118 PK RTLS. — :si RM N ISxM. 



cohabitation, undur the Edmunds Law, fi'oni 1882 to 

 1889. But this number is only five per cent of those 

 known to be guilty. ^ The governor of the territory, 

 Hon. A. L. Thomas, who is thoroughly acquainted ivith 

 the situation, says, ^ "The government has been for 

 years well represented by able and efficient officers, 

 and the result has been important, but not decisive. 

 This course (vigorous prosecution) has not changed opin- 

 ion, but has caused greater care in concealing offenses. " 



Wilford Woodruff, the President of the Mormon 

 Church has recently issued a proclamation in which he 

 says : ' ' Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress 

 forbidding plural marriages, which laws have been pro- 

 nounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I do 

 hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws and 

 to use all my influence with the members of the church 

 over which I preside to have them do likewise." 



If this declaration was made in good faith, it would 

 probably mean that polygamy is to be abandoned, at 

 least for a time. It is, however, the well-nigh universal 

 opinion of Gentiles in Salt Lake City that this manifesto 

 was a mere trick intended for obvious reasons to hood- 

 wink the public. We have seen that polygamy might 

 be destroyed without seriously weakening Mormonisin; 

 indeed, its destruction, by allaying suspicion, by creat- 

 ing the impression that the Mormon problem is solved, 

 and by removing the obstacle to Utah's admission as a 

 state, might materially strengthen Mormonism. Any 

 blow to be really effective must be aimed at the priestly 

 despotism. 



The political power of the hierarchy has been in some 

 measure curtailed by two decisions of the Supreme Court 

 rendered February 3, 1890. One decision sustains the con- 

 stitutionality of the law of Idaho which disfranchises all 

 who are "members of any order, organization, or asso- 

 ciation which teaches, advises, counsels, or encourages 



' Montgomery's Mormon Delusion, p. 293. 

 8 Report of the Governor of Utah, 1889. 



