Part 1
The Mormon Church's latest pack of lies about polygamy--that it churns out amid smoke and mirrors--claims, among other non-historical novelties, that the so-called "Manifesto" of 1890 ended the practice of and belief in plural marriage within the LDS ranks, both at the top and down through the pews.
If only.
In its latest, shameless exhibit of a slipperily-presented, ghost-written piece of puffery and perjury entitled, "Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo." the Mormon Church's designated anonymous authors make absurd and disprovable statements about the actual, officially-condoned continuance of post-Manifesto polygamy, insisting--despite mountains of evidence to the contrary--that the practice of Mormon multi-wifery instantly ended in 1890 with the issuanceof Wilford Woodruff's "Manifesto":
"Although the Lord commanded the adoption--and later the cessation--of plural marriage in the latter days, He did not give exact instructions on how to obey the commandment. Significant social and cultural changes often include misunderstandings and difficulties. Church leaders and members experienced these challenges as they heeded the command to practice plural marriage and again later as they worked to discontinue it after Church President Wilford Woodruff issued an inspired statement known as the Manifesto in 1890, which led to the end of plural marriage in the Church. Through it all, Church leaders and members sought to follow God’s will."
("Topics: Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo," appearing on the official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," at;
https://www.lds.org/topics/plural-marriage-in-kirtland-and-nauvoo?lang=eng)
Apparently, for the Mormon Church, following "God's will" means lying for the Lord.
In its unending effort to twist history and turn it on its head, the Orwellian "history" writers at the great and spacious Church Office Building have dishonestly declared (despite mountains of documented evidence to the contrary) that the LDS Church's 1890 "Manifesto" ended, dead in its tracks, the Mormon practice of polygamy. As is so often the case, the historical record speaks loudly and clearly to the contrary. If the Mormon Church's assertion was actually true, then the Mormon Church and its loyally-lying apologists need to explain why most Mormon polygamists in the Manifesto era (with the benefit of Mormon Church's clearly expressed and well-understood blessing) continued to practice multi-wifery in violation of the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887 (which disincorporated LDS Inc. for its crime of fostering polygamy).
Indeed, Mormon polygamists of the 1890s and early 1900s continued their multi-wifing ways precisely because they had the wink-and-a-nod support of none other than their LDS Church presidents--leaders who lied for the Lord under oath (and wherever else they felt they needed to) about Mormonism's supposed abandonment of its heavenly-harem herding.
Let's kick some behinds and take some names.
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--Mormon Church President Woodrow Lies About Abandoning Polygamy While Authorizing Its Continued Practice--
Since Woodruff officially started the Big Lie, let's start with him in step-by-step debunking it.
**Woodruff’s Lie That the Manifesto Only Banned Future Polygamous Marriages**
Woodruff, as Mormon Church president, asserted that the cessation of polygamy only applied to future marriages:
"This [1890] Manifesto only refers to future marriages, and does not affect past conditions. I did not, I could not, and would not promise that you would desert your wives and children. This you cannot do in honor."
(Marriner W. Merrill, diary entry, 1890-10-06, in LDS Church archives, cited in B. Carmon Hardy, "Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage" (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1992) p. 141)
What the record actually shows:
**Woodruff’s Continued Encouragement and Authorization of Post-Manifesto Polygamous Marriages—from Behind an Unsaintly Scheme of Cover-up and Distortion**
As historian D. Michael Quinn notes in his essay, "LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages: 1890-1904" (the publication of which led directly to Quinn's excommunicated), Mormon Church president Woodruff clearly did not view the 1890 Manifesto as banning future polygamous marriages.
Quite to the contrary, the historical record shows that under Woodruff’s direction the Mormon Church continued to perform multi-wife wedlock in private, while Woodruff continued to lie about it in public.
Quinn unmasks the grand Mormon façade which Woodruff and his co-conspirators constructed in a truth-impaired design to hide from public view the reality Mormonism's post-Manifesto non-monogamous marriages:
"On 24 September 1890, President Wilford Woodruff issued his famous Manifesto which stated in part:
"' . . . [A]nd I deny that either 40 or any other number of plural marriages have during the period [since June 1889] been solemnized in our temples or in any other place in the Territory,' and concluded, '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-owned 'Deseret Evening News' editorialized on 30 September [1890]: 'Anyone who calls the language of President Woodruff's declaration 'indefinite' must be either exceedingly dense or determined to find fault. It is so definite that its meaning cannot be mistaken by any one who understands simple English.' On 3 October it added, 'Nothing could he more direct and unambiguous than the language of President Woodruff, nor could anything be more authoritative.'
"A few days after this last editorial, the Church authorities presented this 'unambiguous' document for a sustaining vote of the General Conference. Yet during the next 13-and-a-half years, members of the First Presidency individually or as a unit published 24 denials that any new plural marriages were being performed. The climax of that series of little manifestoes was the 'Second Manifesto' on plural marriage sustained by a vote of a general conference. President Joseph F. Smith's statement of 6 April 1904, read in part:
"'Inasmuch as there are numerous reports in circulation that plural marriages have been entered into contrary to the official declaration of President Woodruff, of September 24, 1890, commonly called the Manifesto . . . I, Joseph F. Smith, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, hereby affirm and declare that no such marriages have been solemnized with the sanction, consent or knowledge of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.'"
Way to go, Joseph. Wilford would have been so proud of you.
**Woodruff Did Not Receive the Manifesto by Divine Revelation; Rather, It Was Written for Him by Mere Mortals, Mormon and Non-Mormon Alike**
Before addressing who actually authored the 1890 Manifesto, let's dispense with the notion that God was the Penman.
Woodruff, of course, claimed that he had received the Manifest from God, declaring:
"The Lord showed me by vision and revelation exactly what would happen if we did not stop this practice [of polygamy]. . . . [A]ll ordinances would be stopped . . . . [M]any men would be made prionsers . . . ."
(Wilford Woodruff, in John A. Widstoe, "Evidence and Reconciliations," 1 vol. ed., pp. 105-06)
Unfortunately for Woodruff, eventual Mormon Church president, Joseph F. Smith, stated unequivocally that he did not regard the 1890 Manifesto as having heavenly origins, nor did he believe it constituted an order from On High to halt the practice of polygamy.
Quinn reports the confession:
“Responding to Heber J. Grant’s question in August 1891, if he regarded the Manifesto as a revelation, ‘President Smith answered emphatically no.’ [adding that] . . . he did not believe it to be an emphatic revelation from God abolishing plural marriage.’”
Further undermining Woodruff's tale that God prompted the Manifesto's command that polygamy be discontinued, Woodruff had earlier claimed just the opposite--declaring that God had revealed to him not to give into the federal government by abandoning polygamy. Apostle Abraham H. Cannon wrote in his journal of 19 December 1889 (less than a year before Woodruff issued the Manifesto):
"During our meeting, a revelation was read which President Woodruff received Sunday evening, November 24th. Propositions had been made for the Church to make some concession to the Courts in regard to the principles [of polygamy]. . . . [President Woodruff] laid the matter before the Lord.
"The answer cam quick and strong. The word of the Lord was for us not to yield one particle of that which he had revealed and established. . . . [W]e need have no fear of our enemies when we were in the line of duty. We are promised redemption and deliverance if we will trust in God and not in the arm of flesh . . . . [M]y heart was filled with joy and peace during the entire reading. It sets all doubts at rest concerning the course to pursue."
Apparently, Woodruff's God decided to reverse course.
Now, who actully wrote the Manifesto?
Woodruff insisted that God dictated the Manifesto's contents to him, saying: "I went before the Lord, and I wrote what the Lord told me to write . . . ."
(Widstoe, "Evidence and Reconciliations," pp. 105-06)
Never let the facts get in the way of a good faith-promoting story. Instead of supposedly being handed to Woodruff by God, the Manifesto was instead authored behind the scenes by assorted LDS authorities, with the assistance of non-Mormon officials from the United States government.
Quinn notes, for example, that Secretary to the First Presidency, George Reynolds, admitted to participating in the creation of the Manifesto--in collaboration with Woodruff's two First Presidency counselors, Charles W. Penrose and John R. Winder.
In addition, Quinn reports that "Lorin C. Woolley told Mormon Fundamentalists that Wilford Woodruff was not the author of the Manifesto but that it was actually written by Charles W. Penrose, Frank J. Cannon, and 'John H. White, the butcher,' revised by non-Mormon federal officials and that Woodruff merely signed it."
Richard Abanes, in his book, "One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church," observes that the Manifesto lacked the look and feel of a genuine revelation: "Its wording and the way leaders publicly released it dramatically differed from every other 'revelation' that had been give to the Saints.
"Before being issue, this so-called 'revelation' was written re-written, edited and re-edited many times behind closed doors by various persons ranging from Mormon politicians, to LDS apostles, to non-Mormon legal advisors.
"It was addressed 'To whom it my concern,' a decidedly secular phrase that failed to hold the authority of a 'Thus saith the Lord' declaration.
"It was publicly issued as a press release from Washington by Utah's delegate in Congress, John T. Caine, rather than being presented to the congregation by Church authorities at a Church Conference, which was how other revelations had been presented.
"It was not signed by the First Presidency, but only signed by Wilford Woodruff.
"Woodruff carefully worded the Manifesto to read, '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,' which means that the entire declaration was Woodruff's personal advice, rather than a command from God. Thus, a sort of tehological loophole was give for disobedience."
(Richard Abanes, "One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church," Chapter 14, "The Politics of Compromise" (New York/London: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2002), p. 324)
Not only did Woodruff not receive the 1890 Manifesto in a blaze of celestial glory, it was not regarded by Woodruff himself as signaling a wholesale Mormon Church suspension of polygamous practices. Despite such inner attitudes, however, Woodruff was more than willing to lie in public, as he perjuriously insisted under oath that polygamy had been completely abandoned by the Mormon Church.
Quinn writes:
"Two weeks after having the General Conference of the Church re-sustain the Manifesto on 6 October 1891, President Wilford Woodruff took the witness stand in [a] confiscation case [involving the return by the U.S. government of property to the Mormon Church, stipulated on the LDS Church's agreement to abandon, along with polygamy, the practice of unlawful co-habitation].
"He [Woodruff] made the following statements under oath which were reprinted in three editions of the 'Deseret News':
"'A[nswer, from Woodruff]: Any person entering into plural marriage after that date [24 September 1890] would be liable to become excommunicated from the Church.
"'Q[uestion]: [Per] the concluding portion of your statement [the Manifesto] . . . Do you understand that the language was to be expanded and to include the further statement of living or associating in plural marriage by those already in the status [of plural marriage]?
"'A: Yes, sir; I intended the proclamation to cover the ground, to keep the laws--to obey the law myself, and expected the people to obey the law. . . .
"'Q: Was the Manifesto intended to apply to the Church everywhere?
“’A: Yes, sir.
"'Q: In every nation and every country?
"'A: Yes, sir; as far as I had a knowledge in the matter.
"'Q: In places outside of the United States as well as within the United States?
"'A: Yes, sir; we are given no liberties for entering into that anywhere--entering into that principle. . . .
"'Q: Your attention was called to the fact, that nothing is said in this Manifesto about the dissolution of the existing polygamous relations. I want to ask you, President Woodruff, whether in your advice to the Church officials and the people of the Church, you have advised them that your intention was--and that their requirement of the church was--that the polygamous relations already formed before that [Manifesto] should not be continued; that is, there should be no association with plural wives; in other words, that unlawful cohabitation, as it is named and spoken of, should also stop, as well, as future polygamous marriages?
"'A: Yes, sir; that has been the intention."
Woodruff was lying out his Masonic garments--as proven by his private admission to a gathering of the Mormon Church's highest leaders.
Quinn recounts the moment:
". .. [A]fter he made the most explicit and authoritative public pronouncements that the Manifesto prohibited polygamous cohabitation and that excommunication was the penalty for violating the Manifesto, President Woodruff told the First Presidency and Twelve on 12 November 1891 'that he was placed in such a position on the witness stand that he could not answer other than he did; yet any man who deserts and neglects his wives or children because of the Manifesto, should be handled on his fellowship.'"
**Under Woodruff, Post-Manifesto Polygamy Continued Both the United States and Abroad**
In reality, both the solemnization and practice of post-Manifesto Mormon polygamous marriages was proceeded at various times and rates of speed, particularly in Mexico, as well (as will be detailed later) in the United States.
Quinn reports:
" . . . [T]he understanding of the First Presidency and apostles in September-October 1890 was that the Manifesto prohibited new polygamy only in the United States. The First Presidency’s secretary, George F. Gibbs, later wrote:
"'President Woodruff’s Manifesto of 1890 abandoning the practice of polygamy was not intended to apply to Mexico, and did not, as the Church was not dealing with the Mexican government, but only with our own government; and for the further reason that the Mexican government extended the hand of welcome to Mormon polygamists.'
"As regards continued sexual cohabitation and child-bearing in polygamous marriages entered into before the Manifesto, a meeting of the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve, and all stake presidencies on 7 October 1890 clearly indicated the scope of the Manifesto in that respect: 'President Woodruff drew the attention of the brethren to the fact that the Manifesto did not affect our present family relations, but it simply stated that all plural marriages had ceased.'"
**Woodruff Covered His Tracks by Having Others Authorize Post-Manifesto Marriages in His Behalf**
Doing most of the lying-for-the-Lord legwork in that regard was Woodruff’s First Presidency Counselor, George Q. Cannon.
Quinn writes:
“Sometime between this meeting and July 1894, he [Cannon] signed a temple recommend, ‘W.W [Wilford Woodruff’ per G.Q.C. [George Q. Cannon],’ for Hattie Merrill, daughter of Apostle Marriner W. Merrill, president of the Logan Temple. The stake presidency was the highest recommending authority necessary for temple ordinances; Cannon’s signature indicates clearly his knowledge that the marriage would be polygamous. Apostle Merrill performed the ceremony for his daughter and John W. Barnett on 16 July 1894 in the Logan Temple.
“Cannon’s act on behalf of President Woodruff . . . was the first of several unambiguously polygamous marriages Merrill performed after the Manifesto in the Logan Temple, and Counselor Cannon’s initialed endorsement was what he kept as evidence of First Presidency authorization. . . .
“According to Apostle Brigham Young, Jr., by 1895 President Woodruff had delegated all authorizations for plural marriages to George Q. Cannon. After a private conversation with Cannon in April 1895, Apostle Young wrote:
"‘Brother George and I had a pleasant chat on [the] doctrine of marriage, etc. His views are peculiar but I know the responsibility of this whole question rests upon him and how can he meet the demands in this nation? Rulers will have a heavy bill to settle when they reach the spirit world.’ Two months after this talk, Apostle Young traveled down to the Mexican border with two prospective polygamists, and ‘I furnished a guide to both men, they had their wives with them.’
**Under Woodruff, Excommunication Show-Trials Were Conducted In Order to Mislead the Federal Government**
With the Mormon Church under increasing pressure from the U.S. authorities to completely jettison the practice of polygamy, the LDS Church, under the leadership of Woodruff, began excommunicating certain polygamists, especially as the involvement of these individuals in plural marriage became matters of public knowledge.
Quinn reports:
"During 1899 . . . [p]lural marriages were being performed in Mexico and in various places in the United States but because anti-Mormons began publishing accusations of these violations of the Manifesto, Church authorities began excommunicating a few new polygamists.”
**Under Woodruff, Post-Manifesto Polygamous Marriages Were Officially Authorized by the Mormon Church Not Only in Mexico, But Also in the United States and Canada**
Despite window-dressing excommunication of selected multi-wifers, the Mormon Church did not discontinue the practice of polygamy--in either the LDS colonies in Mexico or in the United States itself.
Quinn charts the chronology of post-Manifesto Mormon polygamous unionizing taking place in Mexico, the United States and Canada:
-"From the publication of the Manifesto until November 1890, the First Presidency authorized seven residents of the United States to go to Mexico to be married there. All but one of the couples remained in the Mexican colonies. . . .
-"In July 1892, the First Presidency authorized a couple of marriages to be performed in Mexico and Canada . . . .
-"In 1893, the Presidency authorized . . . one U.S. resident to visit Mexico for a plural marriage ceremony, and . . . one was performed there for a local resident."
Woodruff was clearly involved authorizing and permitting the ongoing consummation of Mormon polygamous marriages.:
-" . . . [Although for] nearly two years, President Woodruff did not encourage new plural marriages and permitted only three United States residents and one local resident to marry plural wives in Mexico and Canada, . . . [t]hat changed in 1894. At the meeting of the Presidency and Twelve in the Salt Lake Temple on 5 April 1894, President Cannon expressed regrets that there were no provisions for polygamous marriages, to which President Woodruff replied: 'The day is near when there will be no difficulty in the way of good men securing noble wives.'
"A month later, President Woodruff wrote a letter of instruction to Apostles Brigham Young, Jr., and John Henry Smith concerning their second trip to Mexico in five months, authorizing them 'in adjusting all matters that properly come under your calling.'
“. . . Apostle Young--who had told the Mexican Saints in February that it was impossible for any man to marry a plural wife anywhere in the world and to cancel any polygamous engagements--performed at least five plural marriages there when he returned in May-June 1894. Among these plural marriages was one for Franklin S. Bramwell, then a stake high councilman, who later wrote, 'When I took my second wife I had a letter signed by President Woodruff himself and went to Mexico with a personal letter from President George Q. Cannon.'
". . . [T]here can be no question that in October 1894 President Woodruff personally authorized Apostle Abraham H. Cannon to marry a new plural wife [with Abraham Cannon writing the following]: 'Father [George Q. Cannon] also spoke to me about taking some good girl and raising up seed by her for my brother David. . . . Such a ceremony as this could be performed in Mexico, so President Woodruff has said.'
"Six months later, Wilford Woodruff gave a newspaper interview: 'I hurl defiance at the world,' said President Woodruff, 'to prove that the Manifesto forbidding plural marriages has not been observed.'
-"[Also in] 1894, the First Presidency committed themselves to the position that there were circumstances under which plural marriages would not only be permitted but also encouraged, and by the authority of the Presidency, one plural marriage occurred in Canada, six in Mexico, and two in Utah temples.
-“Th[is] pattern continued about the same in 1895 and 1896.
-“Plural marriages had ceased for six months in Mexico even for residents of the newly created Juarez Stake until two apostles visited the colonies early in 1897 and performed plural marriages for two residents. During the last six months of 1897 the First Presidency authorized seven U.S. residents to visit Mexico for plural marriage ceremonies and also authorized two ceremonies to occur aboard ship.”
" . . . [S]pecific evidence of Wilford Woodruff’s direct involvement in new polygamous marriages emerge[d] . . . [in] 1897. In June 1897, the First Presidency authorized Juarez Stake President Anthony W. Ivins to perform polygamous ceremonies in Mexico and in the fall President Woodruff authorized [apostle] Anthon H. Lund to perform two plural marriages aboard ship, one on the Pacific Ocean and one on the Great Lakes.
"President Woodruff met with Lund on 1 December 1897, apparently to authorize the aboard-ship ceremony that Lund would perform exactly one month later en route to Palestine, and Lund made the following observation: 'President Woodruff took me to one side and spoke to me concerning Mrs. Mountford. I was rather astonished.' Born in Jerusalem and raised as a Christian, Madame Lydia Mary von Finkelstein Mountford claimed descent from Ephraim and Judah, and lectured throughout the United States about Palestine and evidences for Christ’s life. She was baptized in the LDS Church shortly after her first lectures in Salt Lake City in February 1897."
-"During 1898, mounting pressures for polygamy resulted in an expansion of orderly avenues for performing new plural marriages. The First Presidency authorized nine more U.S. residents to visit the Juarez Stake for their polygamous ceremonies but visiting apostles were the only ones who would perform plural marriages for residents of the Mexican colonies who were becoming impatient that their stake president would perform plural ceremonies only for visitors who had letters from the First Presidency, not for them. Toward the end of the year, the First Presidency instructed the Juarez Stake president to perform plural marriages for worthy residents of the stake without obtaining specific authorization from the First Presidency for individual cases.
"Although lower-ranking Church members continued to travel from Utah with letters from the Presidency for their plural marriages to be performed in Mexico, during 1898 the First Presidency established still another avenue for plural marriages to be performed by an apostle in the United States for higher-ranking Mormons.”
-“The Church president stopped plural marriages in Mexico in 1899 but turned a blind eye to those still occurring in Utah and Idaho."
Abanes notes the extent of post-Manifesto polygamous marriages that occurred, desite Mormon Church denials to the contrary:
"Countless plural marriages . . . [took] place throughout Utah, Canada and Mexico." He puts the actual documented count at "262 post-Manifesto marriages between October 1890 and December 1910 involving 200 different Mormon men."
(Abanes, "One Nation Under Gods," Chapter 14, "The Politics of Compromise," pp. 325, 328; and "Notes" for Chapter 14, pp. 591n53, 593n67)
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In other words, Joseph F. Smith demonstrated a principle of doctrine central to the Mormon faith: When necessary, Lie for the Lord.
Federal invessigators picked up on the lying.
At the conclusion of the Reed Smoot hearings, the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections submitted a report of findings of fact, which included the following:
"A sufficient number of specific instances of the taking of plural wives since the Manifesto of 1890, so called, have been shown by the testimony as having taken place among officials of the Mormon Church to demonstrate the fact that the leaders in this Church, the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles connive at the practice of taking plural wives and have done so ever since the Manifesto was issued . . . .
"[A]s late as 1896 one Lillian Hamlin became the plural wife of Abrahm H. Cannon, who was then an apostle . . . . It was generally reputed in the community and understood by the families . . . that they had been married on the high seas by Joseph F. Smith."
With regard to the suppression of testimony by Mormon Church leaders, the Committee reported:
"It was claimed by the Protestants that the records kept in the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City and Logan would disclose the fact that plural marriages have been contracted in Utah since the Manifesto with the sanction of the officials of the Church. A witness who was required to bring the records in the temple at Salt Lake City refused to do so after consulting with President Smith. . . .
"The witness who was required to bring the records kept in the temple at Logan excused himself from attending on the plea of ill health. But the important part of the mandate of the Committee--the production of the records--was not obeyed by sending the records, which could easily have been done."
The Committee issued a scathing indictment of the Mormon Church leadership, accusing it of committing crimes at its highest levels:
". . . [N]ot only do the President and the majority of the Twelve Apostles practice polygamy, but in the case of eacn and every one guilty of this crime who testified before the Committee, the determination was expressed openly and defiantly to continue the commisson of this crime without regard to the mandates of the law or the prohibition contained in the Manifesto. . . . [T]hose who are in authority in the Mormon Church of whom Mr. Smoot is one, are encouraging the practice of polygamy among the members of that Church, and that polygamy is being practiced to such an extent as to call for the severest condemnation in all legitimate ways."
("Reed Smoot Case," vol. 4, pp. 476-82)
So much for "obeying, honoring and sustaining the law."
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(Part 2 continues in this thread)
Part 1:
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1411699,1411699#msg-1411699Part 2:
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1411699,1411699#msg-1411699Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2014 08:36PM by steve benson.