sentences:  In 1867, he ran for Secretary of State of New York on the Republican ticket, but was defeated by Democrat Homer Augustus Nelson.He was appointed Chief Justice of the Superior Court of the Utah Territory by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1870 and served until 1875.In Utah history, McKean is famous for intensifying the federal government's efforts to abolish polygamy, which some members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints practiced as a religious doctrine until 1890.