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CHAPTER XII.
The Alleged "Revelation" of Polygamy.
Chapter II, book of Jacob in the Book of Mormon, page 132, contains the following sections:
"Sec, 22. And now I make an end of speaking unto you concerning this pride. And were it not that I must speak unto you concerning a greater crime, my heart would rejoice in me because of you.
"Sec. 23. But the word of God burdens me because of your grosser crimes, for behold, thus sayeth the Lord, "This people began to wax in iniquity, for they seek to excuse themselves in committing whoredom because of the things which were written concerning David and Solomon and his son.
"Sec. 24. `Behold David and Solomon, who had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me,' sayeth the Lord.
"Sec. 25. Wherefore, thus sayeth the Lord: `I have led this people unto 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.
"Sec. 26. `Wherefore, I the Lord God will not suffer that this people shall do like unto them of old.'
"Sec. 27. Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken unto the word of the Lord, for there shall not any man among you have, save it be one wife, and concubines he shall have none."
Section 5, in Chapter III, page 134, is as follows:
"Behold the Lamanites, your brethren, whom ye hate because of their filthiness, and the cursings which have come upon their skins, are more righteous than you; for they have not forgotten the commandments of the Lord, which was given unto our fathers, that they should have, save it were one wife, and concubines they should have none."
It is a tenet of the Mormon church that the Book of Mormon is an inspired translation by Joseph Smith of certain hieroglyphics on golden plates which he, under the guidance of an angel, dug from a hill and was enabled to decipher by the aid of a peepstone called the Urim and Thummim, given him by an angel. That book first appeared in 1830. Thirteen years thereafter Smith claimed to have received the alleged revelation of polygamy, and it began thus:
"Verily, thus saith the Lord, Unto you, my servant Joseph, that inasmuch as you have inquired of my hand to know and understand wherein I the Lord justified my servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as also Moses, David and Solomon, my servants, as touching the principle and doctrine of their having many wives and concubines. Behold and lo, I am the Lord thy God, and will answer thee touching these matters."
In view of the quotations which I have made from the Book of Mormon, this would have been the natural answer to Joseph's request, so far as it relates to David and Solomon:
"My dearly beloved servant, have you so soon forgotten that in the Book of Mormon which I have inspired you to translate, I stated in most positive and unambiguous terms that the acts of David, and Solomon his son, in having many wives and concubines was abominable before me and rendered them less righteous than the filthy Lamanites, for they have not forgotten the commandments of the Lord which was given unto their fathers, that they should have, save it were one wife, and concubines they should have none."
But the answer to Joseph's inquiry given in the alleged revelation is as follows:
"David also received many wives and concubines, as also Solomon and Moses, my servants, as also many of my servants from the beginning of Creation until this time, and in nothing did they sin, save in those things which they received not from me. David's wives and concubines were given unto him by me by the hand of Nathan, my servant, and others of the prophets who had the keys of power, and in none of these things did he sin again against me, save in the case of Uriah and his wife."
This, in express terms, justifies both concubinage and polygamy as well, and explicitly contradicts the statements on the same subject made in the Book of Mormon, and is sufficient alone to discredit the alleged revelation and to brand its author as having been a superlative fraud. That he is such is equally apparent from the following portions of that revelation:
"Verily, I say unto you a commandment I gave unto my handmaid Emma Smith, your wife, whom I have given unto you, that she stay herself, and partake not of that which I commanded you to offer unto her; for I did it, saith the Lord, to prove you all, as I did Abraham, and that I might require an offering at your hands, by covenant and sacrifice, and let mine handmaid Emma Smith receive all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph, and who are virtuous and pure before me; and those who are not pure, and have said they were, shall be destroyed, saith the Lord; for I am the Lord, thy God, and ye shall obey My voice, and I command my handmaid Emma Smith to abide and cleave unto my servant Joseph and none else. But if she will not abide this commandment, she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord, for I am the Lord, thy God, and I will destroy her if she abide not in my law; but if she will abide this commandment, then shall my servant Joseph do all things for her as he hath said, and I will bless him and give unto him an hundred-fold in this world of fathers and mothers. brothers and sisters, houses and lands, wives and children, and crown of eternal lives in the eternal world. * * * And again, verily I say, Let mine handmaid forgive my servant Joseph his trespasses, and then shall she be forgiven her trespasses wherein she hath trespassed against me, and I the Lord thy God will bless her, and multiply her and make her heart rejoice. * * * And again, verily, verily I say unto you, If any man, having a wife, who holds the keys of this power, and he teaches her the law of my priesthood as pertaining to these sayings, then shall she believe and administer unto him, or she shall be damned, sayeth the Lord, your God, for I will destroy her: for I will magnify my name upon all those who receive and abide in my law. Therefore, it shall be lawful if she receive not this law, for him to receive all things whatever I the Lord his God will give unto him because she did not believe and administer unto him according to my word: and she then becomes the transgressor; and he is exempt from the law of Sarah, who administered unto Abraham according to the law when I commanded Abraham to take Hagar to wife."
The following extract is from a sermon of Brigham Young delivered in 1874:
"Brother Geo. A. Smith has been reading a little of the revelation concerning celestial marriage, and I want to say to my sisters, that if they lift their heels against this revelation you will go to hell just as sure as you are living women. Emma, Joseph's wife, began teasing for the revelation. She said `Joseph, you promised me that revelation, and if you are a man of your word, you will give it to me.' Joseph took it from his pocket and said, take it.' She went to the fireplace and put the candle under it and burned it, and she thought that was the end of it; and she will be damned just as sure as she is a living woman. Joseph used to say he would have her hereafter if he had to go to hell for her, and he will have to go to hell for her, as sure as he ever gets her."
John Henry Smith, who at the time of his death was one of the counselors of Joseph F. Smith, the president of the church, was in his examination hereinbefore mentioned, asked the question: "Do you understand that revelation to be to this effect, that if the first wife refuses to consent to her husband taking a second wife, she shall be damned'?" He answered: "I understand that principle. A good many women have taken that chance. Under the Mormon theory they shall be damned."
No true wife could, without stifling one of the strongest natural attributes with which woman has been endowed by her Creator, consent to or abide by the plural marriage of her, husband, and to destroy or damn her, or send her to hell for refusing to submit to a thing so repugnant to her womanly nature as polygamy would be monstrously wicked and barbarous.
The claim of Joseph Smith that this tenet of the Mormon church was revealed to him by God, conclusively shows him to have been an impostor and pervert. To ascribe the authorship of such an infamous document as that alleged revelation to God is a monstrous profanation of His sacred name.
Whitney was evidently ashamed of that tenet of the Mormon church, for in his History of Utah he eliminated from the alleged revelation of polygamy, as published therein, the portions above quoted.
In the Deseret News of May 26, 1886, there appeared an affidavit of William Clayton, the person who wrote down the revelation of polygamy as dictated to him by Joseph Smith. In this affidavit Clayton says:
"In the month of February, 1843, Joseph informed me that he had other wives living besides his first wife, Emma, and in particular gave me to understand that Eliza R. Snow, Eliza Beman, Desdemona Fuller, and others, were his lawful wives in the sight of Heaven. On the 27th of April, 1843, the Prophet Joseph Smith married me to Margaret Moon, for time and eternity, at the residence of Heber C. Kimball, and on the 22d day of July, 1843, he married me according to the [celestial] order of the church to my first wife, Ruth. On the first day of May, 1843, I officiated in the office of Elder by marrying Lucy Walker to the Prophet Joseph Smith at his own residence. During this period the Prophet took several other wives, among the number I only remember Eliza Partridge, Emily Partridge, Sarah Ann Whitney, Helen Kimball and Flora Wadsworth. All these he acknowledged to me were his lawfully wedded wives, according to the celestial order.
The Deseret News, which is the official organ of the church, on May 20, 1886, contained the following:
"The revelation of celestial marriage, published in the Doctrine and Covenants, was given July 12th, 1843. The principles it contains, with further intelligence on the subject, was revealed to the Prophet many years before, but not formulated in writing for the church. Acting under instructions from the Lord, the Prophet had several wives sealed to him before the date of the revelation."
In February, 1844, the following appeared in the Times and Seasons, then the official publication of the Mormon church:
"Notice - As we have been credibly informed that an elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by the name of Hyrum Brown has been preaching polygamy and other false and corrupt doctrines in the county of Lapeer, State of Michigan, this is to notify him and the church in general, that he has been cut off from the church for his iniquity, and he is further notified to appear at a Special Conference on the fifth of April next to answer to these charges.
(Signed) JOSEPH SMITH,
HYRUM SMITH,
Presidents of the Church."John Taylor, at a public discussion with a divine in Boulogne, France, in July, 1850, in answer to the accusation made that the Mormon church tolerated the practice of polygamy, said: "We are accused here of polygamy, and actions the most indelicate, obscene and disgusting, such as none but a corrupt heart could have contrived; these things are too outrageous to admit of belief. Taylor at that time had at least eight plural wives living. In explanation of these denials, the Deseret News of May 20th, 1886, published the following:
"Polygamy, in the ordinary and Asiatic sense of the term, never was and is not now a tenet of the Latter-day Saints. Until the open enunciation of the doctrine of celestial marriage by the publication of the revelation on the subject in 1852, no elder was authorized to announce it to the world. The Almighty has revealed things on many occasions which was for his servants and not for the world. In the rise of the church, the Lord had occasion to admonish his servants in regard to revelations that were afterward permitted to be published. `I say unto you, hold your peace until I shall see fit to make all things public. I say unto you, hold your peace until I shall see fit to make all things known unto the world concerning the matter, and now I say unto you, keep these things from going abroad in the world until it is expedient to ne.' Under these instructions the elders had no right to promulgate anything but that which they were authorized to teach, and when assailed by enemies and accused of practicing things which were really not countenanced in the church, they were justified in denying those imputations and at the same time avoiding the avowal of such doctrines as were not yet intended for the world. The course they have taken when necessary by commandment is all the ground which their accusers have for charging them with falsehood."
Whitney, in his history, Vol. I, page 216, states:
"Prior to the recording of this revelation, the Prophet had taught the doctrine privately, and he and other prominent elders had practiced it. But this was also in secret, owing to the great prejudice it was foreseen it would invoke. It was not avowed even to the masses of the Saints until after their removal from Illinois."
It is evident from the above that previous to the revelation, Joseph had been cohabiting with numerous women on the sly, and that a point had been reached when further concealment from the generality of his adherents was difficult, and knowing that his followers believed him to be a true prophet of God, he announced the revelation, intending by that ruse to justify his practices, reconcile his adherents and coerce his wife Emma to submit to his outrageous violations of her marital rights.
* * * * * * * * * * * * The following extracts from revelations of Joseph Smith contained in the Doctrine and Covenants, which contains the most of his "revelations," shows the absurdity of the claim that he was an inspired prophet:
(Sec. 124, page 436.) "And now I say unto you, as pertaining to my boarding house, which I have commanded you to build for the boarding of strangers, that it be built unto my name, and let my name be named upon it, and let my servant Joseph and his house have place therein from generation to generation, for this anointing have I put upon his head that his blessings shall also be put upon the head of his posterity after him. And as I said unto Abraham concerning the kindreds of the earth, even so I say unto my servant Joseph, In thee and in thy seed shall the kindred of the earth be blessed. Therefore let my servant, Joseph, and his seed after him, have place in that house from generation to generation for ever and ever, sayeth the Lord. And let the name of the house be called `Nauvoo House,' and let it be a delightful habitation for man, and a resting place for the weary traveler, that he may contemplate the glory of Zion, and the glory of the cornerstone thereof. That he may receive also the counsel from those whom I have set to he as plants of renown, and as watchmen upon her walls. Behold, verily I say unto you, Let my servant George Miller, and my servant Lyman Wight, and my servant John Snyder, and my servant Peter Haws, organize themselves and appoint one of them to be president over their quorum for the purpose of building that house. And they shall form a constitution whereby they shall receive stock for the building of that house. And they shall not receive less than $50.00 for a share of stock in that house, and they shall be permitted to receive $15,000.00 from any one man for stock in that house, but they shall not be permitted to receive over $15,000.00 stock from any one man, and they shall not be permitted to receive any man as stockholder in this house, except the same shall pay his stock into their hands at the time he receives the stock."
As being extremely apropos to the foregoing covert plan of Joseph to have his poor dupes build for him a regal residence, the following extract of Colton, the metaphyscist, is interpolated:
"It is a curious paradox that precisely in proportion to our own intellectual weakness will be our credulity to those mysterious powers assumed by others; and in those regions of darkness and ignorance where man cannot effect even those things that are within the power of man, there we shall ever find that a blind belief in feats that are far beyond those powers has taken the deepest root in the minds of the deceived, and produced the richest harvest to the knavery of the deceiver."
(Page 241). "And now, verily I say, that it is expedient in me that my servant, Sydney Gilbert, after a few weeks, should return upon his business, and to his Agency in the Land of God; and that which he hath seen and heard may be made known unto my disciples, that they perish not. And for this cause I have spoken these things. And again I say unto you, that my servant, Isaac Morley, may not be tempted above that which he is able to bear, and counsel wrongfully to your heart, I give commandment that his farm should be sold."
(Page 242). "And it is not meet that my servants, Newell K. Whitney and Sydney Gilbert, should sell their store and their possessions, for this is not wisdom until the residue of the church which remaineth in this place shall go up unto the land of Zion."
One of the characteristic expressions of Brigham Young was "Tie up the calf, and the cow will not stray away from her home." To accomplish the end indicated by that expression, he forced (and was enabled to do so because he was generally regarded by his adherents as being the mouthpiece of God on earth) many of the wealthier and more influential members of his church into polygamy who would not, voluntarily, have married plural wives. A Mormon polygamist, if he should apostatize, would immediately, as Brigham well know, be ostracized by his former brethren, and could not hope by moving with his polygamous family away from a Mormon community, to escape proscription, or form respectable social relations elsewhere among Christian people. Therefore a member of the Mormon church, by marrying plural wives, figuratively tied up the calf, and if he afterwards apostatized from the church would have been placed in a most distressing position by his polygamous connections.
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