What Was the 1890 Manifesto and Did It Really End Polygamy?

LDS Perspective

The 1890 Manifesto, now canonized as Official Declaration 1 in the Doctrine and Covenants, was a revelation issued by President Wilford Woodruff on September 25, 1890, that marked the beginning of the end of plural marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For approximately half a century, Church members had practiced plural marriage as a commandment from God revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, believing it necessary to "raise up" a righteous posterity unto the Lord. However, following decades of intense federal opposition—including the Edmunds-Tucker Act that threatened to confiscate Church property and close the temples—President Woodruff sought divine guidance regarding the Church's survival. He recorded that "the Lord showed me by vision and revelation exactly

Historical Perspective

The 1890 Manifesto was a formal declaration issued by Wilford Woodruff, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on September 24, 1890, stating that the Church would no longer teach or authorize plural marriages and would submit to federal anti-polygamy laws. The document emerged under severe institutional duress: on May 19, 1890, the Supreme Court had ruled that the federal government could dissolve the Church as a corporate entity and confiscate its property, including the temples at Logan, Manti, St. George, and the nearly completed Salt Lake Temple. Woodruff recorded in his journal that he acted for "the temporal salvation of the church," recognizing that without compliance, the Church would lose its ability to perform missionary work and temple ordinances, and pol