Daymon M. Smith

“Brigham as president of the Quorum of Apostles, sought to organize the First Presidency, with himself as President of the LDS Church.  Why bother being president of the church, when he was already president of the Quorum of the Twelve?  He had taken control of the LDS temple in Nauvoo, and seemed to have possession of church newspapers and had inherited the missionary system initially organized around the apostles.  Young was the de facto leader.  So why press for the presidency in opposition to some apostles?  A mere formalization of a social reality?  As church president he could take the chair of the Kingdom of God and enjoy the consent of fifty men, voicing Jehovah and His constitution too.  He would rise to the crown of the hierarchy of voicing, and other men would organize their voices accordingly.  The Twelve in 1847 thus surrendered their power to rule over to their president, as his image began mapping onto that of Joseph Smith.  Brigham then became the president of the LDS Church, and, thus, took the chair of the Council of Fifty, that Kingdom of God set to rule for a thousand years. ”
― Daymon Smith, Volume 2 B: a cultural history of the book of mormon: Follies Epic and Novel