100 years ago today - Apr 11, 1911

President Joseph F. Smith replies to Senator Reed Smoot's urgent appeal for an official statement on post-Manifesto polygamy, President Smith wires: "If the President inquire about new polygamy, tell him the truth, tell him that Prest. [George Q.] Cannon was the first to conceive the idea that the Church could consistently countenance polygamy beyond confines of the republic where there was no law against it, and consequently he authorized the solemnization of plural marriages in Mexico and Canada after manifesto of 1890, and the men occupying presiding positions who became polygamists since the manifesto married in good faith under those circumstances. This being the case could we consistently be expected to humiliate them by releasing them?" At the time in question, however, polygamy was illegal in both Mexico and Canada.

[Source: On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]