About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

41 J. Sup. Ct. Hist. 21 (2016)
The Tenacious Twin Relic: Republicans, Polygamy, and The Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. United States

handle is hein.journals/jspcth41 and id is 21 raw text is: The Tenacious Twin Relic: Republicans, Polygamy, and The Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. United States EVAN C. ROTHERA Can we have a state in the Union, mused the Salem Gazette in 1849, whose citizens are avowedly Mahomedans or idolaters, adhering to the Mahomedan or idolatrous form of doctrine and worship? And if this question should be answered in the negative, how stands the case with regard to a community of Mormons, who certainly cannot be called Christians?' Less than a century and a half after the Gazette's bitter denunciation of Mormons as dangerous and anti-Christian, James E. Woods, Jr. noted that many people now regard Mormons in a very different light.2 No longer viewed as a threat to the secular norms of American society, Mormonism has achieved a social acceptance and status far beyond what it could have envisioned in the nineteenth century. It has become, in effect, one of America's mainline denominations.3 This transformation in perception is largely attributable to the disassociation of the Mormon Church from the practice of polyg- amy. As historians have demonstrated, polyg- amy, or plural marriage, sparked a tremendous degree of opposition among a wide array of people in the nineteenth century. The Republi- can Party's 1856 platform famously denounced slavery and polygamy as the twin relics of barbarism. However, despite the importance of polygamy as a political issue, the history of the legislative and judicial battles against polygamy has largely been overlooked.4 By examining the legislative and judicial fight against polygamy, which culminated in the Supreme Court decision in The Late Corpora- tion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints v. United States, we can grapple with several compelling questions.5

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most