Don Wildman
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
It's legislated by no less than Congress.
Several different acts.
Repeatedly.
The Moral Anti-Bigamy Act passed in 1862 by Congress outlawed plural marriage in all U.S.
territories.
Also limited church property ownership.
It kind of weakly enforced during the American Civil War.
Then comes the Edmonds Act in 1882.
This is 20 years later, which officially disenfranchises polygamists, made unlawful cohabitation a crime.
which was easier to prosecute than polygamy.
Polygamists had no voting.
If you were going to be a polygamist, you'd have no voting.
You could not hold office.
You could not be in a jury.
Sounds pretty good to me.
Three, Edmonds is the third one, is the Edmonds-Tucker Act, 18, five years later, 1887.
Dissolves the LDS church as a legal entity, imposes federal control over Utah institutions.
That had to be the big one, right?
Interesting.