[Footnote A: Hist. Joseph Smith, Mill. Star, Vol. XXV, p. 232.]
In his speech in behalf of the claims of the Twelve Apostles to lead the church, on that memorable day, the 8th of August, 1844, Brigham Young said:
I say unto you that the quorum of the Twelve have the keys of the kingdom of God in all the world.
. . . . You[A] cannot appoint a prophet; but if you will let the Twelve remain and act in their place, the keys of the kingdom are with them and they can manage the affairs of the church and direct in all things aright.[B]
[Footnote A: The saints.]
[Footnote B: History of Joseph Smith, Mill. Star, p. 215-6.]
Whence this confidence on the part of Brigham Young before the church to make so bold a declaration that the keys of the kingdom were still with the church—held more especially by the Twelve? It arose from the fact that the prophet Joseph had committed those keys to the Twelve.
Elder Woodruff, writing from Salem, Mass., under date of October 11th, 1844, at a time when the claims of Sidney Rigdon were still agitated, said:
Has the prophet Joseph found Elder Rigdon in his counsels when he organized the quorum of the Twelve, a few months before his death, to prepare them for their endowment? And when they received their endowment, and actually received the keys of the Kingdom of God, and the oracles of God, keys of revelation, and the pattern of heavenly things; and thus addressing the Twelve, exclaimed, "upon your shoulders the kingdom rests, and you must round up your shoulders, and bear it; for I have had to do it until now. But now the responsibility rests upon you. It mattereth not what becomes of me."[A]
[Footnote A: Times and Seasons, Vol. V, p. 698.]