From sixth-grade students to representatives of the state's top court, a symposium Monday to celebrate the Utah Constitution allowed a variety of Utahns to publicly honor the 100-year-old document.
In her keynote address, Utah Supreme Court Justice Christine Durham said Utah's difficulty achieving statehood was unparalled in any other territory.Durham quoted historian Martin Hickman who said Mormons were already "seasoned in hardship" when they entered the Salt Lake Valley. The group was ". . . driven from Ohio, Missouri and Illinois in part by social and economic pressure, but principally by mob violence," she said.
Beginning with a document called the Deseret Constitution in 1849, Utah forefathers wrote seven drafts before one was accepted by Congress.
"It was not a foregone conclusion that Utah would come into this nation as a state," Durham told the group of about 60 gathered at the Salt Lake City/County Building.
Settlers moved into the territory then called Deseret in 1847 and created a unified society based primarily on a government run by church officials, according to historian George Ellsworth's introduction in the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission publication, "Utah's Road to Statehood."
At that time, Brigham Young was president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, governor of the territory and superintendent of Indian affairs.
As the westward migration drew non-Mormons to the state, the population grew and diversified. This new part of the citizenry felt left out of economic and political life, Ellsworth wrote.
After battling for nearly three decades with Utah over the issue of polygamy, Congress passed the Edmunds-Tucker Act in 1887, which outlawed polygamy and implemented strict punishments and fines for violations. Nearly 1,300 Utahns were imprisoned during this time.
Under pressure of the new laws and other financial strains imposed nationally, LDS Church President Wilford Woodruff issued "The Manifesto" in 1890, and in November 1895, the people ratified Utah's Constitution.
In Monday's celebration of the document's centennial, Durham touched on these unique historical qualities and spoke in general about the differences between state constitutions and their federal counterpart.
"It would seem like the federal government has unlimited power," she said. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled recently that it has no jurisdiction to override states' rights when it comes to regulating the use of handguns around public schools.
State constitutions also reflect fundamental, structural and philosophical differences from the federal government, she said.
Durham has been on the Utah Supreme Court since 1982.
An awards ceremony followed Durham's speech, and students read award-winning papers on the theme, "Utah's Constitution and Your Rights."
Ensign Elementary sixth-graders Laura Naylor and Justin Britt took first and second place from among 69 elementary-school entrants.
In the junior high/middle school division, American Fork Junior High ninth-grader Katrina Rhodes won first place and Marlena Gonzalez, a seventh-grader at St. Olaf's Catholic School, was second.
First and second honors in the high school division were awarded to Ben Lomond High School freshman Tanna Berry and her schoolmate, senior Monica Hoxsie.
The students were awarded U.S. savings bonds.