page_title: Mormonism and polygamy
section_title: 1887 Edmunds–Tucker Act
hierarchical_section_title: Mormonism and polygamy / U.S. government actions against polygamy / 1887 Edmunds–Tucker Act
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Mormon polygamists in prison, at the Utah Penitentiary, including: George Q. Cannon (1827-1901), an Apostle for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Niels Jensen Aagard (1835-1892) sitting in the front middle without prison stripes Elijah Funk Sheets (1821-1904) Lorenzo Argyle (1852-1940) Winslow Farr (1837-1913) Pleasant Green Taylor (1827-1917) James Campbell Hamilton (1846-1920) Abraham Alonzo Kimball (1846-1889) Levi James Taylor (1851-1935) John Jardine (1830-1903) Herman Frederick Ferdinand Thorup(1849-1929) Far Right, not in Striped Suit
context_page_description: Polygamy was practiced by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than half of the 19th century, and practiced publicly from 1852 to 1890 by between 20 and 30 percent of Latter-day Saint families. Today, various denominations of fundamentalist Mormonism continue to practice polygamy.
  The Latter-day Saints' practice of polygamy has been controversial, both within Western society and the LDS Church itself. The U.S. was both fascinated and horrified by the practice of polygamy, with the Republican platform at one time referencing "the twin relics of barbarism—polygamy and slavery." The private practice of polygamy was instituted in the 1830s by founder Joseph Smith. The public practice of plural marriage by the church was announced and defended in 1852 by a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Orson Pratt, by the request of church president Brigham Young.
  For over 60 years, the LDS Church and the United States were at odds over the issue: the church defended the practice as a matter of religious freedom, while the federal government aggressively sought to eradicate it, consistent with prevailing public opinion.
context_section_description: In 1887, the Edmunds–Tucker Act allowed the disincorporation of the LDS Church and the seizure of church property; it also further extended the punishments of the Edmunds Act. In July of the same year, the U.S. Attorney General filed suit to seize all church assets.
  The church was losing control of the territorial government, and many members and leaders were being actively pursued as fugitives. Without being able to appear publicly, the leadership was left to navigate "underground."
  Following the passage of the Edmunds–Tucker Act, the church found it difficult to operate as a viable institution. After visiting  priesthood leaders in many settlements, church president Wilford Woodruff left for San Francisco on September 3, 1890, to meet with prominent businessmen and politicians. He returned to Salt Lake City on September 21, determined to obtain divine confirmation to pursue a course that seemed to be agonizingly more and more clear. As he explained to church members a year later, the choice was between, on the one hand, continuing to practice plural marriage and thereby losing the temples, "stopping all the ordinances therein," and, on the other, ceasing plural marriage in order to continue performing the essential ordinances for the living and the dead. Woodruff hastened to add that he had acted only as the Lord directed:
  I should have let all the temples go out of our hands; I should have gone to prison myself, and let every other man go there, had not the God of heaven commanded me to do what I do; and when the hour came that I was commanded to do that, it was all clear to me.
caption: Portrait of polygamists in prison, at the Utah Penitentiary, including George Q. Cannon in 1889, arrested under the Edmunds–Tucker Act.
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