American Republicanism as Shown Through Mormon-Federal Conflict, 1846-1890
Kirksville, Missouri
Northeast Missouri State University
1995
Master's thesis
This thesis examines interaction between the federal government and the Mormons in the last half of the 19th century, focusing on specific events and legislation. These include the enlistment of the Mormon Battalion, the Utah War of 1857, the Evarts Circular of 1879, the Edmunds Act of 1882, and the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887. The author concludes that these events reveal that the federal government and the Mormons held conflicting views about republicanism, especially when defining the role of religious leadership and the extent of separation of church and state in social, moral, and economic matters.