Utah, Territory of (U.S.A.)

The issue of slavery in the new territories is seemingly settled by the Compromise of 1850, brokered by Whig Henry Clay and Democrat Stephen Douglas; the Compromise includes the admission of California as a free state in exchange for no federal restrictions on slavery placed on Utah or New Mexico.

The point of contention is the Fugitive Slave Act, which increases federal enforcement and requires even free states to cooperate in turning over fugitive slaves to their owners

Abolitionists pounce on the Act to attack slavery, as in the best-selling anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress on January 29, 1850.

California's request for admission to the Union as an anti-slavery state has provoked a crisis in the Federal government.

The looming threat of dissolution of the Union is exacerbated by the unresolved question of slavery's extension into other areas ceded by Mexico the preceding year.

Senator Clay of Kentucky, the “great compromiser”, offers a series of measures to maintain an even balance between free and slave states.

In an attempt to give satisfaction to both proslavery and antislavery forces, the important sections of the omnibus bill call for the admission of California as a free state, the organization of the territories of New Mexico and Utah with the slavery question left open, settlement of the Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute, a more rigorous provision for the return of runaway slaves, and the prohibition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia.

Brigham Young had organized a Board of Regents to establish a university in the Salt Lake Valley

The University of Utah is established on February 28, 1850, as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, and Orson Spencer is appointed as the first chancellor of the university.

Early classes are held in private homes or wherever space can be found.

The university will close in 1853 due to lack of funds and lack of feeder schools.

Clay had won Daniel Webster's backing for his proposal before presenting it to Congress, and Webster provides strong support for Clay's bill in the Senate.

In a speech that will become known as the "Seventh of March speech," Webster attacks Northerners and Southerners alike for stirring up tensions over slavery.

He admonishes Northerners for obstructing the return of fugitive slaves, but attacks Southern leaders for openly contemplating secession.

After the speech, Webster is bitterly attacked by New England abolitionists.

The debate over Clay's compromise proposal will continue into July 1850, when President Taylor suddenly and unexpectedly dies of an illness.

The U.S. Congress enacts the five compromise measures in September with the influential support of Senator Daniel Webster and the concerted unifying efforts of Senator Stephen A. Douglas.

Known as the Compromise of 1850, these measures are accepted by moderates in all sections of the country. (Although the Compromise of 1850 succeeds as a temporary expedient that postpones the secession of the South for a decade, the Douglas-inspired precedent of popular sovereignty sows the seeds of future discord.)

The Mormon pioneers had originally planned to petition for territorial status after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had made the entire Southwest United states soil in 1848, but learning that California and New Mexico were applying for statehood, the settlers of the area had in 1849 applied for statehood with an ambitious plan for a new state called Deseret.

The United States Congress rebuffs the settlers in 1850 and on September 9 establishes the Utah Territory, which is much smaller than the proposed state of Deseret, but still contains all of the present states of Nevada and Utah as well as pieces of modern Wyoming and Colorado.

It is created with the Compromise of 1850, and Fillmore, named after President Millard Fillmore, is designated the capital.

The territory is given the name Utah after the Ute tribe of Native Americans.

California’s admission has tipped the balance in favor of free states, and an outraged South Carolina legislature discusses secession from the Union, as much of California lies south of 36°30’N, the slave-slate border enshrined in the 1821 Missouri Compromise.

The Compromise of 1850, under which Texas relinquishes its claims to half of present-day New Mexico and portions of Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming in exchange for ten million dolllars, guarantees that ...

...slavery will be legal, not only in New Mexico territory, but ...

...in Utah territory as well.

This sits well with the Southerners, but not so well with Brigham Young’s Mormons who, fleeing persecution, have settled the Utah region with their dream of an independent state of Deseret.