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Show FREE AND INDEPENDENT j STATE OF DESERET Legislature Incorporated 'Cities and En-! En-! acted Laws for the Guidance of People l of the Territory. Territorial Govern ment Granted by Congress Millard ' County . Located and Fillmore Was City ! Named as the Seat of Government. The constitution of the state of Deseret divided the powers of government into three distinct departments de-partments legislative, executive and judicial. The : . powers and duties of each were set forth in detail. Provisions for elections and for the militia were made, and it was provided that the general assem bly should meet in Great Salt Lake City. The first session of the general assembly was held in Great JaT- Salt Lake City during the winter of 1S49-18jO, and Y the second and last session the following "winter. The sum u r of their recorded enactments was ; twenty-on . ances and one resolution. The one resolution ' 1r .- -ed and requested the governor "to procurr j LI of marble from the best speci- i mens of stci- .-it he shall be able to find in the ! ! State, for a '".'-.nbution to the Washington monu- j I ment, now r. progress of erection in Washington i City; and also t'ast he cause the same to be suitably sculptured and forwarded to the Washington Mon ument Committee, as soon as practicable."' This resolution was approved on February 12, 1S51. It is the last recorded act of the general assembly as-sembly cf the state of Deseret. The Washington monument was the subject of . a later resolution, by the legislature of Utah, dated January 1S53, which authorized and requested "i the governor "to forward to the Washington mon- ? ument committee at Washington city the block of marble now in the library; as was designed and au- thorized by the legislature of the provisional gov ernment of the State of Deseret, during the session of that body in 1850." The first ordinance passed by the state of Des-eret Des-eret was one providing for state and county road commissioners, and providing for the establishment and maintenance of roads throughout the state. The pioneers of this territory appreciated the necessity ne-cessity of securing means of communication, as is indicated by the action of the assembly, dated January Janu-ary 15, 1S50. The second act was one instituting and incorporating incor-porating the University of the State of Deseret, located at Great Salt Lake City. This ordinance met approval on February 28, IS.jO. t ' The third ordinance prescribed the duties of the ; county recorders, and the fourth created the sur- k . veyor general's office, and prescribed his duties. These two ordinance? were approved on March 2, 1850. : The fifth ordinance prohibited any person from trading or giving to any Indian "any guns, rifles, mstols or anv other deadly weapons, ammunition or spirituous liquors,"' underlain of fine not exceeding ex-ceeding $500 and the forfeiture of all property re- ceived from the Indian, '"which shall be sold and the proceeds thereof paid into the public treasury." This ordinance was approved on March 28, 1S50. The sixth ordinance granted to Ezra T. Benson "the exclusive privilege of controlling the waters in Tooele Valley, Tooele County, known as the Twin Springs; also the waters that issue from a spring called the Rock Spring, in said Valley and County, for mill9 and irrigating purposes." This ordinance was approved December 9. 1S.0. The seventh ordinance, which was approved December De-cember 9, 1850, reads as follows: "Be it ordained by the General Assembly of the State of Deseret: That Brigham Young have the sole control of City. Creek and Kanyon; and that he . pay into the public treasury the sum of five hundred dollars therefor."' On January 9. 1S51. the general assembly of the state of Deseret ordained "That Ileber C. Kimball i v have the exclusive privilege of conveying the wa-tors wa-tors of North Mill Creek Kanyon. and the waters of t 3 Kanyon next north, to wit : about half a mile distant to some convenient point below the mouth of the two kanyons, and of appropriating the same to the J of a saw mill, grist mill and other machinery. Xothing herein contained shall prevent the waters aforesaid from being used, whenever and wherever it is necessary for irrigating." Great Salt Lake City was incorporaed on January Janu-ary 19, 1851, with the following definite and exten-sire exten-sire boundaries: "Beginning at the south east corner cor-ner of the Church Pasture, about half a mile north of the Hot Spring; thence west to the west bank of the Jordan river; thence south, up the west bank thereof, to a point in said bank directly west from the south west corner of the five acre lots, south of said city, thence east to the aforesaid south west corner of said five acre lots, and along the south line thereof; thence east tojLhe base of the mountains; moun-tains; thence directly nortlrtfc a point directly east of the south east corner of the Church Pasture; thence west to the place of beginning; including the present surveys of said city." The ordinance provides for all city officers, prescribes pre-scribes their duties, and limits their powers. Schools are provided for, and an ideal city government, according to the standards of the early ?50s set up. The qualifications of an elector were set forth thus: "All free white male inhabitants of the age of eighteen years, who are entitled to vote for State officers, and who shall have been actual residents of said city sixty days next preceding said election, shall be entitled to votefor city officers." The name ''Great Salt Lake City," as given to the present capital of the state, by the general assembly as-sembly of the state of Deseret, continued until the legislature of Utah on January 29, 1868, changed the official title of the city and also Great Salt Lake county by dropping the "Great.' The "exclusive control of the timber in the kanyons, kan-yons, on the east side of thejjige of mountains west of Jordan" was granted to George A. Smith in the tenth ordinance, approved January 9, 1851. Ezra T. Benson gets the "exclusive control of the timber in the kanyons and mountain leading into Tooele valley, and the kanyons between Salt Lake valley and Tooele" by the eleventh ordinance, approved January 9, 1851. The twelfth ordinance, approved January IS. 1S51. ordains: ''That Willard Richards have the exclusive right of working a road or roads into, or through the Xorth Cottonwood kanyon, and control the same." Ogden City is incorporated by the thirteenth ordinance; the city of Manti by the fourteenth; Provo City by the fifteenth; Parowan City by the sixteenth, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints by the seventeenth ordinance. The eighteenth ordinance provides for the establishment establish-ment and regulation of estray pounds; the nineteenth nine-teenth relates to inclosures and trespass, the twentieth twen-tieth regulates the manufacture and vending of ardent spirits, and the twenty-first is in reference to vagrants. The act of congress establishing a territorial government gov-ernment for Utah was approved by President Fillmore Fill-more on September 9, 1850. By the time the news arrived in Utah, the second and last session of the general assembly of the state of Deseret had finished fin-ished its work and adjourned. The boundaries of the territory of Utah, as set forth in the act of congress, Were cut down somewhat from those prescribed pre-scribed in the constitution for the provisional government gov-ernment of the state of Deseret, but they took in a great deal more territory than the present boundaries boun-daries of the state of Utah. The limits of the new territory, as placed by congress, were described as follows: "Bounded on the west by the State of California, Cali-fornia, on .the north by the territory of Oregon, and on the east by the summit of the Rocky Mountains, and on the south by the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude." j When this act was received in the territory, the , I state of Deseret passed into innocuous desuetude, so far as its name was concerned. However, the acts of the general assembly of the 6tate of Deseret remained in force, and were published in the compilation com-pilation of the laws of 1855. Indeed, the legislative assembly of the new territory of Utah passed a joint resolution which was approved on October. 4. 1851, declaring the law passed by' (he" provisional government of the state, of Deseret, and which did not conflict with the organic act, to be in full force and virtue. I |