Minutes of the April 1860 General Conference

Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, convened in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Friday, April 6, 1860, at 10 a.m., President Brigham Young presiding. ¶

On the Stand: Of the First Presidency, President Brigham Young; of the Twelve Apostles, Orson Hyde, Orson Pratt, Wilford Woodruff, John Taylor, Ezra T. Benson, Charles C. Rich, Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow, Franklin D. Richards; of the First Presidency of Seventies, Joseph Young, Henry Herriman, Zera Pulsipher, Albert P. Rockwood, Levi W. Hancock; High Priests John Young, Edwin D. Woolley, Samuel W. Richards, Phinehas H. Young, William W. Phelps, Samuel L. Sprague; Presidency of the Stake, Daniel Spencer and David Fullmer; Patriarchs John Young and Isaac Morley; Bishops Edward Hunter, A. O. Smoot, and L. D. Young. Reporters: George D. Watt and John V. Long. ¶

This was the Church's 30th-anniversary conference. President Young opened by noting the Church's age and discussing universal salvation (filed separately), then invited the Twelve, Seventies, and High Priests to give short testimonies. Elders Orson Hyde, Wilford Woodruff, Orson Pratt, John Taylor, Ezra T. Benson, Charles C. Rich, and Lorenzo Snow each bore brief testimony in the morning session; Erastus Snow, Franklin D. Richards, President Joseph Young, Elder Zera Pulsipher, Elder Albert P. Rockwood, President John Young, and President Daniel Spencer spoke in the afternoon and the following day, each recounting their conversion and early experience in the Church. President Young's "Personal Reminiscences" discourse, recounting his own conversion and that of his brother Joseph Young, is filed separately. ¶

On Saturday, April 7, President Young opened the business session, inviting any objections to the General Authorities before the sustaining vote (filed separately as "Voting to Sustain the Authorities of the Church—Appointment of Elder Cannon to Fill Up the Quorum of the Twelve—Remarks to Departing Missionaries"). Brigham Young was sustained as President with Heber C. Kimball and Daniel H. Wells as counselors; Orson Hyde was sustained as President of the Quorum of the Twelve, with Orson Pratt, Wilford Woodruff, John Taylor, George A. Smith, Amasa Lyman, Ezra T. Benson, Charles C. Rich, Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow, and Franklin D. Richards as members. George Q. Cannon was presented and unanimously sustained to fill the vacancy in the Twelve left by the death of Parley P. Pratt. The conference continued with further sustainings, remarks to departing missionaries, and on Sunday, April 8, discourses by President Young ("Education—Testimony—Miraculous Signs, &c," JD 8:39-43) and Elder Orson Pratt ("Testimony of the Spirit, Etc.," JD 8:44-52), both filed separately. ¶