. . . recent studies have revealed that 1,645 divorces were granted by Brigham Young during the period of his presidency and that many of these were obtained by prominent pioneer leaders involved in the practice of plural marriage. Unfortunately, most of these records do not state the grounds for these divorces, nor the number of children involved, nor even if they were the result of polygamous marriages. However, they do indicate that many Mormon marriages during this period were rather unstable, and official attitudes toward divorce were quite lenient.4

Despite the lack of documentary evidence that these divorces resulted from polygamous marriages, there are reasons to believe that most if not all of these certificates were issued to polygamists. First, many prominent men known to be polygamists are listed on these records of divorce. The names of many General Authorities as well as stake and ward leaders are included. Second, several cases reveal that two or more wives were divorced from one man on the same day. The most unusual case is that of George D. Grant who was divorced from three wives on the same day and a fourth within five weeks. More conclusive evidence is the fact that Brigham Young had no authority to grant civil divorces terminating monogamous marriages, but as president of the church he alone had the right to sever polygamous relationships. Polygamous marriages were always extralegal, and in the Mormon system only the president had the right to authorize marriages and divorces. The incoming and outgoing correspondence of the pioneer leader is replete with requests for permission to take extra wives as well as to be divorced from them.

It should be noted that polygamous marriages continued to be solemnized by Brigham Young's successors, John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff, for thirteen years after President Young's demise, and it seems logical to believe that they also granted divorces. If they granted them in similar numbers, it is likely that there were well in excess of 2,000 divorces granted prior to the 1890 Manifesto. Since there were only an estimated 2,400 men practicing polygamy in 1885,5 2,000 or more divorces would be considerably higher than the national divorce rate in 1890 which was about one divorce per 1,000 existing marriages per year.

. . .

President Wilford Woodruff's Manifesto in 1890 publicly announced that the church leader "advised" the members to abide by the law. However, Charles W. Penrose claimed authorship of the Manifesto and asserted that it was written to satisfy the federal government and was not taken seriously by the Mormon hierarchy.51 It is certain that plural marriages were approved and performed by church leaders in Mexico and elsewhere until the second manifesto in 1904. The fundamentalists, who have continued the practice of polygamy to the present, base their activity on the belief that LDS church leaders made secret ordinations in order to guarantee the continuance of the practice. In anomie circumstances, if the only voice of possible regulation is muted or ambivalent, a fluid marriage system may be expected. Given such circumstances, perhaps the number of marriage failures and divorces among Mormon polygamists should not be suprising, but the fact that so many succeeded in developing happy marriage relationships and producing fine families should command both wonder and respect.