President Grover Cleveland signed the proclamation admitting Utah to the United States on January 4, 1896, ending nearly half a century of territorial status. Statehood had been repeatedly blocked by Congress over the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' practice of plural marriage; admission followed the church's 1890 Manifesto formally renouncing polygamy.
Utah's path to statehood was one of the longest and most contentious in American history. Mormon settlers had petitioned for admission as the State of Deseret as early as 1849, only to be rebuffed repeatedly by a Congress deeply uneasy with polygamy, which many Americans considered as morally offensive as slavery — the two practices were even yoked together in the 1856 Republican platform as the 'twin relics of barbarism.'
The federal government escalated pressure through the 1880s, disincorporating the church, seizing its property, and disenfranchising polygamists. Church president Wilford Woodruff's 1890 Manifesto, which officially ended the sanctioning of new plural marriages, removed the chief obstacle.
When statehood finally came on January 4, 1896, celebrations in Salt Lake City included a 45-gun salute and the ringing of church bells across the territory. Utah's constitution notably granted women the right to vote, making it one of the earliest states to do so.
Key people: Grover Cleveland, Wilford Woodruff