[Brigham Young Sermon] The President said that there was one question he wanted brought under the consideration of the council: Shall we look further or make a location upon this spot and layout and build a city? We were the Pioneers of the Church and our business was to seek for a suitable location for the Church. The question is, shall this be the spot or shall we look further? I want all to freely express their minds and feelings. (A motion was made to locate here. I seconded it and remarked that if we went up south to the Utah Lake, the country was occupied by the Indians, while here it was unoccupied)'- The President said if this was their feelings he wanted them to manifest it by saying aye, when it was unanimously decided in the affirmative. [He] then remarked the feelings of the Twelve was the same and he knew that as [a] general thing, the minds of the Brethren were like this: if they should say, by revelation, this is the spot they would be entirely satisfied if it was on a barren rock. Well, I know it is the spot and we have come here according to the suggestion and direction of Joseph Smith who was martyred. The word of the Lord was [to] go to that valley and the best place you can find in it is the spot. Well, I prayed that he would lead us directly to the best spot which he has done, for after searching we can find no better'- The President replied that Br William [Vance] had a perfect right to his views, but if we were on the other side of the Lake we should not have the benefit of the warm North and West winds from the Lake. I knew this spot as soon as I saw it. Up there on that table ground we shall erect the standard of freedom. The President then said, we shall have a committee to lay out the city and who should it be? When it was unanimously resolved that the Twelve be that committee and also to apportion the inheritances. Says the President, we propose to have the Temple Lot contain 40 acres to include the ground we are now on. What do you say to that? all right. That the Streets will be 88 feet wide, side walks 20 feet, the Lots to contain 1 1/4 acre, 8 Lots in a Block, the houses invariably set in the center of the Lot, 20 feet back from the Street, with no shops or other buildings on the corners of the Streets, neither will they be filled with cattle, Horses & hogs, nor children for they will have yards and places appropriated for recreation and we will have a city clean and in order. No one will be allowed to divide his Lot or sell off a corner but when improved it may be right for him to sell the whole Lot or his inheritance in the country and go to some other place, for many other places will be built up. A man may live here with us and worship what God he pleases or none at all, but he must not blaspheme the God of Israel nor damn old Joe Smith or his religion for we will Salt him down in the Lake! We do not intend to have any trade or commerce with the Gentile world, for so long as we buy of them we are in a degree dependant upon them. The Kingdom of God cannot rise independent of the Gentile nations until we produce, Manufacture and make every article of use, convenience, or necessity among our own People. We shall have Elders abroad among all nations and until we can obtain and collect the raw material for our Manufactures it will be their business to gather in such things as are or may be needed. So we shall need no commerce with the nations. I am determined to cut every thread of this Kind and live free and independent, untrammeled by any of their detestable customs and practices. You don't know how I detest and despise them. We have suffered by persecution at their hands which makes me so sanguine with regard to Law and its execution upon this Land. You may think it oppression that your children are not permitted to run and ramble about the Streets. Well, I have a Sermon to Preach to the Sisters concerning their duty and I believe I will give some of it to you now. (Let us have it, says Several voices.) I will begin by saying that there's not a woman in this Church that Knows her duty. My Wife probably Knows as much as any woman in the church and she does not Know her duty!!! Not many of the Elders Know their duty! Every moment of my life I seek of my Heavenly Father to Know his will concerning me and what he requires me to do, and I am ready to [do] it, and inasmuch as I enquire, 'Lord what is thy will?' My wife Should enquire, 'Husband what is thy will?' 'Wife, it is my will that you take care of my clothes and keep them, and your house clean.' It is my will that you take care of that little Boy. See that he has a lesson given every day to learn and that he does not run about the Streets or associate with bad Boys. It is my will that you see to that little Girl and teach and instruct her in her duty! But instead of that she has so much to do to watch me that she can find no time to attend to these things as they should be attended to. But if I am gone out and return is, 'O Husband, I am so glad to see you. I was afraid something would happen to you.' Wife, where is the Boys? O, I don't Know, I was so concerned about you. I guess they are over to neighbor such a one's. How have you been? I was so afraid something would happen to you. Just as though Brigham did not Know enough to take care of himself. So my Boys are allowed to run wild into all Kinds of difficulty before they are old enough for me to lay my hands upon them and assign them their business and calling or put them to learn a trade under a good master. All this arises from the Husbands not seeking to Know and do the will of the Lord and from the Wife not seeking to Know and do the will of her Husband. How is it that men have such perverse dispositions? All Spirits are Pure when they enter the tabernacle, which is when, in a state of pregnancy, the woman first feels motion. Then the Spirit is pure but it becomes united with flesh and is controlled by it. The woman then should never be crossed in anything, but treated as gentile as an infant, her mind guided and ruled by the principles of righteousness and kept continually upon Holy things. But, let her give way to temptation, Steal, get drunk, or any other evil, and her offspring will partake of the same qualities. Whereas, if she will continually resist all temptation she will be blessed herself and the body of her child will be larger, more strong and robust, the Spirit mild and tractable and [in] this way our race will become improved until the age of man Shall be as the age of a tree. [Some spelling corrected] -- Salt Lake City [Norton Jacob Diary, Archives, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.. Also The Mormon Vanguard Brigade of 1847, Ronald Barney, ed. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2005. 227-130]
[source: The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
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