Official Declaration (The 1890 Manifesto)
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 are still being solemnized and that forty or more such 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 -
To whom it may concern:
A recent report from the Utah Commission to the Secretary of the Interior has alleged:
that plural marriages are still being performed by the LDS church,
that forty of such marriages have been contracted in Utah within the last year,
and that the church still teaches and encourages the polgamy.
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 any person to enter into its practice, and I deny that either forty or any other number of plural marriages have during that period been solemnized in our Temples or in any other place in the Territory.
I [Wilford Woodruff], the president of LDS church declare that these charges are false.
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.
One case has been reported in which such a marriage was performed in the Enowment House in the spring of 1898, but it occurred without my knowledge. In any case, I have ordered that the Endowment house be 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 hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws, and to use my influence with the members of the Church over which I preside to have them do likewise.
Now that Congress has enacted laws forbidding plural marriage, and these laws have been upheld by the Supreme Court, I declare my intention to submit to those laws and encourage the other members of the church to do likewise. [2]
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 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.
The church has not taught or encouraged polygamy during the time specified (the last year). [3]
Any elder who has done so, has been reproved.
I now advise all Latter-day Saints to refrain from these plural marriages which are forbidden by the law of the land.
Wilford Woodruff
President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Wilford Woodruff
President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
