The 1890 Manifesto, ending the official practice…

The 1890 Manifesto, ending the official practice of polygamy, is a dramatic turning point in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Also known as the Woodruff Manifesto or the Anti-polygamy Manifesto), the statement officially advises against any future plural marriage in LDS Church).

Issued by church president Wilford Woodruff on September 25, 1890, the Manifesto is a response to mounting anti-polygamy pressure from the United States Congress, which by 1890 has disincorporated the church, escheated its assets to the U.S. federal government, and imprisoned many prominent polygamist Mormons.

Upon its issuance, the LDS Church in conference accepts Woodruff's Manifesto as "authoritative and binding."

In April 1889, Woodruff had begun privately refusing the permission that was required to contract new plural marriages.

In October 1889, Woodruff had publicly admitted that he was no longer approving new polygamous marriages, and in answer to a reporter's question of what the LDS Church's attitude was toward the law against polygamy, Woodruff had stated, "We mean to obey it. We have no thought of evading it or ignoring it."

Because it had been Mormon practice for over twenty-five years to either evade or ignore anti-polygamy laws, Woodruff's statement was a signal that a change in church policy was developing.

In February 1890, the Supreme Court had already ruled in Davis v. Beason that a law in Idaho Territory which disenfranchised individuals who practiced or believed in plural marriage was constitutional.

That decision had left the Mormons no further legal recourse to their current marriage practices and made it unlikely that without change Utah Territory would be granted statehood.

Woodruff will later say that on the night of September 23, 1890, he had received a revelation from Jesus Christ that the church should cease the practice of plural marriage.

The following morning, he had reported this to some of the general authorities and placed the hand-written draft on a table.

George Reynolds will later recount that he, Charles W. Penrose, and John R. Winder had modified Woodruff's draft into the current language accepted by the general authorities and presented to the church as a whole.

Woodruff announces the Manifesto on September 25 by publishing it in the church-owned Deseret Weekly in Salt Lake City.

On October 6, 1890, it will be formally accepted by the church membership, though many hold reservations or abstain from voting.