🚀 go-pugleaf

Norman Gall wrote:
> 
> In article <3528FC76.B065E81E@netcom.com>, Gordon@netcom.com wrote:
> 
[snip]
>
> Way too subtle actually.  First, you have a very poor account of Mormon
> History.  There was no law passed the outlawed the Mormon practice of
> polygamym, but the Mormon Church renoucing the practice was a condition
> for the entry of Utah to the Union. 

Utah entered the Union in 1896, so here's some US history for everyone.
I don't know of the Canadian history behind the Mormons, and in Burnaby
we never learned about it, like we did for the US Migration West. 

In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected President on a platform to abolish
slavery and polygamy. In 1862 he signed the Morrill Act which made
polygamy illegal. The Mormons chose to ignore this law. Thus while the
Mormons accepted polygamy as part of their religious beliefs, the United
States considered it comparable to slavery.

After the end of the civil war, Evangelical Protestants,women's rights
groups and many other religious groups came to Utah to eliminate the
practice and even convert the Mormons. Missionaries, schools and YMCA
groups were set up in Utah to rescue the children/women. They were
unsuccessful. On the other hand there developed a disturbing high
divorce rate in polygamist marriages and the practice seemed to be
dwindling down on its own. In 1882 the Edmunds Act was passed which made
polygamy a crime, punishable with a 5 year prison sentence, lose of
voting rights, the right to serve on a jury or hold elective office. The
United States government enforced this law by sending in scores of
federal officials to question men, women and children to seek out those
people practicing polygamy. Since nonMormons had seized control of the
legal system and the juries, the Mormon Church went underground. Arrests
for polygamy greatly increased and soon prisons were overflowing and the
courts had difficulty handling the load.

In 1882 the Edmunds-Tucker Act officially dissolved the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. All funds were confiscated and the Church
was not allowed to collect tithing. All property valued over $50,000
became property of the federal government. All Mormon schools were
abolished. Mormons could not vote, serve in political office or on
juries (90% of the population was Mormon at the time). Women voting
rights were abolished and children of plural marriages were
disinherited. 

In 1890, the Edmunds-Tucker Act was declared constitutional by the
Supreme Court and legislation was pushed in Congress to make it illegal
for a Mormon to be a citizen of the United States. The new president of
the Church, Wilfred Woodruff, was struck by how close the Church was to
being destroyed by the government of the United States and in 1890
issued a proclamation, called the Manifesto, declaring that Mormons
would no longer practice polygamy. 

So.... I've learned something anyways.

Gordon.