Heber C. Kimball

“ May I tell you some of my feelings, and not have any of you angry with me? [Voices: "Yes."] I hate to have the ladies angry with me, above all things; and I will tell you one thing, and that is, all you that are ladies will not find fault; but the woman that finds fault with me, I can analyze her, and show you she is not a lady. I am a physician. Well, you can hardly mention a thing that is good but what I am.
I want to tell some of my feelings here to-day, in a few words, relative to brother Brigham. ”

“ If you sow to the spirit, you will reap life everlasting; but if you sow to the flesh, we shall reap corruption; and the bed that we make, we have got to lie in. Now, I will tell you another thing that bears heavily on my mind, as much so as any other thing, and that is, for this people to live their religion, and do as they are told.
I will ask you this question, gentlemen and ladies—Can you live your religion, except you do as you are told? I have said, again and again, that if we live our religion, and do as we are told, those men will never come over those mountains ”

“ You will see mothers who will correct their children when they get angry, and that is almost the only time they will correct a child. Am I angry to-day? Just look at me, and see if you think I am angry. ”

“ I am a pretty rugged fellow, and valiant for the truth; and may the Lord make everybody like me, that we may stand against our enemies; for the corruptest devils on the earth are the present aristocracy. ”

“ Well, there is not a mother in this congregation but feels in that way; else, when they see one of their children in fault, why do they correct those children? Why do you correct them, when you are not willing to be corrected yourselves? Neither a father nor a mother, from this time forth, should correct a child, except they are willing to be corrected in their faults. ”

“ Let us go to work and lay up our grain, lay up wheat, and everything that will and can be preserved; and in so doing, we will save ourselves from sorrow, pain, and anguish; and the Lord will give us a law and a word for us to abide, and he will cut off our enemies; and if every man and woman will go to work, lay up their grain, and do as they are told, the Lord will hold off our enemies from us, until we can lay up sufficient store for ourselves. ”

“ You ladies, too, will certainly have to do your part, or back out. I told you last Sunday to arm yourselves; and if you cannot do it any other way, sell some of your fine bonnets, fine dresses, and buy yourselves a good dirk, a pistol, or some other instrument of war. Arm your boys and arm yourselves universally, and that, too, with the weapons of war; for we may be brought to the test, to see if we will stand up to the line. I never knew it to fail, when men made covenants, but they were brought to the test, to see if they would live up to them. ”

“ Is there a person in this congregation but what has that desire and that feeling? If there is, I am greatly mistaken; for I hear them when I go into meetings and when I go into family circles; they will say, if I have a wrong thing about me, I want to be corrected. Have you not heard it so this morning? Every man that speaks before this community has those feelings. Have not I those feelings? ”

“ You may take the Elders of Israel throughout these valleys, and those at the stations, between here and the United States, and those that we have sent to the nations of the earth, and then thousands, who never were here, and there never was a more amenable set of men upon the earth, with the experience that we have got ”

“ Suppose it is not coming, will it hurt you to lay up the products of the earth for seven years? Will it hurt you, if you have your guns, swords and spears in good condition, according to the law of the United States? Some of the States give a man his clearance at forty years of age; others, at forty-five: they call men to train when they are eighteen years of age; but we call upon all from six to six hundred years old: we do not except any ”

“ Those are the women I would choose for wives. If you want virtue, go into the farming country, for there it is homespun. Farming dictricts [districts] contain the essence and the virtue of old England.
I do not know that you know what homespun is; but it is that which is spun at home; and it is for your welfare, both men, women, and children, to make your own clothing. It is also for your salvation to equip yourselves according to law. ”

“ I mean just what I say, and this people say they will not have any other Governor, and especially any one that has to come here under arms; for we consider that any man is a poor, damned curse that has to come here under arms to rule over us. These are my feelings; and if anybody votes against it, they are not of us: but there are but four or five but what vote for us; and they are apostates, and will go overboard. There is not a child but what goes with us in these things.
When we reject brother Brigham Young, we reject the head ”

“ Go to work, and lay up your grain, and do not lay it out for fine clothes, nor any other kind of fine thing, but make homespun trowsers and petticoats. What would please me more than for my family, instead of wanting me to go to the store for petticoats and short gowns, to see them go to work and make some good homespun? ”

“ We are the people of Deseret, and it is for us to say whether we will have brother Brigham for our Governor, or those poor, miserable devils they are reported to be trying to bring here. You must know they are miserable devils to have to come here under arms ”

“ We sent that number for the President of the United States to make a selection from, and asked him to give us men of our own choice, in accordance with the rights constitutionally guaranteed to all American citizens. ”

“ We drafted a memorial, and the Council and the House of Representatives signed it, and we sent to them the names of men of our own choice—as many as from five to eight men for each office—men from our own midst, out of whom to appoint officers for this Territory. ”