"Temple for Sale" --- A Painting, and a Newspaper Clipping concerning the 1848 Burning of the Nauvoo, Illinois Mormon Temple. Images are from Strangite.org

 

Chester A. Arthur, the 21st President of the United States on the Mormon Church

Chester A. Arthur the 21st President of the United States was critical of the Mormon Church as well. During his 1st annual address on Dec. 6th, 1881, he told his audience, "The fact that adherents of the Mormon Church, which rests upon polygamy as its corner stone, have recently been peopling in large numbers Idaho, Arizona, and other of our Western Territories is well calculated to excite the liveliest interest and apprehension. It imposes upon Congress and the Executive the duty of arraying against this barbarous system all the power which under the Constitution and the law they can wield for its destruction. Reference has been already made to the obstacles which the United States officers have encountered in their efforts to punish violations of law. Prominent among these obstacles is the difficulty of procuring legal evidence sufficient to warrant a conviction even in the case of the most notorious offenders. Your attention is called to a recent opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, explaining its judgment of reversal in the case of Miles, who had been convicted of bigamy in Utah. The court refers to the fact that the secrecy attending the celebration of marriages in that Territory makes the proof of polygamy very difficult, and the propriety is suggested of modifying the law of evidence which now makes a wife incompetent to testify against her husband. This suggestion is approved. I recommend also the passage of an act providing that in the Territories of the United States the fact that a woman has been married to a person charged with bigamy shall not disqualify her as a witness upon his trial for that offense. I further recommend legislation by which any person solemnizing a marriage in any of the Territories shall be required, under stringent penalties for neglect or refusal, to file a certificate of such marriage in the supreme court of the Territory."

James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States of America on the Mormon Church

 

James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States of America, was highly anxious, critical, and distrustful of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its abuse of its political power. He said at his inaugural address on March 4th, 1881 concerning the church, "The Mormon Church not only offends the moral sense of manhood by sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the administration of justice through ordinary instrumentalities of law. In my judgment it is the duty of Congress, while respecting to the uttermost the conscientious convictions and religious scruples of every citizen, to prohibit within its jurisdiction all criminal practices, especially of that class which destroy the family relations and endanger social order. Nor can any ecclesiastical organization be safely permitted to usurp in the smallest degree the functions and powers of the National Government."

"Martyrdom of Joseph and Hiram Smith in Carthage jail, June 27th, 1844"

Author: Charles G. Crehen Publisher: N.Y. : Nagel & Weingaertner, ©1851.

This image displays the brutal and historic death of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In this image, Smith is lying on the ground dead after having been blasted out of his second-story jail cell by an angry rifle wielding mob. One of Smith's killers, (or possibly a conspirator standing by) with his face painted black to conceal his identity, wields a knife, aiming it over the dead body of Smith, to either scalp his corpse, or otherwise mutilate it with the sharpened blade. A high-ranking freemason stands next to the would be knifer, holding out his right hand, supposedly halting the mutilation.

MORMONS: POLYGAMY, 1883. The Great Sin of the Century

MORMONS: POLYGAMY, 1883. The Great Sin of the Century.

Uncle Sam has difficulties enforcing the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1882, which declared polygamy a felony and revoked the polygamists right to vote. Cartoon from an American newspaper of 1883.

The early (19th century) Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was oftentimes charged with crimes from lewd cohabitation to murder and assassinations.

The United States vs. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Federal Polygamy and Murder Charges Are Brought Against Brigham Young, Head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1871)

Posted on 2020-11-06

Newspaper title:
Maine weekly state press
Date Original;
20 Nov 1871
Date Original: 

Search: 1871-11-20
Page Number: p. 5
Column 5
Size 3 ½ col. in. Publisher Original, Portland, Maine : N.A. Foster & Co.Title: 

The U.S. Court in Utah. Summary: Brigham Young and two other men have been charged for lewd and lascivious cohabitation. Young, and a number of other Latter-day Saint men have also been charged with murder. The court is engaged in a hearing on whether or not to overturn the murder charges against several Mormon men. Subject: Young, Brigham, 1801–1877—Trials, litigation, etc.
Polygamy—Cases—Utah
Trials (Murder)—Utah

Publisher: Digital Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University

The Up-to-date Father Goose

Title	Up-To-Date Father Goose
Description	Joseph Smith, Head of the Mormon Church, sits in a shoe labelled Polygamy crawling with children. The caption reads "There was an old man who lived in a shoe, He had so many children he didn't know what to do, He couldn't keep count - they just grew and grew- And before he hardly knew it, he had forty-two." Joseph F. Smith, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, was the leader of the Mormon's in Utah, and claimed to oppose the practice of Polygamy. However, he had 42 children, and had previously had multiple wives. The issue had come to a head because of the election of Reed Smoot as senator from Utah, and concerns that he supported Polygamy.
Subject	Polygamy Mormons -- United States Smith, Joseph F., 1838-1918 Smith, Joseph
Artist	Bartholomew, Charles Lewis 'Bart', 1869-1949
Date	1904-03-08

Scalped on the Plains : Incidents in Mormon History : Image is from the Library of Congress

About this Item Title: Scalped on the plains incidents in Mormon history. Summary: Photograph shows two men, one wearing military uniform and holding reins of horse, kneeling next to a dead man's body. The dead body which has been scalped with a scalping knife, a hatchet, or another extremely sharp object or weapon, belongs to a deceased Mormon man. The backstory of the incident is unknown. Contributor Names Soule, William S. (William Stinson), 1836-1908, photographer Created / Published 1868. Subject Headings - Mormons--History--Kansas--Fort Dodge--1860-1870 - Scalping--Kansas--Fort Dodge--1860-1870 - Dead persons--Kansas--Fort Dodge--1860-1870

Two (U.S.) soldiers kneeling over the dead body of a Mormon man who has been scalped on the plains somewhere in the United States of America, possibly in the Utah Territory (19th century).

Polygamists in striped prison uniforms including the politician George Q. Cannon

Polygamists in striped prison uniforms, including George Q. Cannon (center with cane), William Gimbert Saunders (second from right), and William Morley Black (right of Cannon with white beard). These men were also known as "Prisoners of Conscience." The men holding the prisoners in custody are likely jailers who are employed by the United States federal government.
Photo Number P0450n02
Keywords Utah; Mormons and Latter-Day Saints; Mormon History; Polygamy; Men; Portraits; Prison and prisoners; Jail
Subject Cannon, George Q. (George Quayle), 1827-1901--Photographs
Additional Information See Manuscript Accn 1224
Collection Number and Name P0450 George Q. Cannon Photograph Collection
Collection Name George Q. Cannon
Textual Date April 5, 1886

Item found on the University of Utah's digital library.

(Tribune file photo) Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Polygamists while incarcerated at the territorial prison in Salt Lake City.

Image found on the Salt Lake City Tribune Newspaper's Website. Circa 1880s.

Title: The balls are rolling - clear the track ---Creator(s): N. Currier (Firm),

Date Created/Published: N.Y. : For sale [by Nathaniel Currier] at no. 2 Spruce St., [1856]

Medium: 1 print on wove paper : lithograph ; image 29 x 40 cm.

Summary: A Republican boast, showing Fillmore (left) and Buchanan crushed by an electoral flood of giant balls inscribed with the names of northern and western states. Strewn on the ground around Fillmore and Buchanan are papers, "Border Ruffianism," "Kansas Bogus Laws," "Polygamy & Slavery," etc.--charges associated with the previous Democratic administration's handling of Kansas and the Mormon question. Here Buchanan is pressed beneath the "Cincinnati Platform" of the Democratic convention, while Fillmore holds two documents, the "Fugitive Slave Bill" (a measure he supported and stringently enforced while President) and an "Albany Speech." At the upper right is an eagle holding a banderole with Republican candidates' names "Fremont" and "Dayton." He clutches a bundled fasces with the words "Union," "Liberty," and "Constitution" on it. In the sky at right appears a rainbow with the party's motto: "Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Men & Fremont." At right a view into the distance shows a burning town in Kansas, fled by women and children. In the distance are the Rocky Mountains, a railroad train bound for California, and the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The giant balls may be intended to recall the giant ball of Locofocoism used to the derision of the Democrats in Whig cartoons of the 1840 presidential campaign. (See, for example, "The Almighty Lever," no. 1840-8.) Decidedly supportive of Fremont, the cartoon is the exception for Nathaniel Currier, who issued many harshly anti-Republican satires during the 1856 campaign. Currier seems more often to have sided with American party candidate Millard Fillmore. (Library of Congress)

Shall Reed Smoot, a Mormon, hold a seat in the United States Senate?

President Smith, of the Mormon Church, as the Senate Committee's hearing in the case of Reed Smoot, boldly confessing the practice of polygamy by himself and associates
Summary
Joseph Smith being cross-examined by Seantor Hoar.
Created / Published
1904.
Notes
-  Wood engraving after drawing by T. Dart Walker.
-  Illus. in: Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, (1904 March 17), p. 245.

"How to Get a Nomination" (Political Cartoon) [1872]

• Title: How to get a nomination ... take your firends to a primary meeting. You embrace all the "issues", especially Bloomerism and Mormonism
• Date Created/Published: [1872]
• Medium: 1 print : wood engraving.
• Summary: Caricature of politician hugging "bloomer girl" and group of Mormon wives.
• Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-68868 (b&w film copy neg.)
• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
• Call Number: Illus. in AP101.F57 [General Collections]
• Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
• Notes:
  • Illus. in: Frank Leslie's Budget of Fun, 1872 Jan., #188, p. 9.
  • This record contains unverified, old data from caption card.
  • Caption card tracings: Trials; Politicians; Bloomers; Polygamy; Mormons; Cartoons, U.S. 1872; B.I.

Lorenzo Snow, Plaintiff in Error, v. The United States of America, concerning its ban on polygamy in Utah. 19th Century. (Description below is from the University of Wisconsin)

• Schroeder Collection copy is trimmed.
• "Lorenzo Snow, commonly called "Apostle Snow" ... of the Mormon church, was convicted and sentenced on three indictments in the District court of Utah territory, for violating the 3d section of the act of Congress passed March 22, 1882, known as the "Edmunds act." The judgments were affirmed by the Supreme court of Utah."--p. [3]

Mormons, Polygamy, and the Edmonds-Tucker Act of 1882 (Political Cartoon)

Uncle Sam (The United States Federal Government) attempts to enforce the Edmonds-Tucker Act, which effectively abolished polygamy, made it a felony, and revoked polygamists' rights. In this image, an officer (Uncle Sam), approaches a Mormon stronghold to appropriate justice, namely, in the Utah Territory as it was called then (Now it is called Utah). The plural wives look distressed, while their polygamous husband rolls up his sleeves, ready to defy the United States federal government, a scene indicative of the Mormon attitude toward the United states federal government in those days and also in the present time. ;---From The Daily Graphic Newspaper - Volume 32 - From the Monday, October 22, 1883 Edition (NYC)

“Burst the Other Day at Washington, D. C.” - George Q. Cannon, A Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Blasted from his Congressional Seat for Polygamy and Defiance of Federal Statutes

  

May 6, 1882

Thomas Nast

This cartoon dramatizes the ejection of George Q. Cannon, the Utah delegate, from his seat in Congress because of his practice of polygamy (he had four wives).

Since being founded by Joseph Smith in the 1820s, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (informally, the Mormon Church) was one of the most controversial groups in nineteenth-century America.  Central to that concern was the official Mormon doctrine of blessing and encouraging polygamy (husbands having more than one wife concurrently).  During the antebellum era, disputes with their neighbors forced the Mormons to flee from New York to Ohio, then to Missouri, Illinois, and finally the Western territory they called Deseret (Utah). 

During the second half of the nineteenth century, tensions mounted between the Mormons in Utah and the federal government.  In the winter of 1857-58, President James Buchanan dispatched federal troops to Utah to ensure that federal law was enforced.  In 1862, Congress passed a law outlawing plural marriage (having more than one spouse concurrently).  To implement the law in the 1870s, President Ulysses S. Grant ordered federal marshals to Utah, where they arrested hundreds of Mormons for practicing polygamy.  In 1879, the U. S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Congressional statute.  Chief Justice Morrison Waite, using the fateful metaphor "a wall of separation between church and state," argued that the First Amendment did not protect religious activities that violated the public interest.

Mormon juries and officials in the Utah Territory, however, refused to comply with the federal ruling.  In 1880, President Rutherford B. Hayes recommended that, as a last resort, Mormons be disfranchised in Utah.  His immediate successors, Presidents James Garfield and Chester Arthur, also vehemently condemned polygamy as a morally repugnant crime that undermined the family unit and the social order.  Hundreds of petitions and dozens of bills were introduced into Congress on the Mormon Question.

The only bill to make it out of committee was drafted by Senator George Edmunds of Vermont.  He had visited Utah and reported his findings and recommendations in the January 1882 issue of Harper's Monthly (the sister publication of Harper's Weekly).  The Edmunds Bill extended the 1862 Congressional law, which deemed plural marriage a felony, by prohibiting polygamists from voting, serving on juries, or holding public office.  It also established a five-member Utah Commission to be appointed by the president for the purpose of registering and certifying elections.

Democratic opponents argued that it was a Republican ploy to gain political control of Utah, and that it violated due process rights.  The Mormon Church strongly denounced the measure.  The Edmunds Bill, however, passed both houses, and President Arthur signed it into law on March 22, 1882.  Nast's cartoon depicts one of the first consequences of the Edmunds Act:  the firing of Cannon, Utah's Congressional delegate.

Mormons in the Utah Territory continued to resist federal intervention, polygamy flourished, arrests continued (with few convictions), and Congressmen proposed harsher penalties.  Finally, in 1890, Wilfred Woodruff, president of the Latter-Day Saints, issued a statement that the Mormon Church no longer condoned the practice of polygamy.  In 1896, Congress admitted the Utah Territory to statehood.

Title "What it is bound to come to" Summary U.S. soldier forcing Brigham Young into divorce court. Created / Published 1873. Notes - Illus. in: Wild Oats, v. 5, no. 52 (1873 Mar. 13), p. 13. - This record contains unverified, old data from caption card. - Caption card tracings: Marriage Cartoon theme 1872-73; Army, U.S.; Constitution, U.S.; Actors; Cartoons, U.S. 1872-73; Eagle (Am-Cartoons 1873); Uncle Sam; Courtrooms; Corruption in gov't; Credit Mobilier; Mormons; Polygamy; B.I. Medium

Brigham Young being led into divorce court by gunpoint (political cartoon).

Mormonism, the social hydra : are our senators too fat to play the Hercules? Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard Lampoon, 1882. Edition/Format: Image : Picture : English Publication: Harvard lampoon, vol. 3 no. 1, Feb. 3, 1882 (second series)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a Hydra, one of Hercules' many enemies.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre, by TBH Stenhouse

"Mountain Meadows Massacre" by T.B.H Steinhouse - 1873 --Summary - (1857 )– On September 11, 1857, approximately 120 men, women, and children in a wagon train from Arkansas were murdered by a band of Mormons set on a holy vengeance. Known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the history of this event continues to generate fierce controversy and deep emotions even to this day. 4 DAYS AGO

Photo

The Danites (Early American Frontier Mormon Church Thugs)

The Danites

Author:	W.J. Morgan & Co.,
Publisher:	[between 1860 and 1890]
Edition/Format:	Image : Graphic : Original artwork : Picture : No Linguistic Content
Publication:	Popular graphic art print filing series (Library of Congress)
Summary:	One scene showing group of men, with one man asking woman, "Married mum?," and another scene showing woman replying, "No sir!"
Rating:	(not yet rated) 0 with reviews - Be the first.

The Danites were the church's hired assassins, disrupters, and were enemy belligerents of the United States of America.