A Thesis entitled “The Key to All Reform”: Mormon Women, Religious Identity, and Suffrage, 1887-1920 by Amy L. Geis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in History ________________________________________ Dr. Kim E. Nielsen, Committee Chair ________________________________________ Dr. Todd Michney, Committee Member ________________________________________ Dr. Ami Pflugrad-Jackisch, Committee Member ________________________________________ Dr. Patricia R. Komuniecki, Dean College of Graduate Studies The University of Toledo May 2015 Copyright 2015, Amy Lynn Geis This document is copyrighted material. Under copyright law, no parts of this document may be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author. An Abstract of “The Key to All Reform”: Mormon Women, Religious Identity, and Suffrage, 1887-1920 by Amy L. Geis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in History The University of Toledo May 2015 When Mormon suffrage leaders of Utah, such as Emmeline B. Wells, called for a meeting of suffragists to be held in the Salt Lake Assembly Hall on January 10, 1889, they were soon overwhelmed by the number of women in attendance. The meeting resulted in the formation of the Utah Woman Suffrage Association, which sought to restore the franchise to the women of Utah who had lost the vote two years prior as a result of the Edmunds-Tucker Act. Not only would they inevitably achieve re- enfranchisement through Utah’s statehood campaign, Mormon women also participated in the reintegration of the national woman suffrage movement, which reunified in May 1890. Throughout this process, Mormon women continually reconciled and renegotiated their identities, which were complicated by ideas about religion, gender, sexuality, and civic duty in late nineteenth and early twentieth century America. In “‘The Key to All Reform’: Mormon Women, Religious Identity, and Suffrage, 1887-1920” I contend that the Mormon women’s suffrage movement was inextricably linked to developing gender ideologies within the Latter-day Saint Church. Using Mormon women’s publications, this study traces the evolution of female Mormon activism and intellectual thought as Mormon suffragists adapted to changes within the iii national suffrage movement, ultimately reintegrating themselves into the nation-wide battle for the ballot. Complicated by nationwide debates about polygamy and driven by social reform, the Mormon suffrage movement became a catalyst for the debate about “woman’s sphere” – which was forever transformed by suffrage. With persecution seemingly in their past and developments towards statehood as early as 1894, Mormon women increasingly positioned themselves as civic beings in a newly adopted state. iv This project is dedicated to Harold Geis Jr. Acknowledgements It would be nearly impossible to recollect and personally extend my thanks to everyone who has impacted my graduate level research. A multitude of individuals from various chapters in my life have inspired my studies in unimaginable ways. I wish to express my greatest appreciation to my advisor, Kim E. Nielsen, who not only made this project possible but also made it enjoyable. I cherish her professional and personal advice and her kind words will remain with me always. I would also like thank the reference staff and curators at the L. Tom Perry Special Collections at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Their assistance in navigating the manuscripts necessary for this research allowed me to efficiently use my limited time at the collections in July 2014. To those I have neglected, thank you. Truly. vi Table of Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements vi Table of Contents vii Preface viii I. “Promoter of Virtue”: The Transformation of Mormon Women’s Intellectual Thought, 1882-1896 1 A. “Punish and Prevent”: Rethinking Periodization with the Edmunds-Tucker Act, 1882-1887 2 B. Defining Degradation: Rhetorical Resistance to Anti-Polygamy and Disenfranchisement, 1883-1889 4 C. “True Civilization”: Polygamy, Suffrage, and Social Purity, 1890-1891 7 D. “Created Equal”: Redeeming Eve in the Mormon Theodemocracy 13 E. “Gendered Authority”: Mormon Motherhood and Equal Rights, 1890-1894 17 F. Conclusion 21 II. “To Vote or Not to Vote!”: Woman Suffrage and the Struggle for Statehood in Utah, 1890-1896 22 A. The Suffrage Question: Pending Statehood and the Utah Enabling Act, 1894 23 B. Equal Rights, Equal Opportunity: Party Politics and the Constitutional Convention, 1894-1895 26 vii C. “Responsibilities of Citizenship”: Suffrage, Statehood, and the November Election, 1895-1896 31 D. Conclusion 35 III. “Appreciation of the Ballot”: New Concerns, Old Tactics, and Registering Woman Voters, 1896-1920 36 A. Conclusion 41 References 47 A. Primary Sources 47 B. Secondary Sources 49 viii Preface Before her death in 1887, Eliza R. Snow, Zion’s “poetess” and president of the Latter- day Saint Relief Society, warned her fellow Mormons that “The signs of the times [were] very significant the saints [would] be severely tested.”1 Snow’s premonition would prove to be true in the years following her death – a period wrought with federal persecution, political transformation, and theological upheaval within the Mormon Church. This thesis analyzes that tumultuous period in Utah from 1887-1920, and examines the intersection of civic, domestic, and spiritual identities; facilitating an understanding of “woman’s sphere” through the historical agency of Mormon women. In “‘The Key to All Reform:’ Mormon Women, Religious Identity, and Suffrage, 1887-1920,” I contend that the Mormon women’s suffrage movement was inherently complicated by nationwide debates about polygamy and was inextricably linked to developing gender ideologies within the Latter-day Saint Church. Additionally, I explore how Mormon suffragists adapted to changes within the national suffrage movement, ultimately reintegrating themselves into the nation-wide battle for the ballot. My first chapter, “‘Promoter of Virtue’: The Transformation of Mormon Women’s Intellectual Thought, 1882-1896” documents the passage of the Edmunds-Tucker Act in 1887, an enduring piece of federal legislation that reinforced prior laws criminalizing polygamy. Most significantly, the Act revoked suffrage in Utah for all women, regardless of their religious affiliation or marital status. Utah had previously enfranchised women in the territory in 1870 after a male-driven woman suffrage campaign. Territory-wide 1 Eliza R. Snow letters, (MSS 607), L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. ix disenfranchisement in 1887 united the women of Utah, who formed the Utah Woman Suffrage Association in 1889. Mormon women, who had publicly defended polygamy in the wake of persecution, now applied similar appeals to morality within debates about woman suffrage. Mormon suffragists strategically disassociated from plural marriage as a means to gain support for their cause. I contend that these revelations are evidence of an increasingly complex historical understanding of Mormon polygamy, rather than a polarizing dichotomy between women’s empowerment and oppression. The two primary national suffrage organizations, the National Woman Suffrage Association (N.W.S.A.) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (A.W.S.A.) had formerly condoned disenfranchisement as a sanction against the Mormon practice of polygamy. However, they fundamentally disagreed with the totality of the Edmunds- Tucker Act, which disproportionately affected women. In May of 1890, the N.W.S.A. and the A.W.S.A. unified, creating the National-American Woman Suffrage Association (N.A.W.S.A.) and demonstrating solidarity within the woman suffrage movement. In September of that year, the Latter-day Saints Church discontinued the practice of plural marriage with a public statement known as the 1890 Manifesto. I argue that these two cataclysmic events reinvigorated Mormon women’s activism in a new capacity, and provided the necessary circumstances under which they could be reintegrated into the national woman suffrage movement. The second chapter, “‘To Vote or Not to Vote!’: Woman Suffrage and the Struggle for Statehood in Utah, 1890-1896,” details the passage of the Utah Enabling Act in 1894, which led to statewide debate about whether or not woman suffrage would be included in Utah’s proposed constitution – which was set to be drafted the following spring, in March x