Doctrine and Covenants - Official Declaration 1 was issued by President Wilford Woodruff stating that the Church was "not teaching polygamy or plural marriage, nor permitting any person to enter into its practice. . . . "
The declaration is commonly known as "The Manifesto of 1890" or as "The Manifesto."In it, President Woodruff stated: "Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress forbidding plural marriages, which laws have been pronounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws, and to use my influence with the members of the Church over which I preside to have them do likewise. . . . "
The declaration, dated Sept. 24, 1890, was sustained by unanimous vote by the Church Oct. 6, 1890. Its issuance came after years of persecution and hardship in which Latter-day Saints resisted what they saw as unconstitutional federal attempts to curb the practice of plural marriage.
In the years prior to the Manifesto, the Church suffered as a result of the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887, which included provisions aimed at destroying the Church as a political and economic entity. At the end of August 1890, President Woodruff received confirmation that the U.S. Government, in spite of an 1888 agreement promising that temples would not be disturbed, was going to confiscate them.
President Woodruff later explained that the Lord had shown him by revelation exactly what would take place if plural marriage did not cease. He was shown that the Church would suffer the "confiscation and loss of all the Temples, and the stopping of all the ordinances therein, both for the living and the dead, and the imprisonment of the First Presidency and Twelve and the heads of families in the Church, and the confiscation of personal property of the people. . . .
"The Lord showed me by vision and revelation exactly what would take place if we did not stop this practice. . . . " (See "Excerpts from Three Addresses by President Wilford Woodruff Regarding the Manifesto, Doctrine and Covenants - Declaration 1.)
