The Story of the Mormons:

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* Speeches against the bill were made in the Senate by Brown,
Call, Lamar, Morgan, Pendleton, and Vest.

It provided, in brief, that, in the territories, any person who,
having a husband or wife living, marries another, or marries
more than one woman on the same day, shall be punished by a fine
of not more than $500, and by imprisonment, for not more than
five years; that a male person cohabiting with more than one
woman shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and be subject to a fine
of not more than $300 or to six months' imprisonment, or both;
that in any prosecution for bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful
cohabitation, a juror may be challenged if he is or has been
living in the practice of either offence, or if he believes it
right for a man to have more than one living and undivorced wife
at a time, or to cohabit with more than one woman; that the
President may have power to grant amnesty to offenders, as
described, before the passage of this act; that the issue of
so-called Mormon marriages born before January 1, 1883, be
legitimated; that no polygamist shall be entitled to vote in any
territory, or to hold office under the United States; that the
President shall appoint in Utah a board of five persons for the
registry of voters, and the reception and counting of votes.

To meet the determined opposition to the new law, an amendment
(known as the Edmunds-Tucker law) was enacted in 1887. This law,
in any prosecution coming under the definition of plural
marriages, waived the process of subpoena, on affadavit of
sufficient cause, in favor of an attachment; allowed a lawful
husband or wife to testify regarding each other; required every
marriage certificate in Utah to be signed by the parties and the
person performing the ceremony, and filed in court; abolished
female suffrage, and gave suffrage only to males of proper age
who registered and took an oath, giving the names of their
lawful wives, and promised to obey the laws of the United States,
and especially the Edmunds law; disqualified as a juror or
officeholder any person who had not taken an oath to support the
laws of the United States, or who had been convicted under the
Edmunds law; gave the President power to appoint the judges of
the probate courts;* provided for escheating to the United States
for the use of the common schools the property of corporations
held in violation of the act in 1862, except buildings held
exclusively for the worship of God, the parsonages connected
therewith, and burial places; dissolved the corporation called
the Perpetual Emigration Company, and forbade the legislature to
pass any law to bring persons into the territory; dissolved the
corporation known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints, and gave the Supreme Court of the territory power to
wind up its affairs; and annulled all laws regarding the Nauvoo
Legion, and all acts of the territorial legislature.

* The first territorial legislature which met after the passage
of this law passed an act practically nullifying such
appointments of probate judges, but the governor vetoed it. In
Beaver County, as soon as the appointment of a probate judge by
the President was announced, the Mormon County Court met and
reduced his salary to $5 a year.

The first members of the Utah commission appointed under the
Edmunds law were Alexander Ramsey of Minnesota, A. B. Carleton
of Indiana, A. S. Paddock of Nebraska, G. L. Godfrey of Iowa,
and J. R. Pettigrew of Arkansas, their appointments being dated
June 23, 1882.

The officers of the church and the Mormons as a body met the new
situation as aggressively as did Brigham Young the approach of
United States troops. Their preachers and their newspapers
reiterated the divine nature of the "revelation" concerning
polygamy and its obligatory character, urging the people to stand
by their leaders in opposition to the new laws. The following
extracts from "an Epistle from the First Presidency, to the
officers and members of the church," dated October 6, 1885, will
sufficiently illustrate the attitude of the church
organization:--"The war is openly and undisguisedly made upon our
religion. To induce men to repudiate that, to violate its
precepts, and break its solemn covenants, every encouragement is
given. The man who agrees to discard his wife or wives, and to
trample upon the most sacred obligations which human beings can
enter into, escapes imprisonment, and is applauded: while the
man who will not make this compact of dishonor, who will not
admit that his past life has been a fraud and a lie, who will
not say to the world, 'I intended to deceive my God, my
brethren, and my wives by making covenants I did not expect to
keep,' is, beside being punished to the full extent of the law,
compelled to endure the reproaches, taunts, and insults of a
brutal judge . . . .

"We did not reveal celestial marriage. We cannot withdraw or
renounce it, God revealed it, and he has promised to maintain it
and to bless those who obey it. Whatever fate, then, may
threaten us, there is but one course for men of God to take;
that is, to keep inviolate the holy covenants they have made in
the presence of God and angels. For the remainder, whether it be
life or death, freedom or imprisonment, prosperity or adversity,
we must trust in God. We may say, however, if any man or woman
expects to enter into the celestial kingdom of our God without
making sacrifices and without being tested to the very
uttermost, they have not understood the Gospel . . . .

"Upward of forty years ago the Lord revealed to his church the
principle of celestial marriage. The idea of marrying more wives
than one was as naturally abhorrent to the leading men and women
of the church, at that day, as it could be to any people. They
shrank with dread from the bare thought of entering into such
relationship. But the command of God was before them in language
which no faithful soul dare disobey, 'For, behold, I reveal unto
you a new and everlasting covenant; and if ye abide not that
covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this
covenant, and be permitted to enter into my glory.' . . . Who
would suppose that any man, in this land of religious liberty,
would presume to say to his fellow-man that he had no right to
take such steps as he thought necessary to escape damnation? Or
that Congress would enact a law which would present the
alternative to religious believers of being consigned to a
penitentiary if they should attempt to obey a law of God which
would deliver them from damnation?"

There was a characteristic effort to evade the law as regards
political rights. The People's Party (Mormon), to get around the
provision concerning the test oath for voters, issued an address
to them which said: "The questions that intending voters need
therefore ask themselves are these: Are we guilty of the crimes
of said act; or have we THE PRESENT INTENTION of committing these
crimes, or of aiding, abetting, causing or advising any other
person to commit them. Male citizens who can answer these
questions in the negative can qualify under the laws as voters
or office-holders."

Two events in 1885 were the cause of so much feeling that United
States troops were held in readiness for transportation to Utah.
The first of these was the placing of the United States flag at
half mast in Salt Lake City, on July 4, over the city hall,
county court-house, theatre, cooperative store, Deseret News
office, tithing office, and President Taylor's residence, to show
the Mormon opinion that the Edmunds law had destroyed liberty.
When a committee of non-Mormon citizens called at the city hall
for an explanation of this display, the city marshal said that
it was "a whim of his," and the mayor ordered the flag raised to
its proper place.

In November of that year a Mormon night watchman named McMurrin
was shot and severely wounded by a United States deputy marshal
named Collin. This caused great feeling, and there were rumors
that the Mormons threatened to lynch Collin, that armed men had
assembled to take him out of the officers' hands, and that the
Mormons of the territory were arming themselves, and were ready
at a moment's notice to march into Salt Lake City. Federal troops
were held in readiness at Eastern points, but they were not
used. The Salt Lake City Council, on December 8, made a report
denying the truth of the disquieting rumors, and declaring that
"at no time in the history of this city have the lives and
property of its non-Mormon inhabitants been more secure than
now."

The records of the courts in Utah show that the Mormons stood
ready to obey the teachings of the church at any cost.
Prosecutions under the Edmunds law began in 1884, and the
convictions for polygamy or unlawful cohabitation (mostly the
latter) were as follows in the years named: 3 in 1884, 39 in
1885, 112 in 1886, 214 in 1887, and 100 in 1888, with 48 in
Idaho during the same period. Leading men in the church went
into hiding--"under ground," as it was called--or fled from the
territory. As to the actual continuance of polygamous marriages,
the evidence was contradictory. A special report of the Utah
Commission in 1884 expressed the opinion that there had been a
decided decrease in their number in the cities, and very little
decrease in the rural districts. Their regular report for that
year estimated the number of males and females who had entered
into that relation at 459. The report for 1888 stated that the
registration officers gave the names of 29 females who, they had
good reason to believe, had contracted polygamous marriages
since the lists were closed in June, 1887. As late as 1889 Hans
Jespersen was arrested for unlawful cohabitation. As his plural
marriage was understood to be a recent one, the case attracted
wide attention, since it was expected to prove the insincerity
of the church in making the protest against the Edmunds law
principally on the ground that it broke up existing families.
Jespersen pleaded guilty of adultery and polygamy, and was
sentenced to imprisonment for eight years. In making his plea he
said that he was married at the Endowment House in Salt Lake
City, that he and his wife were the only persons there, and that
he did not know who married them. His wife testified that she
"heard a voice pronounce them man and wife, but didn't see any
one nor who spoke." * Such were some of the methods adopted by
the church to set at naught the law.

* Report of the Utah Commission for 1890, p. 23.

But along with this firm attitude, influences were at work
looking to a change of policy. During the first year of the
enforcement of the law it was on many sides declared a failure,
the aggressive attitude of the church, and the willingness of
its leaders to accept imprisonment, hiding, or exile, being
regarded by many persons in the East as proof that the real
remedy for the Utah situation was yet to be discovered. The Utah
Commission, in their earlier reports, combated this idea, and
pointed out that the young men in the church would grow restive
as they saw all the offices out of their reach unless they took
the test oath, and that they "would present an anomaly in human
nature if they should fail to be strongly influenced against
going into a relation which thus subjects them to political
ostracism, and fixes on them the stigma of moral turpitude." How
wide this influence was is seen in the political statistics of
the times. When the Utah Commission entered on their duties in
August, 1882, almost every office in the territory was held by a
polygamist. By April, 1884, about 12,000 voters, male and
female, had been disfranchised by the act, and of the 1351
elective officers in the territory not one was a polygamist, and
not one of the municipal officers of Salt Lake City then in
office had ever been "in polygamy."

The church leaders at first tried to meet this influence in two
ways, by open rebuke of all Saints who showed a disposition to
obey the new laws, and by special honors to those who took their
punishment. Thus, the Deseret News told the brethren that they
could not promise to obey the anti-polygamy laws without
violating obligations that bound them to time and eternity; and
when John Sharp, a leading member of the church in Salt Lake
City, went before the court and announced his intention to obey
these laws, he was instantly removed from the office of Bishop
of his ward.

The restlessness of the flock showed itself in the breaking down
of the business barriers set up by the church between Mormons
and Gentiles. This subject received a good deal of attention in
the minority report signed by two of the commissioners in 1888.
They noted the sale of real estate by Mormons to Gentiles
against the remonstrances of the church, the organization of a
Chamber of Commerce in Salt Lake City in which Mormons and
Gentiles worked together, and the union of both elements in the
last Fourth of July celebration.

In the spring of 1890, at the General Conference held in Salt
Lake City, the office of "Prophet, Seer and Revelator and
President" of the church, that had remained vacant since the
death of John Taylor in 1887, was filled by the election of
Wilford Woodruff, a polygamist who had refused to take the test
oath, while G. Q. Cannon and Lorenzo Snow, who were disfranchised
for the same cause, were made respectively counsellor and
president of the Twelve.* Woodruff was born in Connecticut in
1807, became a Mormon in 1832, was several times sent on
missions to England, and had gained so much prominence while the
church was at Nauvoo that he was the chief dedicator of the
Temple there. While there, he signed a certificate stating that
he knew of no other system of marriage in the church but the
one-wife system then prescribed in the "Book of Doctrine and
Covenants." Before the date of his promotion, Woodruff had
declared that plural marriages were no longer permitted, and,
when he was confronted with evidence to the contrary brought out
in court, he denied all knowledge of it, and afterward declared
that, in consequence of the evidence presented, he had ordered
the Endowment House to be taken down.

* Lorenzo Snow was elected president of the church on September
13, 1898, eleven days after the death of President Woodruff, and
he held that position until his death which occurred on October
10, 1901.

Governor Thomas, in his report for 1890, expressed the opinion
that the church, under its system, could in only one way define
its position regarding polygamy, and that was by a public
declaration by the head of the church, or by action by a
conference, and he added, "There is no reason to believe that any
earthly power can extort from the church any such declaration."
The governor was mistaken, not in measuring the purpose of the
church, but in foreseeing all the influences that were now
making themselves felt.

The revised statutes of Idaho at this time contained a provision
(Sec. 509) disfranchising all polygamists and debarring from
office all polygamists, and all persons who counselled or
encouraged any one to commit polygamy. The constitutionality of
this section was argued before the United States Supreme Court,
which, on February 3, 1890, decided that it was constitutional.
The antipolygamists in Utah saw in this decision a means of
attacking the Mormon belief even more aggressively than had been
done by means of the Edmunds Bill. An act was drawn (Governor
Thomas and ex-Governor West taking it to Washington) providing
that no person living in plural or celestial marriage, or
teaching the same, or being a member of, or a contributor to,
any organization teaching it, or assisting in such a marriage,
should be entitled to vote, to serve as a juror, or to hold
office, a test oath forming a part of the act. Senator Cullom
introduced this bill in the upper House and Mr. Struble of Iowa
in the House of Representatives. The House Committee on
Territories (the Democrats in the negative) voted to report the
bill, amended so as to make it applicable to all the
territories. This proposed legislation caused great excitement in
Mormondom, and petitions against its passage were hurried to
Washington, some of these containing non-Mormon signatures.

As a further menace to the position of the church, the United
States Supreme Court, on May 19, affirmed the decision of the
lower court confiscating the property of the Mormon church, and
declaring that church organization to be an organized rebellion;
and on June 21, the Senate passed Senator Edmunds's bill
disposing of the real estate of the church for the benefit of the
school fund.*

* After the admission of Utah as a state, Congress passed an act
restoring the property to the church.

The Mormon authorities now realized that the public sentiment of
the country, as expressed in the federal law, had them in its
grasp. They must make some concession to this public sentiment,
or surrender all their privileges as citizens and the wealth of
their church organization. Agents were hurried to Washington to
implore the aid of Mr. Blaine in checking the progress of the
Cullom Bill, and at home the head of the church made the
concession in regard to polygamy which secured the admission of
the territory as a state.

On September 25, 1890, Woodruff, as President of the church,
issued a proclamation addressed "to whom it may concern," which
struck out of the NECESSARY beliefs and practices of the Mormon
church, the practice of polygamy.

This important step was taken, not in the form of a "revelation,"
but simply as a proclamation or manifesto. It began with a
solemn declaration that the allegation of the Utah Commission
that plural marriages were still being solemnized was false, and
the assertion that "we are not preaching polygamy nor permitting
any person to enter into its practice." The closing and important

part of the proclamation was as follows:--

"Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress, which laws have
been pronounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I
hereby declare my intention to submit to these laws, and 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 any such teachings he has been promptly reproved.

"And now I publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-Day
Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by
the law of the land."

On October 6, the General Conference of the church, on motion of
Lorenzo Snow, unanimously adopted the following resolution:--

"I move that, recognizing Wilford Woodruff as 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 that has been read in our
hearing, and which is dated September 24, 1890, and as a church
in general conference assembled we accept his declaration
concerning plural marriages as authoritative and binding."

This action was reaffirmed by the General Conference of October
6, 1891.

Of course the church officers had to make some explanation to the
brethren of their change of front. Cannon fell back on the
"revelation" of January 19, 1841, which Smith put forth to
excuse the failure to establish a Zion in Missouri, namely,
that, when their enemies prevent their performing a task assigned
by the Almighty, he would accept their effort to do so. He said
that "it was on this basis" that President Woodruff had felt
justified in issuing the manifesto. Woodruff explained: "It is
not wisdom for us to make war upon 65,000,000 people . . . . The
prophet Joseph Smith organized the church; and all that he has
promised in this code of revelations the "Book of Doctrine and
Covenants" has been fulfilled as fast as time would permit. THAT
WHICH IS NOT FULFILLED WILL BE." Cannon did explain that the
manifesto was the result of prayer, and Woodruff told the people
that he had had a great many visits from the Prophet Joseph
since his death, in dreams, and also from Brigham Young, but
neither seems to have imparted any very valuable information,
Joseph explaining that he was in an immense hurry preparing
himself "to go to the earth with the Great Bridegroom when he
goes to meet the Bride, the Lamb's wife."

Two recent incidents have indicated the restlessness of the
Mormon church under the restriction placed upon polygamy. In
1898, the candidate for Representative in Congress, nominated by
the Democratic Convention of Utah, was Brigham H. Roberts. It
was commonly known in Utah that Roberts was a violator of the
Edmunds law. A Mormon elder, writing from Brigham, Utah, in
February, 1899, while Roberts's case was under consideration at
Washington, said, "Many prominent Mormons foresaw the storm that
was now raging, and deprecated Mr. Roberts's nomination and
election."* This statement proves both the notoriety of
Roberts's offence, and the connivance of the church in his
nomination, because no Mormon can be nominated to an office in
Utah when the church authorities order otherwise. When Roberts
presented himself to be sworn in, in December, 1899, his case
was referred to a special committee of nine members. The report
of seven members of this committee found that Roberts married his
first wife about the year 1878; that about 1885 he married a
plural wife, who had since born him six children, the last two
twins, born on August 11, 1897; that some years later he married
a second plural wife, and that he had been living with all three
till the time of his election; "that these facts were generally
known in Utah, publicly charged against him during his campaign
for election, and were not denied by him." Roberts refused to
take the stand before the committee, and demurred to its
jurisdiction on the ground that the hearing was an attempt to
try him for a crime without an indictment and jury trial, and to
deprive him of vested rights in the emoluments of the office to
which he was elected, and that, if the crime alleged was proved,
it would not constitute a sufficient cause to deprive him of his
seat, because polygamy is not enumerated in the constitution as
a disqualification for the office of member of Congress. The
majority report recommended that his seat be declared vacant.
Two members of the committee reported that his offence afforded
constitutional ground for expulsion, but not for exclusion from
the House, and recommended that he be sworn in and immediately
expelled. The resolution presented by the majority was adopted by
the House by a vote of 268 to 50.**

* New York Evening Post, February 20, 1899.

** Roberts was tried in the district court in Salt Lake City, on
April 30, 1900, on the charge of unlawful cohabitation. The case
was submitted to the jury of eight men, without testimony, on an
agreed statement of facts, and the jury disagreed, standing six
for conviction and two for acquittal.

The second incident referred to was the passage by the Utah
legislature in March, 1901, of a bill containing this provision:

"No prosecution for adultery shall be commenced except on
complaint of the husband or wife or relative of the accused with
the first degree of consanguinity, or of the person with whom
the unlawful act is alleged to have been committed, or of the
father or mother of said person; and no prosecution for unlawful
cohabitation shall be commenced except on complaint of the wife,
or alleged plural wife of the accused; but this provision shall
not apply to prosecutions under section 4208 of the Revised
Statutes, 1898, defining and punishing polygamous marriages."

This bill passed the Utah senate by a vote of 11 to 7, and the
house by a vote of 174 to 25. The excuse offered for it by the
senator who introduced it was that it would "take away from
certain agitators the opportunity to arouse periodic furors
against the Mormons"; that more than half of the persons who had
been polygamists had died or dissolved their polygamous
relations, and that no good service could be subserved by
prosecuting the remainder. This law aroused a protest throughout
the country, and again the Mormon church saw that it had made a
mistake, and on the 14th of March Governor H. M. Wells vetoed the
bill, on grounds that may be summarized as declaring that the
law would do the Mormons more harm than good. The most
significant part of his message, as indicating what the Mormon
authorities most dread, is contained in the following sentence:
"I have every reason to believe its enactment would be the signal
for a general demand upon the national Congress for a
constitutional amendment directed solely against certain
conditions here, a demand which, under the circumstances, would
assuredly be complied with."