After the Supreme Court of the United States decided the constitutionality of what was known as the anti-polygamy law, the Church, as you know, could no longer solemnize plural marriages, and it became very apparent at that time that the then changed conditions confronting us were going to work out great evil amongst us as a community, especially among our young people, and as a means of checking the spirit of immorality, which at that time was beginning to manifest itself, President John Taylor felt called upon to deal with this evil in a drastic way, by imposing upon the bishops the duty of requiring all Church members guilty of sexual sin to make public confession, and ask public forgiveness, and this without taking into account the gravity of the sin committed, or the extent to which it was known.
[Source: First Presidency, Letter to L. N. Marsden and Counselors, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
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