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Stuart Machine

Corrupt underground political organization[1] in Utah Territory[2] in 1876.[1]

Established by Charles Sanderson Stuart[1] in the early 1860s,[12] the Stuart Machine helped him impose political control over the territory through coercion, subterfuge and violence.[1]

in July[2] of 1876, Stuart was killed and documents incriminating him and the Stuart Machine were given to Judge Somervell. Somervell intended to hush the corruption up to protect the territory in its bid for statehood. But even after Stuart's death, he saw the degree of corruption and violence of which the Stuart Machine was still capable and decided to make the documents pubilc. The notoriety doomed the remnants of Stuart's political empire and cleansed the territory of its corruption, helping to clear the way to eventual statehood.[1]

See: The Thirty-Ninth Star