While the investigation at Washington was going on, Elders John W. Taylor and Matthias F. Cowley were requested by the senate committee as witnesses. President Smith was asked to locate them and have them go to Washington. In answer to his appeal they declined to go. It was discovered that they were out of harmony with the attitude of the Church regarding the manifesto of President Woodruff. They maintained that the manifesto applied to the United States only. However, the attitude of the Church was that it applied to the entire world.
Official Statement of President Smith
This led to the discovery that some plural marriages had been entered into contrary to the announcement of President Woodruff, and also a statement made by President Lorenzo Snow. Therefore, President Smith, at the general conference, April 6, 1904, made the following official statement:
“Inasmuch as there are numerous reports in circulation that plural marriages have been entered into, contrary to the official declaration of President Woodruff of September 24, 1890, commonly called the manifesto, which was issued by President Woodruff, and adopted by the Church at its general conference, October 6, 1890, which forbade any marriage violative of the law of the land, I, Joseph F. Smith, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, hereby affirm and declare that no such marriages have been solemnized with the sanction, consent, or knowledge of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“And I hereby announce that all such marriages are prohibited, and if any officer or member of the Church shall assume to solemnize or enter into any such marriage, he will be deemed in transgression against the Church, and will be liable to be dealt with according to the rules and regulations thereof and excommunicated therefrom.
(Signed) “Joseph F. Smith.”
“President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
This statement, on motion of Francis M. Lyman, was presented to the conference and unanimously adopted. The agitation which followed led to the resignation, October 28, 1905, of Elders John W. Taylor and Matthias F. Cowley from the council of the apostles.
Dedication of the Joseph Smith Monument
Monday, December 18, 1905, President Joseph F. Smith and about twenty-five others, including a number of the general authorities of the Church, left Salt Lake City, for Sharon, Vermont, to dedicate a monument on the farm where Joseph Smith the Prophet was born. This beautiful monument, with a polished granite shaft thirty-eight and one-half feet high—one foot for every year of the Prophet’s life —had been erected under the direction of Elder Junius F. Wells. December 23, 1905, the one hundredth anniversary of the Prophet’s birth, it was dedicated and unveiled, President Smith offering the prayer. A short time before this event the Mack farm, on which the monument stands, had been purchased by the Church and a cottage built on the spot where the old home stood in which the Prophet was born. Subsequently the Church purchased the Smith farm and Sacred Grove, in Manchester township, New York.
President Smith Visits Europe
In the summer of 1906, President Joseph F. Smith and Presiding Bishop Charles W. Nibley went to Europe and spent some time in each of the missions. This was the first time a President of the Church, while holding that office, had stood on Europe’s soil. It proved to be a great blessing to the Saints abroad and encouraged and built them up in the faith. An incident worthy of record which occurred on that trip was the remarkable healing of John Roothoff, a boy eleven years of age, residing in Rotterdam. The youth was blind, but learning that President Smith would be present he said to his mother: “If you will take me with you to meeting and he (President Smith) will look into my eyes, I believe they will be healed.” He was permitted to accompany his mother, and at the close of the services President Smith greeted each individual and shook hands with them. As the mother presented her son, President Smith raised the bandage on his eyes, and blessed him. When he returned home the boy said: “Mamma, my eyes are well, I can’t feel any more pain. I can see now, and far, too.”