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Source: Church History Vol. 4 Chapter 28 Page: 506 (~1886)

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506 that law, and we have not designedly placed ourselves in conflict with any of the laws of our adopted country in embracing this cardinal doctrine of our religion.

Your honor can readily conceive my discomfiture and that of my wives when we learned that Congress had enacted what is known as the "Edmunds law," which not only subjected us to political disabilities, but also forbade us the right to live together as we had done for so many years. By this new law we are made transgressors and deprived of many of the privileges of our citizenship; and, while I consider this a harsh law, yet it does not, as I understand it, nor as I understand it to be construed by the courts, require that I shall disown the mothers of my children as my wives or abandon them to the charity of an unsympathizing world.

I expect to remain under the political disabilities placed upon me, but I have so arranged my family relations as to conform to the requirements of the law, and I am now living in harmony with its provisions in relation to cohabitation, as construed by this court and the Supreme Court of the Territory, and it is my intention to do so in the future until an overruling Providence shall decree greater religious toleration in the land.

The action of the Bishop created a sensation, as it amounted to a renunciation of his polygamic practices, and a confession that the practice of polygamy now that there was a specific law against such practice, was wrong. The Deseret News of Salt Lake City, the official organ of the dominant church there, lamented the Bishop's attitude, and declared that the effect of Bishop Sharp's action "will not be of sufficient magnitude to interfere in the most remote degree with the main question, which is unalterably fixed as the everlasting hills, and will never be receded from, come what may."

A discussion occurred October 1, 2, 3, and 4, at Opolis, Kansas, between Elder Warren E. Peak, and Elder Lewelyn, of the First Day Adventists, or Restitutionists.

A reunion was held at Gallands Grove, Iowa, beginning October 4, and closing October 12. President W. W. Blair presided, assisted by J. W. Chatburn and Charles Derry. John Pett and Charles Butterworth acted as secretaries. The following elders ministered at the numerous preaching services held: E. C. Brand, Charles Derry, W. W. Blair, J. S. Roth, J. F. McDowell, J. C. Crabb,

(page 506)

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