Mormons & polygamy: defying the Supreme Court ruling...

Item # 699900

February 09, 1879

THE MISSOURI REPUBLICAN, St. Louis, Feb. 9, 1879 Page 7 has an article: "The Mormon Question" "Petition of the Anti-Polygamy Society to Congress" datelined at Salt Lake, Utah. It notes in part: "...is a matter of common notoriety that Mormons are contracting unlawful marriages the same as ever; that John W. Young has parried his fifth wife, James Welch his second wife..." and more.
This relates to Reynolds v. United States case, in which the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a federal law prohibiting polygamy did not violate the free exercise clause of the First Amendment. The Court's decision was among the first to hold that the free exercise of religion is not absolute.
Eight pages, nice condition.