What Is the 1890 Manifesto?

On September 14, 1890, the Salt Lake Tribune printed a report on polygamy written by the federally appointed Utah Commission. The Manifesto is a statement by President Wilford Woodruff in response to the Commission’s report, published as a press release on September 25, 1890, and accepted by the Church membership during a general conference session on October 6, 1890. It was later added to the Doctrine and Covenants as Official Declaration 1. It reads:

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—

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.

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 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.

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.

Wilford Woodruff

President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Before the Manifesto

Only a fraction of Church members practiced plural marriage by 1890, but all members suffered from the religious persecution against the practice.¹ The Saints had been prepared to sacrifice whatever was required to do what God had commanded—but the Manifesto was not what Wilford Woodruff or the Saints had expected. Instead of giving the Saints victory over their persecutors, God simply said, “It is enough.” To many, the timing of this divine deliverance appeared to be a surrender to outside forces rather than an answer to prayer.

Portrait of Wilford and his plural wife Emma Woodruff, March 1, 1898, Salt Lake City, Utah

From the 1840s through the 1880s, the United States government had passed laws to restrict the Saints’ freedom of religion and to deny many civil rights. The critical events leading up to the Manifesto included adverse rulings by the Supreme Court and targeted Congressional legislation. On May 19, 1890, in a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had the right to confiscate the Church’s property, excluding temples. At the same time, the Cullom-Struble Bill, which had been introduced in Congress in April 1890, stated that no person who supported any organization that taught any person to “enter into bigamy, polygamy, or such patriarchal or plural marriage” would be allowed to vote, serve on a jury, or hold any civil office.

Had this bill passed, as similar legislation had in Idaho, it would have applied to all members of the Church whether or not they practiced plural marriage. It would also have applied to all who supported or contributed to the Church in any way, whether or not they were baptized members. The Edmunds-Tucker Act had already taken civil rights away from those who continued their plural marriage relationships in spite of the laws passed by Congress; the new legislation would have punished those who had not even violated the law.²

Finally, in August 1890, the government began threatening to confiscate the temples, the only structures the Church still had possession of and the most sacred. After all that the Saints had sacrificed for polygamy over the past fifty years, taking the temples would have felt like their faith, work, and hopes had been in vain. They had completed the St. George, Logan, and Manti temples, and the Salt Lake temple was almost finished. On August 16, 1890, with the territorial court’s decision looming, Wilford Woodruff declared, “We must do something to save our Temples.”³

The capstone laying ceremony of the Salt Lake Temple. April 6, 1892

Wilford Woodruff sought counsel from trusted advisors within and outside the Church who gave straightforward advice: the government would not restore the Saints’ civil rights, and their ability to self-govern, as long as they continued to practice plural marriage.

The September 1, 1890 report of the Utah Commission included the claim that forty new plural marriages had been solemnized, and the report was perceived as the justification Congress needed to pass the proposed Cullom-Struble Bill. The First Presidency knew that if they acted on their own to resolve the fight over the practice of plural marriage, the Saints might refuse to comply with whatever plan they proposed. They believed that God gave the command to practice plural marriage and it would require the command of God to end it.

The original Manifesto as recorded in Wilford Woodruff’s Journal on September 25, 1890

The Vision That Inspired the Manifesto

President Wilford Woodruff called a meeting of the Apostles for September 24. In preparation for the meeting, he spent the night of September 23 in prayer—and divine intervention came, in the form of a vision. God revealed to him exactly what would take place if the practice of plural marriage were not suspended. Wilford Woodruff was shown that all the temples would be lost, all the ordinances therein would cease, the Church leaders and heads of family would be imprisoned, and the Saints’ personal property would be confiscated, “all of which of themselves would stop the practice” of plural marriage.

God also revealed the alternative. If the Saints stopped plural marriage, Wilford stated, the “Prophets, Apostles and fathers” would remain at home where they could instruct the people and attend to their duties within the Church, and the temples would remain in the hands of the Saints so they could “attend to the ordinances of the Gospel, both for the living and the dead.” He had his answer and recorded in his journal that he was prepared to act.

The Apostles spent hours discussing the wording of the Manifesto. Nevertheless, President Woodruff believed their decisions were inspired and testified, “When the hour came . . . it was all clear to me. I went before the Lord, and I wrote what the Lord told me to write.” The following day, the Manifesto, finalized in the form of a press release and signed only by Wilford Woodruff, was published in newspapers across the country.

Portrait of Wilford Woodruff. April 16, 1894, Salt Lake City, Utah

Acceptance of the Manifesto

Ten days after the Manifesto was released to the press, it was read in general conference on October 6, 1890. A vote was called to accept President Woodruff’s declaration concerning plural marriages. Some of those present abstained from voting, but the remainder sustained their Prophet’s decision. George Q. Cannon then testified that the Manifesto was from God and was supported by the Apostles. He added that at no time before then had the Spirit “seemed to indicate that this should be done. . . . We have waited for the Lord to move in the matter.” He asked the Saints to do as their leaders had done and pray for their own confirmation that this was God’s will.

Though some Saints quickly found peace with the Manifesto, many others felt betrayed and bewildered. In the past, Wilford Woodruff had repeatedly stated his belief that God would save the Church from its enemies, the federal government among them, and that they would be allowed to live their religion—which included plural marriage—in peace. After forty-five years of refusals to give in or compromise, it was hard for those inside and outside of the Church to accept that the standoff was suddenly over. The Saints wondered why they had fought so hard for so long if the Church leaders were going to capitulate after all.

The Salt Lake Temple with 46-star United States Flag created to celebrate Utah’s statehood in 1896

Those who accused Wilford Woodruff of issuing the Manifesto as an act of desperation were correct in a spiritual sense. He had previously gone to God in prayer many times regarding plural marriage. However, in the fall of 1890, Wilford Woodruff’s query was different. His desperate prayer was for the temples and the sacred work that could only be carried on in places dedicated for that purpose. God’s response was also different. God showed him a vision, not of the apocalyptic end to the United States government he had expected, but of the end of all ordinances on both sides of the veil. Wilford Woodruff said he did not know why the Manifesto was the answer, but he trusted that God knew.

For the next few years President Woodruff found it necessary to defend and explain his decision to issue the Manifesto. He faced and endured the inevitable accusations from within the Church that he had lost the Spirit, betrayed those who had stood their ground for so many years, and even apostatized. Wilford Woodruff’s response to the various accusations came from the very revelation he received on November 24, 1889, leading to the Apostles’ refusal to suspend plural marriage a year earlier.

On that occasion the Lord had promised, “If the Saints will hearken unto my voice, and the counsel of my servants, the wicked shall not prevail. . . . I the Lord will deliver my Saints from the dominion of the wicked, in mine own due time and way.” It was not up to the dissenters within the Church, the persecutors outside the Church, the monogamist majority of Church membership, John Taylor, or Wilford Woodruff. “We did not reveal it,” President Woodruff said. “We cannot denounce or withdraw it.”⁴ Only God could command.

Wilford Woodruff testified that the Lord’s approach was different than his own, that 1890 was the time, and that the Manifesto was the way that God had chosen to deliver them from their enemies. If he had to choose between pleasing God or man, Wilford Woodruff said he would choose to do what God instructed.

Each time Wilford Woodruff spoke of the process he went through to arrive at that pivotal moment in Church history, his explanation was the same: God directed him to suspend the practice of plural marriage to save the temples and the priesthood, thus continuing the exalting work for the living and dead. He also emphatically stated, “I would have let the temples go, gone to prison with the apostles and head of families, allowed the [Church] property to be taken, even suffered death if God had not commanded me to do what I did.”

Continuing Revelation

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continues to be led by a prophet of God who receives continuing revelation. Some changes in Church policy and practices are difficult for many to accept. Some within the Church and outside the Church question whether they are inspired decisions. The response to these concerns and questions remains the same: through prayer we can seek for and receive personal revelation and confirmation of the truths revealed by God to His prophets.

In 1890 when faced with accepting the Manifesto on plural marriage, the counsel to the Saints was, “go unto God yourselves, if you are tried over this and cannot see its purpose; go to your secret chambers and ask God and plead with Him, in the name of Jesus, to give you a testimony . . . and I promise you that you will not come away empty, nor dissatisfied; you will have a testimony, and light will be poured out upon you, and you will see things that perhaps you cannot see and understand at the present time.”

In 2019 President Russell M. Nelson echoed that message in the context of absolute truth, the role of prophets, and God’s laws. In respect to marriage, he stated,

God has not changed His definition of marriage. God has also not changed His law of chastity. …

Though we of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles cannot change the laws of God, we do have the charge to “build up the church, and regulate all the affairs of the same in all nations.” Thus, we can adjust policy when the Lord directs us to do so. You have recently seen such examples. Because the Restoration is ongoing, policy changes will surely continue.

You may know for yourself what is true and what is not by learning to discern the whisperings of the Spirit. For the “Spirit speaketh truth and lieth not. . . . [I]t speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be.”

My dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to seek earnestly a confirmation from the Spirit that what I have told you is true and is from the Lord. He has declared that we may seek knowledge from heaven and expect to receive it: “If thou shalt ask,” the Lord promised, “thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge.”

Now, in my capacity as President of the Church, I invoke a blessing upon you, to be able to discern between right and wrong, between the laws of God and the conflicting voices of the world. I bless you with power to detect the adversary’s deceptions. I bless you with greater capacity to receive revelation. And I bless you to be able to feel the infinite reach of God’s perfect love for you.⁵

Jennifer Ann Mackley’s decades of research on the life and teachings of Wilford Woodruff led to the establishment of the Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation in 2020. She has authored or edited 21 books including Wilford Woodruff’s Witness: The Development of Temple Doctrine (2022) and Desarrollo de la doctrina del templo: Testimonio de Wilford Woodruff (2015). She has made numerous presentations and podcasts based on Wilford Woodruff’s pivotal role in the restoration of temple ordinances and temple worship in the nineteenth century. Prior to becoming Executive Director of the Foundation, she worked as an attorney for 25 years and formed Mackley & Mackley, PLLC with her husband, Carter. They are the parents of three miraculous children. Her hope in transcribing and publishing Wilford Woodruff’s Papers is to help Church members and historians alike understand the importance of the temple and gain insights into the Restoration through his unique perspective of the revelatory process.

To explore Wilford Woodruff’s eyewitness account of the Restoration of the gospel and learn about the 25,000 other people included in his 65 years of records, please visit wilfordwoodruffpapers.org. His records are searchable by topic, places, people, events, and are linked to Come, Follow Me resources and other Church Historian’s Press projects including the discourses of Eliza R. Snow and The Joseph Smith Papers.

Endnotes

¹ Jennifer Ann Mackley, Wilford Woodruff’s Witness: The Development of Temple Doctrine (Seattle, Washington: High Desert Publishing, 2022), p. 235.

² Mackley, Wilford Woodruff’s Witness, pp. 245–246.

³ Mackley, Wilford Woodruff’s Witness, p. 246.

⁴ Mackley, Wilford Woodruff’s Witness, p. 252.

⁵ Russell M. Nelson, The Love and Laws of God, Devotional at Brigham Young University, September 17, 2019,  https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/president-nelson-byu-transcript-september-2019.