The right of choosing his successor appears to have been vested in the reigning sovereign. When Nephi became old, and saw that he must soon die, he anointed a man to be a king and a ruler over his people. King Benjamin chose his son Mosiah to reign in his stead, and then gathered the people to receive his last charge and ratify his selection. Mosiah gave the people yet greater liberty, and instead of nominating his successor directed them to make their own choice. The people highly appreciated this act of grace on the part of their beloved king, and selected Aaron, his son. Aaron, whose heart was set upon the salvation of the Lamanites, declined the kingly authority, when Mosiah very wisely advised his subjects not to select another to fill the throne, lest it give rise, in the future, to bloodshed and contention, but to elect judges to be their rulers, instead of kings, which proposition they accepted with great joy.
With regard to the Nephite laws in the days of the kings, and the manner of their execution, we can learn most from the parting addresses of kings Benjamin and Mosiah II. to their subjects. We are frequently told by the sacred writers, from Nephi, the founder, to Nephi, the disciple, that the people observed the law of Moses, modified, we judge, in some of its details to suit the altered circumstances of the Nephites from those of their brethren in the land of Palestine. As an instance we draw attention to the fact that, as there were none of the tribe of Levi in the colony that accompanied Lehi, from Judea, the priestly office must necessarily have been filled and the required sacrifices and burnt offerings offered by some of the members of the tribes who were with them. Nephi (doubtless by the direction of the Lord) appointed his brothers Jacob and Joseph to be the priests for the people, they being of the tribe of Manasseh, and the care of the sacred records remained with the descendants of the first named for several generations. The members of the various orders of the priesthood, when not actually engaged in the work of the ministry, in the duties of the temple, or the service of the sanctuary, were required to labor for their own support, that they might not prove burdensome to the people. A merciful provision was, however, made for the sustenance of members of the priesthood in cases of sickness or when in much want.