Manifesto of the Presidency and Apostles Issued December 12, 1889. Also The Official Declaration or Manifesto by President Wilford Woodruff Prohibiting Further Plural Marriages and Its Adoption by the General Conference, October 6, 1890
- Pamphlet
- Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret News, 1890
Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret News, 1890. Pamphlet. 4pp. Octavo [20 cm] Gray stapled wrappers. Very good. Crease on inside lower left corner of wrappers. Private library stamps on the verso of the front wrap, and in the upper right corner of the first page. Deseret News article from April 6th, 1904, announcing second manifesto attached to inside of the rear cover. This pamphlet reprints 'Official Declaration' from 1889 and adds the one-page piece entitled 'Official Declaration Prohibiting Plural Marriage.' This volume is not to be confused with the First Manifesto issued at the semiannual conference of October, 1890. The 'Manifesto' of 1890 prohibited any new plural marriages. This 'Manifesto of the Presidency...' states the Church's official position on violence and the Church's loyalty to the United States government.
The following one-page piece entitled 'Official Declaration Prohibiting Plural Marriage'. This was the beginning of the end for officially sanctioned plural marriages, and we believe this predates the printing of the conference report of October, 1890. "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."
The defensive tone of both works is apparent. The national mood towards the Mormons in the late 19th century was acidic, with the lurid tales in the Eastern presses of mind control, white slavery, revenge killings and general rotten behavior, the Mormons developed a siege mentality that takes center stage in this work. Flake/Draper locates only four copies. Flake/Draper 1399.
The following one-page piece entitled 'Official Declaration Prohibiting Plural Marriage'. This was the beginning of the end for officially sanctioned plural marriages, and we believe this predates the printing of the conference report of October, 1890. "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."
The defensive tone of both works is apparent. The national mood towards the Mormons in the late 19th century was acidic, with the lurid tales in the Eastern presses of mind control, white slavery, revenge killings and general rotten behavior, the Mormons developed a siege mentality that takes center stage in this work. Flake/Draper locates only four copies. Flake/Draper 1399.