SHQ Online :: Volume 016 Number 3

Ibid., 184. In his message to the House of Representatives, January 24, 1850, President Taylor said that while he had recommended the formation of state constitutions and application for admission into the Union in the case of both California and New Mexico, he had not in any way attempted to influence them in the formation of their domestic institutions. “On the contrary, the instructions given by my orders were that all measures of domestic policy adopted by the people of California must originate solely with themselves.” Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897, Vol. V. In spite of this message, however, there is some reason to believe that President Taylor's wishes and those of his cabinet were expressed by King in his conversation with Semple, even more than were the wishes of Congress. In Whitney's History of Utah (I, page 408) is a letter written at Great Salt Lake City and dated September 6, 1849. It is addressed to Brother Amasa Lyman and signed by Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Willard Richards. It is in part as follows:

“On the 20th of August, General Wilson arrived here, on his way to California, as general Indian agent, etc. We had an interview with him and gathered from him the following particulars: That the President and Council of the United States are friendly disposed to us, and that he (General Wilson) is commissioned by General Taylor to inform us that he fully appreciates our situation,” etc.

“The main point of the matter, however, is this: The President has his ends to subserve, and as he knows we have been favorable to his election, he wishes further to appeal to our patriotism (so says General Wilson) to help him to carry out another measure, which will deliver him, the cabinet and the nation from a difficulty in which he thinks they are likely to be involved.

“The subject of slavery has become more embarrassing than it ever has been before. The addition of the extensive territories of New Mexico and Upper California increases that difficulty. . . . The subject will be first, probably, broached in Congress, and if some active measures are not adopted, they (the President and Cabinet) fear it will be the last and only question. If it should be made into territories, it will be under the direction of the United States, and the question of slavery will annoy and distract all parties, and General Wilson says they fear will have a tendency to break up the Union.

“To prevent this they have proposed a plan of making the whole territory into one state, leaving it to the power of the people to say whether it shall be a free or a slave state, and thus taking the bone from the Congress of the United States, and leaving them to pursue their course, `peaceably if they can,' undisturbed by this exciting question. They think it ought to be made into two states, but that the sparseness of the population at the present time would preclude the possibility of an act of that kind passing.

“The cabinet think that all parties would agree to a measure of this kind if it should become a free state, and even General Wilson, the President, and other slave holders are anxious that it should take this turn and are willing to make a sacrifice for the public good. He supposes that even southern members would go in for it, but without our help, they think it could not be accomplished. They think that there would be a strong southern influence used on the coast, calculated to place the matter in an embarrassing situation to them and the eastern population on the coast combined, but that by our influence we should be able to counterbalance that of the slave holders, and thus settle the troublesome question. It is therefore their policy to seek our influence, and we need not add it is our policy to use theirs.

“In our communications with General Wilson, we at first rejected altogether the idea of any amalgamation whatever with the government on the coast, but on the subject being presented in another form, we have agreed to the following:

“We are to have a general constitution for two states. The boundaries of the one mentioned by us, before referred to, is our state, the other boundaries to be defined by the people on the coast, to be agreed upon in a general convention; the two states to be consolidated into one and named as the convention shall think proper, but to be dissolved at the commencement of the year 1851, each one having its own constitution, and each becoming a free, sovereign, independent state, without any further action of Congress.

“You will act as our delegate, in conjunction with General Wilson. Brother Pickett is also a delegate.”

That is, they were to serve as delegates to a constitutional convention to be held on the coast. Lyman was instructed to block any attempt to unite Deseret and California on terms other than the ones specified above.