The Presidency of the Church belongs to William, he being the last of the heads of the Church, according to the lineage, he having inherited it from the family from before the foundation of the world.[A]
[Footnote A: See pp. 19-21.]
Bishop Geo. Miller in a letter to the Northern Islander, in 1855, is represented as saying:
From hints and inuendoes that I heard frequently, I was induced to believe that Joseph had designated his son to succeed him in the prophetic office, and on this belief I rested. . . . . I had frequent attempts at conversation with Brigham Young and H. C. Kimball, in regard to Joseph's leaving one to succeed him in the prophetic office, and in all my attempts to ascertain the desired truth as to that personage, I was invariably met with the inuendo, "stop" or "hush Brother Miller, let there be nothing said in regard to that matter, or we will have little Joseph killed as his father was;" inferring indirectly that Joseph Smith had appointed his son Joseph to succeed him in the prophetic office.[A]
[Footnote A: The Saints' Herald, Vol. XXXIX, No. 22, p. 339.]
If Bishop Miller had any testimony of any weight that Mr. Smith, the son of the prophet, had been appointed to succeed to the position of prophet and President of the church, will those who rely on his statements explain how it is that with such testimony in his possession he ran off after other leaders? First following Mr. Lyman Wight to Texas, and after quarrelling with him joining Mr. Strang in Michigan. Bishop Miller, like Lyman Wight, lost his honor, he was neither true to the church of Christ led by the Twelve after the martyrdom of the prophet Joseph, nor true to Mr. Wight, nor "young Joseph." He became a restless man after his apostasy, unstable as water. There is nothing either in the nature of his testimony or the character of the man after his apostasy which gives any influence to his statement.
This is to certify to all concerned, that we, the undersigned,
heard Brigham Young, in Salt Lake City, in 1854, and in Brigham
City, Utah, about 1859, when he was speaking in public meeting
concerning young Joseph Smith, son of Joseph the seer, say that
there was no man in the church more willing and ready than he to
give the Presidency of the church to young Joseph, when the latter
would come and claim it.
LOUIS GAULTER,
HARRIET E. GAULTER.[A]
LAMONI, Iowa, May 26, 1892.
[Footnote A: The Saints' Herald, Vol. XXXIX, No. 22, p. 339.]
In line with this is the following: