unlike those of radical abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison. Indiana historian Jacob Piatt Dunn Jr. reports that the Harding home in Milan, Indiana, was used as a station on the Underground Railroad. Even though his views on slavery were not popular in some of the areas where he spoke in Indiana, Harding continued to deliver anti-slavery speeches. Harding, a subscriber to several anti-slavery journals, was well-informed on the issue. In 1844, he predicted in a speech he gave at Versailles, Indiana, that twenty years later slavery would not exist in the United States. Indiana politician Harding, a member of the Whig Party, left the party in 1840 to join the Liberty Party. He was nominated as the Liberty Party's candidate for lieutenant governor of Indiana in 1842 and 1846, but lost both races. In 1844, Harding served as a presidential elector of the Liberty Party's candidate, James G. Birney. After the Liberty Party had dissolved by 1848, Harding joined the Free Soil Party. In July 1848, while Harding attended the national Free-Soil convention in Buffalo, New York, the Free-Soil Party of Indiana was established at Indianapolis. Harding was among the speakers at the Free-Soil Party's second state convention in Indianapolis. Representing the 4th Congressional District, Harding was also one of eleven presidential electors on the Free-Soil ticket in 1852. In 1854, Harding aligned himself with the People's Party, the predecessor to the Republican Party in Indiana, and was among the leaders who addressed a People's Party meeting on July 12, 1854, the day before the party was officially organized in the state. Harding joined the Republican Party because of its platform, which opposed polygamy, as well as the expansion of slavery. Harding promoted the Republican Party's platform in Indiana, and in 1860 became one of sixteen members of the Indiana Republican Party's state central committee. Governor of Utah Territory (1862–63) At the recommendation of Indiana politicians Schuyler Colfax and George Washington Julian, Abraham Lincoln appointed Harding governor of the Utah Territory in 1862. The U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment without a dissenting vote on March 31, 1862. Harding began his overland journey west in May and arrived at Salt Lake City to assume his new duties on July 7, 1862. His tenure at the territorial governor was marked by conflicts with Mormon politicians, especially with Brigham Young, the former territorial governor and head of the LDS Church, and the territory's