Of course, the Council of Fifty recognized that Smith’s presidential candidacy was another option for securing Mormons’ rights and continued residence in the United States—as well as an important step in redeeming the country. Accordingly, the council played an integral role in managing Smith’s campaign.

One of the council’s functions was to craft a consistent campaign message. In April, council members adopted a “name,” or slogan, for their electoral enterprise. At Smith’s suggestion, their choice was a string of political buzzwords: “Jeffersonianism, Jeffersonian Democracy, free trade and Sailors rights, protection of person & property.” Smith and company did not expound on the slogan, nor did they attempt to clarify seeming redundancies therein. Each of these phrases already existed in the American political lexicon. Most were associated to some degree with individual liberties. For example, “Free trade and Sailors’ Rights” had been a patriotic rallying cry for Americans during the War of 1812 but had since evolved into a generic and malleable phrase denoting personal liberty. And that seemed to be at the heart of such a clunky and unwieldy campaign slogan. Smith and the Mormons were promoting the kind of patriotic liberty associated with celebratory accounts of the country’s past.

Council members also discussed the coordination of nominating conventions throughout the country and deliberated on potential vice-presidential candidates. In addition, they willingly participated in an ambitious plan to canvass the entire country as electioneering missionaries. Such canvassing was at the heart of Smith’s electoral designs.