The President assured him that Colonel Steptoe would not resort to such meanness.
Elder Taylor then referred to the circumstances under which Utah had been settled, in all of which Brigham Young was their trusted leader; that if any man had a claim upon that position it was Governor Young. Besides, accepting the doctrine of popular sovereignty, the people of Utah considered that their wishes as to who should govern them ought to be somewhat consulted, and if that were done, Brigham Young would be the universal choice of the people. Still he assured the President that he need have no anxiety as to any difficulty arising from his appointing another man: for while the people would think it an act going to the extent of his authority, they of course recognized the authority of the President of the United States, and would submit to any legal or constitutional enactment.
Colonel Steptoe during his stay in Utah was tendered the governorship of Utah by the President, but he refused to accept it, and joined in a petition to President Pierce praying for the re-appointment of Brigham Young, both as Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Governor Young was accordingly re-appointed.
In March, 1856, a Constitutional Convention was held in Salt Lake City, and a constitution, republican in spirit and liberal in its provisions, was adopted. John Taylor and George A. Smith, appointed delegates to present Utah's request for admission into the sisterhood of states. Elder Taylor joined his colleague in Washington during the summer of 1856, and labored among the members of Congress with a view of having a bill introduced for the admission of Utah. The Republican party, however, was already in the field with its platform that denominated polygamy and slavery as "twin relics" of barbarism. This marshaled all the Republicans against the admission of Utah; and so desirous were the Democrats to cast off the odium of befriending a polygamous people, that they were more bitter in their denunciation of the Mormons, if possible, than the Republicans. Even Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who had been a professed friend of the Mormon people, and who had been intimately acquainted with the Prophet Joseph, and in addition to that was recognized as the champion of the Popular Sovereignty doctrine, turned against them, and in a speech delivered in Springfield, Illinois, early in 1856, referred to Mormonism as "the loathsome ulcer of the body politic." [1]