The chief judge did not make his decision by fiat. Rather, he consulted the “voice of the people.” (See “Excursus: The Voice of the People,” following Mosiah 29.) Likely this information-gathering mechanism contained a recommendation to which the people would respond. The fact that it apparently asked them to decide the fate of “admitting their brethren”—a sympathetic designation rather than “Lamanites,” a technically correct but hostile one—would prompt a positive response. Apparently the proclamation also suggested, assuming a favorable response, a possible location (or locations) for the new emigrants.