Episode 19B: Part Two: More Episodes Than One

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:09)
Corpus omne perseverare in statu, suae cuiscende vel momente, uniformite in directum, nisi quattenes averibus impresses cogitor statum illum mutare. Did that do much for you? Yeah, me neither.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:23)
I don't know, it terrified me a little bit, does that count?

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:26)
I just turned her into a vampire. Hopefully she won't notice.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:32)
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:34)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:35)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion, this isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:02)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:08)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:16)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.
In 1729, Andrew Mott published an English translation of Isaac Newton's landmark, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. To help noobs like me and you out, he rendered this statement of Newton as, quote, Every body perseveres in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed thereon, close quote. We know what today is Newton's first law of motion. Here's a fun fact to get to use at parties from now on. This law governs polygamy, post-manifesto polygamy, of course.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:10)
Welcome back for part two of Polygpalooza. We will try super hard today to not get too giddy. This is the part of Mormon history that we both find really fascinating. The transition from manifesto to 40,000-ish fundamentalist Mormons is a very fun story. By the way, 40,000 is just an approximate number. I think it's way, way more than that. So starting point, a simple question. When did polygamy end?
Let's interview some folks on the street.
Let's ask the active LDS lady, did polygamy end and when did it end? She would say, I'm definitely in 1890 with the manifesto. Hipster dude that has read half a book and three blog posts, brought 1904 with the second manifesto. Getting warmer. And then you ask the guy with the desert alphabet tattoo that has listened to my Quinn presentations, geez, 1907 or thereabouts, it's complicated.
One of the previously mentioned 40,000 fundamentalists would say, quote, what do you mean? What is a stopped business? It never stopped.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:21)
In part one, we talked about how the manifesto was a very curious document. It's not presented as a revelation really, and it's very squishy in its language. Statehood, remember, is goal A, number one, and guess what? It worked. With a few hiccups, but it worked. Six years after the manifesto, Utah finally becomes a state.
Outside observers were watching and were very suspicious about how sincere all of this manifesto talk was, and for good reason. We know of at least 250 plural marriages between 1890, the manifesto, and 1904, the second manifesto.
And a decent number of these were apostles performing the marriages or marrying plural wives themselves. Wilford Woodruff, author of the manifesto, himself very likely was even sealed to a plural life during this period.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:13)
Despite lingering doubts as to whether polygamy was mostly dead or dead, things might have gone quietly about their business if not for another read the room Mormons moment. Reed Smoot, two-year veteran apostle, got the go-ahead from the new church president, Joseph F. Smith, to run for the Senate in 1902 I think we have an exact transcript of the conversation. The manifesto has been out for a decade now. Reed, old boy, no one even remembers polygamy.
Pelagamy.
Pelagamy. See, I can't even say it right anymore. We certainly don't have to worry about widespread public backlash and protests with millions of signatures.

**Bryan Buchanan** (5:01)
Historical what-ifs are a blast. Reed Smoot decides to be a door-to-door insurance salesman instead running for Senator. How might things have played out? Mitt Romney might still be living in the Mexican colonies instead of being a crappy absentee landlord politician.
The impact of the hearings on whether Smoot gets to actually take his seat as a Senator is so important for the development of the LDS Church. Joseph F. Smith and others go back to Washington to testify before the committee, and it doesn't go so well. Newspaper articles chock full of exotic talk about the Mormon harems out in Utah just write themselves. Teddy Roosevelt really seems to like Reed Smoot, but this polygamy foolishness, like he calls it, has got to go. Smoot isn't actually himself a polygamist, which is funny because apparently none of them knew that. But honestly, he's not really much of a Mormon, period.