A Friend in Need Is a Friend Indeed
“NOTICE to EMIGRANTS and EMIGRATION AGENTS
“Whereas there is reason to believe that a system of solicitation extensively prevails to induce persons to emigrate from Great Britain to the United States, for the purpose of joining the Mormon community at Salt Lake, in the territory of Utah, this notice is to warn all persons that the law of the United States prohibits the practice of polygamy existing in the Mormon community, and renders any person who engages therein liable to a heavy fine and a long period of imprisonment.”
“J. J. Grieg, Head Constable.”1
Such were the words that greeted my second great uncle and his family when they stepped on to the landing stages of Liverpool docks, bound for Salt Lake. Two hundred and fifty posters had been distributed in London and Liverpool as a gesture by the British government for its American counterpart.
The reason was polygamy. In the late 1800s, increasingly harsh anti-polygamy laws had been passed in America, threatening the very existence of the Church. With congress considering a bill that stipulated the disenfranchisement of all Latter-day Saints, the confiscation of all Church property, and the proscription of all Church members, whether polygamous or not, they didn’t want any foreigners adding to the situation.
The American secretary of state, William Maxwell Evarts, wrote to the British foreign secretary, the marquis of Salisbury, requesting the British government’s earnest attention on the matter of the emigration of members of the Church. He said it was “a deliberate and systematic attempt to bring persons to the United States with the intent of violating their laws.”2 The marquis, however, pointed out that the law of England did not invest the government with authority to institute inquisitorial examinations into the private opinions of its citizens and, in any case, it was not an offence to hold opinions which some may regard as injurious to morality. He therefore regretted that he couldn’t comply with the American government’s request but would distribute notices making known the law of the United States affecting polygamy and the penalties attached to its infringement.
It had little effect, due in large part to the moral courage of one man, a nonmember named George Ramsden, manager of the passenger department of the Guion Line. At his death the Millennial Star published an obituary describing him as a man of “integrity and honour.”3 Several of Mr. Ramsden’s colleagues warned him that he would run a great risk if he attempted to land any Latter-day Saints in America, but he had the courage to ignore the circular, knowing that it had its origins in prejudice and religious intolerance. When government officials put up posters on his ships stating that Church members would not be allowed to land in New York, he had them taken down and forbade the distribution of the circulars among his passengers. To the American consul he simply said that he was not willing to apply a religious test as to who should, or should not, be his passengers.4
The Millennial Star concluded “that the Latter-day Saints, notwithstanding the hostile attitude of the American government towards them during a number of years, have not been prevented from landing in America is in great degree due to the wise discretion and superior tact displayed by this courageous and broad-minded gentleman.”5 Qualities still in great need today.