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Show CIVIL GOVERNMENT- STATE OP DESERET. 127 from the neighbouring mountain, and two grist- mills and three saw- mills, added to those already in operation. The winter of this year was much more severe than the preceding one, and snow fell on the plain to the depth of ten inches. In the following spring ( 1849) a settlement was commenced, and a small fort built near the mouth of the Timpanogas or Provaux, an affluent of Lake Utah, about fifty miles south of the city. During this Bummer, large crops of grain, melons, potatoes, and corn were raised, and two more saw- mills erected. The colony had now become firmly established, and all fear of its ability to sustain itself were, from the overflowing abundance of the harvest, set at rest. Nothing could be more natural than that the people should turn their attention to the formation of a system of civil government. Hitherto they had been under the guidance of their ecclesiastical leaders only, and justice had been administered upon principles of equity simply, enforced by % the government of the church alone. This would answer very well while the community remained small, and consisted only of those who acknowledged the binding force of spiritual rule in matters purely temporal also. But, as the colony increased, it was not to be expected that it would continue to consist solely of members of the church, willing to submit to such a jurisdiction, without the sanctions of an organized civil government. A convention was therefore called " of all the citizens of that portion of Upper California lying east of the Sierra Nevada mountains, to take into consideration the propriety of organizing a Territorial or State government." The convention met at Great Salt Lake City, on the 5th of March, 1849, and on the 10th adopted a constitution, which was to remain in force until the Congress of the United States should otherwise provide for the government of the territory. It " ordained and established a free and independent government, by the name of the STATE OF DBSERBT;" fixed the boundaries of the new State; provided for the election of governor, senators, representatives, and judges: all of whom, as well as the other officers created by it, were required to take an oath to support the constitution of the United States. On the 2d of July, the legislature, created by the organic law, met, elected a delegate to Congress, and adopted a memorial to that body, in which, among other things, they state that " the inhabitants of the State of Deseret, in view of their own security, and for the preservation of |