Elder Willard Richards spoke to the people and advised them to remain
peaceable as they had always been, and let the Lord avenge the murder of
their loved ones.

The bodies of Joseph and Hyrum were buried privately at Nauvoo so that
their enemies might not disturb them.

And now the Saints were a little confused about who should be their
leaders. Joseph, the President of the Church, and Hyrum, one of his
counselors, were dead, and Sidney Rigdon, the other counselors, had some
months before got tired of affairs at Nauvoo and had gone to Pittsburg,
Pennsylvania. He was an apostate at heart, though he had not yet been cut
off from the Church. Most of the Twelve Apostles were away on missions, and
word was sent for them to return as soon as possible.

Though at first there was some misunderstanding among the Saints, the Lord
did not intend his Church should go to pieces because its leader had been
taken away. The Church had been set up never to be thrown down or left to
other people. The Gospel had been given to the earth "for the last time and
for the fullness of times." The Saints had a promise that the kingdom was
theirs "and the enemy shall not overcome." It would be a poor church,
indeed, that would go to pieces every time its chief officer died. No; the
Lord, through Joseph, had organized the Church so well that this could not
be. There was a quorum in the Church that had been given all the power
necessary to carry on the work of the Church in case the First Presidency
was taken away. That quorum was the Twelve Apostles. Now that there was no
First Presidency, it was the duty of the Twelve to preside and regulate the
affairs of the Church until such time that there should be another
president appointed. Brigham Young was the president of the Twelve, so in
reality he was the leading man in the Church.