160 years ago today - Jan 22, 1862

At the statehood convention Brigham Young says, "We now are about to step into a State Government. . . . We now feel to do it. It is our duty and we think we Can maintain a Government. . . If the United States will admit us well. If not better. . . .We will ask Congress to admit us into the family of States. What if they do not? Se have got a Government and what are they going to do about it? If the Constitution has been carried out it would have hung President Buchannan . . ." He also states, "This is the ownly people on the Continent who are tru[e] to the Constitution of the United States. . . . We are doing nothing but what is strictly Constitutional. We shall be the ownly people that will maintain the Constitution while others will break it."