"It having pleased the Father of all good to make known his mind and will to the children of men in these last days, and through the administration of his angels to restore the holy priesthood unto the sons of Adam, by which the gospel of his Son has been proclaimed, and the ordinances of life and salvation are administered; and through which medium the Holy Ghost has been communicated to believing, willing, and honest minds; causing faith, wisdom, and intelligence to spring up in the hearts of men, and influencing them to flow together, from the four quarters of the earth, to a land of peace and health, rich in mineral and vegetable resources, reserved of old in the councils of eternity for the purposes to which it is now appropriated; a land choice above all other lands; far removed from the strife, contentions, divisions, moral and physical commotions, that are disturbing the peace of the nations and kingdoms of the earth,-- "I, Brigham Young, Governor of the Territory aforesaid, in response to the time-honored custom of our fathers at Plymouth Rock, by the governors of the several States and Territories, and with a heart filled with humiliation and gratitude to the Fountain of all good, for his multiplied munificence to his children, have felt desirous to, and do, _proclaim_ Thursday, the 1st day of January, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, a _Day of Praise and Thanksgiving_, for the citizens of this our peaceful Territory, in honor of the God of Abraham, who has preserved his children amid all the vicissitudes they have been called to pass; for his tender mercies in preserving the nation undivided in which we live; for causing the gospel of his kingdom to spread and take root upon the earth, beyond the power of men and demons to destroy; and that he has promised a day of universal joy and rejoicing to all the inhabitants who shall remain when the earth shall have been purified by fire, and rest in peace.