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The Joseph Smith Papers: Council of Fifty, Minutes
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About The Joseph Smith Papers: Council Of Fifty, Minutes
Product Description The long-awaited minutes of the meetings of the Council of Fifty, the organization created by Mormon prophet Joseph Smith just three months before he was murdered. Historians with the Joseph Smith Papers Project have made available for the first time ever the complete minutes created in Nauvoo, Illinois, of an organization called the Council of Fifty. Joseph Smith, founder and first president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, formed this council in March 1844. The Nauvoo-era record contains minutes of meetings held under the direction of Joseph Smith and later Brigham Young, through January 1846, immediately before the mass Mormon migration out of Illinois. The minutes have never previously been published or available to researchers. Members of the council saw its formation as the beginning of the literal kingdom of God on earth; accordingly, much of the discussion under Joseph Smith's chairmanship centered on ideal government. One of the council's purposes was to investigate possible settlements outside of what then constituted the United States. Ultimately, the council played a significant role in planning the church's migration to the American West. The Council of Fifty also helped manage Joseph Smith's campaign for president of the United States in 1844 and helped provide for the government of Nauvoo after the city's charter was repealed. "Students of these pivotal events will be forever grateful for the insights and understanding they will find in these pages." --Elliott West, University of Arkansas Review "Council of Fifty, Minutes, March 1844-January 1846, the latest addition to the monumental Joseph Smith Papers Project, opens a wide window onto a previously shrouded, but extraordinarily revealing, part of Mormon leadership and life during what were arguably the most turbulent and treacherous months of the church's history. Students of these pivotal events will be forever grateful for the insights and understanding they will find in these pages." -- Elliott West, University of Arkansas "The publication of the Council of Fifty minutes as the first volume of the Administrative Records series in the Joseph Smith Papers can only be described as a triumph. The new volume is sure to be celebrated for its annotation and editing, another excellent addition to the papers project. But the minutes are also a triumph of the new transparency policy of the Church History Department. Over the years, the council minutes attained almost legendary status, as a trove of dark secrets sequestered in the recesses of the First Presidency's vault. Now the minutes are to be published for all to examine." -- Richard L. Bushman, Gouverneur Morris Professor Emeritus of History, Columbia University "The Council of Fifty minutes are a treasure trove to anyone wanting to understand the last days of Joseph Smith, the martyrdom [of Joseph Smith], the last twenty months in Nauvoo, the revocation of the Nauvoo charter, the plans for exodus, and the apostates and renegades who inflicted so much damage upon the Saints. . . . They add a fabulous richness to our understanding. . . . The work of the editors places every matter of importance into excellent Mormon, American, and international historical context. . . . This is a splendid work. The importance of these Council of Fifty minutes is reflected and enshrined in the fine work of editing this band of scholars has put into them." -- Richard E. Bennett, Professor of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University "What I found in the Council of Fifty minutes was in fact engaging and even sometimes riveting. It was as if I had a front row seat as I watched the tragic unraveling of the Mormon community at Nauvoo. I felt the depth of council members' despair over a continued inability to find judicial, executive, or legislative justice for the wrongs they had endured, including the murder of their leaders Hyrum and Joseph Smith. I was reminded of Alexis
