Editing Mormons (section)

=== Pioneer era ===

For two years after Joseph Smith's death, conflicts escalated between Mormons and other Illinois residents. To prevent war, Brigham Young led the [[Mormon pioneers]] (constituting most of the Latter Day Saints) to a temporary [[Winter Quarters (North Omaha, Nebraska)|winter quarters]] in Nebraska and then, eventually (beginning in 1847), to what became the [[Utah Territory]].<ref name="emigration-religious-freedom">In 2004, the State of Illinois recognized the expulsion of the Latter-day Saints as the "largest forced migration in American history" and stated in the adopted resolution that, "WHEREAS, The biases and prejudices of a less enlightened age in the history of the State of Illinois caused unmeasurable hardship and trauma for the community of Latter-day Saints by the distrust, violence, and inhospitable actions of a dark time in our past; therefore, be it RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we acknowledge the disparity of those past actions and suspicions, regretting the expulsion of the community of Latter-day Saints, a people of faith and hard work." {{cite web |url = http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?GAID=3&SessionID=3&GA=93&DocTypeID=HR&DocNum=0793&LegID=12984&SpecSess=&Session= |title = Official House Resolution HR0793 (LRB093 21726 KEF 49525 r) |author = Illinois General Assembly |date = April 1, 2004 |access-date = April 4, 2011 |archive-date = June 20, 2022 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220620015748/http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?GAID=3 |url-status = live }}; "The great Mormon migration of 1846–1847 was but one step in the Mormons' quest for religious freedom and growth." {{citation |url = http://www.nps.gov/mopi/historyculture/index.htm |title = Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail: History & Culture |work = NPS.gov |publisher = [[National Park Service]] |access-date = July 9, 2014 |archive-date = December 8, 2014 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141208215457/http://www.nps.gov/mopi/historyculture/index.htm |url-status = live }}.</ref> Having failed to build Zion within the confines of American society, the Mormons began to construct a society in isolation based on their beliefs and values.<ref>{{Harvtxt|O'Dea|1957|p=86}} ("Having failed to build Zion within the confines of American society, the Latter-day Saints found in the Great Basin the isolation that would enable them to establish a distinctive community based upon their own beliefs and values").</ref> The cooperative ethic that Mormons had developed over the last decade and a half became important as settlers branched out and colonized a large desert region now known as the [[Mormon Corridor]].<ref>{{Harvtxt|O'Dea|1957|p=84}} (From 1847 to 1857 ninety-five Mormon communities were established, most of them clustering around Salt Lake City); {{Cite journal |journal = Pacific Historical Review |volume = 8 |issue = 2 |title = The Mormon Corridor |last = Hunter |first = Milton |date = June 1939 |jstor = 3633392 |pages = 179–200 |doi = 10.2307/3633392 }}.</ref> Colonizing efforts were seen as religious duties, and the new villages were governed by the Mormon [[bishop (Latter Day Saints)|bishops]] (local lay religious leaders).<ref>{{Harvtxt|O'Dea|1957|pp=86–89}}.</ref> The Mormons viewed land as a commonwealth, devising and maintaining a cooperative system of irrigation that allowed them to build a farming community in the desert.<ref>{{Harvtxt|O'Dea|1957|pp=87–91}}.</ref>

From 1849 to 1852, the Mormons greatly expanded their missionary efforts, establishing several [[Mission (LDS Church)|missions]] in Europe, Latin America, and the South Pacific.<ref name="ODea91">{{Harvtxt|O'Dea|1957|p=91}}.</ref> Converts were expected to "gather" to Zion, and during Young's presidency (1847–77), over seventy thousand Mormon converts immigrated to America.<ref name=ODea91 /> Many of the converts came from England and [[Scandinavia]] and were quickly assimilated into the Mormon community.<ref>{{Harvtxt|O'Dea|1957|pp=91–92}}; {{citation |url = http://welshmormon.byu.edu/ |title = Welsh Mormon History |work = WelshMormon.BYU.edu |publisher = [[BYU Research Institutes|Center for Family History and Genealogy]], [[Brigham Young University]] |access-date = July 10, 2014 |archive-date = July 14, 2014 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140714202310/http://welshmormon.byu.edu/ |url-status = live }} During the 1840s and 1850s many thousands of Welsh Mormon converts immigrated to America, and today, it is estimated that around 20 percent of the population of [[Utah]] is of Welsh descent.</ref> Many of these immigrants crossed the [[Great Plains]] in wagons drawn by oxen, while some later groups pulled their possessions in small handcarts. During the 1860s, newcomers began using the new [[First transcontinental railroad|railroad]] that was under construction.<ref>{{Harvtxt|O'Dea|1957|pp=95–96}}.</ref>

In 1852, church leaders publicized the previously secret practice of [[plural marriage]], a form of [[polygamy]].<ref>{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2008|p=88}} (Plural marriage originated in a revelation that Joseph Smith apparently received in 1831 and wrote down in 1843. It was first publicly announced in a general conference in 1852); {{citation |first = Jessie L. |last = Embry |contribution = Polygamy |contribution-url = http://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/p/POLYGAMY.html |editor-last = Powell |editor-first = Allan Kent |year = 1994 |title = Utah History Encyclopedia |location = Salt Lake City, Utah |publisher = [[University of Utah Press]] |isbn = 978-0-87480-425-6 |oclc = 30473917 |access-date = October 31, 2013 |archive-date = April 17, 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170417163937/http://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/p/POLYGAMY.html |url-status = dead }} The Mormon doctrine of plural wives was officially announced by one of the [[Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (LDS Church)|Twelve Apostles]], [[Orson Pratt]], and Young in a special conference of the elders of the LDS Church assembled in the [[Mormon Tabernacle]] on August 28, 1852, and reprinted in an extra edition of the ''[[Deseret News]]''
{{cite news |title = Minutes of conference: a special conference of the elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints assembled in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, August 28, 1852, 10 o'clock, a.m., pursuant to public notice |publisher = [[Deseret News]] Extra |date = September 14, 1852 |page = 14 }}.  See also [[Origin of Latter Day Saint polygamy#The 1850s: Official sanction in the LDS Church|The 1850s: Official sanction in the LDS Church]]</ref> Over the next 50 years, many Mormons (between 20 and 30 percent of Mormon families)<ref>{{cite book |last = Flake |first = Kathleen |title = The Politics of American Religious Identity |year = 2004 |publisher = University of North Carolina Press |isbn = 978-0-8078-5501-0 |pages = 65, 192 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GLLCAB5vmMQC }}.</ref> entered into plural marriages as a religious duty, with the number of plural marriages reaching a peak around 1860 and then declining through the rest of the century.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2008|p=88}} (If asked why they entered these relationships, both plural wives and husbands emphasized spiritual blessings of being sealed eternally and of submitting to God's will. According to the federal censuses, the highest percentage of the population in polygamous families was in 1860 (43.6 percent) and it declined to 25 percent in 1880 and to 7 percent in 1890).</ref> Besides the doctrinal reasons for plural marriage, the practice made some economic sense, as many of the plural wives were single women who arrived in Utah without brothers or fathers to offer them societal support.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2008|p=88}} ("The close study of the marriages in one nineteenth-century Utah community revealed that a disproportionate number of plural wives were women who arrived in Utah without fathers or brothers to care for them...Since better-off men more frequently married plurally, the practice distributed wealth to the poor and disconnected").</ref>

[[File:Crossing the Mississippi on the Ice by C.C.A. Christensen.png|thumb|Mormon pioneers crossing the [[Mississippi]] on the ice]]

By 1857, tensions had again escalated between Mormons and other Americans, primarily due to accusations involving polygamy and the [[theocratic]] rule of the Utah Territory by Brigham Young.<ref>{{citation |last = Tullidge |first = Edward |author-link = Edward Tullidge |title = History of Salt Lake City |url = https://archive.org/details/historyofsaltlak00tull |contribution-url = https://archive.org/stream/historyofsaltlak00tull#page/n155/mode/2up |contribution = Resignation of Judge Drummond |pages = 132–35 |place = Salt Lake City |publisher = Star Printing Company |year = 1886 |oclc = 13941646 }}</ref> In 1857, U.S. President [[James Buchanan]] sent an army to Utah, which Mormons interpreted as open aggression against them. Fearing a repeat of Missouri and Illinois, the Mormons prepared to defend themselves, determined to torch their own homes if they were invaded.<ref>{{Harvtxt|O'Dea|1957|pp=101–02}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2008|p=95}}.</ref> The [[Utah War]] ensued from 1857 to 1858, in which the most notable instance of violence was the [[Mountain Meadows massacre]] when leaders of a local Mormon militia ordered the killing of a civilian emigrant party that was traveling through Utah during the escalating tensions.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2008|pp=96–97}} (calling the Mountain Meadows massacre the greatest tragedy in Mormon history).</ref> In 1858, Young agreed to step down from his position as governor and was replaced by a non-Mormon, [[Alfred Cumming (governor)|Alfred Cumming]].<ref>To combat the notion that rank-and-file Mormons were unhappy under Young's leadership, Cumming noted that he had offered to help any to leave the territory if they desired. Of the 50,000 inhabitants of the state of Utah, the underwhelming response—56 men, 33 women, and 71 children, most of whom stated they left for economic reasons—impressed Cumming, as did the fact that Mormon leaders contributed supplies to the emigrants. Cumming to [Secretary of State Lewis Cass], written by Thomas Kane, May 2, 1858, BYU Special Collections.</ref> Nevertheless, the LDS Church still wielded significant political power in the Utah Territory.<ref>{{Cite book |last1 = Firmage |first1 = Edwin Brown |last2 = Mangrum |first2 = Richard Collin |title = Zion in the Courts: A Legal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1830–1900 |page = 140 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9AimifP2a-4C&pg=PR7 |isbn = 978-0-252-06980-2 |publisher = U. of Illinois Press |year = 2002 }}.</ref>

At Young's death in 1877, he was followed by other [[List of presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|LDS Church presidents]], who resisted efforts by the [[United States Congress]] to outlaw Mormon polygamous marriages.<ref name="Bushman97">{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2008|p=97}}.</ref> In 1878, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in ''[[Reynolds v. United States]]'' that religious duty was not a suitable defense for practicing polygamy. Many Mormon polygamists went into hiding; later, Congress began seizing church assets.<ref name=Bushman97 /> In September 1890, church president [[Wilford Woodruff]] issued a [[1890 Manifesto|Manifesto]] that officially suspended the practice of polygamy.<ref>{{LDS|Official Declaration|od|1}}</ref> Although this Manifesto did not dissolve existing plural marriages, relations with the United States markedly improved after 1890, such that Utah was admitted as a U.S. state in 1896. After the Manifesto, some Mormons continued to enter into polygamous marriages, but these eventually stopped in 1904 when church president [[Joseph F. Smith]] [[Reed Smoot hearings|disavowed polygamy]] before Congress and issued a "[[Second Manifesto]]" calling for all plural marriages in the church to cease. Eventually, the church adopted a policy of [[excommunication|excommunicating]] members found practicing polygamy, and today actively seeks to distance itself from "[[Mormon fundamentalism|fundamentalist]]" groups that continue the practice.<ref>{{citation |url = https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/style-guide |title = Style Guide – The Name of the Church: Topics and Background |work = MormonNewsroom.org |date = April 9, 2010 |publisher = LDS Church |access-date = July 9, 2014 |quote = When referring to people or organizations that practice polygamy, it should be stated that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not affiliated with polygamous groups. |archive-date = June 13, 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190613210818/https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/style-guide |url-status = live }}. The church repudiates polygamist groups and excommunicates their members if discovered: {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2008|p=91}}; {{cite news |url = https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna25396937 |title = Mormons seek distance from polygamous sects |date = June 26, 2008 |agency = [[Associated Press|AP]] |publisher = NBCNews.com |access-date = July 10, 2014 |archive-date = October 21, 2014 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141021221253/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/25396937/ns/us_news-faith/t/mormons-seek-distance-polygamist-sects |url-status = live }}.</ref>