85 years ago today - Jul 5, 1932

First Counselor in the First Presidency Anthony W. Ivins writes to a woman in Mexico who has been excommunicated for polygamy: "I am speaking thus plainly in order that you may know the truth. You have my sympathy. Nothing that I could do justly would I refuse to do. I realize the unfortunate condition in which this has placed you and your family. It is heart-breaking and heart-rending. The difference between these people (those who performed plural marriages after 1904) and myself and others is that we acted with authority from the Church. No person who ever received these ordinances at the hands of men who were authorized has ever been molested." Ivins performed dozens of post-manifesto plural marriages in Mexico between 1897 and 1904.