LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904

Abstract

President Wilford Woodruff issued his famous Manifesto which stated in part, . .and I deny that either forty 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." 1The Church-owned Deserei Evening News editorialized on 30 September: "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 be more direct and unambiguous than the language of President Woodruff, nor could anything be more authoritative." 2 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 thirteen and a half years, members of the First Presidency individually or as a unit published twenty-four denials that any new plural marriages were being performed.3The climax of that series of little

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