The US Government Once Fought The Mormons For Control of Utah
The Mormons were declared to be in open rebellion
Utah has the largest Mormon population of any state in the United States and that population has roots in the 19th century. The Mormons moved out of the eastern United States to flee persecution. They moved west after their founder, Joseph Smith, was killed in Illinois. Smith was dragged out of a local jail in Nauvoo, Illinois, and murdered. Brigham Young took up the mantle and decided to move his religious followers west to untouched lands far from the Americans that had persecuted them so badly.
When the Mormon exodus arrived in the lands around The Great Salt Lake the territory was under the control of Mexico. They believed that the Mexican government would be content to leave them alone. The Mormons had arrived at the fringe edge of Mexican territory and had escaped United States territory. They believed they had found their Zion where they could live in peace far from persecution and violence.
Unfortunately, the United States wrested control of the territory from Mexico during the Mexican American War which ended in 1848. Suddenly, the Mormons were again under the yolk of the United States government.
