Joseph Fielding Smith states that Joseph declared Able's ordination "null and void."
Meeting Minutes, August 26, 1908, George Albert Smith Family Papers, 5-6, Marriott Special Collections
With reference to the first question President Smith remarked that he did not know that we could do anything more in such cases than refer to the rulings of Presidents Young, Taylor, Woodruff and other presidencies, on this question, amounting to this, that people tainted with negro blood may be admitted to Church membership only. In this connection President Smith referred to Brother Abel, who was ordained a Seventy by Joseph Young, in the days of the Prophet Joseph, to whom Brother Young issued a Seventies' certificate; but this ordination was declared null and void by the Prophet himself.