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Charles W. Penrose and His Contributions to Utah Statehood
This photograph,probably taken in Washington, D.C, ca. 1887, includes a number ofthose Penrose worked with in the statehood quest. Standing: George F. Gibbs, L. John Nuttall, Charles W. Penrose; seated: John T. Caine,Margaret Caine,JosephE Smith, Emily Richards, Franklin S. Richards. USHS collections.
Charles W. Penrose and His Contributions to Utah Statehood
BY KENNETH W. GODFREY
BORN IN ENGLAND IN 1832, CHARLES WILLIAM PENROSE, after becoming a Mormon prior to his nineteenth birthday, began serving a decade long proselyting mission in his native land. The only member of his family to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he arrived in Utah with his wife and small family in the fall of 1861. A gifted student of the gospel and a fine author, he was known for writing hymns and many articles for the church's England-based Millennial Star. His public speaking ability as well as his devotion to Mormonism were also noteworthy.
After serving another three-year mission in England during 1862-65, Penrose moved his residence from Logan to Ogden in 1870, accepting Franklin D Richards's offer to become managing editor of the semi-weekly Ogden Junction, a newspaper Richards had just founded.
In his first editorial, Penrose wrote that the Junction would not be a particularly religious, political, or scientific paper; its goal was to serve the interests of the city, the county, and the territory. He reserved the right to write on any subject "that may affect the interests of our readers."
1 Penrose also continued to polish his speaking ability, delivering a gospel discourse in the Ogden area almost every week, thus becoming widely known as a defender of the Latter-day Saints
Only six weeks after composing his first editorial, he was elected to the city council where he served four terms and found politics to his liking He also represented Weber County at the 1872 constitutional convention where he helped write a constitution for a proposed state of Deseret and a memorial to Congress requesting statehood. In 1874 he was elected to the territorial legislature, and, taking an active role, drafted a number of bills and documents.
In 1877 Penrose received a request from Brigham Young to move to Salt Lake City and assume a position as assistant editor of the Deseret News. There he would work under the editorship of George Q. Cannon and Brigham Young, Jr., both members of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Before leaving Ogden, Penrose was offered ownership of the Junction by Franklin Richards, a proposal he wisely refused.
With his two wives and numerous children, Charles Penrose arrived in the territory's capital city shortly before the death of Brigham Young in August 1877 Beginning his employment with the Deseret News, he found that the two apostles with whom he worked delegated most of the editorial responsibilities to him, so he virtually ran the newspaper himself.
When A. P. Rockwood died, Penrose received the appointment to take his place in the legislature. One of his first initiatives was to author a bill guarding "the sanctity of the nominative franchise." This bill, which passed, established nominative precincts throughout the territory and specified the requirements for holding the offices of treasurer, librarian, notary public, trustee of the school district, aswell as any educational or clerical office in the territory.2 He also spoke vigorously in favor of a bill establishing the University of Deseret on a permanent basis, urging a $50,000 appropriation for that purpose.
When Orlando J Hollister, U.S collector of internal revenue for Utah and correspondent for the New York Tribune, requested an interview with church president John Taylor, Penrose was chosen to assist Taylor in answering Hollister's questions. Broaching the topic of Utah statehood and plural marriage, Penrose told the reporter "that God, not Joseph Smith, had instituted polygamy, and that there had been no promise of compromise regarding plural marriage when the 1872 petition for statehood was formulated by the constitutional convention of which he had been a member."3
Working behind the scenes, Penrose, Angus M. Cannon, and George Reynolds selected and prepared the banner the Saints carried in a "grand demonstration of the Mormon people's displeasure and detestation for the government's actions of imprisoning Latter-day Saints who were merely being true to their sacred covenants."4 In 1881 he served on a committee with five members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles whose purpose was to thwart the ratification of the Edmunds bill and encourage Congress to enact legislation granting statehood for Utah.5 This committee was unsuccessful; the Edmunds bill ultimately passed, and Utah failed once more to win statehood.
Early in February 1882, Penrose, now editor-in-chief of the Deseret News, gathered with other members of the territorial legislature in yet another attempt to achieve the elusive goal of statehood During meetings held over a two-week period the delegates reluctantly surrendered some vestiges of the old state of Deseret, including the name They also resolved that Utah's residents should demand a "republican form of government." The territory's voters overwhelmingly approved the new constitution, and envoys were dispatched to the nation's capital, hoping to bring Utah into the Union. The petition, to the lobbyists' dismay, languished in committee, and nothing further resulted from this statehood attempt.6
In an effort to more clearly explain the Mormon religion to the American people, Penrose, at the request of church leaders, composed a number of pamphlets elucidating Latter-day Saint beliefs. To explain the "plainness" of Mormonism, he wrote a small book titled Mormon Doctrine Plain and Simple, or Leavesfrom the Tree ofLife. He hoped to show that church doctrine replicated biblical truths and convince skeptics that Latter-day Saints were indeed followers of Christ Unfortunately, few non-Mormons bothered to read what he had written.
In the fall of 1884, Penrose received a request from the church's First Presidency to answer anti-Mormon charges that the church practiced blood atonement and that Brigham Young had ordered Latterday Saints to kill immigrants camped at Mountain Meadow in September 1857. On the evening of October 12, 1884, before a packed house gathered in the Salt Lake Twelfth Ward assembly hall, Penrose delivered a long lecture on blood atonement that was later printed and sold in the territory. In his treatment of this subject he argued that the doctrine is founded on the blood Jesus Christ shed for the sins of the world. Only a few sins such as murder, he argued, warrant the death penalty. There had not been a single case of the church ever executing a killer, he declared. Instead, all church leaders from Joseph Smith toJohn Taylor "have a horror, a repugnance to the shedding of blood." He denied that a Danite band existed in the church to execute members who committed adultery or were guilty of murder. Furthermore, he rejected arguments that Judas Iscariot's fellow apostles had blood-atoned the traitor, as some Latter-day Saints were alleged to have said.7 Penrose's discourse attempted to move Mormonism away from the more radical statements of early leaders and make it more palatable to the nation's people.
Two weeks later, before another standing-room only audience, Penrose spoke about the Mountain Meadow Massacre Producing new information regarding this tragic event, he admitted that some Mormons had been participants. Then he reported the first-person account of James Holt Haslam's ride from Cedar City to Salt Lake City and back with orders from Brigham Young that the immigrants must be protected if it took all of Iron County to do so. Absolving Brigham Young of any wrongdoing, he called the massacre the most unfortunate, tragic event in territorial history. His published lecture contained a statement from President John Taylor condemning those who participated in the dastardly deed. Taylor stated unequivocally that the affair had no basis or justification in Mormon doctrine. The church, he said, does not uphold the committing of "so heinous a crime." Church leaders were using Penrose to defuse the arguments of anti-Mormon citizens, hoping that politicians would realize that Latter-day Saints were in reality law-abiding, honorable, loyal citizens of the United States, not a church of murderers.
The 1884 election of Democrat Grover Cleveland as president of the United States prompted a celebration among the Mormons and again heightened their hopes for statehood. Shortly after that election, an L. Miller, who has never been identified, contacted church leaders, passing himself off as "a secret agent of the Cleveland administration" and convinced them that if they were willing to expend $25,000 at the right time in the right way the Democrats just might grant statehood for Utah. He also suggested that church officials meet with members of the Cleveland administration.8
On January 3, 1885, Charles W. Penrose and Brigham Young, Jr., both of whom were Democrats, accompanied Miller east to consult the president-elect and his advisors. They were also authorized to expend as much as $25,000, if such an expenditure would further the statehood cause. 9 Arriving in Albany, New York, on January 9, they found lodging in a hotel while Miller met with "the Cleveland People." That same evening Miller came to the room of Penrose and Young with a list of questions the new administration wanted answered. Penrose spent most of the evening composing the replies, which Young then approved, and they were given to Miller
The following day, January 10, as instructed by Miller, the two Mormons went to New York City and again secured housing The next day Miller appeared with more questions that took Penrose the entire day to answer in pencil. Miller later told him that administration officials were satisfied with his responses. Still, the days that followed were filled with Penrose answering additional questions. By January 20 both Young and Penrose were convinced that something was awry and demanded satisfaction from Miller who "appeared confused." Two days later Penrose met with Daniel S Lamont, Cleveland's private secretary, "who denied knowing Miller or anything about the scheme." Lamont said Miller was a fraud.
Fortunately, Lamont directed Penrose and Young to where the president-elect was residing. Knocking, the two men were met at the door by Cleveland himself who invited them inside. He told his visitors that he knew nothing of Miller and believed he should be arrested Then Penrose and Young discussed the Utah situation with Cleveland who "showed much interest." In fact, he was so interested that he invited them back for a two o'clock meeting where they talked for more than an hour. Penrose called his attention to "many facts and points, as well as agreeing to send him some written material regarding the Utah question." Penrose and Young believed they had made a good impression on the new president, and they were favorably impressed with him. Future events would prove them correct in both assessments.
On January 26, 1885, Penrose, now in the nation's capital, talked in the evening with A. M. Gibson, a businessman of some note, who suggested that he lobby the New York merchants trading with Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution. Gibson also suggested putting a "prohibitory clause against polygamy" in a new constitution. After statehood is achieved, he said, the clause could be repealed. Though Penrose at the time said this could not be done, he later passed the suggestion along to church leaders, arguing that it would be better to be prosecuted by fellow Latter-day Saints for practicing plural marriage under state laws than continuing to be prosecuted by antiMormon officials. Two years later such a clause was a plank in the proposed new constitution.10
February 7, 1885, was a particularly good day for Penrose and Young. Making their way to New York City's Victorian Hotel, they met Miller. Soon a "fat fussy man" with a dark, dyed mustache hurried into the room and was introduced as Mr. Banks. He told the two lobbyists, that "all was arranged; Utah would be admitted," and a Missouri friend of the Mormons would be appointed attorney general of the United States. All that remained was to give Miller $20,000. Penrose and Young were shown a map of the new state, which included Utah, parts of Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, making it square After asking a few questions they were further convinced that Banks was a fraud "who did not know Cleveland." Refusing to part with the money, they left Miller, who was aware that "his game was up." Back in their own hotel, Penrose wrote John Taylor a full account of their activities and the attempt to defraud the church.
Two weeks later Penrose talked with Sidney Dillon and Jay Gould, men of wealth and influence, and Daniel Manning, Cleveland's secretary of the treasury. Manning told him that "the whole country was prejudiced against polygamy" and the church's control of Utah politics but that nothing would be said about Utah in Cleveland's inaugural address. He stated further that Cleveland would talk more with Mormon officials after the inauguration.11 A few days after this Penrose, to avoid being arrested for cohabitation, left for England and yet another church mission there.
What had his lobbying accomplished? He had established a personal relationship with President Grover Cleveland that lasted for many years. Furthermore, the seed of the idea was planted and began to sprout that a plank be included in a new state constitution prohibiting plural marriage in Utah. Additionally, the delegation had met wealthy influential eastern entrepreneurs who did business in Utah and recommended that these men use their political clout to promote statehood if they wanted to maintain their activities there. Each of these measures would continue to be important For example, two years later Senator Leland Stanford was quoted as saying "that he wanted to stand in with the people [of Utah] and wants them to stand in with him," implying a mutual need for a business alliance and good will.12
Penrose's third mission to England lasted only eight months. He returned to Salt Lake City on November 10, 1885. Spending the next months conferring and planning strategy with church attorney Franklin S. Richards, newspaperman Frank J. Cannon, and others regarding political matters, and writing editorials for the Deseret News, Penrose also secretly married a third wife, Dr. Romania Bunnell Pratt, the divorced wife of Parley P Pratt, Jr.13 In April, only a month after his nuptials, he traveled with George F. Gibbs, secretary to the First Presidency, to Washington, D.C, where he worked again with Brigham Young,Jr., Delegate to Congress John T Caine, and others in the statehood effort Helping secure the appointment of William Hyde, editor of the Salt Lake Herald, as United States printer, Penrose took his place as editor of the Herald (while serving in England he had been replaced as Deseret News editor), where he continued to promote the Democratic party and attack the anti-statehood position of the Salt Lake Tribune. Using biting prose and impeccable logic, he effectively argued the cause of statehood. Typical was an editorial penned in 1888. Commenting on the failure of Montana and the Dakotas to become states, Charles wrote:
Penrose believed the same logic applied to Utah In another editorial he said, "Fortunately the Territories are few in number and are growing in population and importance so rapidly, that they cannot much longer be kept out of the Union and deprived of their rights. The infamous system must soon go because there will be no place or people upon whom to visit the tyranny."15
In the summer of 1887 Penrose was sent once more to Washington to assist John T. Caine in lobbying for statehood. His friendship with Cleveland gave him some influence with other politicians as well. After a few weeks in the nation's capital, he sent a letter to church leaders in which he suggested that another constitutional convention be called and a constitution formed prohibiting polygamy. Arguing that accepting such a constitution would be purely a political matter, Penrose also wrote that "Non-polygamist Mormons would be the only ones who could vote on the Constitution, therefore general authorities [who could not vote because they were all polygamists] would not be committing themselves on the matter." According to the leading authority on the subject, this was the first time that church leaders "distinguished between political and religious positions on the doctrine of plural marriage." With corroboration from Penrose, "Mormons could assume assurance that the Cleveland administration was willing to accede to the distinction between a political and a theological concession embodied in the constitutional provisions, with only the political being expected."16
President John Taylor had to be convinced that in consenting to "these terms we neither yield nor compromise an iota of our religious principles" nor was it "necessarily a capitulation on the part of the Church relative to plural marriage." Penrose argued, as he had before, that it would be better if laws were enforced by officials chosen by Mormons than by hostile federal appointees. Finally, Taylor encouraged Penrose to proceed with assurances to Cleveland that the church would accept such a constitution as a political necessity, not as a compromise or a yielding of principles. In a letter to Cleveland, Taylor reinforced this view by quoting Penrose, "If a constitution should be adopted according to its provisions it would, at worst, only be punishing ourselves for what our enemies are now punishing us."17
Aware of Taylor's letter and its content, John W. Young, church lobbyist and son of Brigham Young, and Penrose arranged an audience with Solicitor General George A.Jenks. Jenks told Penrose that the administration viewed the proposed antipolygamy plank in the Utah constitution as purely a political settlement of the plural marriage question and that Cleveland was willing to go along with it.18
Returning home, Penrose reported to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Abraham H Cannon, a general authority and son of George Q. Cannon, recorded in his diary the evening following Penrose's briefing that they had asked Penrose to prepare a statement that could be adopted at the July 1887 constitutional convention. This new provision made polygamy a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 and imprisonment of not more than three years. 19
The First Presidency dispatched general authorities throughout the territory to inform the Saints of their decision. Penrose and others also worked with officials in the Cleveland administration to secure pardons for leading church officials, including himself, so that they could once more safely appear in public Penrose was also influential in having Judge Charles S. Zane removed from office and another judge, more sympathetic to the Mormon people, appointed.20 Finally, Solicitor General Jenks came to Utah as an observer of the constitutional convention and reported that pledges made were carried out.
When the Senate Committee on Territories conducted hearings on the proposed constitution in February and March 1888, witnesses for the church, coached by Franklin S. Richards,Joseph F. Smith, and Penrose, presented Utah's case for admission into the Union. Richards assured the committee that if Utah became a state those who engaged in plural marriage would be pursued and church officials would not dominate state politics.
Church leaders also agreed to stop speaking publicly about polygamy, and missionaries were instructed to avoid raising the excitement of non-members on this subject. Members were told not to criticize the federal government and its officials in still another attempt to court public favor. Joseph F. Smith, speaking for the First Presidency, declared that plural marriage was a permissive law,just as were other gospel laws, a position that Penrose had espoused earlier. In private, however, Smith said that he thought those who obeyed and practiced plural marriage occupied a higher plane than those who disregarded it.21
Penrose, Young, Richards, and Caine met with Alexander Badlam and other influential Republicans from California who advised them to downplay the church's interest in statehood while they worked behind the scenes. Badlam, Isaac Trumbo, and others wanted to develop their mining interests in Utah without federal interference and therefore favored statehood.22
In the spring of 1887 Badlam and Trumbo became involved in the Bullion-Beck Silver Mine at Eureka, Utah. They visited the mine in May of that year, accompanied by Bishop Hiram B. Clawson. Following the visit, Clawson wrote to John W. Young telling him that these men "had powerful financial reasons, as well as personal friendships, for seeing that Utah received just treatment from the federal government."23 Badlam and Trumbo were to play a major role in seeing that the statehood dream became a reality. Their activities demonstrate once again that economic interests are often more powerful persuaders than are moral factors in political matters
Dispatched to Washington in the company of Joseph F. Smith who used the aliasJason Mack, Penrose, still not pardoned, used the name Charles Williams. Visiting key senators and representatives, Penrose told them that only a few Latter-day Saints actually practiced polygamy and that if Utah were admitted to the Union it would come in as a Democratic state However, when a vote was suddenly called by irate Senator Shelby Cullom, it became obvious that Utah would not achieve statehood unless plural marriage was abandoned by the church. The provision in the proposed constitution would not suffice. While powerful Californians worked to secure statehood for Utah, the First Presidency sent Penrose east again with considerable funds to work with newspaper editors He was to encourage them to publish articles that "might dispel the ignorance and prejudice toward the church." He was also authorized to pay for such articles if necessary. Furthermore, he was to tell John W. Young that because of his inefficiency the church was probably not going to continue to use him as a lobbyist. After delivering the message to Young, Penrose began to lobby editors of the nation's most prominent newspapers. He paid $74,000 to the New York Times, the New York Sun, the New York Evening Post, the Philadelphia Times, the St. Louis Globe, and the Chicago Times. Money was also disbursed to the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Call.24
Penrose also engaged the Chicago Times in an editorial debate regarding what the Times called "The Mormon Statehood Fraud" and continued his work with eastern editors. He was successful in having published an interview with Arizona Congressman Curtis C. Bean that depicted the Latter-day Saints favorably. Generally, however, he had little success in getting his replies to negative articles published. The populace preferred reading articles that degraded Mormons.
After a few months at home, Penrose and attorney Franklin S. Richards traveled to Washington early in December 1888. Grover Cleveland, defeated in the November election, was now a lame duck president The two lobbyists met with the defeated president for more than an hour, discussing the potential advantages to the Democratic party if it would lead the way for Utah statehood. Cleveland promised to assist as much as he could and made a number of helpful suggestions.25
Officially pardoned by Cleveland for his participation in plural marriage, Penrose was free for the first time in many years to appear in public. He, together withJoseph F. Smith, not yet pardoned, edited and approved the printed presentation made before the Senate Committee on Territories by Franklin S. Richards,John T. Caine, and Republican attorney Jeremiah Wilson.26
February and March of 1889 found Penrose and other lobbyists meeting regularly with senators from various states. They told Joseph F. Smith that Henry B. Payne of Ohio was a prejudiced, senseless, soulless old duffer who, while admitting facts, utterly ignored their force and purpose. 27
They ran into similar opposition from others As senators and representatives discussed the territorial bill behind closed doors, Penrose and Richards found the caucus very much divided and considerable dissatisfaction among prominent congressmen concerning Utah. Several told Penrose they could not vote to admit Utah because of the prejudice of their constituents. Finally, when church leaders refused to sign a paper sent to them from Congress stating that Mormons should abide by the law of the land, the proposed Utah enabling bill was quickly killed.
Penrose also learned that leaders of both political parties had agreed to "press to the limit the church financially" until they gave up plural marriage.28 Late in December 1889, after spending a few days in prison for contempt of court because he refused to answer questions regarding his own plural marriages, Penrose met with Wilford Woodruff who requested that he write a document, later labeled "An Official Declaration," which was signed by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.29 In this circular letter, dated December 12, 1889, Penrose declared that the church did not favor killing those who left the church and did not believe in blood atonement, except on the part ofJesus Christ and when carried out under civil law. He also stated that church leaders would not interfere with the political rights of Utah's citizens and declared unequivocally that the temple endowment was not hostile to the United States government. Latter-day Saints, he wrote, claimed no religious liberties that they were not willing to grant to other religions and non-religious groups, and he again stated that Mormons were loyal to the United States government.30
Throughout the early months of 1890 Penrose continued to meet with the First Presidency on political matters He worked, too, with church members, encouraging them to take the oath required by the Utah Commission that they did not practice or believe in plural marriage, so that they could vote. He reported to church leaders that some members refused to accept his counsel. Under the direction of Joseph F. Smith he also prepared statements "establishing the position that plural marriage was an optional practice not necessary for salvation."31 This position aroused the anger of several apostles.
As summer reached for fall the most significant event in the Mormon quest for statehood took place, with Charles W Penrose as an important player in the drama. On Sunday, September 21, 1890, after returning to Salt Lake City from a trip to California, President Wilford Woodruff met with Franklin S. Richards and Penrose. He told them about his meetings with rich, powerful, prominent California Republicans and their efforts to push forward statehood with the Republican administration. Penrose told Woodruff that it was likely that a bill would pass Congress disfranchising all Latter-day Saints who otherwise were eligible voters.32 Two days later Penrose, George Reynolds, andJohn R Winder edited a 516-word document written by Woodruff to 356 words to prepare it for publication This document, known as the Manifesto, officially ended plural marriage in the Mormon church. Now only one major obstacle remained before statehood could be achieved.
The nation's political leaders believed that the church hierarchy dictated the politics of Utah Thus, forces were set in motion to align the people of Utah with the nation's two major political parties Penrose, an early advocate that the Saints divide along national party lines, used his influence as a newspaper editor to encourage the Utah populace to attend the Republican and Democratic parties' mass meetings, study the issues from a national perspective, and make an intelligent choice as to party affiliation. He also wrote and published a rebuttal to the report of the Utah Commission that plural marriages continued to be contracted in Utah.33
When the church's semi-annual conference convened on October 6, 1891, Charles Penrose was asked to speak In a stirring address he commented on the recent report of the Utah Commission in which they sought to make it appear "that the people of Utah are dominated by their leaders in political matters—that they are by them treated as political serfs." The objective of the Commission's report, Penrose said, was that the Latter-day Saints be kept in territorial vassalage and denied the rights accorded other people. Concluding his remarks, Penrose said, "I know that I have not been dominated or coerced in political matters I have never seen anything of that character. The people," he stated emphatically, "have voted as they pleased. We have had the secret ballot, and the authorities of the Church could not know who a person voted for if they wished to. . , . We are a free people, and our leading men have not led us into bondage." 34
Following his discourse, President Woodruff told the congregation, "What Brother Penrose has said is true; and as a proof of this I will say that I had a great desire in my heart at the last election, that we might have some Republicans in our legislature, and have not got one Here is Brother Lund [Anthon H. Lund, an apostle.] I believe he is a Republican. He ran, but did not get elected. This shows that if I had anything to do with it, I certainly had no influence with the people; for we have got no Republicans in the legislature."35
Still, Penrose and Woodruff both knew that church leaders were doing all they could to develop a true two-party system in Utah. With Republicans in control in Washington, the First Presidency believed that Utah would not achieve statehood unless more of the populace voted for Republican candidates. Penrose, Moses Thatcher, and Brigham H. Roberts, committed Democrats, were of the opinion that if church leaders could and did use their influence on behalf of Republican candidates, then they as citizens should be free to speak out in favor of Democrats.
As election day 1892 approached, both parties had a full slate of viable candidates. Joseph F. Smith, second counselor in the church's First Presidency, prepared and published a booklet titled, Another Plain Talk: Reasons Why the People of Utah Should be Republicans. The booklet's purpose was to answer a Penrose column that had appeared in the Salt Lake Herald providing a litany of reasons why Utahns should be. Democrats. Having read the Smith booklet, Penrose wrote and printed a broadside in rebuttal, calling attention to its "errors and misstatements." His prose was so strong that the general authorities believed him to be out of harmony with his brethren.36
Penrose truly believed in political independence and was ecstatic when Democrats carried the election of 1892 As it turned out, it was fortunate that the Republicans did not win this election, for it would have given the appearance that the church did indeed dictate the state's politics. That Penrose, Thatcher, and Roberts defied church leaders and continued to openly support Democratic candidates also sent a message to Washington that Utahns were free when entering the voting booth.
In the aftermath of the 1892 election Penrose was called to meet with President Woodruff who chastised him for his political behavior. Some believe that Penrose was told that he would not be allowed to attend the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple unless he made right his wrongs. Woodruff's diary does not state that such was the case. However, before Penrose left Woodruff's presence he had achieved a reconciliation and was never at odds with his ecclesiastical leaders again.37
As 1892 came to a close Penrose used the editorial page of the Salt Lake Herald to continue the campaign for statehood. His editorials applied pressure on the Republicans to grant statehood, accusing them of thwarting past efforts "The Mormon people of Utah want statehood and they want it as soon as it can be obtained They have always wanted it, he asserted."38
Finally on December 13, 1893, Wilford Woodruff could write in his diary, "Glory to God in the Highest, for He fulfills his word to the Sons of men. What we have been looking for so Long Came to Pass this day The House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States Passed a Bill for the Admission of Utah into the Union with Equal Powers of the other States with ownly five 5 opposing votes I think it is an Event unheard of in the whole History of the American Government."39
Six months later, as the legislation worked its way to the president's desk, Grover Cleveland signed the Enabling Act that virtually assured Utah's admission into the Union. President Woodruff wrote that day, "That has been a hard struggle for years as it had seemed as though all earth and hell have been combined against the Latter-day Saints and a state government."40
Many men were willing to take credit for Utah's admission to the family of states Still, if a statehood hall of fame were to be established the first inductees would include John W Young, LeGrand Young, John T. Caine, Franklin S. Richards, George Q. Cannon, Joseph F. Smith, Wilford Woodruff, Joseph L. Rawlins, FrankJ. Cannon, Hiram B. Clawson, Isaac Trumbo, Alexander Badlam, and Charles W. Penrose. These men perhaps experienced more satisfaction on July 17, 1894, than any other citizens. Their mission was finally accomplished.
NOTES
Dr Godfrey, Logan, is retired from the LDS Church Educational System and is a past president of the Mormon History Association.
1 Ogden Junction, January 1, 1870.
2 Salt Lake Herald, February 3, 1880.
3 Samuel W Taylor and Raymond W Taylor, eds., TheJohn Taylor Papers: Records of the Last Utah Pioneer, 2 vols (Redwood City: Taylor Trust, 1984), 2:37.
4 Ibid., p 53.
5 Edward Leo Lyman, Political Deliverance: The Mormon Quest for Utah Statehood (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986), p 22.
6 Ibid., p. 24.
7 Journal of Discourses, 26 vols (Liverpool, 1854-86), 6:125-26.
8 William C Seifrit, ed., "To Get U[tah] In U[nion]': Diary of a Failed Mission," Utah Historical Quarterly 51 (1983): 363.
9 Diary of Charles W Penrose, January 3, 1885, Utah State Historical Society Library, Salt Lake City Later much larger sums were expended to influence officials to vote for statehood Except as otherwise noted, the remaining discussion of this incident is based on the Penrose diary.
10 Lyman, Political Deliverance, p. 48.
11 Penrose diary, February 21, 1885.
12 Lyman, Political Deliverance, pp. 74-75.
13 Soon after the marriage Romania hung a sign on her office which read Dr. Romania Pratt Penrose. So much for the secrecy.
14 Salt Lake Herald, February 2, 1888.
15 Ibid., February 24, 1888.
16 Lyman, Political Deliverance, pp 43-44.
17 Ibid., pp 45, 65-66 See also letter of Charles W Penrose toJohn Taylor, February 16, 1887, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City.
18 Lyman, Political Deliverance, p 85.
19 Ibid., p 48.
20 Edward Leo Lyman, "Political Deliverance: The Mormon Quest for Statehood" (Ph.D. diss., University of California-Riverside, 1981), p 101 See also Thomas G Alexander, "The Odyssey of a Latterday Prophet: Wilford Woodruff and the Manifesto of 1890," Journal of Mormon History 17 (1991): 188.
21 Alexander, "Odyssey of a Latter-day Prophet," pp 188-89; Lyman, "Political Deliverance," p 105.
22 Lyman, Political Deliverance, p 56.
23 Lyman, "Political Deliverance," pp 123-24.
24 Lyman, Political Deliverance, pp. 76, 77, 80, 84.
23 Ibid., pp. 82, 103-104.
26 Francis M. Gibbons, Joseph F. Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1984), p. 168.
27 Ibid., p. 167.
28 Lyman, "Political Deliverance," p 230.
29 Scott G Kenney, ed., Wilford Woodruff's Journal, 1833-1898, Typescript, 9 vols (Midvale, Ut.: Signature Books, 1983-85), 9:73.
30 James R Clark, comp., Messages of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ ofLatter-day Saints, 1833-1964, 5 vols (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965-71), 3: 184-187.
31 Alexander, "Odyssey of a Latter-day Prophet," pp 199, 203
32 D Michael Quinn, "LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904," Dialogue 18 (1985): 43.
33 Lyman, Political Deliverance, pp. 156-57; Deseret Evening News, May 8, 13, 1891.
34 Brian H. Stuy, comp. and ed., Collected Discourses, Delivered by President Wilford Woodruff, His Two Counselors, the Twelve Apostles, and Others, 2 vols. (Burbank: B.H.S. Publishing, 1988), 2:271.
35 Ibid.
36 Lyman, Political Deliverance, pp 201-202, 208.
37 Kenney, Wilford Woodruffs, Journal 9:245. In 1904 at age 72 Penrose was sustained as an apostle of the church.
38 Salt Lake Herald, December 15, 1892.
39 Kenney, Wilford Woodruffs, Journal, 9:275.
40 Ibid., July 17, 1894.
