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In the year 2000, a career in politics is not for the faint hearted. But our Utah history shows us there were even tougher times to be a politician.
In 1861 president Abraham Lincoln sent John Dawson to serve as the federally-appointed Governor of the Utah Territory.
Dawson was a former newspaperman, and he was politically well-connected in the East. Never before or since has a governor managed to do so much, so wrong, in so little time. In his first address to the legislature, he attacked the Mormon Church and he promised new taxes. He then lewdly and publicly propositioned a young widow. . .and attempted to bribe a reporter to ignore the story.
Dawson tried to flee Utah, but he was caught in Emigration Canyon. The governor was savagely beaten, leaving him disabled for life. He had lasted one month as Utah's governor.
It's a page from Utah's political past. In 2000 your vote can help write the next chapter of history.
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Governor John Dawson (pictured) had no idea what he was in for when he was appointed Territorial Governor of Utah by President Lincoln in 1862.