AHC: A Mormon State

It's well positioned to be a buffer state. Suppose there's no Mexican-American War, Oregon stays British, and Texas stays independent. Unlikely, but not incredible. In this scenario, the Salt Lake territory is right on the frontier between Mexico, Oregon, Texas, and the United States. A stubborn, well-armed Deseret would be a bear trap in the path of Uncle Sam's westward expansion. It would therefore be a worthwhile investment for Britain, Mexico, or any version of Texas with an interest in maintaining independence. For its part, Deseret would have a strong motivation to remain independent, because loss of independence would extinguish cherished Mormon customs, most notably plural marriage. In OTL the LDS church abandoned these customs only because their turf was entirely surrounded by US territory and could not possibly remain politically independent. In earlier times they showed a willingness to spill blood to preserve their autonomy.

Deseret buffer.PNG
 
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katchen

Banned
It could easily have happened if Lewis Cass had won the 1844 Election, not James K Polk. Cass was against further expansion westward. And it didn't take a genius to see that clear division between slave and free states would break down once the land was far enough west to discourage plantation agriculture. (In fact it just occurred to me that Stephen Long's characterizing of the territory west of the Missouri at Missouri as the Great American Desert in 1820 may have been designed to avert just this sort of breakdown, and sectional strife, 1820 also being the year of the Missouri Compromise).
Brigham Young's initial attempt to expand Deseret into the Snake River amd Lemhi Valley can be seen in this context (though Bark Beetle can clarify this).
Cass, with only minor prodding from Senators fearful of upsetting the balance of slave and free states in the Senate could have held off calls for US annexation of Texas. If need be, Texas, Deseret and California could become allied states with the US, linked in a mutual defense treaty without annexation and therefore without congressional representation or interference of any kind in state policies.
 
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