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Show 58 The actual announcement proclaiming separation came from Heber C. Kimball four weeks later. Kimball's remarks of August 30 were tantamount to a declaration of independence. In this flaming discourse, Brigham Young's first counsellor may have allowed his emotions to get the best of him. While Young had only made non-binding allusions to independence, the impetuous Kimball actually cut the ties: ...I never will be subject to them again,--no never. Do you hear it? Do you think we will submit to them? No, never. They have cut the thread themselves.... We are the people of Deseret. She shall be Deseret; she shall be no more Utah: we will have our own name. Do you hear it?... 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.... We are the Kingdom of God; we are STATE OF DESERET; and we will have you, brother Brigham, as our Governor just so long as you live. We will not have any other Governor. 31 The speech drew thunderous approval. When Brigham Young rose to the pulpit, he could do nothing but offer his sanction to his counsellor and the people. Over the next few months, the declaration of freedom would be echoed again and again throughout the Territory, and each time with a growing assurance. On October 18, Brigham Young declared from the Tabernacle pulpit: "With us, it is the kingdom of God, or nothing; and we will maintain it, or die in trying,... We are free. There is no yoke upon us now, and we will never put it on again. "32 Thomas B. H. Stenhouse, a Salt Lake City resident during this era, asserted that "for years previous, the people had been taught to look forward to the time when 'the Kingdom' should throw off its allegiance to all |