Sept 25 1890
Official Declaration
To whom it may concern
Press dispatches having been sent for Political purposes
from Salt Lake City which have been widely published
to the Effect that the Utah Commission in their resent
report to the secretary of the interior allege that plural
marriages are still being solemnized and that forty or
more such marriages have been contracted in Utah
sinc last June or during the past year, also that in public
discourses the Leaders of the Church have taught Encourged
and urged the continuance of the practice of Poligamy
I therefore as president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints do hereby in the most solemn manner declare
that these charges are fals. We are not teaching poligamy
or plural marriage nor permitting any person to
Enter into the practice and I deny that Either forty
or any other number of plural marriages have during
that Period been solemnized in our temples or in
any place in the territory. One case has been reportd
in which the parties alleged that the marriage was perf-
ormed in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City
in the Spring of 1889, but I have not been able
to learn who performed the cerimony what Ever was done
in the matter was without my knowledge in consequence of this
alleged occurance the Endowment [House] was taken down by my instruction
without Delay Inasmuch as laws have been Enacted by congress forbidding
plural marriages which laws have been pronounced constitutional
by the court of the last resort. I hereby declare my intention to submit
to those laws and to use my influence with the members of the Church
over which I preside to have them do likewise There is nothing in my
teachings to the Church or those of my Associates during the time specified
which can reasonably be construed to inculcate or Encourage poligamy and
when any Elder of the Church has used language which appeared to convey
such teaching he has been promptly reproved And I now publicly declair that
my advice to the Latter Day Saints is to refrain from contracting any
Marriage forbidden by the Law of the land Wilford Woodruff
president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Sept 25 1890 Official Declaration To whom it may concern Press dispatches having been sent for Political purposes from Salt Lake City which have been widely published to the Effect that the Utah Commission in their resent report to the secretary of the interior allege that plural marriages are still being solemnized and that forty or more such marriages have been contracted in Utah sinc last June or during the past year, also that in public discourses the Leaders of the Church have taught Encourged and urged the continuance of the practice of Poligamy I therefore as president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints do hereby in the most solemn manner declare that these charges are fals. We are not teaching poligamy or plural marriage nor permitting any person to Enter into the practice and I deny that Either forty or any other number of plural marriages have during that Period been solemnized in our temples or in any place in the territory. One case has been reportd in which the parties alleged that the marriage was performed in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City in the Spring of 1889, but I have not been able to learn who performed the cerimony what Ever was done in the matter was without my knowledge in consequence of this alleged occurance the Endowment House was taken down by my instruction without Delay Inasmuch as laws have been Enacted by congress forbidding plural marriages which laws have been pronounced constitutional by the court of the last resort. I hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws and to use my influence with the members of the Church over which I preside to have them do likewise There is nothing in my teachings to the Church or those of my Associates during the time specified which can reasonably be construed to inculcate or Encourage poligamy and when any Elder of the Church has used language which appeared to convey such teaching he has been promptly reproved And I now publicly declair that my advice to the Latter Day Saints is to refrain from contracting any Marriage forbidden by the Law of the land Wilford Woodruff president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints