| 195 The First Quorum of Elders, with Elijah Banta, president; and H. A. Stebbins and D. H. Bays, counselors.
The Second Quorum, with P. Cadwell, president; J. M. Harvey and D. F. Lambert, counselors; and Donald Maule, secretary.
The Third Quorum, with D. S. Mills, president; George Kemp and William T. Bozarth, counselors; and Charles Kemmish, secretary.
Israel L. Rogers, H. A. Stebbins, and David Dancer, as the Presiding Bishopric of the church.
Henry A. Stebbins, as Secretary and Recorder of the church.
John Scott, as Librarian of the church.
The Board of Publication, as at present organized, consisting of I. L. Rogers, David Dancer, H. A. Stebbins, John Scott, and William W. Blair.
The elders, priests, teachers, and deacons of the church, not yet organized into quorums. . . .
When conference refused by vote to sustain Bro. J. W. Briggs as president of the Twelve, Bro. J. Caffall asked a question, which was deferred until the voting was through. The following is the question, and President Smith's reply:
Question.-Is the manner of sustaining authorities this afternoon to be taken as a precedent; that is, are we to consider it right for the body, or any member thereof, to refuse to sustain duly appointed officers who may be presented, unless those officers have first been labored with for any real or supposed wrong?
Answer.-I refer you to the law, given in the Book of Covenants, 107: 46, for a reply, which reads: "A commandment I give unto you that you should fill all these offices, and approve of those names which I have mentioned, or else disapprove of them at my General Conference." The right to vote implies the right to either receive or reject; but, as we have sustained these officers with but one exception, I think that is susceptible of explanation, or should be so, and I think it can be done without acrimony, and with fairness, both to the individual and to the church at large.
Brn. Charles Derry and William W. Blair both spoke to the question, defending the action of conference.
The president suggested that a committee of three be chosen from those voting in the negative, to give to the conference the reasons for their refusal to sustain, when, on motion of J. C. Crabb and J. M. Harvey, the following resolution was passed, after being advocated by Brn. C. Derry, J. C. Crabb, J. M. Harvey, and W. W. Blair, and opposed by W. H. Kelley and J. R. Lambert:
Resolved, That a committee of three be chosen by the conference from among those who voted in the negative, to give conference the reasons of the majority for not sustaining the president of the Twelve, that such reasons be given before this conference shall close; and, further, that a committee of three shall be chosen by this conference, by whom the
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