Mormons Keep Polygamy

POD: 1890, Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Mormon Church doesn't give up polygamy. Utah doesn't become a state in 1896.

Does the US ever relax its anti-polygamy stance? I'm guessing they probably would sometime, but when? Does Utah ever get statehood? Or does the area become part of another state?
 

NomadicSky

Banned
Probably sometime during one of the WW's to get them involved enough to fight. If not then maybe in the 60's.

This would definitely change the LDS culture.
 
I'd think the feds could out wait them. There's nothing really all that vital in Utah that would make the Feds want to give in. The one significant thing that was done there was completing the transcontinental railroad, IIRC, and that didn't require statehood to do that. The Feds could keep the place in territorial status forever if it wanted... Utah has more to gain from statehood than the Feds do...
 

Hnau

Banned
Speaking as a Mormon myself...

Giving up polygamy was crucial for the Church. By 1899 in OTL it was dangerously near bankruptcy, and held $2 million in debt. Federal confiscation of LDS Church property, as part of its campaign against polygamy, was driving the Church into a financial hole that it would not emerge from until the late 1960s. Worse, the U.S. government threatened to confiscate even religious buildings, cemetaries, and the LDS Temples the Mormons had spent so much time and money to build. Moreover, U.S. confiscation of the LDS Temples would ruin the Church, as revelation had been given that they would not fall, that they would not be destroyed. It would be a hammer blow against the morale of the membership.

In fact, President Woodruff was very smart to issue the 1890 Manifesto. It saved the Church. No doubt the LDS Church would still be around in 1898, when he died, but that extra eight years of federal oppression, compounded the the depression in the country, would have been a horrible trial for the membership. In September 1898, Wilford Woodruff would have died, and the leadership of the LDS Church would pass on to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and shortly thereafter to the next Apostle in line, Lorenzo Snow.

Lorenzo Snow was known for focusing on relieving the financial strain on the Church by pushing tithing reform, historically his biggest impact on the Church. He was an activist, and though a noted polygamist (as was Woodruff), no doubt he would have issued an anti-polygamy Manifesto soon after becoming Prophet, Seer and Revelator. Nevertheless, the last eight years of divergence would leave the Church in a weaker position than OTL, certainly, though those who remained would no doubt be the most zealous and learn from their experiences of self-sacrifice and whatnot. In that case, you might just have some kind of 'Reformation', as seen in the 1850s, maybe during the early 1900s. A lot of interesting things could occur, with the leadership in more zealous hands.

Utah becomes a state in 1905. Its three electoral college votes aren't missed in any of the three elections ITTL that it would have participated in OTL. It also keeps the position as 45th state accepted into the U.S.
 
I figure that Utah still becomes a state - notwithstanding the deviant practices of many of the territory's inhabitants, there are a steady sprinkling of 'Gentiles' and the matter can be handled criminally. So while a civilian government exists, and all privileges of citizenship are granted, there is a strong Federal police and security apparatus working in the new state, rooting out polygamists. Combined with the parlous state of Mormon finances after proto-RICO enforcements as detailed by others, and the staffing of Fort Douglas with significant US Army forces conveniently located in the centre of the West, the polygamists have little option but to cease activity, hide in small numbers in the remoter areas of the desert (as they do today), or revolt. Firstly, are sufficient numbers going to put their lives on the line for the interests of a few? Probably yes if they can be convinced that it is religious oppression for which no remedy can be found. If so, then we not only see a stronger Federal apparatus normalized decades early (and concomitant diminution of States Rights), but the long-term suspension of democracy and rule of law in the United States, spreading as future tests like the Red Scare, the Depression and Labor war of 1937, Vietnam, etc. buffet the country. Endgame, low-level guerrila warfare, concentration / internment camps and military rule. On the other hand, a weaker GOP as millions of clean-cut conservatives are now unborn or gun-toting 'terrorists'. As the project is foolhardy, I think it likely that the second scenario eventuates - Utah is a state seething under the eye of FBI and with a military garrison if need be. Polygamy continues by hiding in remote areas punctuated by widely-publicized arrests every few years. Possibly some sort of settlement program giving incentives to immigrants and the removed West-Coast Japanese, balanced by the decentralization of mormon adherents. Their church structure bankrupted and leaders jailed, temples taken over for government use or converted into Protestant (and Catholic?) churches, there will be a diaspora spreading across the country in small batches keeping quietly to themselves in backwoods areas.
 
I'd think the feds could out wait them. There's nothing really all that vital in Utah that would make the Feds want to give in. The one significant thing that was done there was completing the transcontinental railroad, IIRC, and that didn't require statehood to do that. The Feds could keep the place in territorial status forever if it wanted... Utah has more to gain from statehood than the Feds do...

No doubt the Feds could outwait the Mormons. Suppose the LDS Church decides not to care about statehood. Other than having no reps in Congress, does being a permanent territory have any real disadvantages?
Seems to be like it would essentially be an English-speaking mainland "Puerto Rico"... which could even be an advantage.
 
Speaking as a Mormon myself...

Giving up polygamy was crucial for the Church. By 1899 in OTL it was dangerously near bankruptcy, and held $2 million in debt. Federal confiscation of LDS Church property, as part of its campaign against polygamy, was driving the Church into a financial hole that it would not emerge from until the late 1960s. Worse, the U.S. government threatened to confiscate even religious buildings, cemetaries, and the LDS Temples the Mormons had spent so much time and money to build. Moreover, U.S. confiscation of the LDS Temples would ruin the Church, as revelation had been given that they would not fall, that they would not be destroyed. It would be a hammer blow against the morale of the membership.

In fact, President Woodruff was very smart to issue the 1890 Manifesto. It saved the Church. No doubt the LDS Church would still be around in 1898, when he died, but that extra eight years of federal oppression, compounded the the depression in the country, would have been a horrible trial for the membership. In September 1898, Wilford Woodruff would have died, and the leadership of the LDS Church would pass on to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and shortly thereafter to the next Apostle in line, Lorenzo Snow.

Lorenzo Snow was known for focusing on relieving the financial strain on the Church by pushing tithing reform, historically his biggest impact on the Church. He was an activist, and though a noted polygamist (as was Woodruff), no doubt he would have issued an anti-polygamy Manifesto soon after becoming Prophet, Seer and Revelator. Nevertheless, the last eight years of divergence would leave the Church in a weaker position than OTL, certainly, though those who remained would no doubt be the most zealous and learn from their experiences of self-sacrifice and whatnot. In that case, you might just have some kind of 'Reformation', as seen in the 1850s, maybe during the early 1900s. A lot of interesting things could occur, with the leadership in more zealous hands.

Utah becomes a state in 1905. Its three electoral college votes aren't missed in any of the three elections ITTL that it would have participated in OTL. It also keeps the position as 45th state accepted into the U.S.

The Church could have transferred ownership of its buildings to a non-church corporation and rented them back.... though it is interesting that it took till the 1960s for the Church to recover financially.

Was the Snow tithing reform also when the Church gave up on its "United Order" communal dreams and embraced capitalism?
 
My understanding is that ultimately the Federal Government had the power over territories.

Legally could Congress have passed a bill on Bigamy applying to territories and have sought to suppress the Mormons?

Did anyone ever suggest such a course?
 
Top