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Defending the Kingdom 1857-1896

This view of Temple Square and vicinity was taken in 1892, at the laying of the capstone of the Salt Lake Temple. It represents the near-completion of much of what the Saints were seeking in the latter half of the nineteenth century. (C. R. Savage photograph, Church Archives)

During the last half of the nineteenth century the American people witnessed momentous events that changed the course of their nation's history. The same events were also of consequence for the history of the Latter-day Saints.

In July 1854 fifteen hundred anti-slavery enthusiasts congregated at Jackson, Michigan, antagonized by congressional acceptance of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Engineered by Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, that measure organized two new American territories and permitted the people of those territories to decide for themselves whether or not they would allow slavery. This grant of local option was called popular sovereignty, and it eliminated federal prohibitions against slavery in parts of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36°30' north latitude. Lands considered closed to slavery since the Missouri Compromise of 1820 were now opened to that controversial institution. Popular sovereignty angered abolitionists in both the Whig and the Democratic parties, for it apparently meant that Congress had relinquished its right to prohibit slavery in the territories. In response, the Jackson convention adopted a free-soil platform and created a new political coalition called the Republican party. Over the next thirty-five years it was this new party that also constantly played the role of antagonist against the Mormons.

In 1856 the Republican party made an impressive showing at the polls in its first national election. The campaign that year turned upon a catchy phrase linking polygamy and slavery as "twin relics of barbarism." Four years later the nation elected a Republican president, Abraham Lincoln and, fearful of what he might do to slavery, the South left the Union. Secession touched off the Civil War, for President Lincoln believed that no state had the constitutional authority to withdraw, and he felt obligated, if necessary, to prevent this illegal act with military force.

Few Latter-day Saints left their isolated refuge in the Rocky Mountains to participate in the Civil War, but the dreadful battles caused them to remember Joseph Smith's 1832 prophecy on war and to wonder if the war foreshadowed the Millennium, when the kingdom of God would be fully established on the earth. The war did not trigger that anticipated climax, yet important changes swept the nation in the postwar reconstruction era and some, including a powerful reforming zeal, had a direct effect on the history of the Saints. The main objective of the radical Republican reformers was to restructure the South politically and socially, and though it was not achieved at that time, the goal was full civil and political rights for the freed blacks. Among the other institutions challenged by the reformers was the Latter-day Saint practice of plural marriage. It was a Republican president who signed the first anti-polygamy bill in 1862 and Republican congressmen who spearheaded the political campaign against the Church that lasted until 1890.