Mr. Adee to Mr.
Risley.
Department of State,
Washington, July 23,
1897.
No. 176.]
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your
dispatch No. 161, of the 4th ultimo, inclosing a petition from Mr. C. N.
Lund, who describes himself as president of the Scandinavian Mission of
the Mormon Church, accompanied by an affidavit of J. J. Jensen and
Joseph Larsen, in which they set forth several grievances and ask your
intervention and protection on the ground that they are American
citizens.
In reply I inclose for your information, as indicating the present
attitude of this Government toward Mormon missionaries, a copy of the
Department’s instruction No. 46, of June 25, 1895, to Mr. J. Lamb Doty,
United States consul at Tahiti; also copy of a letter of June 24, 1895,
from Messrs. Woodruff, Cannon, and Smith, “first presidency of the
Mormon Church.” The letter in question sets forth the assurance on which
the Department based its views that Mormon agents, as the church is now
constituted, have the same right of governmental protection as any other
law-observing sect of American citizens. If they preach immoral
doctrines contrary to the law of the foreign country, intervention on
their behalf can not be made; if their teachings and
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practices contravene the laws of the
United States, the support of our public agencies can not be lent to
their foreign propaganda.
Respectfully, etc.,
Alvey A. Adee,
Acting Secretary.
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Uhl to Mr.
Doty.
Department of State,
Washington, June 25,
1895.
Sir: The Department has received your
dispatch, No. 108, May 11, relative to the position of missionaries
of the Mormon Church in Tahiti and the refusal of the local
authorities to permit them to preach without special license.
In reply you are informed that as long as polygamy was one of the
purposes of Mormon teaching, the agents of this Government abroad
were instructed to refuse protection to Mormon missionaries. Such
repressive action was invited in 1884 especially. (See “Foreign Relations,” 1884, pp. 10,
198, etc.) But polygamy is
now no longer announced as the chief tenet of Mormonism, and the
church has the same civil rights as are enjoyed by other religious
bodies in this country. If the Mormon missionaries in Tahiti observe
the civil law of marriage, as they profess to do, and preach and
practice no doctrine violating law or morality, they should have the
same impartial protection as other American citizens enjoy for the
defense of their just and lawful rights.
The Department can not complain if, in accordance with local
regulations, they are forbidden to preach without a license, but it
can not acquiesce in the denial of a license for any trivial cause,
or at the arbitrary discretion of the authorities. Assuming that
they are law-abiding and moral teachers, they should have equal
treatment with other propagandists.
You are instructed to follow the purpose of this instruction in
dealing with this question.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Edwin F. Uhl,
Assistant Secretary.
