 As published in the October 15, 1890 edition of theWoman's Exponent | |
| Book | Doctrine and Covenants |
|---|---|
| Category | Official declaration |
The1890 Manifesto (also known as theWoodruff Manifesto, theAnti-polygamy Manifesto, or simply "the Manifesto") is a statement which officially advised against any futureplural marriage inthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Issued byChurch PresidentWilford Woodruff in September 1890, the Manifesto was a response to mounting anti-polygamy pressure from theUnited States Congress, which by 1890 had disincorporated the church,escheated its assets to theU.S. federal government, and imprisoned many prominentpolygamist Mormons. Upon its issuance, the LDS Church in conference accepted Woodruff's Manifesto as "authoritative and binding."
The Manifesto was a dramatic turning point in thehistory of the LDS Church. It advised church members against entering into any marriage prohibited by the law of the land,[1] and made it easier forUtah to become aU.S. state. Nevertheless, even after the Manifesto, the church quietly continued to perform a small number of plural marriages in the United States, Mexico, and Canada,[2][3] thus necessitating aSecond Manifesto duringU.S. congressional hearings in 1904. Though neither Manifesto dissolved existing plural marriages, plural marriage in the LDS Church gradually died by attrition during the early-to-mid 20th century. The Manifesto was canonized in the LDS Churchstandard works asOfficial Declaration 1[4][5] and is considered by mainstreamMormons to have been prompted by divine revelation (although not a revelation itself), in which Woodruff was shown that the church would be thrown into turmoil if they did not comply with it.[6] SomeMormon fundamentalists rejected the manifesto.[7]
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The Manifesto was issued in response to the anti-polygamy policies of thefederal government of the United States, and most especially theEdmunds–Tucker Act of 1887. This law disincorporated the LDS Church and authorized the federal government to seize all of the church's assets. TheU.S. Supreme Court upheld the provisions of the Edmunds–Tucker Act inLate Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. United States in May 1890.[8]
In April 1889, Woodruff, the president of the church, began privately refusing the permission that was required to contract new plural marriages.[9] In October 1889, Woodruff publicly admitted that he was no longer approving new polygamous marriages, and in answer to a reporter's question of what the LDS Church's attitude was toward the law against polygamy, Woodruff stated, "We mean to obey it. We have no thought of evading it or ignoring it."[10] Because it had been Mormon practice for over 25 years to either evade or ignore anti-polygamy laws, Woodruff's statement was a signal that a change in church policy was developing.[11]
In February 1890, the Supreme Court ruled inDavis v. Beason[12] that a law inIdaho Territory which disenfranchised individuals who practiced or believed in plural marriage was constitutional.[13] That decision left the Mormons no further legal recourse to their current marriage practices[14] and made it unlikely that without changeUtah Territory would be granted statehood.[citation needed]
Woodruff later said that on the night of September 23, 1890, he received arevelation fromJesus Christ that the church should cease the practice of plural marriage.[15] The following morning, he reported this to some of thegeneral authorities and placed the hand-written draft on a table.George Reynolds would later recount that he,Charles W. Penrose, andJohn R. Winder modified Woodruff's draft into the current language accepted by the general authorities and presented to the church as a whole.[16] Woodruff announced the Manifesto on September 25 by publishing it in the church-ownedDeseret Weekly inSalt Lake City.[17] On October 6, 1890, it was formallyaccepted by the church membership, though many held reservations or abstained from voting.[2][18][19]
Utah ratifiedits constitution in November 1895 and was granted statehood on January 4, 1896.[20] One of the conditions for granting Utah statehood was that a ban on polygamy be written into its state constitution.[21][22]
The Manifesto states:
To Whom It May Concern:
Press dispatches having been sent for political purposes, from Salt Lake City, which have been widely published, to the effect that the Utah Commission, in their recent report to the Secretary of the Interior, allege that plural marriages have been contracted in Utah since last June or during the past year, also that in public discourses the leaders of the Church have taught, encouraged and urged the continuance of the practice of polygamy—
I, therefore, as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, do hereby, in the most solemn manner, declare that these charges are false. We are not teaching polygamy or plural marriage, nor permitting any person to enter into its practice, and I deny that either forty or any other number of plural marriages have during that period been solemnized in our Temples or in any other place in the Territory.
One case has been reported, in which the parties allege that the marriage was performed in theEndowment House, in Salt Lake City, in the Spring of 1889, but I have not been able to learn who performed the ceremony; whatever was done in this matter was without my knowledge. In consequence of this alleged occurrence the Endowment House was, by my instructions, taken down without delay.
Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress forbidding plural marriages, which laws have been pronounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I hearby declare my intention to submit to those laws, to use my influence with the members of the Church over which I preside to have them do likewise.
There is nothing in my teachings to the Church or in those of my associates, during the time specified, which can be reasonably construed to inculcate or encourage polygamy; and when any Elder of the Church has used language which appeared to convey such teaching, he has been promptly reproved. And I now publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land.
Wilford Woodruff [signed]
President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[23]
Less than a month after the Manifesto was issued, the LDS Church used the procedure ofcommon consent to make it binding upon church members. At ageneral conference of the church in Salt Lake City on October 6, 1890, the Manifesto was read, after whichLorenzo Snow, thepresident of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, made the following motion:
I move that, recognizing Wilford Woodruff as the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the only man on the earth at the present time who holds the keys of the sealing ordinances, we consider him fully authorized by virtue of his position to issue the Manifesto which has been read in our hearing, and which is dated September 1890, and that as a Church in General Conference assembled, we accept his declaration concerning plural marriages as authoritative and binding.[23]
The conference proceedings recorded that "the vote to sustain the foregoing motion was unanimous."[23] However, a modern author reports that "at least some voted against the Manifesto and perhaps a majority abstained."[19] Some members, includingapostleMoses Thatcher, only reluctantly supported the Manifesto and interpreted it as a sign that theSecond Coming of Jesus was imminent, after which plural marriage would be reinstated.[19]
The Manifesto was the end of official church authorization for the creation of new plural marriages that violated local laws. It had no effect on the status of already existing plural marriages, and plural marriages continued to be performed in locations where it was believed to be legal. As Woodruff explained at the general conference where the Manifesto was accepted by the church, "[t]his Manifesto only refers to future marriages, and does not affect past conditions. I did not, I could not, and would not promise that you would desert your wives and children. This you cannot do in honor."[24] Despite Woodruff's explanation, some church leaders and members who were polygamous did begin to live with only one wife.[25] However, the majority of Mormon polygamists continued to cohabit with their plural wives in violation of theEdmunds Act.[26]
Within six years of the announcement of the Manifesto, Utah had become astate and federal prosecution of Mormon polygamists subsided. However, Congress still refused to seat representatives-elect who were polygamists, includingB. H. Roberts.[27]
D. Michael Quinn and other Mormon historians have documented that some churchapostles covertly sanctioned plural marriages after the Manifesto. This practice was especially prevalent inMexico andCanada because of an erroneous belief that such marriages were legal in those jurisdictions.[28] However, a significant minority were performed in Utah and other western American states and territories. The estimates of the number of post-Manifesto plural marriages performed range from scores to thousands, with the actual figure probably close to 250.[29] Today, the LDS Church officially acknowledges that although the Manifesto "officially ceased" the practice of plural marriage in the church, "the ending of the practice after the Manifesto was ... gradual."[30][2]
Rumors of post-Manifesto marriages surfaced and began to be examined by Congress in theReed Smoot hearings. In response, church presidentJoseph F. Smith issued a "Second Manifesto" in 1904 which reaffirmed the church's opposition to the creation of new plural marriages and threatened excommunication for Latter-day Saints who continued to enter into or solemnize new plural marriages.ApostlesJohn W. Taylor andMatthias F. Cowley both resigned from theQuorum of the Twelve Apostles due to disagreement with the church's position on plural marriage.[31] Plural marriage in violation of local law continues to be grounds forexcommunication from the LDS Church.[32]
The cessation of plural marriage within LDS Church gave rise to theMormon fundamentalist movement.[7]
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The Manifesto has been canonized by the LDS Church, and its text appears in theDoctrine and Covenants, one of the church's books ofscripture. However, when the Manifesto was issued, it was not apparent that Woodruff or the other leaders of the LDS Church viewed it as the result of a divine revelation.[33]
Approximately one year after he declared the Manifesto, Woodruff began to claim that he had received instructions from Jesus Christ that formed the basis of what he wrote in the text of the Manifesto.[15] These instructions were reportedly accompanied by avision of what would occur if the Manifesto were not issued.[15]
Following Woodruff's death in 1898, other church leaders began to teach that the Manifesto was the result of arevelation of God.[34] Since that time, church leaders have consistently taught that the Manifesto was inspired of God.[35][36][37] In 1908, the Manifesto was printed in the LDS Church's Doctrine and Covenants for the first time,[38] and it has been included in every edition since. A non-Mormon observer of the church has stated that "[t]here is no question that, from a doctrinal standpoint, President Woodruff's Manifesto now has comparable status with [Joseph Smith's] revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants."[39] Similarly, another writer has stated bluntly that "contemporary Latter-day Saints regard the Manifesto as a revelation."[38] The Manifesto is currently published as "Official Declaration 1" in the Doctrine and Covenants.[40]
The Manifesto ... affirmed the church president's intention to influence fellow members to obey the law of the land.
The ledger of 'marriages and sealings performed outside the temple,' which is not comprehensive, lists 315 marriages performed between October 17, 1890, and September 8, 1903. Of the 315 marriages recorded in the ledger, research indicates that 25 (7.9%) were plural marriages and 290 were monogamous marriages (92.1%). Almost all the monogamous marriages recorded were performed in Arizona or Mexico. Of the 25 plural marriages, 18 took place in Mexico, 3 in Arizona, 2 in Utah, and 1 each in Colorado and on a boat on the Pacific Ocean.
After years of determined resistance to governmental pressure to end [polygamy], including test cases in the federal courts, hopes waned of receiving a favorable outcome. The most crucial development was theDavis v. Beason decision in 1890 ... .
