Юта Либералдық партиясының тарихы

Former political party in Utah, USA

The Liberal Party was a political party established in the latter half of the 1800s in Utah Territory before the national Democrats and Republicans established themselves in Utah in the early 1890s. The Liberal Party formed in 1870 to oppose Mormons, which dominated local politics via the People's Party. The Liberal Party thus 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 Mormonism remained a central theme of the party until it disbanded in 1893 and became absorbed by the national parties.

The impetus for the setting up of the Liberal Party came from William S. Godbe, 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 in the monthly periodical, especially Young's opposition to mining. When increasingly harsh condemnations aimed at LDS leadership appeared, the LDS Church excommunicated 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 municipal election. The organizers billed the occasion as a meeting of the "people." A crowd of Latter day Saints, encouraged by local bishops and a Deseret Evening News editorial, attended in numbers and nearly hijacked the meeting. After the LDS crowd had selected its 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's Liberal Party. In response, Latter day Saints formed the People's Party, a title that was selected to suggest popularity; it alluded to the Liberal Party's disrupted meeting of "the people". Latter day Saints had previously won virtually all elections unchallenged. Early Liberal Party speakers carefully avoided condemning LDS theology or polygamy, 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, George R. Maxwell, and Judge Dennis Toohy of Corinne, 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 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 and anti polygamy. Waning Godbeite influence was shown 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 although unofficially. Godbe's Utah Magazine became the Mormon Weekly Tribune and in 1873, three anti Mormon newcomers from Kansas bought it and it became The Salt Lake Tribune. 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, owned by the LDS Church, often functioned as a People's Party organ.

However, the Liberal Party had reached its twilight. In September 1890, the LDS Church issued the so called 1890 Manifesto, which promised to end the practice of polygamy. The national support that the Liberals previously enjoyed for opposing polygamy in Utah thus disappeared. In 1893, all polygamists were given executive pardon, 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 18 months earlier, most members of the Liberal Party joined national parties in early 1893 in anticipation of Utah statehood. On January 4, 1896, Utah 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 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, called the "gravity sewer," which the Deseret News characterized as graft. The Salt Lake Liberals also constructed an ornate and expensive joint Salt Lake City and County Building. Former Liberals such as Baskin defended the reputation and legacy of the Liberal Party well into the 20th century.