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Show B M OFFICIAL DECL1B1TI0. H Si To Whom t May Concern: B Uj PBES3 dispatches having been sent B f for political pjrposes, from Bait Ike jH City, which have been widely put- IB llshed, to the effect that the. Utah fl I Commission, In their recent report jH i ;, to the Secretary of the Interior, jflK i allege that plural marriages are HH5 ttlll being solemnized and that forty B 1 or more such marriages have been H , contracted In Utah since last June H 1 or during the past year; also that B I jn pullie discourses the leaders of H j the Church have tsugbt,encouraged K and urged tho continuance of the H practice ol polygamy; ! I, therefore, as Pr esident of the Caurch of Jesus Christ of Latter- asaajajajaja; ., day Saints, da beroby, in the most H -j solemn manner, declare that these K charges are false. We are not B ' : teaching palygmiy, or plur.il mar- BBH - 1 riage, nor permitting any person to BBB enter into its practice, and I deny pBBBJ '- that either forty or any other num- BBBJ ; I berof plural marriages have during iaalaW '"if that period been solemnized in our . i templei or in any other place In the J Terntory. BBB One caso ha been reported, In pBBBJ r which the parties alleged that the SSSj t marriage was performed in the BBV Eadowm-mt Uom, in Halt lake B i City, in till spring of 1SS9, but I BBSS 1 have nt been able to learn who LsalalalK I r performel the ceremony; what- J "r rer wu done In this mat- BBBBj E ter wai without my tnpwl- BBBBS I edge. In consequence of this BBBBj I allegci occurrence the Kndow- BBB! I mentHouu was, by my lustruc- BBBB v 3 tlooi, taken down without delay. ilnasmjch as laws have been enacted en-acted by Congress forbidding plural marriages, which laws have been pronounced constitutional by the court of lat resort, I hereby declare asaajajajaj j. my Intention to submit to those BBBB 'I i laws, and to use my influence with BBBB t i the msmbvra of tho Church over BBBB 1 1 f which I preside to have them do BBBj j f likewise BBBJ " There is nothing In my teachings BBBJ j to the Church or In thoe of my BBBJj associates, during tho time specified, BBBj i '" which can reasinably be construed BBBJj 1 j to inculcate or encourage polyg- BBBE 1 1 omy, and when any Elder of the BBBJ 1 1 I Church has used language which BBBJ I appeared to convey each teaching BBBJ , j i he has bsen promptly reproved. And BBBJ '3 now publicly declare that my ad- BBBJ I vice to the Latter-day Saints Is to BBBt f I refrain from contracting any BBBJ I marriage forbid leu by the law of BBBJ the land. BBBJ Wilfjbd Woodruff, BBBJ ' President of the Church of Jesu H H Christ or Latter-day Saints. BBBJ 1 riie toreSlnS was sent to the As- BBBJ f 1 sociate-I Press for publication, but BBBJ ' has only appearel here in a con- BBBJ ' - denssd form, hicii poorly conveys BBBJ the sntiinpnts of tho writer. This BBBJ ; J Is the full document as prepared and H slgsed ofllcially uy President Wil- BBBk ' ford Woodruff. |
