In his article “Lost Teachings of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and other Church Leaders” (in Grow and Smith, eds., The Council of Fifty: What the Records Reveal about Mormon History, 73-90), Professor Gerrit J. Dirkmaat of BYU writes that the recent publication of the minutes of the Nauvoo Council of Fifty “is easily one of the most important events of the last decade for expanding our understanding of early Mormon history. Only the JSP‘s [The Joseph Smith Papers‘] publication of the Book of Commandments and Revelations, the earliest record of many of Joseph Smith’s revelations, rivals the publication of this important document, which has hitherto been inaccessible to historians.” It “is a veritable treasure trove of new information.” (73)
Here, I’ll highlight just one of the things that particularly interested me among those that are cited in Dirkmaat’s own article.
William Clayton, the Council’s clerk, recorded this item from one of its earliest meetings, where Joseph Smith evidently used the term dough heads as a synonym for what we today would call yes men:
“Prest. Joseph said he wanted all the brethren to speak their minds on this subject and to say what was in their hearts whether good or bad. He did not want to be forever surrounded by a set of ‘dough heads’ and if they did not rise up and shake themselves and exercise themselves in discussing these important matters he should consider them nothing better than ‘dough heads.'” (74)
Joseph clearly thought that truth best emerged, on a human level, from discussion and debate in councils:
According to Clayton, at a meeting a few weeks later Joseph “commenced by showing, that the reason why men always failed to establish important measures was, because in their organization they never could agree to disagree long enough to select the pure gold from the dross by the process of investigation.” (74)
When the members of one committee, assigned to write a constitution for the Kingdom of God — that is, for the Council of Fifty itself — asked if Joseph himself would join them in their work, he declined. Here’s how Dr. Dirkmaat describes the episode:
“In response, Joseph explained the necessity of his remaining separate from such discussions. He wanted the committee members to struggle to find all the truth they could and then bring the document to him for inspired correction. Perhaps Joseph realized that if he were part of the committee, the members would be too deferential to him and would not learn to search for truth and to make up their own minds.” (74-75)
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