Liberal Party (Utah)
Encyclopedia
The Liberal Party, like the People's Party
People's Party (Utah)
The People's Party was a political party in Utah Territory during the late 19th century. It was backed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its newspaper, the Deseret News. It opposed Utah's Liberal Party.- Beginnings :...

, flourished in Utah Territory
Utah Territory
The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah....

 as a local political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 in the latter half of the 19th century—before Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 and Republicans
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 established themselves in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

 in the early 1890s.

The Liberal Party formed in 1870 to oppose The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS Church; popularly known as the "Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

s"), which dominated local politics. Thus the Liberal Party represented opposition to government controlled by organized religious groups. Though vastly outnumbered, the Liberal Party offered an opposing voice and won several local elections. Anti-Mormon
Anti-Mormon
Anti-Mormonism is discrimination, persecution, hostility or prejudice directed at members of the Latter Day Saint movement, particularly The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

ism remained a central theme of the party until it disbanded in 1893 and became absorbed by the national parties.

Origins

The impetus for the setting up of the Liberal Party came from William S. Godbe
William S. Godbe
William Samuel Godbe was a British convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

, a successful businessman and Latter-day Saint who founded a journal called Utah Magazine in 1868. Godbe and several business associates challenged the economic policies of LDS Church President Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...

 in the monthly periodical, especially Young's opposition to mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

. When increasingly harsh condemnations aimed at LDS leadership appeared, the LDS Church excommunicate
Excommunication
Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...

d key "Godbeites" on October 25, 1869.

Corresponding during the winter, key Godbeites and non-Mormons made an uneasy alliance based on their shared opposition to LDS control over temporal matters in the territory.

The Liberal Party formed after a meeting on February 9, 1870 to select independent candidates for the Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...

 municipal election. The organizers billed the occasion as a meeting of the "people". A crowd of Latter-day Saints, encouraged by local bishops
Bishop (Mormonism)
Bishop is the highest priesthood office of the Aaronic priesthood in the Latter Day Saint movement. A bishop is usually the leader of a local congregation of church members. The Latter Day Saint concept of the office differs significantly from the role of bishops in other Christian denominations,...

 and a Deseret Evening News
Deseret Morning News
The Deseret News is a newspaper published in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is Utah's oldest continuously published daily newspaper. It has the second largest daily circulation in the state behind The Salt Lake Tribune. The Deseret News is owned by Deseret News Publishing Company, a subsidiary of...

editorial, attended in numbers and nearly hijacked the meeting. After the LDS crowd had selected their own slate of candidates, frustrated Godbeite Eli B. Kelsey asked the Mormons to leave, which they did. The remaining non-Mormons selected an independent municipal ticket, forming the Liberal Party. Liberal leaders intended that their party's name suggest reform and evoke Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

's Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

.

In response, Latter-day Saints formed the People's Party
People's Party (Utah)
The People's Party was a political party in Utah Territory during the late 19th century. It was backed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its newspaper, the Deseret News. It opposed Utah's Liberal Party.- Beginnings :...

, a title selected to suggest popularity and ironically alluding to the Liberal's disrupted meeting of "the people". Latter-day Saints had previously won elections unchallenged.

Early Liberal Party speakers carefully avoided condemning LDS theology or polygamy
Plural marriage
Polygamy was taught by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than half of the 19th century, and practiced publicly from 1852 to 1890.The Church's practice of polygamy has been highly controversial, both within...

, because several Godbeites themselves practised polygamy. Eli B. Kelsey and Henry W. Lawrence, both Godbeites, gained election as the first officers of the new party. Non-Mormons, including R. N. Baskin
R. N. Baskin
Robert Newton Baskin was born December 20, 1837, in Hillsboro, Ohio. He attended Salem Academy, near Chillicothe, Ohio and studied law with the firm of James H. Thompson in Salem, Ohio...

, George R. Maxwell, and Judge Dennis Toohy of Corinne
Corinne, Utah
Corinne is a city in Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The population was 685 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Corinne is located at ....

, played an active role in the party, but stayed in the background initially, hoping that ex-Mormon Godbeites would prove more effective leaders and candidates.

Godbeites believed they should reform Utah and the LDS Church to adopt more politically progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...

 policies, but the non-Mormon element of the party took a more adversarial line. Non-Mormon partisans, especially miners and railroad workers, would increasingly dominate party leadership. Through the 1870s, the Liberal Party grew less appeasing of Godbeites and more openly anti-Mormon
Anti-Mormon
Anti-Mormonism is discrimination, persecution, hostility or prejudice directed at members of the Latter Day Saint movement, particularly The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

 and anti-polygamy. Waning Godbeite influence showed even by 1871 when Liberals Dennis Toohy and George R. Maxwell infuriated Godbeites at a party meeting by calling polygamists "dupes" and criminals of perverse sensuality.

Like many political parties of the time, the Liberal Party ran a newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

, although unofficially. Godbe's Utah Magazine became the Mormon Weekly Tribune and in 1873 three anti-Mormon newcomers from Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

  bought it and it became The Salt Lake Tribune
The Salt Lake Tribune
The Salt Lake Tribune is the largest-circulated daily newspaper in the U.S. city of Salt Lake City. It is distributed by Newspaper Agency Corporation, which also distributes the Deseret News. The Tribune — or "Trib," as it is locally known — is currently owned by the Denver-based MediaNews Group....

. Until the Liberal Party disbanded in 1893, the Tribune would operate as the Liberal Party's de facto political organ. Similarly, the Deseret Evening News
Deseret Morning News
The Deseret News is a newspaper published in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is Utah's oldest continuously published daily newspaper. It has the second largest daily circulation in the state behind The Salt Lake Tribune. The Deseret News is owned by Deseret News Publishing Company, a subsidiary of...

, owned by the LDS Church, often functioned as a People's Party organ.

History

Unsurprisingly, the Liberal Party performed poorly against the Mormon majority. In the 1870 Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...

 Mayoral race, Liberal Henry W. Lawrence lost to Daniel H. Wells
Daniel H. Wells
Daniel Hanmer Wells was an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the third mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, United States....

 321 to 2301. State-wide contests produced even more lopsided figures, with Liberals regularly failing to garner 10% of the vote. Although Liberals never won a single statewide office, the party served as a political foil and won several local elections including:
  • The so-called Tooele Republic in 1874.
  • Ogden, Utah
    Ogden, Utah
    Ogden is a city in Weber County, Utah, United States. Ogden serves as the county seat of Weber County. The population was 82,825 according to the 2010 Census. The city served as a major railway hub through much of its history, and still handles a great deal of freight rail traffic which makes it a...

     in 1889.
  • Salt Lake City, Utah
    Salt Lake City, Utah
    Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...

     in 1890.


When the party first formed in 1870, party officials tried to win offices in the town of Corrine
Corinne, Utah
Corinne is a city in Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The population was 685 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Corinne is located at ....

, reasoning that they could more readily overwhelm the small local population. They failed, but continued to scout other promising areas.

In Tooele County
Tooele County, Utah
Tooele County is a county located in the U.S. state of Utah. As of 2000, the population was 40,735 and by 2005 was estimated at 51,311. Its county seat and largest city is Tooele....

, perhaps the only non-Mormon majority in the territory existed. These residents, mostly transitory miner
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

s, congregated in Utah after US Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 General Patrick Edward Connor
Patrick Edward Connor
Patrick Edward Connor was a Union General during the American Civil War. He was most famous for his campaigns against Native Americans in the American Old West.-Early life and career:...

 encouraged his men to prospect for minerals, which they discovered west of Salt Lake City in 1864.

The Liberal Party, campaigning voraciously in mining towns, won a disputed election in August 1874. The People's Party incumbents, citing fraud, refused to yield their positions even as U.S. Marshals
United States Marshals Service
The United States Marshals Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice . The office of U.S. Marshal is the oldest federal law enforcement office in the United States; it was created by the Judiciary Act of 1789...

 authorized by the 3rd District federal court
United States court of appeals
The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal court system...

 attempted to intervene and install the Liberal candidates. Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...

 advised his followers to abide by the federal court, which they finally did.

Liberals carried all offices in the county, which they called the Tooele Republic. Running unopposed in 1876, Liberals held the county until the Utah territorial
Utah Territory
The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah....

 legislature passed bills in 1878 requiring voter registration
Voter registration
Voter registration is the requirement in some democracies for citizens and residents to check in with some central registry specifically for the purpose of being allowed to vote in elections. An effort to get people to register is known as a voter registration drive.-Centralized/compulsory vs...

 and instituting women's suffrage
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...

. The Liberal Party, typically supported by male miners casually interested in politics, opposed both measures. In 1878 the Liberal electoral majority in Tooele County disappeared, and the People's Party regained control in 1879 after more than six months of Liberal procedural delays.

By 1880, the Liberal Party had become severely atrophied, but the newly-appointed and distinctly anti-Mormon
Anti-Mormon
Anti-Mormonism is discrimination, persecution, hostility or prejudice directed at members of the Latter Day Saint movement, particularly The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

 territorial governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

, Eli H. Murray, openly supported the Party. Thus, the 1880 state-wide election for a congressional delegate unexpectedly proved the closest that the Liberal Party got to sending a representative to Washington D.C.

The Liberal candidate, Allen G. Campbell — with 1357 votes — lost resoundingly to Mormon General Authority
General authority
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , a general authority is a member of certain leadership organizations who are given administrative and ecclesiastical authority over the church...

 George Q. Cannon
George Q. Cannon
George Quayle Cannon was an early member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and served in the First Presidency under four successive presidents of the church: Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow...

 who had 18,567 votes. In fact, the election marked the all-time low percentage-wise showing for any Liberal U.S. congressional candidate. However, before Governor Murray certified the election, a protest on behalf of Campbell was filed. The protest listed a dozen claims, chiefly that Cannon, born in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, was an un-naturalized
Naturalization
Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody who was not a citizen of that country at the time of birth....

 alien
Alien (law)
In law, an alien is a person in a country who is not a citizen of that country.-Categorization:Types of "alien" persons are:*An alien who is legally permitted to remain in a country which is foreign to him or her. On specified terms, this kind of alien may be called a legal alien of that country...

. The protest also claimed that Cannon's practice of polygamy
Plural marriage
Polygamy was taught by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than half of the 19th century, and practiced publicly from 1852 to 1890.The Church's practice of polygamy has been highly controversial, both within...

 was incompatible with the law and a delegate's oath of office. Murray agreed and issued certification to Campbell in spite of his poor showing.

George Q. Cannon, in Washington at the time, argued that only Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

 could decide on a member's qualifications. He furthermore received a certificate from sympathetic territorial election officials which stated he had received the most votes. This document convinced the House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

 clerk to enter Cannon's name on the roll, so Cannon began drawing delegate's salary.

Both Murray and Campbell traveled to Washington to dispute the seat. Each side battled over the position for over a year, even through the assassination and eventual death of President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 James Garfield
James Garfield
James Abram Garfield served as the 20th President of the United States, after completing nine consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Garfield's accomplishments as President included a controversial resurgence of Presidential authority above Senatorial courtesy in executive...

. On February 25, 1882, the House of Representatives finally rejected both candidates. The House refused Cannon his seat not for his dubious citizenship, but for his practice of polygamy. The entire ordeal actually brought unfavorable national attention to the "Mormon Situation" with regard to polygamy.

In a November 7, 1882 election to fill the vacated congressional seat, the Liberal Party fielded Philip T. Van Zile
Philip T. Van Zile
Philip Taylor Van Zile was a politician and judge from the U.S. state of Michigan.-Biography:Van Zile was born in Osceola Township, Pennsylvania. He prepared for college at Union Academy near Knoxville, Pennsylvania, then entered the classical course of the Alfred University and graduated in 1863....

, but the seat was ultimately won by John T. Caine of the Peoples Party. Of the 33266 registered voters, 23039 votes were cast for Caine, while Van Zile received 4884. About 12000 people were excluded from registering based on suspicion of polygamy.

National outrage against polygamy benefited the Liberal Party in Utah. On March 23, 1882 the anti-polygamy Edmunds Act
Edmunds Act
The Edmunds Act, also known as the Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882, is a United States federal statute, signed into law on March 23, 1882, declaring polygamy a felony. The act is named for U.S. Senator George F. Edmunds of Vermont...

 became law. An even stronger act, the Edmunds-Tucker Act
Edmunds-Tucker Act
The Edmunds–Tucker Act of 1887 was passed in response to the dispute between the United States Congress and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regarding polygamy. The act is found in US Code Title 48 & 1461, full text as 24 Stat. 635, with this annotation to be interpreted as Volume...

, was enacted on March 3, 1887. Among other things, these acts required candidates and prospective voters to submit to an anti-polygamy oath. Enforcement of these bills furthermore put significant numbers of Latter-day Saint polygamists in federal prisons, including one built in Sugar House specifically for that purpose. These measures, which often brought punishment on anyone unwilling to take the oath, intimidated and decimated the Latter-day Saint voter pool.

The Liberal Party swept the city government of Ogden, Utah
Ogden, Utah
Ogden is a city in Weber County, Utah, United States. Ogden serves as the county seat of Weber County. The population was 82,825 according to the 2010 Census. The city served as a major railway hub through much of its history, and still handles a great deal of freight rail traffic which makes it a...

 in 1889 although they did not succeed in carrying the Weber County
Weber County, Utah
Weber County is a county located in the U.S. state of Utah, occupying a stretch of the Wasatch Front, part of the eastern shores of Great Salt Lake, and much of the rugged Wasatch Mountains. As of the 2000 census, the population was 196,533, an increase of 24.1% over its population in 1990. By...

 government as they had wished. In 1890, the Liberal Party took Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...

, and George M. Scott
George Montgomery Scott
George Montgomery Scott was a U.S. politician and entrepreneur, notable for being the first non-Mormon mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah. He was a member of the Liberal Party and served as mayor of Salt Lake City from 1890 to 1892.Scott was not a native of Utah, but was born in Chazy, New York to a...

 became the first non-Mormon mayor of Salt Lake by a margin of 808 votes. Two years later, long-time Liberal stalwart R. N. Baskin
R. N. Baskin
Robert Newton Baskin was born December 20, 1837, in Hillsboro, Ohio. He attended Salem Academy, near Chillicothe, Ohio and studied law with the firm of James H. Thompson in Salem, Ohio...

 became mayor on a "fusion ticket" between moderate Liberals and elements of the old People's Party.

Propelled by success in Salt Lake City and Ogden, the Liberal Party won one-third of the Utah territorial legislature in the August 1891 election. This election proved particularly notable, because the People's Party
People's Party (Utah)
The People's Party was a political party in Utah Territory during the late 19th century. It was backed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its newspaper, the Deseret News. It opposed Utah's Liberal Party.- Beginnings :...

 disbanded just prior to the election and urged all members to join national parties. Thus, non-Mormon Liberals ran (and several won) against mostly-Mormon Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 and Republicans
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

.

However, the Liberal Party had reached its twilight. In September 1890, the LDS Church issued the so-called 1890 Manifesto
1890 Manifesto
The "1890 Manifesto", sometimes simply called "The Manifesto", is a statement which officially disavowed the continuing practice of plural marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

, which promised to end the practice of polygamy. National support that the Liberals previously enjoyed for opposing polygamy in Utah thus disappeared. In 1893, all polygamists were given executive pardon
Pardon
Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...

, and statehood for Utah seemed imminent. Polygamy, often the focus of Liberal scorn, made the party irrelevant when Mormons abandoned the practice.

Following the lead of the People's Party eighteen months earlier, most members of the Liberal Party joined national parties in early 1893 in anticipation of Utah statehood.

On January 4, 1896, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

 became the 45th state in the Union. Former Liberals continued to be involved in politics, and most of the Mormon majority continued to view them unfavorably.

The Deseret Evening News
Deseret Morning News
The Deseret News is a newspaper published in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is Utah's oldest continuously published daily newspaper. It has the second largest daily circulation in the state behind The Salt Lake Tribune. The Deseret News is owned by Deseret News Publishing Company, a subsidiary of...

and other LDS papers characterized Liberal Party governments as wasteful. The party outspent revenue in Tooele, Ogden, and Salt Lake City, accumulating relatively large public debts. However, the Liberal Party characterized its expenditures as essential for civic improvements. In Salt Lake City, the Liberals constructed the city's first sewer
Sanitary sewer
A sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...

, called the "gravity sewer," which the Deseret News characterized as graft
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...

. The Salt Lake Liberals also constructed an ornate and expensive joint Salt Lake City and County Building
Salt Lake City and County Building
The Salt Lake City and County Building, usually called the "City-County Building", is the seat of government for Salt Lake City, Utah. The historic landmark formerly housed offices for Salt Lake County government as well, hence the name.- History :...

. Former Liberals such as R. N. Baskin
R. N. Baskin
Robert Newton Baskin was born December 20, 1837, in Hillsboro, Ohio. He attended Salem Academy, near Chillicothe, Ohio and studied law with the firm of James H. Thompson in Salem, Ohio...

defended the reputation and legacy of the Liberal Party well into the 20th century.

External links

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