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Show ELECTION OF 1856 the bounds of that local jurisdiction which sanctions polygamy, the peculiar domestic relation would cease; and it is precisely the same with Slavery.”25 Historian Richard Poll found the similar tie after Franklin Pierce in 1853 recommended that the federal lands in Utah and New Mexico territories be surveyed and made available to settlers.26 The House Committee on Public Lands reported a bill that proposed “that the benefits of this act shall not extend to any person who shall now, or at any time hereafter, be the husband of more than one wife.”27 The proposed bill set off a warm debate over the constitutionality of federal authority and local decision-making, and to avoid the dangerous issue Congress finally removed from the legislation any provision about ownership and instead simply appointed a surveyorgeneral for Utah to measure metes and bounds. For the next fifteen years, Utahns would bristle over their inability to secure legal title to their lands, claiming their religion was being used as an excuse to deny them the land rights extended elsewhere. The privileges of the federal domain were not given Utah until 1869.28 The issue of polygamy and popular sovereignty would not go away. The St. Louis Republican looked at the constitution Utahns were proposing and saw conspiracy. “The plan of crimes, mutually tolerating each other, seems to be spreading shameless iniquities, seeking the possession of new territories,” the newspaper opined. Slavery and polygamy were trying to “jointly possess the land.” The Republican’s comments came despite the proposed Utah constitution saying nothing about either slavery or polygamy—Utahns hoped that silence might increase the chances of their bid. The editorial reached even upstate New York where the celebrated Frederick Douglass’s Paper, the organ of the former slave and now a crusading abolitionist, put it into its pages.29 It was probably inevitable that the polygamy issue would find its way into the Republican Party’s platform in 1856, given the strong views being bandied about. The party met in Philadelphia in the middle of June, two weeks after Democrats had selected Buchanan and popular sovereignty. Californian John A. Willis was given the task of writing the first draft of the plank on federal authority in the territories, and he decided to join slavery and polygamy together, “to make war upon polygamy, and at the same time strengthen the case against slavery,” he later said. “Polygamy was already odious in the public mind and a growing evil,” and both “social institutions [slavery and polygamy] rested precisely on the same constitutional basis,” 25 Congressional Globe, 33rd Congress, 1st Session, appendix, 268. Poll, “The Mormon Question, 1850-1865,” 30-34. 27 Congressional Globe, 33rd Congress, 1st Session, 1092. 28 Lawrence L. Linford, “Establishing and Maintaining Land Ownership in Utah Prior to 1869,” Utah Historical Quarterly 42 (Spring 1974): 126-43. 29 St. Louis Republican, May 28, 1856, and “State of Deseret,” Frederick Douglass’ Paper [Syracuse, New York], June 13, 1856, as archived in Historian’s Office, Historical Scrapbooks, 1840-1904, LDS Church History Library. 26 117 |
