Item Detail
-
9095
-
0
-
0
-
English
-
Henry M. Teller and the Edmunds-Tucker Act
-
Colorado Magazine
-
Winter 1971
-
48
-
1-14
-
Anti-Mormonism came to a climax in the Edmunds-Tucker Act (1887). Polygamy was the most important of the many causes of opposition to the Mormons. In 1885 Republican Senator George Franklin Edmunds of Vermont introduced a severe bill into the Senate which provided for dissolutio of plural marriages, the forced testimony of wives against their husbands, abrogation of woman suffrage in Utah Territory, and abolition of the corporate structure of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of the few Senators to openly oppose the bill was Henry Moore Teller of Colorado. He did not support polygamy, but felt that Edmunds bill was illegal and unconstitutional. As Teller feared, the Act was followed by persecution and anger. Eventually the Mormons bowed to Federal Law and in 1890 'the doctrinal sanction of polygamy officially ended.' There is no evidence that Teller ever regretted his stand on the Edmunds-Tucker Act. His stand did not hurt his career because he was returned repeatedly to the Senate.