Manifesto of 1890

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In the 1890 Manifesto (also known as the Woodruff Manifesto or the Anti-Polygamy Manifesto ), The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints declared that it would no longer enter into polygamous marriages . The manifesto was published in September 1890 by President of the Church, Wilford Woodruff . Observers see the change as a reaction to increasing pressure from the United States Congress , which increasingly curtailed the church's rights, arrested some prominent polygamous Mormons and also threatened to confiscate the church's property. Once published, the manifesto was presented to the entire Church at general conference in October 1890 and accepted as "authorized and binding."

The manifesto changed the history of the Church dramatically. It prohibited members from entering into polygamy and instructed members to follow state laws on this matter. It was a key requirement for the Utah area to become a US state . Even so, after the manifesto was published, a small number of plural marriages were concluded in the United States, Mexico, and Canada:

The incomplete list of “Marriages and Seals Outside the Temple” lists 315 marriages that were concluded between October 17, 1890 and September 8, 1903. 36 research has shown that of the 315 marriages in the list, 25 (7.9%) were plural marriages and 290 (92.1%) were monogamous marriages. Almost all of the monogamous marriages recorded were in Arizona or Mexico. Of the 25 plural marriages, 18 were in Mexico, three in Arizona, two in Utah and one each in Colorado and on a ship in the Pacific Ocean. "

After hearings in the US Congress, the so-called Second Manifesto was published in 1904 , in which the ban of 1890 was solemnly reaffirmed. Although both manifestos did not dissolve existing polygamy, this form of coexistence gradually ended in the early 1900s. The manifesto was incorporated into the scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ as Official Declaration 1 and is viewed as a divine revelation by the mainstream Mormons. In this Woodruff was shown the difficulties the church will face if they do not listen to the manifesto. Some Mormon fundamentalists questioned the truth of the revelation and subsequently split off from the main church.

background

Observers see the publication of the manifesto as a reaction to anti-polygamy guidelines of the federal government , particularly because of the " Edmunds - Tucker Act" of 1887. This law spun off the Church and allowed the government to confiscate the Church's property . The United States Supreme Court upheld the punitive measures in a May 1890 ruling.

As early as April 1889, Woodruff refused to give permits for new plural marriages. In October 1889 he publicly announced that he would not allow any new polygamy. When asked by a reporter, he said that the church would now listen to the government. With government restrictions on polygamy in disregard for many years, this position was a signal for Woodruff to change practice.

Woodruff later announced that he had received a revelation from Jesus Christ on the night of September 23, 1899 . It says that the church should stop practicing polygamy. The following morning he reported this to the other church leaders and gave them a preliminary version of the manifesto. The leading apostles made minor changes to the text and then presented it to the entire Church. At the sixtieth semi-annual general conference on October 6, 1890, the Manifesto was formally adopted by members of the Church.

text

The manifesto says:

"To All Who It Concerns: Since Salt Lake City's political press releases have been widely used, the Utah Commission claims in its latest report to the Minister of the Interior that polygamous weddings are still going on consummated and forty or more such marriages in Utah since last June or last year; also, the leaders of the Church had taught polygamy in public addresses and encouraged and urged its further practice — therefore, as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I solemnly declare that these accusations are false. We do not teach polygamy or plural marriage, nor do we allow anyone to practice it; and I deny that forty or any other number of polygamous marriages were performed in our temples or anywhere else in the Utah Territory at that time. One case has been reported where those involved claim the marriage took place in the Spring of 1889 at the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, but I was unable to find out who performed the wedding; whatever happened in this matter happened without my knowledge. Following this alleged incident, the Endowment House was immediately demolished on my instructions. Now that Congress has passed laws prohibiting plural marriage, and that the Supreme Court of Appeals has declared these laws constitutional, I hereby declare my intention to obey those laws and to influence the members of the Church of which I am President to claim that they do too. There is nothing in the teachings given to the Church by me and my fellow ministers during this period that can reasonably be construed as a solicitation or encouragement to plural marriage; and if any elder of the Church spoke a language that appeared to contain such teaching, he was immediately reprimanded. And now I publicly declare that I advise Latter-day Saints to abstain from any marriage prohibited by the law of the land. "

- Wilford Woodruff (signed), President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Formal acceptance of the LDS Church

President Lorenzo Snow proposed:

“My suggestion is that, as we recognize Wilford Woodruff as President of Latter-day Saint Church of Jesus Christ and as the only person on earth presently holding the keys of the sealing ordinances, we believe him by virtue of his position to have full authority to do so To issue the manifesto read to us, dated September 24, 1890; and since we are gathered as a Church in general conference, we accept his declaration on polygamy as authoritative and binding.
Salt Lake City, Utah, October 6, 1890 "

New marriages vs existing marriages

With the manifesto, the Church's official authorization for new polymarriages that violated local laws ended. It did not affect pre-existing marriages. Individual polygamy were also concluded in parts of the country outside of the United States that were not legally prohibited. Woodruff declared in general conference in 1890 that the existing polymarriages should not be annulled. Although Woodruff announced this, some members of the Church began to live with only one woman. They also included Lorenzo Snow , the successive President of the Church. However, many of the Mormon polygamists continued to live with the married women even after the manifesto.

Aftermath and many marriages according to the manifesto

Within six years of the manifesto, Utah became a US state. State discrimination against Mormon polygamists was also ended. However, Congress denied elected polygamists such as BH Roberts a seat in the House of Representatives.

Some Mormon historians have documented that even according to the Manifesto, multiple marriages were sanctioned by individual apostles . This was particularly the case in Mexico and Canada , as there was some assumption that polygamy was still legal in these countries. Some multiple marriages have also been concluded in international waters . A small number of multiple marriages were also concluded in Utah. Estimates amount to around 250 multiple marriages concluded after the manifesto. Today the Church of Jesus Christ states that the departure from polygamy has been gradual.

Rumors of new polygamy after the Manifesto also reached Congress, which was investigating these cases. In response, Church President Joseph F. Smith published a Second Manifesto in 1904 , which punished entering into multiple marriages with the penalty of excommunication . Two apostles who disagreed with this decision resigned. Entering into polygamy is a reason within the Church today to be expelled from the Church.

The departure from polygamy in the Church of Jesus Christ gave rise to the Mormon fundamentalists.

Development of the views of the Church of Jesus Christ on the manifesto

The manifesto was incorporated into the scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ Church. It's in the Doctrine and Covenants . Initially, Woodruff and other church leaders had not yet declared the text to be divine revelation. A year after the manifesto was issued, Woodruff announced that he had received a revelation from Jesus Christ that became the cornerstone of the manifesto. In this vision he is said to have been shown what would happen if he did not publish the manifesto.

After Woodruff's death, other church leaders taught that the manifesto was a divine revelation. Since Snow gave a lecture, church leaders consistently taught that the Manifesto was revealed by God. In 1908, the Manifesto was added as “Official Declaration 1” of the Holy Scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ, Doctrine and Covenants , and has been an integral part of the canon of scriptures ever since. The manifesto has since enjoyed the same status as the rest of the revelations given by Joseph Smith .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Official Declaration - 1. Accessed June 24, 2019 .
  2. ^ Dennis Michael Quinn: LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904. In: Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 18/1. Pp. 9-108 , accessed June 8, 2015 .
  3. a b c The manifesto and the end of plural marriage. LDS Church, accessed January 23, 2016 .
  4. Melvyn Hammarberg: The Mormon Quest for Glory: The Religious World of the Latter-Day Saints . Oxford University Press USA, New York 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-973762-8 , pp. 135 . David E. Campbell, John C. Green, J. Quin Monson: Seeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics . Cambridge University Press, New York, 2014, ISBN 978-1107662674 , pp. 58-59.
  5. ^ Polygamy: Latter-day Saints and the Practice of Plural Marriage . mormonnewsroom.org, accessed January 23, 2016.
  6. 136. U.S. 1st. (1890)
  7. ^ Van Wagoner, 1989, p. 135.
  8. ^ Salt Lake Herald , October 27, 1889. Quoted in Van Wagoner, 1989, p. 136.
  9. Smith, 2005, pp. 62-63.
  10. a b c Wilford Woodruff's remarks at the Cache Stake Conference in Logan (Utah) on November 1, 1891. Deseret Weekly , Logan (Utah) reported on Woodruff's remarks on November 14, 1891. Excerpts were from the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints published in Official Declarations 1 , Doctrine and Covenants .
  11. Julius C. Burrows, Joseph Benson Foraker, United States Congress Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections: Proceedings Before the Committee On Privileges and Elections of the United States Senate in the Matter of The Protests Against the Right of Hon. Reed Smoot, a Senator From the State of Utah, To Hold His Seat . 59th Cong., 1st sess. Senates. Doc. 486, 1906, pp. 52-53, accessed January 23, 2016.
  12. ^ Joseph Stuart: BYU Religious Education Student Symposium, 2012 . 'For the Temporal Salvation of the Church': Historical Context of the Manifesto, 1882-90. Ed .: Religious Studies Center. 2012, ISBN 978-0-8425-2829-0 ( [1] ). Dan Erickson: “As a Thief in the Night”: The Mormon Quest for Millennial Deliverance. Signature Books, 1998, p. 205 , accessed June 16, 2015 .
  13. a b Official declarations 1 . Doctrine and Covenants , accessed January 23, 2016.
  14. ^ Diary entry by Marriner W. Merrill, October 6, 1890, in the archives of the LDS Church; cited in Hardy, 1992, p. 141.
  15. Kenneth L. Cannon II: Beyond the Manifesto: Polygamous Cohabitation among LDS General Authorities after 1890 . Utah Historical Quarterly 46/1 (1978), p. 24, accessed January 23, 2013.
  16. ^ Kathleen Flake, The Politics of American Religious Identity: The Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle . University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2003, ISBN 0-8078-5501-4 , OCLC 57707347 .
  17. Hardy, 1992, pp. 167-335, Appendix II.
  18. Polygamy and the Family in Utah in the 19th Century . lds.org, accessed January 23, 2016.
  19. Victor W. Jorgensen, B. Carmon Hardy: The Taylor-Cowley Affair and the Watershed of Mormon History . Utah Historical Quarterly 48/1 (1980), p. 4.
  20. Handbook 1: Stake Presidents and Bishops (English title: "Handbook 1, Available to Bishops and Stake Presidents"). LDS Church, Salt Lake City (Utah), 2010, p. 57. For the handbook cf. Per G. Malm: The handbooks of the church - the written order of everything . accessed on January 24, 2016.
  21. Hardy, 1992, pp. 146-152
  22. Lorenzo Snow gave a speech on May 8, 1899 in St. George, Utah , in which he explained the facts. Discourse by President Lorenzo Snow . ( Memento from October 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) The Latterday Saints Millennial Star No. 34 / LXI, from August 24, 1899, pp. 529-533, here p. 532 (pdf; 1.38 MB). Reprinted in Clyde J. Williams (Ed.): The Teachings of Lorenzo Snow: Fifth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . Bookcraft, Salt Lake City (Utah), 1998, pp. 192-193.
  23. ^ John A. Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations: Aids to Faith in a Modern Day . Bookcraft, Lake City, Utah, 1943, OCLC 36111479 , p. 89.
    Joseph Fielding Smith: Essentials in Church History: A History of the Church from the Birth of Joseph Smith to the Present Time . Deseret Book, Salt Lake City (Utah), 1922, 24th Edition 1971, OCLC 48064256 , pp. 493-494.
    Spencer W. Kimball (Author), Edward L. Kimball (Ed.): The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball: Twelfth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . Bookcraft, Salt Lake City (Utah), 1982, 2nd edition 1998, ISBN 157008484X , OCLC 39304039 , pp. 447-448.
  24. ^ Jan Shipps: Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition . University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1985, ISBN 0252011597 , OCLC 10726560 , p. 114.