Content: A Sonnet

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THE GOVERNORS OF UTAH. 223

punished. So ended the official career of Governor Dawson; little else is known of him in Utah. Secretary Fuller now again occupied the gubernatorial chair. **He was a bright young lawyer," writes Historian Andrew Jenson, "and soon became known as a fair-minded and efficient officer whose good judgment could be relied upon in most matters brought before him. He also endeavored to treat 'Mormon' and Gentile with equal fairness and justice, which is more than can be said of a great many other federal officials of these early days, since many of the government appointees seem to have thought they were sent to Utah for the special purpose of inaugurating and carrying on a crusade against the 'Mormons.' There were several important events in the progress of the great west which took place about this time. A leading one was the completion of the Overland Telegraph Line to Great Salt Lake City. On the day following its completion, Acting Governor Fuller saluted President Lincoln with the following now famous message:

Great Salt Lake City, October 18, 186L To the President of the United States: Utah, whose citizens strenuously resist all imputations of disloyalty, congratulates the president upon the completion of an enterprise which spans a continent, unites two oceans, and connects with nerve of iron the remote extremities of the body politic with the great governmental heart. May the whole system speedily thrill with the quickened pulsations of that heart, as the parricide hand is palsied, treason is punished, and the entire sisterhood of states joins hands in glad reunion around the national fireside.

Frank Fuller, Acting Governor of Utah Territory.

The president^responded as follows:

Hon. Frank Fuller, Acting Governor of Utah Territory: Sir: The completion of the telegraph to Great Salt Lake City is auspicious of the stability and union of the Republic. The government reciprocates your congratulations. Abraham Lincoln.

One of the important legislative measures which received Governor Fuller's sanction was a memorial to Congress asking for the