Why did 19th-century American politicians label Mormon polygamy a relic of barbarism?

Cultures · Published 29 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: For decades, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints openly practiced plural marriage, sparking a fierce constitutional and moral clash with the United States government. Viewed as a threat to national values, the practice triggered intense legislative battles, federal intervention, and a fundamental shift in American religious freedom.

Introduced privately by founder Joseph Smith in the 1830s, plural marriage was publicly announced in 1852 by Orson Pratt under the direction of Brigham Young. During its peak years of public practice, roughly one-fifth to one-third of Latter-day Saint families participated in the system. Leaders framed the practice as a divine commandment essential for Exaltation, drawing on Old Testament examples to justify both polygyny and polyandry. For many adherents, the decision to enter these unions was a profound test of faith, often seen as a requirement for full spiritual standing.

The practice placed the church on a collision course with the federal government. By the mid-19th century, the Republican Party platform famously categorized polygamy alongside slavery as one of the twin relics of barbarism. This tension escalated into the Utah War of 1857–1858 and prompted a series of legislative attempts to eradicate the custom. The 1862 Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act criminalized plural marriage in the territories, a law the Supreme Court later upheld in the 1879 case Reynolds v. United States, ruling that while the government cannot regulate belief, it can restrict religious conduct.

The standoff persisted until 1890, when church president Wilford Woodruff issued a manifesto banning new polygamous unions to facilitate Utah's path to statehood. While this ended the official sanctioning of new marriages, the transition was gradual; it was not until 1904 that church president Joseph F. Smith issued a second manifesto, mandating excommunication for those who continued the practice. Today, the main branch of the church strictly prohibits bigamy, though it maintains theological teachings regarding the existence of plural marriage in the afterlife, while small fundamentalist groups continue to exist outside the church's structure.

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