THE COUNCIL OF FIFTY, Part 2 of Chapter 8 of Kingdom of God volume 3

THE COUNCIL OF FIFTY, Part 2 of Chapter 8 of Kingdom of God volume 3   Pages 95-106 http://ogdenkraut.com/?page_id=141    Brother Brigham usually receives the entire credit for being a great colonizer and leader of the Saints–and indeed he was–but according to Hyrum Andrus, Brigham was acting under the direction and guidance of Joseph Smith: As Brigham Young presented himself before the Saints as their leader and lawgiver in the stead of their martyred Prophet, it is reported by several reliable witnesses that the mantle of Joseph fell upon him with such power that it seemed as though Joseph and not Brigham addressed the Saints that day. This incident was but the great consummation in the merging of Joseph into Brigham. That fusion process had been going on for some ten years past. And with its completion Brigham Young was prepared to build upon the foundation that Joseph had laid with a minimum of deviation. Thus, in many ways it was Joseph, not Brigham, who launched the exodus and successfully carried it out; it was Joseph, not Brigham, who founded the Saints in the West, in their political as well as in their religious capacity. In this great project, the General Council played a dominant role. As previously noted, it was that body of men who laid the plans for the exodus and thereafter made all major decisions in carrying out the project. This fact has not been known to historians. It appreciably alters the existing concept of the move to [96] the West, in that it indicates that the initiative in these matters was not taken by the Church as a religious body, but by men acting in a political capacity under the direction of the priesthood. (Joseph Smith and World Government, Andrus, pp. 68-69)