Show REPORT by the convention delegates to the th honorable tho the council aldhouse and bouse house of representatives of the territory of ufah utah GENTLEMEN in response to a resolution passed by you requesting us to report to the assembly the re reception we ite met ink at washington as bearers of the Memoria lof the inhabitants of the ter tei r atory of uth utah praying for admission into the union as a sovereign state we respectfully submit the fol foi following lowin we proceeded to washington I 1 ton as soon as practicable and confer conferred cod con ferr red fed pd with our al delegate tho the lion ilon john M K bernhisel upon the en su bj act of the presentation of our memorial and constitution ile he expressed his hia unqualified I 1 di s approbation on t to 0 our pret presenting s enting the memorial to congreso Con cob greba gresa urging that it would not only be totally rejected rejected but ut would he be the the means of raising obstacles to the admission deseret which might be troublesome tr r As the republican party had bad made opposition one of the principal planks in their political platform in til tri thir ir owa own words to slavery anti and polygamy win twin relles relies of barbarism in the then pending T presidential campaign and that party beia bela belag the in majority ajo ity in the II 11 hue nue icse of af representatives hd ail the ad bocott s s of popular sovereignty been united in our fuer for our dier Aler memorial norial would have been dp elte eite 4 bat in addition our delegate delegato pd ua us that we had nearly as much opposition lot I 1 ly 0 expect from the Demo democrats cratsas as from the republicans public ans we confer conferred reil rell with prominent members of both bolh houses of congress and of the various parties and fully satisfied ourselves that mr dir opi opinion niorA of the subject was strictly correct we also conversed with tb the e hon SA 8 A doulas douglas dougls chairman of the senate committee PI it te territories r rl ri tories iones who was the champion of the rights of the people in territories to regulate t their own d domestic mastic institutions in their own way waya an nahe naho be told us that it would be better to burn our ur memorial and constitution and return home than to present them under the present hostile state of in congress and throughout the country and that if any man aftem attempted P ted to advocate our admission the measure would be voted druc twenty to one by the whole people ail all and moreover that mr nir jacob collamer of vermont a member of the senate committee on territories hail prepared a bill for dividing utai four parts mahln mahin mak mah making in 6 the corners in in our temple ail all and at attaching tachim one portion to oregon another to nebraska a third to ico jeo and the fourth to california and he be assured ua us that such a bill would pass the senate Senat oin oln in five days should we present our memorial he ho also remarked that our policy should be to hold hoid still until the doctrine of popular eighty was thoroughly 11 established for to agitate the question at present july 1856 would be to bring the hostility of the entire country upon us at a time when not dot only their hostility to lisas ils its as a people but also their political interest would prompt them to extreme measures bakst a akst abet us many members of Con congress grebs grehs with whom we consulted expressed themselves friendly to our admission unanimous in the opinion that it was impossible to accomplish it at present and that it would be the political glave grave of any who might attempt it we had hoped that the recess between the bemons sessions of congress and the triumph of popular sovereignty in the presidential election would have produced a favorable chant change go for deseret but in this we were disappointed for although a change came yet it was from bad bli to worse the republican press was filled with the most extravagant ant falsehoods against the people of utah and aud as ag boon soon as the presidential election was wag over the democratic press took epand up and discussed tho the question and vilified us with a zal zai and ard add diligence that even far outstripped aped the republican papers leaving 0 them theril entirely in the shade last list interview with mr douglas in Janti january ary aty 1857 he stated that the presenta presents tion of our memorial would result in immediate hostile action and upon being b asked what that action would be lie he replied of the MOST arost ir osTiLE ILE lle character the only oaly objection to our admission into the union that came to our knowledge was our peculiar pecullar religious institutions anti and notwithstanding st it was generally acknowledged that they had no constitutional right to interpose uch such objections yet they had none other we had bad rorea sonto to expect a SINGLE vote in favor of the admission of deseret in either hous 0 as e I 1 in n v view e bof of th these es e con considerations g i d e ati 0 n s we d deemed e e m e d 1 it t unwise to formally present to congress the memorial nieth Aleth orial and constitution and consequent cons consequently equen aly deferred its presentation we ave have hive the lionor honor to be very respectfully JOHN TAYLOR GEORGE A SMITH Dele bele delegates delemater mates from the convention and alid people of utah territory |