Phillip wrote on 01-23-2008 14:45 
 
"Yes, the US Government did outlaw polygamy." 
 
I think this may be a little misleading. As I understand it, Polygamy was always illegal in every state in which it was practiced. I believe it was illegal in Mexico and Canada as well. It's not that the U.S. government made polygamy illegal. There were new federal laws put into place to allow the feds to go after the polygamists. In addition, polygamist men were also committing adultery from a legal perspective. (I'm not arguing they were adulterers from a theological perspective. That's a much larger topic.) These new federal laws gave the government some teeth that could be used to cause a lot of trouble for the Church as Phillip indicated in his quote above. The Church stopped polygamy to avoid these harsh consequences.