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Revision as of 10:17, 7 January 2005 by Cool Hand Luke (talk | contribs) (copy edit)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The 1890 Manifesto, sometimes simply called The Manifesto, was a historical statement which officially renounced the practice of polygamy in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS Church; see also "Mormon"). Signed on by LDS President Wilford Woodruff in September of 1890, the Manifesto was a dramatic turning point in LDS Church history.
The Manifesto applied non-retroactively. Therefore, Latter-day Saints already polygamously married were "grandfathered in," but the Church was to officially sanction no further polygamist marriages.
The Manifesto was written in response to the anti-polygamy policies of the US Federal Government, and most especially the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887. This law disincorporated the LDS Church and allowed the federal government to freeze all of its assets. The US Supreme Court upheld property seizure in The Late Corporation of the Mormon Church v. United States on May 19, 1890. By September, federal officials were preparing to seize the LDS temples and US Congress had debated whether to extend the 1882 Edmunds Act so that all Mormons would be disenfranchised, not just the polygamists.
Through the month of September Wilford Woodruff spoke to Latter-day Saint congregations in Utah and California about the utility of abandoning the practice. The night of September 23 is when Woodruff claimed he received revelation that the LDS Church should abandon practice of polygamy. Woodruff announced the Manifesto on September 25 and acted quickly to publish it in the Deseret News, even though eight members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were outside of Salt Lake City at the time. During the 60th semi-annual LDS General Conference on October 6, 1890, the Manifesto was formally sustained by church membership.
Within six years of the announcement, Utah became a state and anti-Mormon federal persecution subsided. However, Congress still refused to seat later polygamist representatives-elect.
LDS historian D. Michael Quinn has interpreted the Manifest's timing as not just politically expedient, but also necessary because several LDS Apostles opposed the change even in the face of impending calamity for the LDS Church. Quinn also documents that some Apostles covertly sanctioned scores of additional polygamist marriages. This practice was especially prevalent in Mexico and Canada because of an erroneous belief that polygamy was legal in these places. Rumors of post-Manifesto marriages surfaced, causing LDS President Joseph F. Smith to issue a "Second Manifesto" in 1904. This Manifesto threatened excommunication for Latter-day Saints who continued to support polygamy. Apostles John W. Taylor and Matthias F. Cowley were each excommunicated for "disharmony" in 1906, and polygamy continues to be an excommunicable offense in the LDS Church.
The expulsion of polygamists from the LDS Church gave rise to groups like the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who do not regard the 1890 Manifesto as true revelation.
Reference
- Quinn, D. Michael (1997). The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-060-4
External links
- The Manifesto of 1890 — article from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism
- Plural Marriages After The 1890 Manifesto — essay by Quinn