Comments on: Emancipation Day (Utah history)

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:42:18 +0000

He, he, he! Thanks, Researcher, Rick, Ray. Do you know how frustrating it is to come across bits of fun and important history like this and not be able to share it with anybody — or if you do share it, you can tell that you’re boring some poor soul to death? Writing it up and having a place to post it for people to read only if they want to or because they’re being nice to me, is a relief. Then your comments are the frosting.

Hanging up my cape for the evening, now.

By: Ray

Ray — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:16:02 +0000

#4 – She gets it from the cape.

By: Rick Grunder

Rick Grunder — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:24:15 +0000

Fascinating. Thanks so much for all this stuff, Ardis. Where do you find the energy?

By: Researcher

Researcher — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:03:23 +0000

Thanks, Ardis, for this bit of history. I also find the political shift in that time period interesting. And I always enjoy stories and history of minority groups in the West.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:38:04 +0000

kevinf — thanks, I try! Certainly “the Democracy” was the logical party for the Mormons to join once they did away with the People’s Party in Utah preparatory to statehood, and the Democrats did dominate for a long time (legends to the contrary about wards that were split by a leaders telling everybody on *this* side of the aisle to register Republican, and everybody on *that* side to register Democrat). The national Republican party had been responsible for all the anti-polygamy legislation, the Edmunds and Edmunds-Tucker acts, the setting up of the Utah Commission, the escheatment of church property, the anti-Mormon-immigration policies. On a local level, because Utah was still a territory, the appointed officers who ran Utah to a great degree were appointed by Republicans — the tax assessors and collectors, the men in the land offices, the judges and law enforcement and inspectors of all kinds. Mormons were very, very aware of the Republican politics of those who oppressed them, and the first elections in Utah were heavily Democratic … until Joseph F. Smith, John Henry Smith, and other Mormon officials went Republican (for reasons that I still do not understand, despite the dissertations that have been written).

The Emancipation Day celebrations, though, were not of course chiefly Mormon. The Republican party contributed funds and food and transportation, and the publicity generated by the genuine pride and pleasure of the participants was good for politics.

By: kevinf

kevinf — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:56:37 +0000

Ardis, you keep coming up with just great stuff. I was aware of Juneteenth celebrations in Texas, but had never heard of this. It’s also very interesting that the Republicans were the sponsors of this. My understanding is that originally, most Mormons in Illinois had been supporters of Stephen Douglas over Abraham Lincoln, and more linked to the Democrats of the 1840′s, which would have made the Republicans the minority party in Utah for the balance of the 19th Century, and up to the 1950s in the 20th Century. Certainly things have changed in many ways.