The State of Deseret (modern pronunciation , contemporaneously ) was a proposed state of the United States, proposed in 1849 by settlers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Salt Lake City. The provisional state existed for slightly over two years and was never recognized by the United States government. The name derives from the word for "honeybee" in the Book of Mormon.

History

Formation of the proposal

When members of the LDS Church (the

Mormon pioneers The Mormon pioneers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), also known as Latter Day Saints, who migrated beginning in the mid-1840s until the late-1860s across the United States from the Midwest to the S ...

) settled in the

Salt Lake Valley Salt Lake Valley is a valley in Salt Lake County in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It contains Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs, notably Murray, Sandy, South Jordan, West Jordan, and West Valley City; its total po ...

near the

Great Salt Lake The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, particula ...

in 1847 (then part of Mexico), they wished to set up a government that would be recognized by the United States. Initially, church president Brigham Young intended to apply for status as a territory, and sent

John Milton Bernhisel John Milton Bernhisel (born John Martin Bernheisel) Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, ''A Book of Mormons'' (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1982) s.v. "John M. Bernhisel". (June 23, 1799 – September 28, 1881) was an Ameri ...

to Washington, D.C., with the petition for territorial status. Realizing that California and New Mexico were applying for admission as states, Young changed his mind and decided to petition for statehood. In March 1849, realizing that they did not have time to follow the usual steps towards statehood, Young and a group of church elders quickly drafted a state constitution based on that of Iowa, where the Mormons had temporarily settled, and sent the legislative records and constitution back to that state for printing, since no printing press existed in the

Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic basin, endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California ...

at the time. They then sent a second messenger with a copy of the state's formal records and constitution to meet up with Bernhisel in Washington, D.C., and to petition for statehood rather than territorial status.

Territory of Deseret

Washington Monument Deseret Stone in 2000

The provisional state encompassed most of the territory that had been acquired from Mexico the previous year as the

Mexican Cession The Mexican Cession ( es, Cesión mexicana) is the region in the modern-day southwestern United States that Mexico originally controlled, then ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 after the Mexican–American War ...

. The Territory of Deseret would have comprised roughly all the lands between the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

and the Rockies, and between the border with Mexico northward to include parts of the Oregon Territory, as well as the coast of California south of the Santa Monica Mountains (including the existing settlements of Los Angeles and San Diego). This included the entire watershed of the Colorado River (excluding the lands south of the border with Mexico), as well as the entire area of the

. The proposal encompassed nearly all of present-day Utah and Nevada, large portions of California and Arizona, and parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon. The proposal was crafted specifically to avoid disputes that might arise from existing settlements of Euro-Americans. At the time of its proposal, the existing population of the Deseret area, including Southern California, was sparse, since most of the California settlement had been in the northern gold rush areas not included in the provisional state. Likewise, the border with New Mexico did not reach the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

, in order to avoid becoming entangled in the existing disputes of the western border of Texas. Deseret also avoided encroaching on the fertile Willamette Valley of Oregon, which had been heavily traveled and settled since the 1840s. Moreover, the proposal encompassed lands largely known to be inhospitable for cultivation, thus avoiding conflict over the issue of the expansion of slavery. DeseretBeehive

The proposal for the state was considered by some to be too ambitious to succeed in Congress, even disregarding the controversy over the Mormon practice of polygamy. Nevertheless, in 1849 U.S. President Zachary Taylor, eager to avoid disputes as much as possible, sent his agent John Wilson westward with a proposal to combine California and Deseret as a single state, which would have had the desirable effect of decreasing the number of free states entered into the Union, and thus preserving the balance of power in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

The California Constitutional Convention debates of 1849 mentioned the Mormons or Salt Lake a number of times along with the North–South conflict over extension of slavery. Advocates of smaller boundaries (such as 116° west or the crest of the

) argued that the Mormons were unrepresented at the convention, culturally different, and applying for their own territorial government. They also argued that Salt Lake was too far away for a single government to be practical and that Congress would not agree to such a huge state. Those advocating retention of all of former Mexican

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

, such as pro-slavery future Senator William M. Gwin, argued these were not real obstacles or could be solved later.

Establishment of Utah Territory

Utah Territory with Deseret Border, vector image - 2011

On September 9, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850, the Utah Territory was created by Act of Congress, encompassing a portion of the northern section of Deseret. On February 3, 1851, Brigham Young was inaugurated as the first governor of the Utah Territory. On April 4, 1851, the General Assembly of Deseret passed a resolution to dissolve the state. On October 4, 1851, the Utah territorial legislature voted to re-enact the laws and ordinances of the state of Deseret. After the establishment of the Utah Territory, the Latter-day Saints did not relinquish the idea of a "State of Deseret". From 1862 to 1870, a group of Mormon elders under Young's leadership met as a shadow government after each session of the territorial legislature to ratify the new laws under the name of the "state of Deseret". Attempts were made in 1856, 1862, and 1872 to write a new state constitution under that name, based on the new boundaries of the Utah Territory. The idea of creating a state based on Mormonism began to fade away after the coming of the railroad, which opened the territory to many non-Mormon settlers, particularly in the western areas of the territory. Young and the LDS Church supported the railroad, even taking members that were working on the Salt Lake Temple and reassigning them to work on the railroad. The driving of the golden spike just 66 miles from Salt Lake completed the

first transcontinental railroad North America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the " Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail netwo ...

at Promontory Summit in 1869.

Government

Prior to the establishment of Utah Territory, in the absence of other authority, the provisional government of Deseret became the ''de facto'' government of the Great Basin. Three sessions of the General Assembly, a

bicameral Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single grou ...

state legislature A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...

, were held. In 1850, the legislature appointed judges and established a criminal code. Taxes were established on property, and liquor and gambling was outlawed. The LDS Church was incorporated and a militia, based on the Nauvoo Legion, was formed. The legislature initially formed six counties, which covered only inhabited valleys. These "valley counties" initially encompassed only a small portion of the area of Deseret and were expanded as settlement grew.

Flag

According to most descriptions, the Deseret flag was similar to the present-day Utah state flag. However, as it was not standardized, multiple other secular and religious alternatives were also used. Variants similar to the US Flag were also reported. File:Alleged Mormon flag 1877.svg, An modern attempt to recreate an unofficial flag used by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Based on an 1877 description by Don Maguire File:Deseret Flag Ensign Peak.png, Deseret Flag as depicted by the flag atop

Ensign Peak Ensign Peak ( ) is a peak in the foothills near downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. It is approximately north of the Utah State Capitol and sits almost directly behind it. On July 26, 1847, Brigham Young and other early members of the Church of Jesu ...

and created by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints File:Flag of Deseret (reconstructed).svg, Reconstruction of a flag, as described in contemporary newspapers

Deseret in fiction

*In Ward Moore's 1953 novel '' Bring the Jubilee'', set in a reality where the Confederacy won the U.S. Civil War and the United States became a corrupt and dysfunctional rump state, Deseret is mentioned as being the only prosperous state in the Union (where polygamy is still practiced). *In Harry Turtledove's ''

Southern Victory The ''Southern Victory'' series or Timeline-191 is a series of eleven alternate history novels by author Harry Turtledove, beginning with ''How Few Remain'' (1997) and published over a decade. The period addressed in the series begins during the ...

'' series, the Mormons of Utah attempt to secede from the United States as Deseret during the

Second Mexican War ''How Few Remain'' is a 1997 alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove. It is the first part of the Southern Victory saga, which depicts a world in which the Confederate States of America won the American Civil War. It is similar to his earlie ...

and the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and Second Great Wars. This results in the LDS Church being banned by the US government. *In Paradox Interactive's

grand strategy game A grand strategy wargame or simply grand strategy game (GSG) is a wargame that places focus on grand strategy: military strategy at the level of movement and use of a nation state or empire's resources. It is a genre that has considerable overlap ...

'' Victoria II'', as well as its sequel, ''

Victoria 3 ''Victoria 3'' is a 2022 grand strategy video game developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive. It is a sequel to the 2010 game ''Victoria II'' and was released on 25 October 2022. Gameplay ''Victoria 3'' spa ...

'', Deseret is a formable nation which may gain indepedence from Mexico or the United States.

References

Works cited

* Allen, James B. and Leonard, Glen M. ''

The Story of the Latter-day Saints ''The Story of the Latter-day Saints'' is a single-volume history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) by James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, first published in 1976. Overview The authors summarised the tone of their wo ...

.''

Deseret Book Co. Deseret Book () is an American publishing company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, that also operates a chain of bookstores throughout the western United States. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Deseret Management Corporation (DMC), th ...

, Salt Lake City, UT, 1976. . * *.

External links

1849 Constitution of the State of Deseret
(PDF scans of 1849 printing)

Compiled by Linda Thatcher

Edward Leo Lyman, ''Utah History Encyclopedia'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Deseret, State Of 1849 in the United States American frontier Defunct organizational subdivisions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Former regions and territories of the United States Former theocracies History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Nauvoo Legion Pre-statehood history of Utah Pre-statehood history of Wyoming Proposed states and territories of the United States 1849 establishments in the State of Deseret States and territories established in 1849 States and territories disestablished in 1850 Mormonism and politics