Post by lordroel on Aug 23, 2017 13:42:26 GMT
Map: the Mormon State That Never was (State of Deseret)
The State of Deseret was a provisional state of the United States, proposed in 1849 by settlers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Salt Lake City. The provisional state existed for slightly over two years (1849 to 1851) and was never recognized by the United States government. The name derives from the word for "honeybee" in the Book of Mormon.
The proposed state of Deseret was ambitious in its size, comprising most of the territory that the United States recently had acquired in the Mexican Cession of 1848. To wit: almost all the surface of the present-day states of Utah and Nevada, large sections of California and Arizona, significant parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon.
The borders of the state were not, as the later, actual states, straight-lined, but to a large degree determined by natural features: the Rocky Mountains (to the east) and the Sierra Nevada (in the west), although Deseret would have touched the ocean south of the Santa Monica Mountains, to include the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego.
Two reasons are most often cited as to why Deseret never came to be: it would have created a state based on a separate religion, and it was probably too ambitious in its scope. In 1849, president Taylor proposed combining California and Deseret into a single Union state.
Meanwhile, the Provisional State of Deseret assumed more and more aspects of government, convoking a Great Assembly, which appointed judges, approved legislature (establishing taxes on liquor and outlawing gambling) and formed a militia.
In 1850, however, the US Congress created the Utah Territory, which encompassed only the northern part of Deseret. The Mormons acquiesced. The spiritual leader of the Mormons, Brigham Young, was inaugurated as the first governor of Utah Territory on February 3rd 1851. On April 4th 1851 the General Assembly of Deseret dissolved itself and the Provisional State.
This was not the end of the dream of Deseret, though: in 1856, 1862 and again in 1872, the Mormons attempted to write a constitution that would establish a (Mormon) state of Deseret in Utah Territory. From 1862 to 1870, a group of Mormon elders met after each session of the territorial legislature as a kind of shadow government, re-ratifying the laws in the name of ‘Deseret’.
The dream of Deseret faded with the coming of the railroads, which brought many non-Mormon settlers out west. Eventually, the Utah Territory shrank to its present size, and was accepted into the Union as a state in 1896.
The State of Deseret was a provisional state of the United States, proposed in 1849 by settlers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Salt Lake City. The provisional state existed for slightly over two years (1849 to 1851) and was never recognized by the United States government. The name derives from the word for "honeybee" in the Book of Mormon.
The proposed state of Deseret was ambitious in its size, comprising most of the territory that the United States recently had acquired in the Mexican Cession of 1848. To wit: almost all the surface of the present-day states of Utah and Nevada, large sections of California and Arizona, significant parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon.
The borders of the state were not, as the later, actual states, straight-lined, but to a large degree determined by natural features: the Rocky Mountains (to the east) and the Sierra Nevada (in the west), although Deseret would have touched the ocean south of the Santa Monica Mountains, to include the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego.
Two reasons are most often cited as to why Deseret never came to be: it would have created a state based on a separate religion, and it was probably too ambitious in its scope. In 1849, president Taylor proposed combining California and Deseret into a single Union state.
Meanwhile, the Provisional State of Deseret assumed more and more aspects of government, convoking a Great Assembly, which appointed judges, approved legislature (establishing taxes on liquor and outlawing gambling) and formed a militia.
In 1850, however, the US Congress created the Utah Territory, which encompassed only the northern part of Deseret. The Mormons acquiesced. The spiritual leader of the Mormons, Brigham Young, was inaugurated as the first governor of Utah Territory on February 3rd 1851. On April 4th 1851 the General Assembly of Deseret dissolved itself and the Provisional State.
This was not the end of the dream of Deseret, though: in 1856, 1862 and again in 1872, the Mormons attempted to write a constitution that would establish a (Mormon) state of Deseret in Utah Territory. From 1862 to 1870, a group of Mormon elders met after each session of the territorial legislature as a kind of shadow government, re-ratifying the laws in the name of ‘Deseret’.
The dream of Deseret faded with the coming of the railroads, which brought many non-Mormon settlers out west. Eventually, the Utah Territory shrank to its present size, and was accepted into the Union as a state in 1896.