| 224 attendance at this conference was large, and deep interest prevailed throughout.
"It had been declared through the gifts that the various organizations of Latter Day Saints, under the lead of J. J. Strang, J. C. Brewster, Baneemy, Alpheus Cutler, Lyman Wight, Sidney Rigdon, Brigham Young, and others, together with some yet to arise, should one after another come to naught, and cease to be. And during the summer the elders came in contact with many of them, which served to put to the test their foundations and our own also.
"Having stated the facts relative to the first acts, thus far in reorganizing the church, it is proper to give the ideal or theory upon which these acts were justified in the minds of those who performed them; for they were none of them accidents, but deliberative, and it must be conceded, were consistent with themselves.
"First. It was affirmed that the church had been disorganized, or rejected as a church, but not as individuals.
"Second. That those individuals not rejected were entitled to ask and receive what related to them as their duty.
"Third. That these individuals, among whom were many elders, in seeking to know their duty were taught of the Lord and commanded to reorganize, or begin to set in order the church.
"Fourth. That in the discharging this duty the Presidency was left to be filled as provided by the law in the case out of our reach, to be filled by calling one forth to whom the promise pertained.
"Fifth. That as a preparation to that, the calling into power those whose duty it should be to ordain him.
"Sixth. The highest authority for the time presiding and representing the Presidency of the Church.
"And in justification of the course taken, and the principles involved, on 'the question of authority,' we have ever courted, and still do, investigation in the rigid character of the facts in the first organization. Here they are: Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were ordained to the lesser priesthood by an angel; then by this authority and a commandment, they on the sixth day of April ordained each
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