President [George Q.] Cannon had a conversation with President [Wilford] Woodruff on the meaning and scope of the manifesto. Certain answers of Pres[iden]ts. J[oseph]. F. Smith and L[orenzo]. Snow made before the 'Master [in Chancery]' on this subject, prompted this conversation. President Cannon remarked to President Woodruff that his mind was perfectly clear that anything that needed to favor temporizing with the state of things which now confronted us, only tended to delay the deliverance we longed for. He believed that just as soon as the nation through its leading men believed that we had met the issue and succumbed to the nation's will in good faith, that just as soon a reaction would set it in our favor; that the nation required convincing proof on our part, and that wisdom suggested that it was to our own interest to satisfy the nation in this respect, and he believed it to be our duty to do this.... President Smith came in towards the close of this conversation, and remarked that Brother George Reynolds was feeling badly on account of certain answers made by President Woodruff before the 'master' regarding unlawful cohabitation, President Woodruff having stated that the manifesto covered such cases as well as polygamous marriages. Presidents Cannon and Woodruff had a conversation with Brother [George] Reynolds with regard to this matter, in which the President told him that the manifesto was just as authoritative and binding as though it had been given in the form of 'Thus saith the Lord,' and that its affecting unlawful cohabitation cases was but the logical sequence of its scope and intent regarding polygamous marriages, as the laws of the land forbid both, and that therefore, although he himself at the time did not perceive the far-reaching effect it would have, no other ground could be taken than that which he had taken and be consistent with the position the manifesto had place us in.
[First Presidency Office Journal, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
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