Manifest von 1890

The 1890 Manifesto, sometimes simply called The Manifesto, is a statement which officially renounced the practice of plural marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (see also "Mormon"). Signed by Church President Wilford Woodruff in September of 1890, the Manifesto was a dramatic turning point in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Manifesto prohibited church members from entering into plural marriages, but did not require dissolution of existing 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 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and allowed the federal government to freeze all of the church's assets. The US Supreme Court upheld property seizure in The Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. United States, Vorlage:Ussc. By September, federal officials were preparing to seize the church's temples and the US Congress had debated whether to extend the 1882 Edmunds Act so that all Mormons would be disenfranchised, not just the polygamists. The Supreme Court had already ruled a law constitutional which banned all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from voting in Idaho Territory in Davis v. Beason, Vorlage:Ussc.

LDS Church President Woodruff reported that on the night of September 23 he received revelation that the church should cease the practice of plural marriage. Woodruff announced the Manifesto on September 25 and acted quickly to publish it in the Deseret News. On October 6, 1890, during the 60th Semi-Annual General Conference of the church, 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, including B.H. Roberts.

Critical historians, such as D. Michael Quinn, have interpreted the Manifesto's timing as politically expedient. Quinn and fellow Mormon Historian Kenneth Lynn Cannon II have also documented that some Apostles covertly sanctioned additional plural marriages. This practice was especially prevalent in Mexico and Canada because of an erroneous belief that such marriages were legal in those places. Rumors of post-Manifesto marriages surfaced, causing church President Joseph F. Smith to issue a "Second Manifesto" in 1904. This Manifesto threatened excommunication for Latter-day Saints who continued to enter into plural marriages. Apostles John W. Taylor and Matthias F. Cowley each resigned from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles due to disagreement with the church's position on plural marriage. Plural marriage continues to be grounds for excommunication from the church.

The cessation of plural marriage within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave rise to polygamous groups that do not regard the 1890 Manifesto as true revelation.

The Manifesto has been canonized by the LDS Church and is currently published as Official Declaration 1 in the Doctrine and Covenants, one of the church's books of scripture.

The Manifesto

The Manifesto, issued by Wilford Woodruff, 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 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 the Endowment 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 heareby 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."^[1]

Acceptance of the Manifesto by the LDS Church

"President Lorenzo Snow offered the following:

"'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.'

"The vote to sustain the foregoing motion was unanimous.

"Salt Lake City, Utah, October 6, 1890."^[1]

Notes

↑ ^a ^b Vorlage:Lds

References

Quinn, D. Michael (1997). The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-060-4
B. Carmon Hardy Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage; University of Illinois Press; ISBN 0-252-01833-8; (hardcover)

External links

Official Declaration 1: Full text of the Manifesto and other background statements
The Manifesto of 1890 — article from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism
Plural Marriages After The 1890 Manifesto — essay by Quinn
LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890 - 1904 — essay by D. Michael Quinn

[LDSOD1-1] Vorlage:Lds

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