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Joseph Smith Fought Polygamy
Volume I
How Men Nearest
the Prophet Attached Polygamy to His Name
in Order to Justify Their Own Polygamous Crimes
By Richard and
Pamela Price |
"What a thing it is
for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven
wives,
when I can only find one"—Joseph Smith (LDS
History of the Church 6:411).
[ Joseph
Smith Fought Polygamy Index ]
Chapter 5
The Apostles Brought Polygamy into the Church
Cochranism was not the only source of polygamy. Indeed, polygamy
was a common subject of discussion in America during the 1830s.
Over a hundred different religious colonies or communes in America
were practicing some form of polygamy during the years that the
Church was being formed. In 1868 William Hepworth Dixon wrote
two volumes entitled Spiritual Wives,
which gave much information about the various forms of polygamy,
spiritual wifery, and like practices during that time.
Dixon was a distinguished English
writer and the editor of the Athenaeum,
a literary magazine published in London. He traveled extensively
in America gathering facts about polygamous groups, and even visited
Salt Lake City where he interviewed Brigham Young. Dixon wrote:
A few words dropt by Brigham Young, in the course of a long
reply to questions of mine on another point, told me that the
Mormon Pope knew more than could be found in books about that
doctrine of the Spiritual wife, which, in our own day, in the
midst of our churches, and chiefly, if not wholly, among men
of Teutonic race, has flowered out into so many new and surprising
domestic facts: at Salt Lake City into Polygamy; among the New
England spiritual circles into Affinities; at Mount Lebanon
into Celibate Love; at Wallingford and Oneida Creek [New York]
into Complex Marriage, and in a hundred American cities into
some more or less open form of Free Love. (William Hepworth
Dixon, Spiritual Wives 1:79)
Dixon's statement that some form of spiritual wifery was being
practiced "in a hundred American cities" will no doubt
be surprising to many. However, other writers confirm his findings.
Of interest also is his statement on the subject of polygamy—that
Brigham Young knew more about the "doctrine of the Spiritual
wife" than could be found in books. This meant that Brigham
Young was intimately familiar with other religious societies which
were practicing polygamy. In a sermon in 1860, Brigham Young confirmed
that he had a knowledge of many other religions. He said:
I used to go to meetings—was well acquainted with the
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, New Lights, Baptists, Freewill
Baptists, Wesleyan and Reformed Methodists,—lived from
my youth where I was acquainted with the Quakers as well as
the other denominations, and was more or less acquainted with
almost every other religious ism. (Journal
of Discourses 8 [1861]: 38)
It has already been shown in an earlier chapter that Brigham
had a firsthand knowledge of Cochranism, having been in attendance
at the Church's conference in Saco, Maine, in 1836, and having
married Augusta Cobb who was well acquainted with Cochranism.
America was not the only nation in which polygamy was a popular
subject of discussion in the 1830s and 1840s. It was a matter
of interest and speculation in England and other parts of Europe
during the time that the first Church missionaries were there.
It seems that whenever God moves to start something as marvelous
as the restoring of the New Testament Church, which was officially
organized in 1830, that Satan also starts a new surge of evil
to destroy it. One of Satan's major efforts in this direction
during the time that the Church was being formed was a revival
of interest in polygamy—which occurred in three different
countries simultaneously, but independently. Dixon recorded:
It has not, I think, been noticed by any writer that three
of the most singular movements in the churches of our generation
seem to have been connected, more or less closely, with the
state of mind produced by revivals; one in Germany, one in England,
and one in the United States....
These three movements, which have a great deal in common, began
without concert, in distant parts of the world, under separate
church rules, and in widely different social circumstances.
The first movement was in Ost Preussen [Germany]; the second
in England; the third, and most important, in Massachusetts
and New York. They had these chief things in common; they began
in colleges, they affected the form of family life, and they
were carried on by clergymen; each movement in a place of learning
and of theological study; that in Germany at the Luther-Kirch
of Königsberg, that in England at St. David's College,
that in the United States at Yale College. (Dixon, Spiritual
Wives 1:84–85)
It is significant that these three manifestations of the polygamous
spirit all occurred in religious and intellectual circles—at
leading universities in each country. This made polygamy more
acceptable than if the practice had occurred in small, unknown,
radical groups.
Books published in England attest to the fact that polygamy
had long been a subject of discussion in that country before the
Church's missionaries arrived in 1837. They include:
- T. T. Payen, The Cases of Polygamy, Concubinage,
Adultery, Divorce, etc., Seriously and Learnedly Discussed (London:
1732);
- James Cookson, Thoughts on Polygamy Including
Remarks on Theolyphtora and Its Scheme (Winchester, England:
J. Wilkes for the author, 1782);
- Delany Patrick, Reflections on Polygamy
(London: 1739);
- Johannes Lyser, Polygamia Triumphtrix
(Europe: 1682);
- John Towers, Polygamy Unscriptural (London:
1780);
- William Hepworth Dixon, Spiritual Wives,
2 vols., 1868.
Some of the Apostles Increased Their
Interest in Polygamy While in England
It was shown in the previous chapter that Brigham Young testified
that he had polygamous manifestations while serving as a missionary
apostle in England. Elder Edwin Stafford testified that he was
satisfied that Brigham Young was in adultery while there. It should
be remembered that the missionaries who went to the English Mission
were idolized by many of their converts, which had a tendency
to increase polygamous desires. An example of their popularity
is revealed in the following account:
Elder Kimball, accompanied by Elder Fielding, walked to Chatburn
and Downham for a last farewell. In Chatburn, the people left
their work and flocked to the streets to greet them. Children
followed them from place to place, singing. "Some of them
said that if they could but touch us they seem better. They
evidently believe there is Virtue in Brother Kimball's Cloake,"
Elder Fielding wrote. (The Ensign
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 17
[July 1987]: 26)
In this setting, in a country where polygamy was a subject of
discussion, as it was in America, it was natural for the apostles
and the other missionaries to develop theories to justify their
polygamous desires. There is evidence that these brethren added
to their desires for polygamy, and belief in it, as a result of
their experiences in England.
As mentioned previously, Brigham Young stated that "While
we were in England, (in 1839 and 40), I think the Lord manifested
to me by vision and his Spirit things [concerning polygamy] that
I did not then understand.... [T]here had never been a thought
of it in the Church that I ever knew anything about at that time"
(Messenger 1 [June 1875]: 29; Deseret
News, July 1, 1874). Lorenzo Snow, also a missionary to
England and a brother to Eliza Snow (who became a plural wife
of Brigham), stated:
There is no man that lives that had a more perfect knowledge
of the principle of plural marriage, its holiness and divinity,
than what I had. It was revealed to me
before the Prophet Joseph Smith explained it to me. I
had been on a mission to England between two and three years,
and before I left England I was
perfectly satisfied in regard to something connected with plural
marriage. (Deseret Semi-Weekly News,
June 6, 1899; italics added)
A Book Promoting Polygamy Was Published in England
In addition to these two admissions of polygamous tendencies,
there were other indications that the English Mission was a factor
in bringing "a thing which is had in secret chambers"
into the Church during the Nauvoo period. One was a book which
prominent English priesthood members promoted, that told of Jacob
(of the Old Testament) and his twelve sons.
Some of the more prominent priesthood members in England showed
an unusual interest in polygamy and the "patriarchal order"
(which was their terminology for those ancient patriarchs of the
Old Testament who practiced plural marriage and concubinage).
Part of their interest was generated by this book entitled The
Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, the Sons of Jacob.
It was published by Elder Samuel Downes of the Church at Manchester,
England, in 1843. Note in the statement below that Downes showed
the book to many of the brethren and they urged him to publish
it. His preface states:
Beloved Brother, In sending forth unto the nations of the world
the following pages, in a form whereby the humblest of our Brethren
may possess themselves of it, I shall not know how truly thankful
to feel to Almighty God, if, upon a perusal of its contents,
it may meet with that approbation which it is the wish of your
humble brother it should do.... Having shewn it to many of my
brethren, and it having met with their approbation, they are
wishful to possess themselves of it also. I now at their solicitation
for the church, and for mankind in general, send it forth unto
the world; and my heart's desire to God is, that the sublime
truths contained in it may cause the hearts of the saints to
rejoice and the wicked to see.... Art thou a Bishop, a Minister...?
Look upon Jacob, O ye parents, peruse the twelve godly fathers
in time and order. Learn of him and his to pray aright. (Preface
to The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs,
the Sons of Jacob)
The books were sold from the Church's Millennial
Star office and it was advertised in that publication.
Editor Thomas Ward published:
We have received a hundred copies of a reprint of a translation
from an ancient Greek manuscript, entitled The
Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, the Sons of Jacob. We
have to remark that this publication is not at all connected
with the Church of Latter-day Saints, but merely printed by
a brother, elder Samuel Downes, as a relic of antiquity, containing
many portions of truth, and as a general curiosity.
(The Latter-Day Saints' Millennial
Star 4 [October 1843]: 96)
Elder Downes dedicated the book to a patriarch in the English
Mission with these words:
The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs,
the Sons of Jacob, Is Most Respectfully Dedicated to
My Well-Beloved Brother, John Albitson, Patriarch in the Church
of Latter-Day Saints. As a token of respect and esteem for his
services and unwearied zeal in the cause of God in this the
Evening of Time. By his Brother in Christ, Samuel Downes.
The Millennial Star 3 [June 1842]:
30, refers to "Elder Albiston, the patriarch," who was
present at a general conference held in Manchester, England, on
May 15, 1842. Apostle Parley Pratt presided over that conference.
The book did not condemn polygamy as do all the Three Standard
Books of Scripture. That book presented Jacob's plural marriage
and concubinage as a godly way of life. It was not a book which
edified the reader with true spiritual values. Neither could its
claims be substantiated by the Bible, Book of Mormon, or Doctrine
and Covenants. For instance, it stated, "Then an angel of
the Lord appeared unto Jacob, and said that Rachel should bear
but two sons, because she had forsaken the company of her husband,
and chosen continency" (Elder Samuel Downes, The
Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, the Sons of Jacob,
48). The Bible proves this claim false, for Rachel bore Jacob's
last son—Benjamin, and died in childbirth as a result (Genesis
35:16–19). In other words, Rachel did not forsake "the
company of her husband."
Downes' book on the twelve patriarchs emphasized the patriarchal
order of life in the Old Testament. The same theme was adopted
and amplified in the LDS Church's theology—even to this
day (see Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine,
559).
At the meeting in which Brigham introduced the polygamy document
(Section 132) to the public in 1852, with Joseph's name falsely
attached, Apostle Orson Pratt gave a stirring sermon citing polygamous
practices of the patriarchs of the Old Testament as the reason
for having polygamy in modern times (Journal
of Discourses 1 [1854]: 53–66). Orson became the
husband of ten wives. Four were from the British Isles (Utah
Genealogical Magazine 27 [1936]:
113–114).
One of Orson Pratt's biographers explained:
The Saints soon found that this discourse would mark a fateful
turning point for the entire Church. Orson began to talk about
the ancient biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and
the privileges and blessings they enjoyed. He asked the congregation
why the Lord had permitted these former worthies to take more
than one wife. The answer, according to Orson, was that this
was the most efficient way for the Lord to raise up a righteous
and numerous people. (Breck England, The
Life and Thought of Orson Pratt, 175)
The promotion of the book about the twelve patriarchs and the
emphasis upon the patriarchal order are further evidences of the
direct connection between the polygamous tendencies among the
English missionaries and their converts, and Mormon theology.
Some Plural Wives of the Apostles Were from the
British Isles
It is more than coincidence that many of the women who later
became plural wives of the missionaries to England were women
from the British Isles. This is another evidence that the English
avenue helped bring polygamy into the Church. A list of a few
of the missionaries sent to England and their first plural wives
demonstrates this connection:
- Apostle Parley P. Pratt married a total of twelve wives.
His first plural wife and four other plurals were from the British
Isles (see Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography
of Parley Parker Pratt, 462–464);
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball married forty-three wives, eight
of whom were from the British Isles (see Stanley B. Kimball,
Heber C. Kimball—Mormon Patriarch
and Pioneer, 307–316);
- Apostle Orson Hyde married a total of six wives, and his first
plural wife was of English birth (see Howard H. Barron, Orson
Hyde—Missionary, Apostle, Colonizer, 323);
- Apostle John Taylor married fifteen wives (Richard S. Van
Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, A Book of
Mormons, 354). His first plural wife's birthplace was
the Isle of Man, England (see Utah Genealogical
Magazine 21 [1930]: 105).
Thousands of devoted English Saints joined the Church, and it
is tragic that the American missionaries, who should have been
godly shepherds over the flock, ensnared some of them in the evil
net of polygamy. Later, many of the English Saints became aware
of the apostasy and refused to follow the polygamous leaders.
Numerous English converts, such as Charles Derry, became faithful
workers in the Reorganization. After coming to America, he made
great sacrifices to take the Reorganization's message back to
the Saints in England.
Perhaps Brother Derry best summed up the destruction which polygamy
caused throughout the Church when he stated, "The curse of
polygamy has cast the darkest shadow over the church. The world
is powerless to bring real discredit upon the church, but this
vile system coming forth in the name of the church has given cause
for reproach wherever the name of Mormonism is known" (Journal
of History 8 [January 1915]: 174).
[ Joseph
Smith Fought Polygamy Index ]
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Chapter
4 
