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Show 41 remove the gathering to the Great Basin as soon as affairs could be settled in Nauvoo. All available information about the far west was studied by the Council. Fremont's Report of 1845 was read before the Council on December 27, 1845 by Franklin D. Richards, and on December 27, Parley P. Pratt recited from Bastings' Emigrants Guide to Oregon and California, also just off the press. Eventually, the place of the new gathering was determined to be either Bear River Valley or the Valley of the Great Salt Lake in the Republic of Mexico. The reason that was given affirmed a new criteria for the place of gathering: "A point where a good living will require hard labor"; but it would "be coveted by no other people"; it was "fertile"; but "unpopulous."33 In 1847 the Saints began to pour into the Great Basin settling first in the Salt Lake Valley. In the mountain west, they saw themselves fulfilling the prophesy of Isaiah: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the tops of the mounj-tains.*^ Isolated from the influence of the world, the kingdom could be nurtured to grow and develop without interference. In 1848 the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo placed the Great Basin within the boundries of the United States. Within a year, the Council of Fifty organized the provisional State of Deseret. This was to be as close as the Mormon kingdom would ever get to autonomy. In 1849 Deseret applied for admission into the Union of States. This would allow the maximum amount of political independence they could hope to achieve without bringing suspicion upon themselves. They would at least be able to elect officials with the same philosophies, and outside interference would be kept to a minimum. Unfortuneately for the aspirations\ of the Mormons, the best that could be achieved was territorial status. As a federal territory, |
