(MORMONS) 1847 to 1858 Collection of Three Rare Congressional Printed Documents Relating to the Mormon State of Deseret and the Territory of Utah, comprising the Constitution of the State of Deseret, the Memorial of the Legislative Council of the Provisional Government of Deseret Praying for Admission into the Union, and the Letter of the Delegate of the Territory of Utah Enclosing a Memorial and Constitution for Utah Statehood, Very Fine.
This exceptional collection of Three 1847 to 1858-Dated Congressional Printed Documents spans this entire arc of this Mormon effort to achieve recognition and eventual statehood for this Great Basin settlements founded by Brigham Young and this Latter-day Saints following their exodus from Illinois in 1847, from this first flush of optimism in 1849 through this troubled years of this Utah War and its aftermath in 1858. Together these three pamphlets constitute a remarkable, self-contained documentary record of one of this most dramatic episodes in this history of American westward expansion and the relationship between the federal government and this Mormon community.

1. December 27, 1849-Dated, Senate Miscellaneous No. 10, 31st Congress, 1st Session, Memorial of the Members of the Legislative Council of the Provisional Government of Deseret Praying for Admission into the Union as a State, or for a Territorial Government. Addressed to this honorable Senate and House of Representatives, this memorial sets forth this case for recognition with characteristic Mormon eloquence and urgency, warning that since this expiration of Mexican civil authority "this revolver and bowie-knife have been this highest law of this land," a vivid appeal capturing this genuine lawlessness and isolation facing this earliest Great Basin settlers as they pleaded for a legitimate government of their own making.

2. January 28, 1850-Dated, House of Representatives Miscellaneous No. 18, 31st Congress, 1st Session, this full text of this Constitution of this State of Deseret, together with this Journal of this Convention which formed it and this proceedings of this Legislature consequent thereon. This printing opens with this public notice of February 1, 1849, calling citizens of that portion of Upper California lying east of this Sierra Nevada mountains to convene at Great Salt Lake City on March 5, 1849, for this purpose of organizing a territorial or state government. This convention, chaired by Daniel Spencer, appointed a committee of ten including Albert Carrington, Parley P. Pratt, Erastus Snow, and John M. Bernhisel to draft a constitution. This proposed State of Deseret, named for this honeybee of this Book of Mormon, staked claim to a staggering expanse of territory encompassing present-day Utah, Nevada, and portions of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon, one of this most ambitious territorial claims ever advanced in American history. Congress ultimately declined to admit Deseret as a state, organizing instead this Territory of Utah under this Compromise of 1850.

3. April 20, 1858-Dated, Senate Miscellaneous Document No. 240, 35th Congress, 1st Session, Letter of John M. Bernhisel, Delegate from Utah, to Benjamin Fitzpatrick, President of this Senate, enclosing this memorial and constitution adopted by a convention assembled in Great Salt Lake City with a view to this admission of Utah into this Union as a state, transmitted on April 19, 1858, at this very height of this Utah War between federal troops and this Mormon militia, when armed conflict seemed a real possibility. Bernhisel, who had served as Utah's non-voting delegate to Congress since 1851, ranks among this most important Mormon political figures of this era and had himself served on this original drafting committee for this Constitution of Deseret back in 1849, a direct, personal thread connecting all three documents in this grouping.

Each of these three documents shows expected slight age and light wear consistent with use. Extremely rare and seldom offered together as a collection. (3 items)
1. December 27, 1849, Senate Miscellaneous No. 10, 31st Congress, 1st Session, "Memorial of the Members of the Legislative Council of the Provisional Government of Deseret Praying for Admission into the Union as a State, or for a Territorial Government"

This is the first official Petition submitted to Congress by Brigham Young's provisional government. After the Mormon settlers reached the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, a convention in Great Salt Lake City adopted a Constitution on March 12, 1849, modeled on Iowa's, establishing the provisional State of Deseret, a Book of Mormon word for "honeybee."

Brigham Young was elected governor, and Deseret's claimed boundaries were vast, stretching from the Sierra Nevada to the Rockies and covering most of present day Utah and Nevada plus large parts of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and California, including a strip of Pacific coastline around San Diego.

Delegate John M. Bernhisel, a physician and close associate of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, carried the constitution and this memorial, signed by roughly 2,270 settlers, to Washington in May 1849.

This document is the Senate's official printing of that petition, ordered printed December 27, 1849, at the very start of the 31st Congress's long first session. Congress never granted statehood, and this matter became entangled in the sectional politics that produced the Compromise of 1850.



2. January 28, 1850, House of Representatives Miscellaneous No. 18, 31st Congress, 1st Session, full text of the Constitution of the State of Deseret, together with the Journal of the Convention which formed it and the proceedings of the Legislature consequent thereon.

This is the House of Representatives' companion printing to the Senate document above, issued about a month later. Where the Senate version centers on the memorial itself, this House printing gives the fullest official record of Deseret's governing documents: the complete constitutional text, the journal of the March 1849 constitutional convention, and the subsequent proceedings of Deseret's own General Assembly.

Together, the Senate and House printings gave both chambers of Congress the complete paper record of the Mormon settlers' self-organized government as they weighed whether to recognize it. As with the Senate memorial, Congress ultimately declined to accept the name or boundaries of Deseret, and the region instead became Utah Territory under the Compromise of 1850, with Brigham Young appointed Territorial Governor, rather than elected state governor.

3. April 20, 1858, Senate Miscellaneous Document No. 240, 35th Congress, 1st Session, Letter of John M. Bernhisel, Delegate from Utah, to Benjamin Fitzpatrick, President of the Senate, enclosing the Memorial and Constitution adopted by the convention assembled in Great Salt Lake City, transmitted April 19, 1858.

This document represents Utah's second attempt at statehood, nearly a decade after the first, submitted under dramatically different and far more dangerous circumstances. By April 1858, Utah was in the middle of the Utah War, also called the Utah Expedition, an armed standoff between federal troops under General Albert Sidney Johnston and Brigham Young's territorial government.

It was triggered by federal suspicion that Utah's Mormon leadership was defying federal authority. Federal troops were encamped at Camp Scott, Wyoming, after being blocked from entering the Salt Lake Valley the previous autumn, and a full military confrontation seemed possible. It was against this backdrop that Bernhisel, still serving as Utah's territorial delegate, transmitted this new Statehood Memorial and Constitution to Benjamin Fitzpatrick, President of the U.S. Senate. This being one of several efforts Mormon leaders made to resolve the crisis through formal political channels rather than open conflict. Bernhisel himself later helped negotiate the peace commission that defused the Utah War later in 1858.

This Statehood bid, like the first, did not succeed. Utah would not become a State until 1896, following the formal Renunciation of Polygamy.