Proclamations setting the time and dates of special elections and correspondence interpreting election laws are the chief documentation of this function. Official appointments are primarily those to the offices of Commissioner of Deeds for Utah in other states and to Notary Publics in the different counties of the territory. Since most territorial officers, including local officials, were elected and not directly appointed by the Governor, a record of their commissions is not usually found in this series. Regulation of the court system by the Governor is shown through proclamations setting the dates when court terms were to begin. Terms of the district judges and their assignments to specific districts were also set by proclamation.
Some correspondence regarding administration of the courts is included.
The process of granting pardons to criminals is the most fully documented of the Governor's functions and accounts for a large number of the documents in the series. In addition to a copy of the actual pardon, there are petitions asking for the pardon of individual criminals and correspondence about individual cases. Copies of court documents for specific cases are sometimes included. Applications for amnesty, and copies of amnesty oaths start appearing with great frequency after the passage of the Edmunds Act in 1882. Extradition of criminals is documented primarily through correspondence between the territorial governor and the governors of other states.