Series 3150

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY [582]

TERRITORIAL LEGISLATIVE RECORDS, 1851-1894.
15.55 cu. ft. and 23 microfilm reels

A separate agency history is available.

DESCRIPTION: Utah became a territory in 1851 and the Territorial Legislative Assembly first met on September 22, 1851. The Territorial Assembly was responsible for creating laws to govern the territory. These records contain the acts, bills, resolutions, memorials, and petitions of the first through thirty-first sessions (to statehood) of the Assembly. This series also contains reports, e.g. the Superintendent of Public Schools, University of Deseret; financial claims; and correspondence concerning the duties and actions of the Assembly. Within these documents charters of cities, divorce and marriage laws, laws regulating the physical construction of the state, legislation creating local governments, and numerous other laws setting the framework of life in Utah Territory can be found. The debate on polygamy can be witnessed through the bills and Governors' messages. Unfortunately, not all of the Governors' messages are contained in this series; for a more complete set see series 3145, JOURNALS.

The Legislative Assembly was divided into two houses, the House of Representatives and the Council. Representation was based on the population of counties or districts. A census was taken to determine the population of each county and district and then a vote was held. The governor appointed the members to the Council and House based on the election results. The House of Representative consisted of twenty-six members with a 1 year term. The Council had 13 members with 2 year terms. General elections were then held biennially on the first Monday in August (Laws of Utah 1851). In 1870, the terms of the House members were extended from one year to two (Laws of Utah 1871) and in 1880 the general elections were changed to Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

The Legislative sessions were held annually until 1870, usually in winter, from December to March. After 1870, biennial sessions were held in even numbered years until statehood. Some session records contain both bills and acts. The bills are the initial legislation and do not necessarily become law. Acts refer to bills that have passed both bodies and are signed by the governor. Engrossed bills refer to bills passed by both the Council and House. Some bills and acts contain the record of the proceedings for the legislation on the back of the bill. It will give a date and then state what happened on that date, e.g. "passed the house" or "sent to committee." In various sessions, only an oversized, formal copy of the official act can be found. Claims are those made to the state for money due an individual or group. Memorials are pleadings for federal action, usually made to the U. S. Congress. Resolutions are position statements which do not have the weight of law. Petitions are initiated by citizens desiring the introduction of particular legislation.

ARRANGEMENT: This series is arranged chronologically by session year or years, thereunder by document type. The Governor's Message, where available, precedes all other documents as it formed the formal start of the session. Listings of elected officers of the Legislature may also appear at the beginning of the session. Other documents are alphabetical by document type. Acts and Bills are arranged chronologically within the session, usually by date of last action; those without dates are placed at the end of the session.

RESEARCH NOTE: Sometimes the letters C. F., H. R. F., H. F., J. S. F., or S. J. S. F. appear on the records. These acronyms stand for: Council Files; House of Representative Files; House Files; Joint Session Files; and Special Joint Session File.

RELATED RECORDS: Published journals containing the minutes of both legislative bodies are available from 1851-1880 as JOURNALS, series 3145. Unpublished journals for the Council are available from 1858-1852 as JOURNAL RECORD BOOKS, series 3167and for the HOUSE as JOURNAL RECORD BOOKS, series 16660. After 1880, the published journals separate into series 409, SENATE JOURNALS and series 456, HOUSE JOURNALS. The LAWS OF UTAH, series 83155, contain the final, published version of bills and resolutions passed.

PROCESSING NOTE: The arrangement of this series originally differed from session to session. The processor chose a uniform arrangement based on one session and the other sessions were arranged to follow. This series was processed by Wendy Checketts in March 2001 and microfilmed for reference use in 2002.

PREFERRED CITATION: Cite the Utah State Archives and Records Service, the creating agency name, the series title, and the series number.

CONTAINER LIST

See PDF file for full container list.