CHAPTER X.
The Institution Of Polygamy 

An Examination of its Origin--Its Conflict with the Teachings of the Mormon Bible and Revelations--Early Loosening of the Marriage View under Smith-- Proof of the Practice of Polygamy in Nauvoo--Testimony of Eliza R. Snow--How her Brother Lorenzo shook off his Bachelorhood--John B. Lee as a Polygamist--Ebenezer Robinson's Statement--Objects of "The Holy Order"--The Writing of the Revelation about Polygamy-- Its First Public Announcement--Sidney Rigdon's Innocence in the Matter

    THE student of the history of the Mormon church to this date, who seeks an answer to the question, Who originated the idea of plural marriages among the Mormons? will naturally credit that idea to Joseph Smith, Jr. The Reorganized Church (non-polygamist), whose membership includes Smith's direct descendants, defend the prophet's memory by alleging that "in the brain of J. C. Bennett was conceived the idea, and in his practice was the principle first introduced into the church." In maintaining this ground, however, they contend that "the official character of President Joseph Smith should be judged by his official ministrations as set forth in the well authenticated accepted official documents of the church up to June 27, 1844. His personal, private conduct should not enter into this discussion."¹ The secular investigator finds it necessary to disregard this warning, and in studying the question he discovers an incontrovertible mass of testimony to prove that the "revelation" concerning polygamy was a production of Smith,² was familiar to the church leaders in Nauvoo, and was lived up to by them before their expulsion from Illinois.

    ¹ Pamphlets Nos. 16 and 46 published by the Reorganized Church.
     ² "Elder W. W. Phelps said in Salt Lake Tabernacle in 1862 that while Joseph was translating the Book of Abraham in Kirtland, Ohio, in 1835, from the papyrus found with the Egyptian mummies, the Prophet became impressed with the idea that polygamy would yet become an institution of the Mormon Church. Brigham Young was present, and was much annoyed at the statement made by Phelps; but it is highly probable that it was the real secret that the latter then divulged." -- "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 182.

    The Book of Mormon furnishes ample proof that the idea of plural marriages was as far from any thought of the real "author" of the doctrinal part of that book as it was from the mind of Rigdon's fellow-Disciples in Ohio at the time. The declarations on the subject in the Mormon Bible are so worded that they distinctly forbid any following of the example of Old Testament leaders like David and Solomon. In the Book of Jacob ii. 24-28, we find these commands: --

    "Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me saith the Lord; wherefore, thus with the Lord, I have led this people forth out of the land of Jerusalem, by the power of mine arm, that I might raise up unto me a righteous branch from the fruit of the loins of Joseph.

    "Wherefore, I, the Lord God, will not suffer that this people shall do like unto them of old. Wherefore my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord; for there shall not any man among you hath save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none; for I, the Lord God, delighteth in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts."

    The same view is expressed in the Book of Mosiah, where, among the sins of King Noah, it is mentioned that "he spent his time in riotous living with his wives and concubines," and in the Book of Ether x. 5, where it is said that "Riplakish did not do that which was right in the sight of the Lord, for he did have many wives and concubines."

    Smith, at the beginning of his career as a prophet, inculcated the same views on this subject in his "revelations." Thus, in the one dated at Kirtland, February 9, 1831, it was commanded (Sec. 42), "Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shall cleave unto her and none else; and he that looketh upon a woman to lust after her shall deny the faith, and shall not have the spirit, and if he repents not he shall be cast out." In another "revelation," dated the following month (Sec. 49), it was declared, "Wherefore it is lawful that he should have one wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation."³ These teachings may be with justness attributed to Rigdon, and we shall see on how little ground rests a carelessly made charge that he was the originator of the "spiritual wife" notion.

    ³ "It is the strongest proof of the firm hold of a party, whether religious or political, upon the public mind, when it may offend with impunity against its own primary principles." -- MILMAN, "History of Christianity."

    That there was a loosening of the views regarding the marriage tie almost as soon as Smith began his reign at Kirtland can be shown on abundant proof. Booth in one of his letters said, "It has been made known to one who has left his wife in New York State, that he is entirely free from his wife, and he is at pleasure to take him a wife from among the Lamanites" (Indians).⁴ That reports of polygamous practices among the Mormons while they were in Ohio were current was conceded in the section on marriage, inserted in the Kirtland edition of the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants" -- "Inasmuch as this Church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication and polygamy," etc.; and is further proved by Smith's denial in the Elders' Journal,⁵ and by the declaration of the Presidents of the Seventies, withholding fellowship with any elder "who is guilty of polygamy."

    ⁴ Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled."
    ⁵ p. 157, ante.

    Of the enmity of the higher powers toward transgressors of the law of morality of this time, we find an amusing (some will say shocking) mention in Smith's "revelation" of October 25, 1831 (Sec. 66). This "revelation" (announced as the words of "the Lord your Redeemer, the Saviour of the world") was addressed to W. E. McLellin (who was soon after "rebuked" by the prophet for attempting to have a "revelation" on his own account). It declared that McLellin was "blessed for receiving mine everlasting covenant," directed him to go forth and preach, gave him power to heal the sick, and then added, "Commit no adultery, a temptation with which thou hast been troubled." Could religious bouffe go to greater lengths?

    Testimony as to the liberal Mormon view of the marriage relation while the church was in Missouri is found in the case of one Lyon, reported by Smith on page 148 of Vol. XVI of the Millennial Star. Lyon was the presiding high priest of one of the outlying branches of the church. Desiring to marry a Mrs. Jackson, whose husband was absent in the East, Lyon announced a "revelation," ordering the marriage to take place, telling her that he knew by revelation that her husband was dead. He gained her consent in this way, but, before the ceremony was performed, Jackson returned home, and, learning of Lyon's conduct, he had him brought before the authorities for trial. The high priest was found guilty enough to be deposed from his office, but not from his church membership.

    There is abundant testimony from Mormon sources to show that the doctrine of polygamy, with the "spiritual wife" adjunct, was practised in Nauvoo for some time before Joseph Smith's death. A very orthodox Mormon witness on this point is Eliza R. Snow. In her biography of her brother, Lorenzo Snow,⁶ the recent head of the church, she gives this account of her connection with polygamy: --

    "While my brother was absent on this {his first} mission to Europe {1840-1843}, changes had taken place with me, one of eternal import, of which I supposed him to be entirely ignorant. The Prophet Joseph had taught me the principle of plural or celestial marriage, and I was married to him for time and eternity. In consequence of the ignorance of most of the Saints, as well as people of the world, on this subject, it was not mentioned, only privately between the few whose minds were enlightened on the subject. Not knowing how my brother {he returned on April 12, 1843} would receive it, I did not feel at liberty, and did not wish to assume the responsibility, of instructing him in the principle of plural marriage.... I informed my husband {the prophet} of the situation, and requested him to open the subject to my brother. A favorable opportunity soon presented, and, seated together on the bank of the Mississippi River, they had a most interesting conversation. The prophet afterward told me he found that my brother's mind had been previously enlightened on the subject in question. That Comforter which Jesus says shall I lead unto all truth had penetrated his understanding, and, while in England, had given him an intimation of what at that time was to many a secret. This was the result of living near the Lord.

    "It was at the private interview referred to above that the Prophet Joseph unbosomed his heart, and described the trying ordeal he experienced in overcoming the repugnance of his feelings, the natural result of the force of education and social custom, relative to the introduction of plural marriage. He knew the voice of God -- he knew the command of the Almighty to him was to go forward -- to set the example and establish celestial plural marriage .... Yet the prophet hesitated and deferred from time to time, until an angel of God stood by him with a drawn sword, and told him that, unless he moved forward and established plural marriage, his priesthood would be taken from him and he should be destroyed. This testimony he not only bore to my brother, but also to others."⁷

    ⁶ "This biography and autobiography of my brother Lorenzo Snow has been written as a tribute of sisterly affection for him, and as a token of sincere respect to his family. It is designed to behanded down in lineal descent, from generation to generation, -- to be preserved as a family memorial." -- Extract from the preface.
    ⁷ "Biography of Lorenzo Snow" (1884), pp. 68-70. Young married some of Smith's spiritual widows after the prophet's death, and four of them, including Eliza Snow, appear in Crockwell's illustrated "Biographies of Young's Wives," published in Utah.

    Catherine Lewis, who, after passing two years with the Mormons, escaped from Nauvoo, after taking the preliminary degrees of the endowment, says: "The Twelve took Joseph's wives after his death. Kimball and Young took most of them; the daughter of Kimball was one of Joseph's wives. I heard her say to her mother: 'I will never be sealed to my father {meaning as a wife}, and I would never have been sealed {married}to Joseph had I known it was anything more than ceremony. I was young, and they deceived me by saying the salvation of our whole family depended on it.' The Apostles said they only took Joseph's wives to raise up children, carry them through Smith's versatility as a fabricator seems to give him a leading place in that respect in the record of mankind. Snow says that he asked the prophet to set him right if he should see him indulging in any practice that might lead him astray, and the prophet assured him that he would never be guilty of any serious error. "It was one of Snow's peculiarities," observes his sister, "to do nothing by halves;" and he exemplified this in this instance by having two wives "sealed" to him at the same time in 1845, adding two more very soon afterward, and another in 1848. "It was distinctly understood," says his sister, "and agreed between them, that their marriage relations should not, for the time being, be divulged to the world."

    The testimony of John D. Lee in regard to the practice of polygamy in Illinois is very circumstantial, and Lee was a conscientious polygamist to the day of his death. He says⁸ that he was directed in this matter by principle and not by passion, and goes on to explain: --

    In those days I did not always make due allowance for the failings of the weaker vessels. I then expected perfection in all women. I know now that I was foolish in looking for that in anything human. I have, for slight offences, turned away good-meaning young women that had been sealed to me, and refused to hear their excuses, but sent them away broken-hearted. In this I did wrong. I have regretted the same in sorrow for many years.... Should my history ever fall into the hands of Emeline Woolsey or Polly Ann Workman, I wish them to know that, with my last breath, I asked God to pardon me the wrong I did them, when I drove them from me, poor young girls as they were to the next world, and there deliver them up to him; by so doing they would gain his approbation." -- "Narrative of Some of the Proceedings of the Mormons."

    ⁸ "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 200"

    Lee says that in the winter of 1843-1844 Smith set one Sidney Hay Jacobs to writing a pamphlet giving selections from the Scriptures bearing on the practice of polygamy and advocating that doctrine. The appearance of this pamphlet created so much unfavorable comment (even Hyrum Smith denouncing it "as from beneath") that Joseph deemed it best to condemn it in the Wasp, although men in his confidence were busy advocating its teachings.

    The "revelation" sanctioning plural marriages is dated July 12, 1843, and Lee says that Smith "dared not proclaim it publicly, "but taught it "confidentially," urging his followers "to surrender themselves to God" for their salvation; and "in the winter of 1845, meetings were held all over the city of Nauvoo, and the spirit of Elijah was taught in the different families, as a foundation to the order of celestial marriage, as well as the law of adoption."⁹ The Saints were also taught that Gentiles had no right to perform the marriage ceremony, and that their former marriage relations were invalid, and that they could be "sealed" to new wives under the authority of the church.

    ⁹ "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 165. to the next world, and there deliver them up to him; by so doing they would gain his approbation." -- "Narrative of Some of the Proceedings of the Mormons."

    Lee gives a complete record of his plural marriages, which is interesting, showing how the business was conducted at the start. His second wife, the daughter of a wealthy farmer near Quincy, Illinois, was "sealed" to him in Nauvoo in 1845, after she had been an inmate of his house for three months. His third and fourth wives were "sealed" to him soon after, but Young took a fancy to wife No. 3 (who had borne Lee a son), and, after much persuasion, she was "sealed" to Young. At this same "sealing" Lee took wife No. 4, a girl whom he had baptized in Tennessee. In the spring of 1845 two sisters of his first wife and their mother were "sealed" to him; he married the mother, he says, "for the salvation of her eternal state." At the completion of the Nauvoo Temple he took three more wives. At Council Bluffs, in 1847, Brigham Young "sealed" him to three more, two of them sisters, in one night, and he secured the fourteenth soon after, the fifteenth in 1851, the sixteenth in 1856, the seventeenth in 1858 ("a dashing young bride"), the eighteenth in 1859, and the nineteenth and last in Salt Lake City. He says he claimed "only eighteen true wives," as he married Mrs. Woolsey "for her soul's sake, and she was nearly sixty years old." By these wives he had sixty-four children, of whom fifty-four were living when his book was written.

    Ebenezer Robinson, explaining in the Return a statement signed by him and his wife in October, 1842, to offset Bennett's charges, in which they declared that they "knew of no other form of marriage ceremony" except the one in the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants," said that this statement was then true, as the heads of the church had not yet taught the new system to others. But they had heard it talked of, and the prophet's brother, Don Carlos, in June, 1841, had said to Robinson, "Any man who will teach and practise spiritual wifery will go to hell, no matter if it is my brother Joseph." Hyrum Smith, who first opposed the doctrine, went to Robinson's house in December, 1843, and taught the system to him and his wife. Robinson was told of the "revelation" to Joseph a few days after its date, and just as he was leaving Nauvoo on a mission to New York. He, Law, and William Marks opposed the innovation. He continues: "We returned home from that mission the latter part of November, 1843. Soon after our return, I was told that when we were gone the 'revelation 'was presented to and read in the High Council in Nauvoo, three of the members of which refused to accept it as from the Lord, President Marks, Cowles, and Counsellor Leonard Soby." Cowles at once resigned from the High Council and the Presidency of the church at Nauvoo, and was looked on as a seceder.

    Robinson gives convincing testimony that, as early as 1843, the ceremonies of the Endowment House were performed in Nauvoo by a secret organization called "The Holy Order," and says that in June, 1844, he saw John Taylor clad in an endowment robe. He quotes a letter to himself from Orson Hyde, dated September 19, 1844, in which Hyde refers guardedly to the new revelation and the "Holy Order" as "the charge which the prophet gave us, "adding, "and we know that Elder Rigdon does not know what it was."¹⁰

    ¹⁰ The Return, Vol. II, p. 252.

    We may find the following references to this subject in Smith's diary: --

    "April 29, 1842. The Lord makes manifest to me many things which it is not wisdom for me to make public until others can witness the proof of them."

    "May 1. I preached in the grove on the Keys of the Kingdom, etc. The Keys are certain signs and words by which the false spirits and personages can be detected from true, and which cannot be revealed to the Elders till the Temple is completed."

    "May 4. I spent the day in the upper part of my store... in council with (Hyrum, Brigham Young and others) instructing them in the principles and order of the Priesthood, attending to washings, anointings, endowments.... The communications I made to this Council were of things spiritual, and to be received only by the spiritually minded; and there was nothing made known to these men but what will be made known to all the Saints of the last days as soon as they are prepared to receive, and a proper place is prepared to communicate them."¹¹

    ¹¹ Millennial Star, Vol. XIX, pp. 390-393.

    In one of Smith's dissertations, which are inserted here and there in his diary, is the following under date of August, 1842: --

    "If we seek first the kingdom of God, all good things will be added. So with Solomon. First he asked wisdom and God gave it to him, and with it every desire of his heart, even things which might be considered abominable to all who understand the order of heaven only in part, but which in reality were right, because God gave and sanctioned them by special revelation."¹²

    ¹² Millennial Star, Vol. XIX, p. 774.

    While the Mormon leaders, Lorenzo Snow and others, were in the Utah penitentiary after conviction under the Edmunds anti-polygamy law, refusing pardons on condition that they would give up the practice of polygamy, the Deseret News of May 20, 1886, printed an affidavit made on February 16, 1874, at the request of Joseph F. Smith, by William Clayton, who was a clerk in the prophet's office in Nauvoo and temple recorder, to show the world that "the martyred prophet is responsible to God and the world for this doctrine." The affidavit recites that while Clayton and the prophet were taking a walk, in February, 1843, Smith first broached to him the subject of plural marriages, and told him that the doctrine was right in the sight of God, adding, "It is your privilege to have all the wives you want." He gives the names of a number of the wives whom Smith married at this time, adding that his wife Emma "was cognizant of the fact of some, if not all, of these being his wives, and she g enerally treated them very kindly." He says that on July 12, 1843, Hyrum offered to read the "revelation" to Emma if the prophet would write it out, saying, "I believe I can convince her of its truth, and you will hereafter have peace." Joseph smiled, and remarked, "You do not know Emma as well as I do," but he thereupon dictated the "revelation" and Clayton wrote it down. An examination of its text will show how largely it was devoted to Emma's subjugation. When Hyrum returned from reading it to the prophet's lawful wife, he said that "he had never received a more severe talking to in his life; that Emma was very bitter and full of resentment and anger." Joseph repeated his remark that his brother did not know Emma as well as he did, and, putting the "revelation" into his pocket, they went out.¹³

    ¹³ Jenson's "Historical Record," Vol. VI, pp. 233-234, gives the names of twenty-seven women who, "besides a few others about whom we have been unable to get all the necessary information, were sealed to the Prophet Joseph during the last three years of his life."
    "At the present time," says Stenhouse ("Rocky Mountain Saints"), p. 185, "there are probably about a dozen sisters in Utah who proudly acknowledge themselves to be the `wives of Joseph, 'and how many others there may be who held that relationship no man knoweth.'"

    At the conference in Salt Lake City on August 28, 1852, at which the first public announcement of the revelation was made, Brigham Young said in the course of his remarks: "Though that doctrine has not been preached by the Elders, this people have believed in it for many years.¹⁴ The original copy of this revelation was burned up. William Clayton was the man who wrote it from the mouth of the Prophet. In the meantime it was in Bishop Whitney's possession. He wished the privilege to copy it, which brother Joseph granted. Sister Emma burnt the original." The "revelation," he added, had been locked up for years in his desk, on which he had a patent lock.¹⁵

    ¹⁴ As evidence that polygamy was not countenanced by Smith and his associates in Nauvoo, there has been cited a notice in the Times and Seasons of February, 1844, signed by Joseph and Hyrum Smith, cutting off an elder named Brown for preaching "polygamy and other false and corrupt doctrines," and a letter of Hyrum, dated March 15, 1844, threatening to deprive of his license and membership any elder who preached "that a man having a certain priesthood may have as many wives as he pleases." The Deseret News of May 20, 1886, noticing these and other early denials, justifies the falsehoods, saying that "Jesus enjoined his Disciples on several occasions to keep to themselves principles that he made known to them," that the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants" gave the same instruction, and that the elders, as the "revelation" was not yet promulgated, "were justified in denying those imputations, and at the same time avoiding the avowal of such doctrines as were not yet intended for this world." P. P. Pratt flatly denied, in England, in 1846, that any such doctrine was known or practised by the Saints, and John Taylor (afterward the head of the church), in a discussion in France in July, 1850, declared that "these things are too outrageous to admit of belief." The latter false statements would be covered by the excuse of the Deseret News.
    ¹⁵ Deseret News, extra, September 14, 1852. Young declared in a sermon in Salt Lake City in July, 1855, that he was among the doubters when the prophet revealed the new doctrine, saying: "It was the first time in my life that I desired the grave, and I could hardly get over it for a long time.... And I have had to examine myself from that day to this, and watch my faith and carefully meditate, lest I should be found desiring the grave more than I ought to." His examinations proved eminently successful.

    Further proof is not needed to show that this doctrine was the offspring of Joseph Smith, and that its original object was to grant him unrestricted indulgence of his passions.

    Justice to Sidney Rigdon requires that his memory should be cleared of the charge, which has been made by more than one writer, that the spiritual wife doctrine was of his invention. There is the strongest evidence to show that it was Smith's knowledge that he could not win Rigdon over to polygamy which made the prophet so bitter against his old counsellor, and that it was Rigdon's opposition to the new doctrine that made Young so determined to drive him out of church after the prophet's death.

    When Rigdon returned to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to establish his own Mormon church there, he began in October, 1844, the publication of a revived Latter-Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate. Stating "the greater cause" of the opposition of the leaders of Nauvoo to him, in an editorial, he said: --

    "Know then that the so-called Twelve Apostles at Nauvoo are now teaching the doctrine of what is called Spiritual Wives; that a man may have more wives than one; and they are not only teaching it, but practising it, and this doctrine is spreading alarmingly through that apostate branch of the church of Latter-Day Saints. Their greatest objection to us was our opposition to this doctrine, knowing, as they did, that we had got the fact in possession. It created alarm, great alarm; every effort was made while we were there to effect something that might screen them from the consequence of exposure....

    "This doctrine of a man having more wives than one is the cause which has induced these men to put at defiance the ecclesiastical arrangements of the church, and, what is equally criminal, to do despite unto the moral excellence of the doctrine and covenants of the church, setting up an order of things of their own, in violation of all the rules and regulations known to the Saints."

    In the same editorial Rigdon prints a statement by a gentleman who was at Nauvoo at the time, and for whose veracity he vouches, which said, "It was said to me by many that they had no objection to Elder Rigdon but his opposition to the spiritual wife system."

    Benjamin Winchester, who was one of the earliest missionaries sent out from Kirtland, adds this testimony in a letter to Elder John Hardy of Boston, Massachusetts, whose trial in 1844 for opposing the spiritual wife doctrine occasioned wide comment:

    "As regards the trial of Elder Rigdon at Nauvoo, it was a forced affair, got up by the Twelve to get him out of their way, that they might the better arrogate to themselves higher authority than they ever had, or anybody ever dreamed they would have; and also (as they perhaps hope) to prevent a complete expose of the spiritual wife system, which they knew would deeply implicate themselves."