘King on Earth.’ Brigham Young, upon his arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, likewise reportedly had this ceremony performed in the Council of Fifty” (Quest for Empire, page 66). On page 200, footnote 74, of the same book, Hansen gives this information:
Former Bishop Andrew Cahoon, whose father Reynolds Cahoon had been a member of the Council of Fifty, testified in 1889: “The King of that Kingdom that was set up on the earth was the head of the Church Brigham Young proclaimed himself King here in Salt Lake Valley before there was a house built, in 1847.”
The journal of the Mormon Apostle Abraham H. Cannon has recently come to light. It shows that after Brigham Young’s death there was a discussion in the Council of Fifty as to whether John Taylor, the third President of the Church, should be ordained king:
Father [George Q. Cannon, a member of the First Presidency] said Moses Thatcher’s drawing away from his brethren commenced as far as his knowledge concerning it went, at a time when the Council of Fifty met in the old City Hall, and Moses opposed the proposition to anoint John Taylor as Prophet, Priest and king, and Moses’ opposition prevailed at that time. Moses has constantly opposed the increase of power in the hands of the President of the Church. (“Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon,” December 2, 1895, page 198, original at Brigham Young University Library)
The Apostle Cannon’s Journal also shows that the Council of Fifty was still in existence in 1884:
At 10 a.m. I attended a meeting in the Social Hall with S. B. Young, John W. Taylor and John Q., and was introduced to 50. “The Kingdom of God and its laws, and the keys thereof, and judgment in the hands of his servant, Ahman Christ.” (“Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon,” Oct. 9, 1884, vol. 5, page 24)
It is interesting to note that the “Minutes of the Council of Fifty,” for 1880 list Joseph F. Smith as a member (Quest for Empire, page 226). Joseph F. Smith became the sixth President of the Mormon Church, and his son, Joseph Fielding Smith, recently became the tenth President.
In The Mormon Kingdom, vol. 2, we have a great deal of information concerning the Council of 50 and how it controlled early Utah. We also deal with such subjects as:
- Mormonism and money
- How Church leaders used Church funds for private gain
- Joseph F. Smith’s testimony on church businesses
- The involvement of the Church in business today
- How the Apostles condemn a paid ministry yet receive large salaries
- Politics in early Utah
- The Law Observance and Enforcement Committee in the Church
- the Mountain Meadows Massacre
- The Utah War
- The practice of Blood Atonement in Utah
- Brigham Young’s indictment for murder
- Robbing the Gentiles
- Counterfeiting, and many other important subjects.
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