In September 1890, Wilford Woodruff, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, met with his counselors with a vexing problem. How could they, as prophets and the First Presidency of the Church, prevent their religion from being squashed by the federal government over the practice of plural marriage? They ultimately decided that the Lord had confirmed to them that “the time [had] come…to meet the requirements of the country, to meet the demands that have been made upon us, and to save the people.” When his counselors and apostles vowed to support him, Woodruff called for more than 1000 copies of his Manifesto to be sent “to the President, Cabinet, Senate & House of Reps & other leading Men” in order to end the arrests of polygamists. The Declaration was accepted and sustained by common consent at the next week’s General Conference.
Most Latter-day Saints seem to have approved of the decision. However, some Saints abstained from voting, tacitly rejecting the Manifesto. At least one Latter-day Saint “remained silent,” his arm remaining at his side “like lead,” unable to approve the revelation.[1] Another Mormon man wrote, “Many of the saints seemed stunned and confused and hardly knew how to vote, feeling that if they endorsed it they would be voting against one of the most sacred and important principles of their religion, and yet, as it had been promulgated by the prophet, seer and revelator and the earthly mouthpiece of the Almighty, they felt it must be proper for some reason [or] other…A great many of the sisters wept silently & seemed to feel worse than the brethren.”
In this episode of “Abide: A Maxwell Institute Podcast,” we discuss the origins and implications of the revelation canonized as Official Declaration One, also known popularly as the Woodruff Manifesto.
My name is Joseph Stuart, I’m the public communications specialist at the Maxwell Institute. Janiece Johnson, is a Willes Center Research Associate at the Institute, and we will be discussing each week’s block of reading from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ “Come, Follow Me” curriculum. We aren’t here to present a lesson, but rather to hit on a few key themes from the scripture block that we believe will help fulfill the Maxwell Institute’s mission to inspire and fortify Latter-day Saints in their testimonies of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and engages the world of religious ideas.”

 

 

Joseph Stuart: Hey Janiece, how are you?

 

Janiece Johnson: I am well. So how, how do we get to this place with declaration number one. How did we get to this place in 1890?

 

Joseph Stuart: Well, it’s a long story and we are historians so we are going to start back where it began. Joseph Smith received revelation, inspiration, guidance on plural marriage as early as 1831 according to the Doctrine and Covenants and as he practiced plural marriage and others in Nauvoo––especially in the early 1840s before Joseph Smith’s murder in 1844––Joseph Smith practiced polygamy until his death in June 1844. And importantly as Joseph Smith is assassinated, the way that plural marriage is practiced, changes. While it had always been connected to the temple, very few people had received any of the ordinances associated with the Nauvoo temple, including the endowment and sealing ceremonies. But after Joseph Smith’s assassination, Brigham Young received inspiration that all worthy men and women should receive temple ordinances. And as that came to be, more people also entered into polygamist relationships. Now this was something that wasn’t very popular, it was something that caused a lot of tension within Latter-day Saint communities including at Winter Quarters where there were individuals who were fighting over who could be sealed to who and who would be in relationships with others. You can imagine on a grander scale something like a singles ward, except that so many more people are looking to enter relationships with eternal prospects. Now the Latter-day Saints make their practice of plural marriage known publicly in 1852 when Orson Pratt speaks at a General Conference as directed by Brigham Young. And he gives the basis for two things for why the Latter-day Saints practice plural marriage. The first is because God directed it. This is something that cannot be overstated that the Latter-day Saints practiced plural marriage, because God commanded them to. The second was looking to biblical justification, that patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had practiced plural marriage and it was something that was sound to Latter-day Saints. Now in the Book of Mormon in the book of Jacob it condemns polygamy, but there is a caveat that when the Lord commands it, it is appropriate for others to practice it. This becomes a hot button issue throughout the 1850s in national politics and by 1862, President Abraham Lincoln is signing the moral Anti-Bigamy Act into existence. Now this created land grant universities and it created many opportunities for people to receive land to farm on. But one of its primary designs was to enact an anti-polygamy bill because it was not actually illegal for someone to enter into a polygamist relationship at the federal level until 1862.

 

Janiece Johnson: However, so we’ve got this act in play outlined bigamy, however, there aren’t any federal funds allocated. There are no means whereby to enforce this law, so it begins to be a significant tension point between the Latter-day Saints and the federal government without really a way to go forth.

 

Joseph Stuart: And we have to remember too that the majority of Latter-day Saints lived far away from federal reaches of authority so it wasn’t just funds, it was man-power. It was the power of the state to reach out and require Latter-day Saints to acquiesce to what the state had said. This changes in 1878. The church had floated the supreme court decision with George Reynolds testing the constitutionality of whether or not one could forbid the practice of plural marriage as a religious practice. They argued that under the freedom of religion clause in the U.S. Constitution that they could practice plural marriage. This is something that would likely be supported today by the Supreme Court but it was not at this time and that was 1878.

 

Janiece Johnson: And at that time Charles Devens, who’s the U.S. attorney general, argues that you can have freedom of thought but when that action impinges upon the moral compass of the country as a whole then there is a problem. So, the Latter-day Saints lost that test case, that Supreme Court test case with Reynolds.

 

Joseph Stuart: It’s also important to remember that Utah, where the vast majority of Latter-day Saints live, is still a federal territory which means that the federal government had ultimate leasing control over Latter-day Saints living in those areas. So federal legislation which came in 1882 had a significant effect on the religious and daily lives of Latter-day Saints.

 

Janiece Johnson: And in 1882 we had the Edmond’s Act which declares polygamy a felony. It prohibits both bigamy and UC, which is unlawful cohabitation. So, trying to cover whether you got two wives or you got lots of wives, that is unlawful cohabitation. So, looking at the legal books you see UC all over the place as they are shorthand for these felony accounts against people.

 

Joseph Stuart: And what else I think is funny is that Latter-day Saints who are saying, well all of you political leaders engage in extramarital relationships we just marry the women we are in relationships with which wasn’t the great defense that they probably thought that it was. But it’s something to consider is that Latter-day Saints didn’t just hang their heads down and give up. They continued to be committed to the principle because the president of the church continued to preach that it was necessary, that it was a commandment from God to do so.

 

Janiece Johnson: And for 50 years this had become entrenched within the Latter-day Saints, that polygamy wasn’t only a part but it was essential for exaltation, or a celestial life. When we get to 1889 with the Edmunds-Tucker Act, the federal government claims the right to seize church properties in excess of 50,000 dollars, financially disincorporating the church. And this is the point where something has to change.

 

Joseph Stuart: Right, I’ll also take a quick moment to say that this is something in history written on the history of American religious freedom and on the history of the 1st Amendment that the latter-day saints are at the center of the major of these two stakes. First in 1878 with Reynolds v.

The United States but also, from 1887-1890 with the struggle to keep the church financially incorporated. Now what does that mean? It essentially means does it exist as a legal entity, as a legal church that can hold property, that has authority, that has rights and privileges and responsibilities governed by the Constitution. This is something that will come later on, but it’s important to remember that there is no way of defining what a religion is under the United States Constitution. Today it’s governed by whether or not the IRS, means that it doesn’t have to pay taxes on its income or on its donations. So, in 1890 that doesn’t exist. And over time the church and its lawyers argue that it’s a religious freedom case to which federal leaders will say, no this is actually a morality sort of case this is an are you virtuous enough to be an American citizen sort of thing. They saw the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members’ practice of polygamy as an existential threat to the existence of the United States and over time, the church eventually realizes that with the laws that are in place and with the interpretation of the Constitution at the time, they are not going to win a court case that declares the Edmunds–Tucker Act with its stringent financial penalties to be unconstitutional.

 

Janiece Johnson: During this time the church sacrificed much to uphold this belief, believing that this was ordained of God. George Q. Cannon is at the center of the church’s efforts to live the law of plural marriage. Cannon was a faithful member of the church. He served as a missionary in Hawaii in the 1950s. He and a native Hawaiian, Jonathan Napela, were central in translating the Book of Mormon into Hawaiian. By the time that we get to this period that we are talking about today, he is a member of the First Presidency. He has been jailed at the federal penitentiary at Sugarhouse where you see unlawful cohabitation. We have those iconic pictures with George Q. Cannon in the middle of all these Latter-day Saint men in stripes. And he has been on the run himself with other members of the First Presidency and he has also sacrificed much to uphold this. And he sees President Woodruff in the months and years that lead up to 1890. He has heard him speak with other church leaders asking about how they are supposed to uphold God’s law and the land. These tensions pull to a breaking point.

 

Joseph Stuart: And in September of 1890, President Wilford Woodruff is meeting with leaders in government and with banks and with lawyers and he is just at a loss of what to do and he records in his diary on September 24th, 1890, that “the time had come to save the people.” And this is something that I find particularly moving, because it could not have been an easy decision to say that or even to consider it. And December 1889, President Woodruff and his counselors had sent out a circular letter, the same sort of letter that might be read over the pulpit in a Latter-day Saint congregation today asking Latter-day Saints to fast and pray that they might be delivered from the federal pressure. And I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for President Woodruff to have recognized, we fasted and prayed for an answer and it’s not the answer that we expected or frankly, that they wanted. But nonetheless, knowing that it was revelation that came from the Lord, this is something that comes through too when President Woodruff and his counselors George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith, “remember the F”, meet with apostles and prophets of the 70. And those men there are in tears. One says that “I would have rather died, rather than to change my position or the church’s position on this but I know that this came from the President of the church and it has been confirmed to me by the Holy Ghost that this is the course to take.” And I think that many of us can look back on times in our lives that we have received revelation that we haven’t necessarily wanted to do because it asked us to do something incredibly difficult and incredibly painful or both but this is what happens: when the Lord gives direction, we need to follow it and trust him enough to do it.

 

Janiece Johnson: They were prepared to go to great measures, even greater measures than had already been taken. They were prepared to go to Canada or go to Mexico or do what was necessary if the Lord’s word was that this needed to continue. But the Lord’s word came differently and that relief came differently. I think it’s striking that in section 132 verse 50, “I make a way for your escape”. I think we see the fulfillment of that here and I’m pretty sure it’s not what they anticipated. And in most instances it’s not. The Manifesto is announced publicly––it’s published in the newspaper––two weeks prior to conference, and then at conference Wilford Woodruff asks his counselor, George Q. Cannon to get up and to present it before the church. And this is a man who has sacrificed much to uphold plural marriage and this belief in plural marriage. This is the day, and it’s not completely unheard of that he would be asked on the spot to speak, this is the day of church leaders getting up extemporaneously and speaking, not an assignment with months to prepare and to plan. But Wilford Woodruff asks him to speak and he gets up and he is completely blank. His brain is blank, but he remembers back to the conversation in the fall of 1889 when Wilford Woodruff met with the stake presidency and he quoted section 105 to the stake president where the Lord said regarding the Saints in Jackson County after the expulsion from Jackson County that the Lord had accepted their offering. And he thought of that and these words, oh excuse me, it was 124, verse 49. So his blank mind is filled with this scripture: “When I’ve given a commandment to any of the sons of men to do a work in my name, and those sons of men then go with all their might and do all that they have to perform that work, and their enemies come upon them and hinder them from performing that work, behold, it behooveth me to require that work no more at the sons of men but to accept their offerings.” George Q. Cannon says, “I did get great freedom and spoke with ease, and all fear was taken away.” And I think that’s a really remarkable moment completing that testimony for him, but as he looks out, there are people who are crying in the audience. There are people that don’t know what to do. They had a couple weeks, but it still hasn’t completely settled on them that they are taking such a significant change in direction.

 

Joseph Stuart: In 2012, there was survey done that showed that Latter-day Saints of any mainstream religious group in the United States disapproved of polygamy or polygamist relationships more than any other. And I think about my great, great grandfather who lived through the first Manifesto and he had two wives. It’s just remarkable to me to think about how much faith it would have taken, not only for President Cannon to say the words that came into his mind, but also to think about those in the audience who weren’t completely sure what it meant that they were being asked to no longer enter into polygamist relationships. Because in the statement, it reads like a legal statement because frankly, it is a legal statement, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have religious value, but it does mean it was presented in a way to get federal authority off as it came to change in practice. But there was no firm direction given about what would happen to families who were affected by this and I can only imagine taking that step into the known. One of my favorite folks in Latter-day Saint history, her name is Lorena Eugenia Washburn Larsen and she was on the run when the Manifesto came out. They were camping out in Colorado, her and her husband, and her husband comes into her tent and tells her the news of the Manifesto and she tells him to leave and she sobs. He asked, “well what’s wrong?” Which was probably the dumbest thing that he could’ve asked at the time. I think he should have known perfectly well what was wrong. She said, “oh this will be all fine for you. You will live with your first wife and I will have to go away like Hagar. And she talks about this darkness that overcame her. And eventually, that night, she receives a spiritual confirmation that the Manifesto was the word of God. But we cannot underestimate the impact that revelation has on people, especially when they are not expecting it or requires great sacrifice. I think that it is one thing for Latter-day Saints to make jokes about polygamy or to have to put up with jokes about how all Mormons are polygamists or things like that but it’s quite another to think about Lorina Larsen and others who lived through the fallout of Official Declaration 1.

 

Janiece Johnson: And we get a variety of responses. Women always bore weight. Zina D. H. Young, then a General Relief Society President of two prophets wrote, “Today the hearts of all were tried but looked to God and submitted.”  And then some celebrated. Annie Clark Tanner said it was a great relief to be over. But I think that we can’t forget about those who felt that dense darkness and worry about what this meant. One of my ancestors who died prior to the Manifesto would have felt similarly. She was a second wife stuck out in Tooele trying to scrape by and to have the prospect of no one help from her husband would not be great.

 

Joseph Stuart: We should also go on to say President Woodruff eventually says very firmly “you are not to abandon your families.” Especially speaking to men, he says, “I did not, could not, and would not promise that you, meaning men, would desert your wives and children. This you cannot do in honor.” And I am very grateful that he said that but also wish that it could have been a part of the first Manifesto so that there was clear direction from the beginning. I think that would have saved a lot of heartbreak. Something else to think about to is that we started the podcast episode thinking about Joseph Smith’s practice of polygamy in the 1840s and it ends in 1890. This is a very long process. We will also say that this revelation, it so often comes as a process of many years. Thinking about Wilford Woodruff speaking not only to his counselors but also wise people of many different backgrounds, people whose advice he sought and implemented because he trusted that the Lord would inspire him through those that he was speaking to. And I think that it’s crucial for us to remember that the revelation we receive often depends on the people we are talking to, not just the things we are reading, not just the temple sessions we are attending, but that God often answers our prayers through the thoughts and actions of other people.

 

Janiece Johnson: And this has been so deeply ingrained within the Saints that they are not going to stop quickly. They are not going to turn on a dime. It is going to take time. The end of the introduction, I would note that both of the introduction to Official Declaration 1 and 2, are relatively new. They are both written for the 2013 edition of the scriptures. But the last line of the introduction of Official Declaration 1 reminds us this led to the end of the practice of plural marriage in the church. This was not the church stopping on a dime. This took years!

 

Joseph Stuart: Yeah, so this is something that I’ve discussed with others that it took about fifteen years for plural marriage to become accepted widely in the Latter-day Saint communities; it is not just accepted intellectually but also practiced that way. It also took about fifteen years for it to stop. So roughly 1840-1855 is about how long it took for it to become accepted in Latter-day Saint communities and then 1890-1905 is roughly how long it took for it to be an accepted practice within the church. And so, this is also something that I would implore others to give grace to those who are learning new things. Whether they are new investigators or having a hard time thinking about coffee or attending two hours of church on Sunday. Sometimes things take time, but that the Lord promises blessings when they are accomplished and help along the way until it is accomplished.

 

Janiece Johnson: The Lord is patient with us. And I think we also see this process along with the Official Declaration itself, we also have excerpts from speeches that Wilford Woodruff gave at the time. And I think those are useful for us to think about Wilford Woodruff’s process and how he is going to lead such a significant change. For 50 years they had understood this as essential to their salvation and exaltation. And that is going to be a significant change. They are going to have to retool and rethink their whole concept of salvation. In those excerpts, we have from President Woodruff saying, “I say to Israel, the Lord will never permit me nor any other man who stands as the president of this church to lead you astray. It is not in his program.” Now, some use this to infer that prophet can’t do wrong, that prophets are infallible. But I think this context here is essential. He is saying we’ve thought about the role of plural marriage in our salvation and exaltation one way for 50 years, and I am telling you, perhaps opening the way that maybe we misunderstood, maybe this isn’t essential. Maybe this thing of eternal marriage is the more important thing and maintaining the temples and the places where we perform these sealings is the more important thing. And I think that context is essential to think about that. He is asking them to rethink and reprocess their whole theological understanding of God and relationships. And that’s going to be hard. That is not going to be easy, even for those who I suspect for whom this was a great relief.

 

Joseph Stuart: I think that’s the perfect place to end our episode today. I hope you have a blessed week y’all. Thanks.

 

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