The First 100 Years: A History of The Salt Lake Tribune 1871-1971 by O.N. Malmquist

9 The Raid DISCOMFORTED, AND AT TIMES sickened, by the brutalities which the polygamy crusade unavoidably imposed upon women, children and the non-polygamous Mormon majority, gentile leaders were nevertheless unwilling to abandon their most effective weapon in the "irrepressible conflict." They were, however, in a mood by 1887 to soften the pressures on polygamy and wage a more direct attack on the church's economic fortress.

A weapon suitable for this purpose had been provided by the Edmunds-Tucker Act on which Congress completed action in February, 1887. This new act revised in several respects the anti-polygamy laws of 1862 and 1882 and gave them "teeth."

One of the sharpest was a directive to the attorney general of the United States to "institute proceedings to forfeit and escheat all property, both real and personal, of the dissolved church corporation held in violation of the 1862 limitation. . . -1 That act had disincorporated the church and restricted its holdings to not more than $50,000 and property used exclusively for the worship of God. The mood of the gentile community at this point in the struggle was summed up by Whitney, a devout Mormon historian, in these words: . . . the Edmunds Act of March 22, 1882, was a disappointment to those who had taken upon them110