After conference was opened and the Twelve took their seats, he stated that it would be the duty of the Twelve to appoint the oldest one of their number to preside in their councils, beginning at the oldest and so on until the youngest has presided and then beginning at the oldest again. &c. ...
The President [Joseph Smith] then stated that the Twelve will have no right to go into Zion or any of its stakes and there undertake to regulate the affairs thereof where there is a standing High Council. But it is their duty to go abroad and regulate all matters relative to the different branches of the Church. ... No standing High Council has authority to go into the churches abroad and regulate the matters thereof, for this belongs to the Twelve. No High Council will ever be established only in Zion or one of its stakes.
... If the first Seventy are all occupied and there is a call for more laborers, it will be the duty of the seven presidents of the first Seventy to call and ordain other Seventy and send them forth to labor in the vineyard until, if need be, they set a part apart seven times seventy, even until there shall be one hundred & forty and four thousand. ... The Twelve and the Seventy have particularly to depend upon their ministry for their support and that of their families, and they have a right by virtue of their offices to call upon the Church to assist them.
President J. Smith Junr. arose with the list in his hand and made some vary appropriate remarks relative to the deliverance of Zion and so much of the authority being present, he moved that we never give up the struggle for Zion even until death, or until Zion is redeemed. The vote was unanimous and with apparent deep feeling.
[Source: Source: Oliver Cowdery Record in the Kirtland Council Minute Book, LDS -Kirtland Council Minute Book, 112-13, 115]
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