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Utah is a U.S. state located in the western United States. It was the 45th state admitted to the union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 88 percent of Utah's 2,500,000 people, known as "Utahns," live in an urban concentration with Salt Lake City as the center, known as the Wasatch Front. In contrast, vast expanses of the state are nearly uninhabited, making the population the sixth most urbanized in the U.S. The name "Utah" is derived from the Ute Indian language, meaning "people of the mountains". Utah is known for its geological diversity ranging from snowcapped mountains to well-watered river valleys to rugged, stony deserts. It is also known for being one of the most religiously homogeneous states in the Union, with approximately 61 percent of its inhabitants claiming membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which greatly influences Utah culture and daily life.
The state is a center of transportation, information technology and research, government services and mining as well as a major tourist destination for outdoor recreation. St. George, Utah was the fastest growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000-2005 with Utah being the sixth fastest growing state overall in 2006.
Utah is generally rocky with three distinct geological regions: the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, and the Colorado Plateau. Utah is known for its natural diversity and is home to features ranging from arid deserts with sand dunes to thriving pine forests in mountain valleys.
Utah is one of the Four Corners states, and is bordered by Idaho and Wyoming in the north; by Colorado in the east; at a single point by New Mexico to the southeast (at the Four Corners Monument); by Arizona in the south; and by Nevada in the west. It covers an area of 84,899 square miles (219,887 km²).
One of Utah's defining characteristics is the variety of its terrain. Running down the center of the state is the Wasatch Range, which rises to heights of about 12,000 feet (3,650 m) above sea level. Portions of these mountains receive more than 500 inches (12.7 m) of snow each year and are home to world-renowned ski resorts, made popular by the light, fluffy snow, which is considered good for skiing. In the northeastern section of the state, running east to west, are the Uinta Mountains, which rise to heights of 13,000 feet (3,950 m) or more. The highest point in the state, Kings Peak, at 13,528 feet (4,123 m), lies within the Uinta Mountains.
At the western base of the Wasatch Range is the Wasatch Front, a series of valleys and basins that are home to the most populous parts of the state. The major cities of Ogden, Salt Lake City, Layton, West Valley City, Sandy, West Jordan, Orem, and Provo are located within this region, which stretches approximately from Brigham City at the north end to Nephi at the south end. Approximately 75 percent of the population of the state lies in this corridor, and urban sprawl continues to expand along the edges of these valleys.
Western Utah is mostly arid desert with a basin and range topography. Small mountain ranges and rugged terrain punctuate the landscape. The Bonneville Salt Flats are an exception, being comparatively flat as a result of once forming the bed of Lake Bonneville. Great Salt Lake, Utah Lake, Sevier Lake, Rush Lake and Little Salt Lake are all remnants of this ancient freshwater lake, which once covered most of the eastern Great Basin. West of the Great Salt Lake, stretching to the Nevada border, lies the arid Great Salt Lake Desert.
Much of the scenic southern landscape is sandstone, specifically Kayenta sandstone and Navajo sandstone. The Colorado River and its tributaries wind their way through the sandstone, creating some of the world's most striking and wild terrain. Wind and rain have also sculpted the soft sandstone over millions of years. Canyons, gullies, arches, pinnacles, buttes, bluffs, and mesas are the common sight throughout south-central and southeast Utah. This terrain is the central feature of protected parks such as Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Zion national parks, Cedar Breaks, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Hovenweep, and Natural Bridges national monuments, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (site of the popular tourist destination, Lake Powell), Dead Horse Point and Goblin Valley state parks, and Monument Valley (a popular photographic and filming site).
Southwestern Utah is the lowest and hottest spot in Utah. It is known as Utah's Dixie because early settlers were able to grow limited amounts of cotton there. Beaverdam Wash in far southwestern Utah is the lowest point in the state, at 2,000 feet (610 m). The northernmost portion of the Mojave Desert is also located in this area. Dixie is quickly becoming a popular recreational and retirement destination, and the population is growing rapidly. Just north of Dixie is the state's highest ski resort, Brian Head.
Eastern Utah is a high-elevation area covered mostly by plateaus and basins. Economies are dominated by mining, oil and natural gas-drilling, ranching, and recreation. Much of eastern Utah is part of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation. The Navajo Nation also extends into southeastern Utah. The most popular destination within eastern Utah is Dinosaur National Monument near Vernal.
Like most of the Western and
Southwestern states, the federal government owns much of the land in Utah. Over
70 percent of the land is either BLM land, Utah State Trustland, or U.S. National
Forest, U.S. National Park, U.S. National Monument, National Recreation Area or
U.S. Wilderness Area.
Early peoples
Native Americans have lived in what is now Utah
for several thousand years. Most archeological evidence dates the earliest habitation
to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. These paleolithic people utilized habitat
near the Great Basin's swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, birds,
and small game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths,
also were attracted to these water sources. Over the centuries, the mega-fauna
disappeared, while bison, mule deer and antelope became more predominant.
Around 8000 BCE, a very different people began to utilize the Utah area. Known as the Desert Archaic, these people sheltered in caves which edge areas of the Great Salt Lake. Relying more on gathering than the previous Utah residents, their diet was mainly composed of cattails and other salt tolerant plants such as pickleweed, burro weed and sedge. Red meat appears to have been more of a luxury, although these people used nets and the atlatl to hunt water fowl, ducks, small animals and antelope. Artifacts include nets woven with plant fibers and rabbit skin, woven sandals, gaming sticks, and animal figures made from split-twigs. About 3,500 years ago, lake levels rose and the population of Desert Archaic people appears to have dramatically decreased. The Great Basin may have been almost unoccupied for 1,000 years.
Fremont petroglyph, Dinosaur National MonumentThe
Fremont culture, named from sites near the Fremont River in Utah, lived in what
is now north and western Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado from approximately
600 to 1300 CE. These people lived in areas close to water sources that had been
previously occupied by the Desert Archaic people, and may have had some relationship
with them. However, their use of new technologies define them as a distinct people.
Fremont technologies include:
use of the bow and arrow while hunting,
building
pithouse shelters,
growing maize and probably beans and squash,
building
above ground granaries of adobe or stone,
creating and decorating low-fired
pottery ware,
producing art, including jewelry and rock art such as petroglyphs
and pictographs.
Hovenweep Castle, San Juan River basinThe ancient Puebloan
culture, also known as the Anasazi, occupied territory adjacent to the Fremont.
The ancestral Puebloan culture centered around the present-day Four Corners area
of the Southwest United States, including the San Juan River region of Utah. Archaeologists
debate when this distinct culture emerged, but cultural development seems to date
from about the common era, about 500 years before the Fremont appeared. It is
generally accepted that the cultural peak of these people was around the 1200
CE. Ancient Puebloan culture is known for well constructed pithouses and more
elaborate adobe and masonry dwellings. They were excellent craftsmen, producing
turquoise jewelry and fine pottery. The Puebloan culture was based on agriculture,
and the people created and cultivated fields of maize, beans, and squash and domesticated
turkeys. They designed and produced elaborate field terracing and irrigation systems.
They also built structures, some known as kivas, apparently designed solely for
cultural and religious rituals.
These two later cultures were roughly contemporaneous, and appear to have established trading relationships. They also shared enough cultural traits that archaeologists believe the cultures may have common roots in the early American Southwest. However, each remained culturally distinct throughout most of their history. These two well established cultures appear to have been severely impacted by climatic change and perhaps by the incursion of new people in about 1200 CE. Over the next two centuries, the Fremont and ancient Pueblo people may have moved into the American southwest, finding new homes and farmlands in the river drainages of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.
Ute
homeland in the Wasatch Forest
Navajo homeland in Monument ValleyIn about
1200 CE, Shoshonean speaking peoples entered Utah territory from the west. They
may have originated in southern California and shifted into a desert environment
due to population pressure along the coast. They were an upland people with a
hunting and gathering lifestyle utilizing roots and seeds, including the pinyon
nut. They were also skillful fishermen, created pottery and raised some crops.
When they first arrived in Utah, they lived as small family groups with little
tribal organization. Four main Shoshonean peoples inhabited Utah country. The
Shoshone in the north and northeast, the Gosiutes in the northwest, the Utes in
the central and eastern parts of the region and the Southern Paiutes in the southwest.
Initially, there seems to have been very little conflict between these groups.
In the early 1500s, the San Juan River basin in Utah's southwest also saw a new people, the Díne or Navajo, part of a greater group of plains Athabaskan speakers moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In addition to the Navajo, this language group contained people that were later known as Apaches, including the Lipan, Jicarilla, and Mescalero Apaches.
Athabaskans were a hunting people who initially followed the bison, and were identified in 16th-century Spanish accounts as "dog nomads". The Athabaskans expanded their range throughout the 17th century, occupying areas the Pueblo peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Spanish first specifically mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navaho) in the 1620s, referring to the people in the Chama valley region east of the San Juan River, and north west of Santa Fe. By the 1640s, the term Navaho was applied to these same people. Although the Navajo newcomers established a generally peaceful trading and cultural exchange with the some modern Pueblo peoples to the south, they experienced intermittent warfare with the Shoshonean peoples, particularly the Utes in eastern Utah and western Colorado.
European exploration
Francisco
Vásquez de Coronado may have crossed into what is now southern Utah in
1540, when he was seeking the legendary Cíbola.
A group led by two Catholic priests—sometimes called the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the California coast. The expedition traveled as far north as Utah Lake and encountered the native residents.
Fur trappers—including Jim Bridger—explored some regions of Utah in the early 1800s. The city of Provo was named for one such man, Étienne Provost, who visited the area in 1825. The city of Ogden, Utah is named for a brigade leader of the Hudson Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden who trapped in the Weber Valley.
Mormon
settlement
Bonneville Salt FlatsMembers of The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, known as Mormon pioneers, first came to the Salt Lake Valley
on July 24, 1847. At the time, the territory which would become the state of Utah
was still under the control of Mexico. As a consequence of the Mexican-American
War, the land became the territory of the United States upon the signing of the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. The treaty was ratified by the
United States Senate on March 10.
Colonizing the desert
Upon arriving
in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons literally had to make a place to live. They
created irrigation systems, laid out farms, built houses, churches and schools.
Access to water was crucially important. Almost immediately, Brigham Young set
out to identify and claim additional community sites. While it was difficult to
find large areas in the Great Basin where water sources were dependable and growing
seasons long enough to raise vitally important subsistence crops, satellite communities
began to be formed.
Shortly after the first company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the community of Bountiful was settled to the north. In 1848, settlers moved into lands purchased from trapper Miles Goodyear in present day Ogden. In 1849, Tooele and Provo were founded. Also that year, at the invitation of Ute chief Wakara, settlers moved into the Sanpete Valley in central Utah to establish the community of Manti. Fillmore, Utah, intended to be the capital of the new territory, was established in 1851. In 1855, missionary efforts aimed at western native cultures led to outposts in Fort Lemhi, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain in east central Utah.
The experiences of returning members of the Mormon Battalion were also important in establishing new communities. On their journey west, the Mormon soldiers had identified dependable rivers and fertile river valleys in Colorado, Arizona and southern California. In addition, as the men traveled to rejoin their families in the Salt Lake Valley, they moved through southern Nevada and southern Utah. Jefferson Hunt, senior Mormon officer of the Battalion, actively searched for settlement sites, minerals and other resources. His report encouraged 1851 settlement efforts in Iron County, near present day Cedar City. These southern explorations eventually led to Mormon settlements in St. George, Utah, Las Vegas and San Bernadino, California, as well as communities in southern Arizona.
State of Deseret (proposed)
Statehood was petitioned
for in 1849/50 using the name Deseret. The proposed State of Deseret would have
been quite large, encompising all of what is now Utah, and portions of territory
of what would become Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and California.
The name of Deseret was favored by the LDS leader Brigham Young as a symbol of
industry, and the name itself derived from a reference in the Book of Mormon.
The petition was rejected by Congress. One reason for the rejection certainly
was the reluctance of Congress to grant such a large piece of territory to a state
controlled and populated by Mormons. Another reason may have been the low population
levels, however, other states achieved statehood with small populations, but did
so without the stigma of being connected to Mormons. It is unclear how much Congress
knew about the Mormon practice of polygamy in 1849/50. In any case statehood would
be denied until the year 1896.
The boundaries of the provisional State
of Deseret (orange) as proposed in 1849. The area of the Utah Territory as organized
in 1850 is shaded in pink.
Utah Territory
In 1850, the Utah Territory
was created with the Compromise of 1850, and Fillmore was designated the capital.
In 1856, Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the territorial capital.
Disputes between the Mormon inhabitants and the US Government intensified after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints practice of polygamy was known to the government. The polygamous practices of the Mormons, which were made public in 1854, would be the major reason Utah was denied statehood until almost 50 years after the Mormons had entered the area.
After news of their polygamous practices spread, the members of the LDS Church were quickly viewed as un-American and rebellious. In 1857, after news of a false rebellion spread, the government sent troops on the "Utah expedition" to quell the supposed rebellion and to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor with Alfred Cumming. The resulting conflict is known as the Utah War.
As troops approached Salt Lake in northern Utah, nervous Mormon settlers and Paiutes attacked and killed 120 immigrants from Arkansas in southern Utah. The attack became known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The massacre became a point of contention between LDS leaders and the federal government for decades. Only one man, John D. Lee, was ever convicted of the murders, and he was executed at the massacre site.
Before troops led by Albert Sidney Johnston entered the territory, Brigham Young ordered all residents of Salt Lake City to evacuate southward to Utah Valley and sent out a force, known as the Nauvoo Legion, to delay the government's advance. Although wagons and supplies were burned, eventually the troops arrived, and Young surrendered official control to Cumming, although most subsequent commentators claim that Young retained true power in the territory. A steady stream of governors appointed by the president quit the position, often citing the unresponsiveness of their supposed territorial government. By agreement with Young, Johnston established Fort Floyd 40 miles away from Salt Lake City, to the southwest.
Salt Lake City was the last link of the First Transcontinental Telegraph, completed in October of 1861. Brigham Young was among the first to send a message, along with Abraham Lincoln and other officials.
Because of the American Civil War, federal troops were pulled out of Utah Territory, leaving the territory in LDS hands until Patrick E. Connor arrived with a regiment of California volunteers in 1862. Connor established Fort Douglas just three miles (5 km) east of Salt Lake City and encouraged his men to discover mineral deposits to bring more non-Mormons into the state. Minerals were discovered in Tooele County, and miners began to flock to the territory.
Beginning in 1865, Utah's Black Hawk War developed into the deadliest conflict in the territory's history. Chief Antonga Black Hawk died in 1870, but fights continued to break out until additional federal troops were sent in to suppress the Ghost Dance of 1872. The war is unique among Indian Wars because it was a three-way conflict, with mounted Timpanogos Utes led by Antonga Black Hawk exploited by federal and LDS authorities.
On May 10, 1869, the First Transcontinental Railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. The railroad brought increasing numbers of people into the state, and several influential businessmen made fortunes in the territory.
During the 1870s and 1880s, laws were passed to punish polygamists, and in the 1890 Manifesto, the LDS Church finally agreed to ban polygamy. When Utah applied for statehood again, it was accepted. One of the conditions for granting Utah statehood was that a ban on polygamy be written into the state constitution. This was a condition required of other western states that were admitted into the Union later. Statehood was officially granted on January 4, 1896.
20th
century
Downtown Salt Lake City in the 1920s.Beginning in the early 1900s,
with the establishment of such national parks as Bryce Canyon National Park and
Zion National Park, Utah began to become known for its natural beauty. Southern
Utah became a popular filming spot for arid, rugged scenes, and such natural landmarks
as Delicate Arch and "the Mittens" of Monument Valley are instantly
recognizable to most national residents. During the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, with
the construction of the Interstate highway system, accessibility to the southern
scenic areas was made easier.
Beginning in 1939, with the establishment of Alta Ski Area, Utah has become world-renowned for its skiing. The dry, powdery snow of the Wasatch Range is considered some of the best skiing in the world. Salt Lake City won the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, and this has served as a great boost to the economy. The ski resorts have increased in popularity, and many of the Olympic venues scattered across the Wasatch Front continue to be used for sporting events. This also spurred the development of the light-rail system in the Salt Lake Valley, known as TRAX, and the re-construction of the freeway system around the city.
During the late 20th century, the state grew quickly. In the 1970s, growth was phenomenal in the suburbs. Sandy was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country at that time. Today, many areas of Utah are seeing phenomenal growth. Northern Davis, southern and western Salt Lake, Summit, eastern Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, and Washington counties are all growing very quickly. Transportation and urbanization are major issues in politics as development consumes agricultural land and wilderness areas.
A History of the Utah Liberal Party and Utah Peoples Party
The Utah Liberal Party
The Liberal Party, like the People's Party, flourished in Utah Territory as a local political party in the latter half of the 19th century—before Democrats and Republicans established themselves in Utah in the early 1890s.
The Liberal Party formed in 1870 to oppose The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS Church; popularly known as the "Mormons"), which dominated local politics. Thus the Liberal Party represented the non-Mormon side in a religiously-charged atmosphere. Though vastly outnumbered, the Liberal Party offered an opposing voice and won several local elections. Anti-Mormonism remained a central theme of the party until it disbanded in 1893 and became absorbed by the national parties.
Origins
The
impetus for the setting up of the Liberal Party came from William S. Godbe, a
successful businessman and Latter-day Saint who founded a journal called Utah
Magazine in 1868. Godbe and several business associates challenged the economic
policies of LDS Church President Brigham Young in the monthly periodical, especially
Young's opposition to mining. When increasingly harsh condemnations aimed at LDS
leadership appeared, the LDS Church excommunicated key "Godbeites" on
October 25, 1869.
Corresponding during the winter, key Godbeites and non-Mormons made an uneasy alliance based on their shared opposition to LDS control over temporal matters in the territory.
The Deseret Evening News, owned by the LDS
Church, served as the de facto People's Party organ, and regularly denounced the
Liberal Party in its pagesThe Liberal Party formed after a meeting on February
9, 1870 to select independent candidates for the Salt Lake City municipal election.
The organizers billed the occasion as a meeting of the "people". A crowd
of Latter-day Saints, encouraged by local bishops and a Deseret Evening News editorial,
attended in numbers and nearly hijacked the meeting. After the LDS crowd had selected
their own slate of candidates, frustrated Godbeite Eli B. Kelsey asked the Mormons
to leave, which they did. The remaining non-Mormons selected an independent municipal
ticket, forming the Liberal Party. Liberal leaders intended that their party's
name suggest reform and evoke Britain's Liberal Party.
In response, Latter-day Saints formed the People's Party, a title selected to suggest popularity and ironically alluding to the Liberal's disrupted meeting of "the people". Latter-day Saints had previously won elections unchallenged.
Early Liberal Party speakers carefully avoided condemning LDS theology or polygamy, because several Godbeites themselves practised polygamy. Eli B. Kelsey and Henry W. Lawrence, both Godbeites, gained election as the first officers of the new party. Non-Mormons, including R. N. Baskin, George R. Maxwell, and Judge Dennis Toohy of Corinne, played an active role in the party, but stayed in the background initially, hoping that ex-Mormon Godbeites would prove more effective leaders and candidates.
Godbeites believed they should reform Utah and the LDS Church to adopt more politically progressive policies, but the non-Mormon element of the party took a more adversarial line. Non-Mormon partisans, especially miners and railroad workers, would increasingly dominate party leadership. Through the 1870s, the Liberal Party grew less appeasing of Godbeites and more openly anti-Mormon and anti-polygamy. Waning Godbeite influence showed even by 1871 when Liberals Dennis Toohy and George R. Maxwell infuriated Godbeites at a party meeting by calling polygamists "dupes" and criminals of perverse sensuality.
Like many political parties of the time, the Liberal Party ran a newspaper, although unofficially. Godbe's Utah Magazine became the Mormon Weekly Tribune and in 1873 three anti-Mormon newcomers from Kansas bought it and it became The Salt Lake Tribune. Until the Liberal Party disbanded in 1893, the Tribune would operate as the Liberal Party's de facto political organ. Similarly, the Deseret Evening News, owned by the LDS Church, often functioned as a People's Party organ.
History
Unsurprisingly, the Liberal Party performed
poorly against the Mormon majority. In the 1870 Salt Lake City Mayoral race, Liberal
Henry W. Lawrence lost to Daniel H. Wells 321 to 2301. State-wide contests produced
even more lopsided figures, with Liberals regularly failing to garner 10% of the
vote. Although Liberals never won a single statewide office, the party served
as a political foil and won several local elections including:
The
so-called Tooele Republic in 1874.
Ogden, Utah in 1889.
Salt Lake City,
Utah in 1890.
When the party first formed in 1870, party officials tried to
win offices in the town of Corrine, reasoning that they could more readily overwhelm
the small local population. They failed, but continued to scout other promising
areas.
In Tooele County, perhaps the only non-Mormon majority in the territory existed. These residents, mostly transitory miners, congregated in Utah after US Army General Patrick Edward Connor encouraged his men to prospect for minerals, which they discovered west of Salt Lake City in 1864.
The Liberal Party, campaigning voraciously in mining towns, won a disputed election in August 1874. The People's Party incumbents, citing fraud, refused to yield their positions even as U.S. Marshals authorized by the 3rd District federal court attempted to intervene and install the Liberal candidates. Brigham Young advised his followers to abide by the federal court, which they finally did.
Liberals carried all offices in the county, which they called the Tooele Republic. Running unopposed in 1876, Liberals held the county until the Utah territorial legislature passed bills in 1878 requiring voter registration and instituting women's suffrage. The Liberal Party, typically supported by male miners casually interested in politics, opposed both measures. In 1878 the Liberal electoral majority in Tooele County disappeared, and the People's Party regained control in 1879 after more than six months of Liberal procedural delays.
By 1880, the Liberal Party had become severely atrophied, but the newly-appointed and distinctly anti-Mormon territorial governor, Eli H. Murray, openly supported the Party. Thus, the 1880 state-wide election for a congressional delegate unexpectedly proved the closest that the Liberal Party got to sending a representative to Washington D.C.
The Liberal candidate, Allen G. Campbell — with 1357 votes — lost resoundingly to Mormon General Authority George Q. Cannon who had 18,567 votes. In fact, the election marked the all-time low percentage-wise showing for any Liberal U.S. congressional candidate. However, before Governor Murray certified the election, a protest on behalf of Campbell was filed. The protest listed a dozen claims, chiefly that Cannon, born in Liverpool, England, was an un-naturalized alien. The protest also claimed that Cannon's practice of polygamy was incompatible with the law and a delegate's oath of office. Murray agreed and issued certification to Campbell in spite of his poor showing.
George Q. Cannon, in Washington at the time, argued that only Congress could decide on a member's qualifications. He furthermore received a certificate from sympathetic territorial election officials which stated he had received the most votes. This document convinced the House of Representatives clerk to enter Cannon's name on the roll, so Cannon began drawing delegate's salary.
Both Murray and Campbell traveled to Washington to dispute the seat. Each side battled over the position for over a year, even through the assassination and eventual death of President James Garfield. On February 25, 1882, the House of Representatives finally rejected both candidates. The House refused Cannon his seat not for his dubious citizenship, but for his practice of polygamy. The entire ordeal actually brought unfavorable national attention to the "Mormon Situation" with regard to polygamy.
In a November 7th 1882 election to fill the vacated congressional seat, the Liberal Party fielded Philip T. Van Zile, but the seat was ultimately won by John T. Caine of the Peoples Party. Of the 33266 registered voters, 23039 votes were cast for Caine, while Van Zile received 4884. About 12000 people were excluded from registering based on suspicion of polygamy.
National outrage against polygamy benefited the Liberal Party in Utah. On March 23, 1882 the anti-polygamy Edmunds Act became law. An even stronger act, the Edmunds-Tucker Act, was enacted on March 3, 1887. Among other things, these acts required candidates and prospective voters to submit to an anti-polygamy oath. Enforcement of these bills furthermore put significant numbers of Latter-day Saint polygamists in federal prisons, including one built in Sugar House specifically for that purpose. These measures, which often brought punishment on anyone unwilling to take the oath, intimidated and decimated the Latter-day Saint voter pool.
The Salt
Lake Tribune triumphantly declares Liberal Party victory in Salt Lake CityThe
Liberal Party swept the city government of Ogden, Utah in 1889 although they did
not succeed in carrying the Weber County government as they had wished. In 1890,
the Liberal Party took Salt Lake City, and George M. Scott became the first non-Mormon
mayor of Salt Lake by a margin of 808 votes. Two years later, long-time Liberal
stalwart R. N. Baskin became mayor on a "fusion ticket" between moderate
Liberals and elements of the old People's Party.
Propelled by success in Salt Lake City and Ogden, the Liberal Party won one-third of the Utah territorial legislature in the August 1891 election. This election proved particularly notable, because the People's Party disbanded just prior to the election and urged all members to join national parties. Thus, non-Mormon Liberals ran (and several won) against mostly-Mormon Democrats and Republicans.
However, the Liberal Party had reached its twilight. In September 1890, the LDS Church issued the so-called 1890 Manifesto, which promised to end the practice of polygamy. National support that the Liberals previously enjoyed for opposing polygamy in Utah thus disappeared. In 1893, all polygamists were given executive pardon, and statehood for Utah seemed imminent. Polygamy, often the focus of Liberal scorn, made the party irrelevant when Mormons abandoned the practice.
Following the lead of the People's Party eighteen months earlier, most members of the Liberal Party joined national parties in early 1893 in anticipation of Utah statehood.
On January 4, 1896, Utah became the 45th state in the Union. Former Liberals continued to be involved in politics, and most of the Mormon majority continued to view them unfavorably.
The Deseret Evening News and other LDS papers characterized Liberal Party governments as wasteful. The party outspent revenue in Tooele, Ogden, and Salt Lake City, accumulating relatively large public debts. However, the Liberal Party characterized its expenditures as essential for civic improvements. In Salt Lake City, the Liberals constructed the city's first sewer, called the "gravity sewer," which the Deseret News characterized as graft. The Salt Lake Liberals also constructed an ornate and expensive joint Salt Lake City and County Building. Former Liberals such as R. N. Baskin defended the reputation and legacy of the Liberal Party well into the 20th century.
The People's Party was a political party in
Utah Territory during the late 19th century. It was backed by The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints (widely known as the LDS or Mormon Church) and its
newspaper, the Deseret News. It opposed Utah's Liberal Party.
Beginnings
Daniel H. Wells was among the first officials to be elected under the People's
PartyThe People's Party emerged in 1870 in response to the non-Mormon Liberal
Party. In fact, the initial slate of candidates for the 1870 Salt Lake City election
was approved on February 9 by Latter-day Saints who had swarmed into the first
meeting of Liberals in order to hijack and disrupt it. Daniel H. Wells, the incumbent
mayor, easily won the first contested Salt Lake election 2301 to 321.
Previously, political candidates ran without party affiliation, and LDS candidates usually found themselves unopposed. With organized opposition to LDS candidates, the LDS leaders found having their own party expedient. Historian Ronald W. Walker states that the party's name was selected to combat the notion that Brigham Young, himself not an elected official since 1857, was a tyrant. The People's Party, as the name intentionally suggested, spoke for the vast majority of citizens—Latter-day Saints—in Utah Territory.
History of Success
With only a handful
of defeats, the party was supported by an overwhelming majority in most elections.
Championing the cause of Women's suffrage, with the vote extended to women in
the territory 1870, helped the party emphasize its strength. Most non-Mormons
in the territory were men, often miners, so the People's Party gained a distinct
advantage.
Throughout its history, People's Party candidates never lost a statewide election. Local elections were lost to the Liberals under dubious circumstances, such as with the "Tooele Republic", and after harsh anti-polygamy legislation disqualified many LDS voters in the 1880s before the 1890 Manifesto halted further LDS plural marriages.
Dissolution
The party disbanded
in June 1891 prior to elections for territorial legislature. Members joined the
two national parties, with LDS leaders striving to direct equal numbers toward
each party. With LDS Democrats and Republicans competing against Liberal candidates,
the Deseret News characterized Liberals as a "bastard party". One political
ad asked rhetorically "what is he who votes for a bastard ticket?" Nonetheless,
Liberals captured one third of seats in the territorial legislature.
Impetus
for dissolving the party came from members of the national parties who believed
the territory should follow national political lines before obtaining statehood.
The LDS Church could not favor either national party because the LDS majority
in the state would make the preferred party into a new de facto People's Party.
Two years later Liberals, also eager for statehood, followed suit, and Utah became
the 45th state in the Union on January 4, 1896.
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A Biography of Robin Williams A Biography of Steve Martin A Biography of Jerry Seinfeld
Some hilarious joke ideas for newspapers
A link to the hilarious comedy on Magellan
A
Biography of Bruce Springsteen
More
jokes Joke Lasters
Jokes More
A Joke version of the Scottish League
A very very deep joke encyclopedia
The Man Who Would be Queen, a political Satire, & fun comedy,
My fave page of our hilarious wacky brand of humour More great jokes http://www.lonympics.co.uk/jokesmore2.htm Even more jokes, there are some jokes sites not on this site, listed on our other jokes sites, that are listed on this site, we have 100s of great jokes in this network of websites.
And our next to last jokes page, of our many joke pages
Now some other people's jokes, better look at our other pages, & also some knock knock jokes we thought up But this one here really is our very very last jokes we thought up page Other People's Jokes Some Hilarious Jokes I remember, the last of these pages which we use other people's jokes
If animals used dating agencies this is the sort of hilarious stuff they would say
A Website for billionaires to read
CIA propaganda on East German automobile, the Trabant
Just imagine the US declaration of independance was written by a man who loves cakes,
A site on cheap housing in London
A site on comic word association A site on a imaginery cow English Premiership
How to make money fast - joke site
Hilarious retorts to alien lifeforms trying to attack you
A site stating one of our contributor's most embaressing moments ever
A statement that aliens would make saying how they think us humans look real strange
Animation, happy faces, appear, Our Comedy Soccer & Comedy Sport Index
A Hilarious bunch of songs about money, & statements in Medieval joke
Forest comedy Comedy Trolley mobile phones accessories
Stock exchange comedy . Comedy about Porsche .Comedy about Exclusive London Clubs
Budgie's budget tips & advice on the budget Alternatives to mobile phone
Jokes about the Yeti Humour filled ideas about the Yeti,
Animal mobile phone: What mobile phone would an animal have?
Mr Lonympics the Comedy Billionaire, biography
Comedy history & info on Manchester United
Comedy history & info on Celtic F.C
April Fools day jokes Planet Jokes .Planet Jokes 2
Why did the Chicken Cross the road Jokes
My view on King of Comedy, this page has over a 1000 letters, which symbolises the jokes I have made not on this site, so there are over 1000 jokes on this site
Police Squad - the facts Cheers - just the facts The movie, the Goonies - just the facts The facts on Frasier Saturday Night Live the facts
Monty
Python the facts South Park -
just the facts
Somebody's view on the origins of comedy
A Biography of Joichiro Tatsuyoshi, boxing should be banned of course and all fighting
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrghhh, more of our great jokes
Underwater cities on the south east coast of England
Comedy Chess, one of our best pages
Just imagine you had to watch a 1000 Christmas jokes event, well this is even better,
This netowrk of jokes, all made bu this website has over 1000 jokes in it, they are all within 4 pages away in terms of clicking through our sites
100s of Websites http://www.lonympics.co.uk/
If you would like to see some true facts about whoppee cushions, you can have a look about this site