| 740 "When I say that I withdrew from Brigham Young and others I simply mean I repudiated them; I repudiated their claims to the presidency as false, on the grounds that they were teaching false doctrine, and something that the church did not authorize; . . . but I refused to have anything to do with the church as represented by them; that is, by Brigham Young and his adherents. And further, we were claiming all the time to be the church in succession from 1830, or were following what represented the church in 1830. All the time we claimed that the church we represented was the church in succession established in 1830. . . .That is the reason we left Strang, and Smith, because we considered they were teaching false doctrine, or doctrine that was not authorized in the original church. It did not make any difference to us, for we still considered that we were in the church, although under these different leaders.
"The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints could not properly be called a new movement or a new organization, for that would mean a new organization of the church, which this was not; at least I never considered it so, nor did the church as an organization. . . . The church was simply reorganized and placed on a new footing as was necessary after the disruption, and I was one of the principal officers in it at that time."
The work of Elder Briggs in connection with the Reorganization is set forth in this volume with sufficient clearness. He was one of the first seven chosen and ordained apostles in the Reorganization. He was ordained an apostle, April 8, 1853, under the hands of H. H. Deam, Z. H. Gurley, and Reuben Newkirk. He was subsequently chosen as president of the Quorum of Twelve and as Representative President of the church. The first named position he held until he withdrew from the church in April, 1886. The last named position he occupied until President Joseph Smith was received as President of the Church at the Annual Conference of 1860.
In addition to other extensive labors for the church, he twice went to the British Isles, where he labored faithfully in the missionary work, and edited the periodical mentioned
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