But now, for the first time, Saints were caught up in heated battles with one another over differing political views. The conflict troubled Wilford Woodruff, and he had urged the Saints at the April 1892 general conference to stop their bickering.

“Every man has as much right—prophets, apostles, saints, and sinners—to his political convictions as he has to his religious opinions,” Wilford had declared. “Don’t throw filth and dirt and nonsense at one another because of any difference on political matters.”

“That spirit will lead us to ruin,” he warned. – Saints, Volume 2, p. 646