While things temporal in Nauvoo remained quiet, there were deep feeling and great uncertainty concerning the future of the church. The First Presidency had consisted, since the action of the conference at Far West in 1837, of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and Sidney Rigdon. Two of these were now dead. Did this leave Rigdon as the natural head, did Smith's son inherit the successorship, or did the supreme power rest with the Twelve Apostles? Discussion of this matter brought out many plans, including a general reorganization of the church, and the appointment of a trustee or a president. Rigdon had been sent to Pittsburg to build up a church,* and Brigham Young was electioneering in New Hampshire for Smith. Accordingly, Phelps, Richards; and Taylor, on July 1 issued a brief statement to the church at large, asking all to await the assembling of the Twelve. John Taylor so stated at Rigdon's coming trial. This, perhaps, contradicts the statement in the Cannons' "Life of Brigham Young" that Rigdon had gone there "to escape the turmoils of Nauvoo." Rigdon arrived in Nauvoo on August 3, and preached the next day in the grove. He said the Lord had shown him a vision, and that there must be a "guardian" appointed to "build the church up to Joseph" as he had begun it. Cannon's account, in the "Juvenile Instructor," says that at a meeting at John Taylor's the next day Rigdon declared that the church was in confusion and must have a head, and he wanted a special meeting called to choose a "guardian." On the evening of August 6, Young, H. C. Kimball, Lyman Wight, Orson Pratt, Orson Hyde, and Wilford Woodruff arrived from the East. A meeting of the Twelve Apostles, the High Council, and high priests was called for August 7, at 4 P.m., which Rigdon attended. He declared that in a vision at Pittsburg it had been shown to him that he had been ordained a spokesman to Joseph, and that he must see that the church was governed in a proper manner. "I propose," said he, "to be a guardian of the people. In this I have discharged my duty and done what God has commanded me, and the people can please themselves, whether they accept me or not."