The Edmunds–Tucker Act of 1887 was an

Act of Congress An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States Congress. Acts may apply only to individual entities (called Public and private bills, private laws), or to the general public (Public and private bills, public laws). For a Bill (law) ...

that focused on restricting some practices of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

(LDS Church). An amendment to the earlier

Edmunds Act The Edmunds Act, also known as the Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882,U.S.History.com is a United States federal statute, signed into law on March 23, 1882 by President Chester A. Arthur, declaring polygamy a felony in federal territories. The act ...

, it was passed in response to the dispute between the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

and the LDS Church regarding

polygamy Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...

. The act is found in US Code Title 48 & 1461, full text as 24 Stat. 635, with this annotation to be interpreted as Volume 24, page 635 of ''United States Statutes at Large''. The act is named after its congressional sponsors, Senator

George F. Edmunds George Franklin Edmunds (February 1, 1828February 27, 1919) was a Republican U.S. Senator from Vermont. Before entering the U.S. Senate, he served in a number of high-profile positions, including Speaker of the Vermont House of Representative ...

of Vermont and Congressman John Randolph Tucker of Virginia. The act was repealed in 1978.

Legislative history

In President Grover Cleveland's annual address to Congress in December 1885, he emotionally discussed the issue of polygamy in Utah:

The strength, the perpetuity, and the destiny of the nation rest upon our homes, established by the law of God, guarded by parental care, regulated by parental authority, and sanctified by parental love. These are not the homes of polygamy. . . . There is no feature of this practice or the system which sanctions it which is not opposed to all that is of value in our institutions. There should be no relaxation in the firm but just execution of the law now in operation, and I should be glad to approve such further discreet legislation as will rid the country of this blot upon its fair fame. Since the people upholding polygamy in our Territories are reenforced by immigration from other lands, I recommend that a law be passed to prevent the importation of Mormons into the country.

The Act was passed by the Senate in January 1886 by a vote of 38–7. It was passed by the House via a voice vote in January 1887. President Cleveland refused to sign the bill but did not veto it, which meant that the Act became law on March 3, 1887.

Provisions

The act disincorporated both the LDS Church and the

Perpetual Emigration Fund The Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company, commonly referred to as the Perpetual Emigration Fund (PEF), was a corporation established by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in 1849. The purpose of the corporation was to provid ...

on the grounds that they fostered

. The act prohibited the practice of polygamy and punished it with a fine of from $500 to $800 and imprisonment of up to five years. It dissolved the

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...

of the church and directed the confiscation by the federal government of all church properties valued over a limit of $50,000. The act was enforced by the

U.S. Marshal The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a bureau within the U.S. Department of Justice, operating under the direction of the Attorney General, but serves as the enforceme ...

and a host of deputies. The act: *Disincorporated the LDS Church and the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company, with assets to be used for public schools in the Territory. *Required an anti-polygamy oath for prospective voters, jurors and public officials. *Annulled territorial laws allowing illegitimate children to inherit. *Required civil

marriage license A marriage license (or marriage licence in Commonwealth spelling) is a document issued, either by a religious organization or state authority, authorizing a couple to marry. The procedure for obtaining a license varies between jurisdiction ...

s (to aid in the prosecution of polygamy). *Abrogated the common law

spousal privilege In the common law, spousal privilege (also called marital privilege or husband-wife privilege) is a term used in the law of evidence to describe two separate privileges that apply to spouses: the spousal communications privilege and the spousal ...

for polygamists, thus requiring wives to testify against their husbands. * Disenfranchised women (who had been enfranchised by the Territorial legislature in 1870). * Replaced local judges (including the previously powerful Probate Court judges) with federally appointed judges. * Abolished the office of Territorial superintendent of district schools, granting the supreme court of the Territory of Utah the right to appoint a commissioner of schools. Also called for the prohibition of the use of sectarian books and for the collection of statistics of the number of so-called

gentiles Gentile () is a word that usually means "someone who is not a Jew". Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, sometimes use the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is generally used as a synonym for ...

and Mormons attending and teaching in the schools. (See text of the act scanned from the U.S. Statutes at large, linked elsewhere on this page.) In 1890 the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

upheld the seizure of Church property under the Edmunds–Tucker Act in '' Late Corp. of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. United States''. This act was repealed in 1978.Past and Present Proposed Amendments to the United States Constitution Regarding Marriage
Edward Stein, Washington University Law Quarterly, Volume 82, Number 3, 2004

Edmunds–Tucker Act sponsors

Legislative history

Provisions

Edmunds–Tucker Act sponsors

See also

References

Further reading