(Wilford Woodruff) The Church had been disincorporated and all its property in excess of $50,000 confiscated by the federal government; more than a thousand men had been sentenced to prison for unlawful cohabitation. In February the Supreme Court had upheld the Idaho law which disfranchised anyone unwilling to take an oath denouncing plural marriage.
1891. October 19: Church leaders hoped that the Manifesto would unlock the door to statehood for Utah and provide relief from federal legislation. But testifying before the Master in Chancery for the return of escheated Church property, President Woodruff extended the Manifesto beyond its original intent. When asked if the Manifesto prohibited "living or associating in plural marriage by those already in the status," he replied, "I intended the proclamation to cover the whole ground—to obey the laws of the land entirely."
[Van Wagoner, Richard and Walker, Steven C., A Book of Mormons, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
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