Mormon residents. Harding was unable to enforce federal law in the territory due to the conflicts with the Mormons. Soon after he took office he issued a blanket pardon for all Morrisites convicted in connection with the Morrisite War. He also initially tried to appease the Mormon community but soon became critical of church leaders and the practice of plural marriage (polygamy). In his first message to the territorial legislature In December 1862, Harding defended an anti-polygamy act recently passed in the U.S. Congress and described his intention to challenge Mormon dominance in Utah. Harding's relations with the Mormons further declined after he approved of efforts to limit the jurisdiction of the Mormon-controlled probate courts and to transfer control of the militia to the territorial governor. In March 1863, after a mass meeting was held in Salt Lake City to discuss the issue, territorial citizens petitioned President Lincoln to remove Harding from office, but instead of recalling him, Lincoln appointed Harding to the post of U.S. consul at Valparaíso, Chile. Harding resigned the position as territorial governor in fall of 1863, intending to accept the diplomatic post, but due to his wife's ill health and other domestic reasons, he had to resign the appointment on the eve of his departure to Chile. Chief Justice of Colorado (1863–1865) Lincoln appointed Harding to serve as Chief Justice of the Colorado Territory's Supreme Court in July 1863, and remained in that position until May 1865. One of his responsibilities as Chief Justice was to serve as a committee member responsible for certifying the results of ballots cast in 1865 to request that Colorado be admitted as a state in the Union. Believing that the results had been altered in favor of statehood, Harding refused to approve the results. Later years Harding left Colorado in 1865 and resumed his private law practice in Indiana. He retired from practicing law in 1881 due to blindness. Personal life Stephen Harding married Avoline Sprout of Chautauqua County, New York, on October 31, 1830. They were the parents of nine children (five sons and four daughters). Harding died on February 12, 1891, at Milan in Ripley County, Indiana, and was buried in the Greendale Cemetery at Greendale, Indiana. Notes References External links The Manuscripts of S.S. Harding, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington Stephen Selwyn Harding, Find A Grave 1808 births 1891 deaths Justices of the Colorado Supreme Court