History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

454
UTAH AS A TERRITORY.
Utah 32 placed the southern boundary at the thirtyseventh
parallel, the section between that limit and
the thirty-third parallel being included in the territory
of New Mexico, with the exception of the part transferred
to California, by which state Utah was to be
bounded on the west. On the north, Oregon was to
remain as the boundary, and on the east the Rocky
Mountains. The remaining provisions of the organic
act differ but little from those framed for other territories,
for New Mexico, admitted at the same date
as was Utah, or for Nevada, admitted in 1861.
Thus the Mormons were shut in between the
mountain walls of the great basin, the strip of coast
which was claimed under the constitution of the state
of Deseret, and would have included the port of San
Diego, being denied to them. It is probable that, if
they could have foreseen all the results of the war
with Mexico, the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and
the gold discovery, which now threatened to place
them almost in the centre of the United States, and
not, as they had intended, in a remote and untravelled
solitude, they would have selected the site of their
new Zion elsewhere than in the valley of the Great
Salt Lake.
On the 5th of April, 1851, the general assembly of
the state of Deseret was dissolved, 33 though it was
S2 Copies of it will be found in U. S. Public Laws, 31st Cong. 1st Sess.,
453-8; U. 8. Charters and Const., ii. 1236-40; U. 8. Acts and Res., 31st Cong.
1st Sess., 53-8; Utah, Acts Legist, (ed. 1866), 25-8; (ed. 1855), 111-19; Deseret
News, Dec. 30, 1S50; Frontier Guardian, Oct. 16, 1850.
33 Ten days before, the governor had formally notified the assembly, in a
special message, of the passing of the organic act. ' Upon the dissolving of
this legislature, 'he says, ' permit me to add, the industry and unanimity which
have ever characterized your efforts, and contributed so much to the pre-eminent
success of this government, will, in all future time, be a source of gratification
to all; and whatever may be the career and destiny of this young but
growing republic, we can ever carry with us the proud satisfaction of having
erected" established, and maintained a peaceful, quiet, yet energetic government,
under the benign auspices of which unparalleled prosperity has showered
her blessinss upon every interest.' Linforth's Route from Liverpool,
107-8; Tullidge's Hist. S. L. City, 79. On March 2Sth the legislature, m
joint session, passed resolutions cordially accepting the legislation of congress
and appropriating the union square for the public buildings. Id. , 80.