| 637 A mistake of understanding has occurred among some of the elders in the field concerning the part taken by the Reorganized Church in affecting the various enactments of Congress respecting the repression of plural marriage, or polygamy in Utah.
The presidency of the church, at a very early day, took the subject of what effect the legislation of Congress with reference to Utah Mormonism might have upon the corporate and individual rights of the Reorganized Church into consideration, and decided that the peculiar circumstances by which the Reorganization was made a necessity, and the conditions under which it took place, required that those intrusted with the watchcare of the body should in all laudable ways see to it that the lawmaking powers of the Nation and the States and Territories should be informed of the facts and true faith of the Reorganized Church, pending all legislation by which the rights of members, as citizens of the Republic, and the church as a corporate body, might be injuriously affected, either directly or in any remote degree.
In pursuance of this decision of duty, upon the occasion of pending legislation in Congress, the church by its representatives has laid before those likely to be engaged in such legislation, in clear terms and concise form the facts of the founding of the church in 1830, its faith then and subsequently prior to and until the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the loyalty of the members of the church and the commands of God requiring such loyalty, the defection from the faith caused by and resulting from the introduction of plural marriage as a tenet, and the utter untenability of such dogma when measured and determined by organic and existing rules and laws; and all this that these persons might fully consider the attitude of the Reorganized Church and that church be spared wrong and distress by unjust legislation.
In 1866, pending legislation following the enactment of 1862, the senior editor of the Herald, Joseph Smith, was summoned to Washington, at the instance of Congressman Ashley of Ohio, then chairman of the Territorial Committee, to answer questions touching the matter, and to make such suggestions as he might deem necessary. At that examination the position of the church was stated; and the suggestion was made that existing laws be enforced, and no further legislation was suggested.
In the spring of 1870, pending the action of Congress on the Cullom Bill, the April session of conference appointed Joseph Smith, Alexander H. Smith, Mark H. Forscutt, William W. Blair, and Josiah Ells, from among its leading men, a committee to draft a memorial to Congress, setting forth the faith and loyalty of the church to the government, and a statement of facts. This duty these men discharged, and on April 11 that memorial to the President and Vice-president and the Senate and House of Representatives was presented, read and adopted by conference, and ordered to be laid before those to whom it was directed. This was done. Copies of this memorial were sent to each member of the Senate and House of Representatives, and to the governors of the several States,
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