Utah and the Mormons/Chapter 14

At an early period, their views in relation to marriage were in conformity to the rest of the civilized world. This, in fact, was one of the few subjects which was plainly expressed in the Book of Mormon.

"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 grosser crime, my heart would rejoice exceedingly because of you. But the word of God burdens me because of your grosser crimes. For behold, thus saith the Lord, this people begin to wax in iniquity; they understand not the Scriptures; for they seek to excuse themselves in committing whoredoms, because of the things which were written concerning David, and Solomon his son. Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord. Wherefore, thus saith 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 have save it be one wife, and concubines he shall have none; for I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women; and whoredoms are an abomination before me." (Book of Mormon, p. 135.)

Their book of "Doctrines and Covenants" has the form of the marriage ceremony, including the covenant obligations of the parties, in which is found the following:

"You both mutually agree to be each other's companion, husband and wife, observing the legal rights belonging to this condition; that is, keeping yourselves wholly for each other, and from all others, during your lives."

In 1843 the prophet had a revelation by which polygamy was introduced, as already stated; and this institution is now the most distinctive feature of Mormonism. In answer to the objection that this revelation is in contradiction to the "Book of Mormon," the Saints quote the following vague and somewhat unmeaning sentence, which appears as a context to the above extract: "For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things." By this they say "the bars were left down;" but whether Joseph and Rigdon purposely left "the bars down," or intended this as one of the thousand obscure and wordy sentences with which the book abounds, without particular aim or object, is not very clear. Be this, however, as it may, the whole Church have rushed through this gap like a flock of goats; and the Mormon community are now as hopelessly encircled within the ​folds of this pernicious doctrine, as poor Laocoon within those of the serpent by which his body was crushed.

The introduction of polygamy or concubinage into the Mormon Church was as certain as any other effect from an obvious cause. It belongs to it as legitimately as a muddy current to the Missouri, or filth to a cess-pool, and may be regarded as the crowning trait of Mormonism. As already stated, it grew out of the polluted mind of the prophet, who established it as an institution of the Church to legalize his own licentiousness, and the effect has been to diffuse the poison from a portion through nearly the whole mass.

The revelation on this subject, which the reader will find in the Appendix, forms an era in Latter-day history, and is a curiosity of its kind. A brief analysis will exhibit its salient points.

In the first place, the Mormon deity, in this important communication, seems to have become utterly oblivious of the strong terms of condemnation which he had used in the Golden Bible in regard to the debaucheries of David and Solomon, and the tender solicitude therein expressed in reference to "the chastity of women." In the next place, all marriage covenants are declared to be void which are not sealed by the "holy spirit of promise of him who is anointed," which, of course, turns out to be Joseph Smith. Marriages with this precious sanction are for eternity; but without it they are only for time, and the parties can get no higher than angels on the ladder of salvation. The promises to Abraham that his seed should be multiplied are then repeated, and the prophet is assured that he is a lineal descendant of that patriarch, and is com​manded to "do the works of Abraham," which means that he must take unto himself a multiplicity of wives and concubines.

"God commanded Abraham, and Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham to wife. And why did she do it? Because this was the law, and from Hagar sprang many people. This, therefore, was fulfilling among other things the promises. Was Abraham, therefore, under condemnation? Verily, I say unto you, Nay; for I the Lord commanded it."

"Abraham received concubines, and they bare him children, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, because they were given unto him, and he abode in my law. As Isaac also and Jacob did none other things than that which they were commanded, they have entered into their exaltation, according to the promises, and sit upon thrones, and are not angels, but are gods."

Passing over sundry matters relating to the high powers with which the prophet was invested, and the high favor in which he stood, and also some very flattering compliments to Emma Smith, his wife, we come to the summing up of the whole matter, in the last two paragraphs, containing the law of the priesthood in reference to polygamy, from which extracts have already been made.

A laughing philosopher might find food for merriment in all this, unless too much shocked by the bold blasphemy which can venture to put into the mouth of the Most High a justification for the grossest licentiousness on the part of his creatures. The world has heretofore supposed that the introduction of Christian​ity produced a revocation of the external ceremonies of the Jewish dispensation as the essentials of religion, and afforded a happy deliverance from the licentious practices permitted among the Jewish people. Their internal states were such as could be aptly symbolized by the prophet Hosea taking a harlot to wife, and other representative performances equally offensive; and they were subsequently denounced as "a wicked and adulterous generation" by that Being before whose omniscient scrutiny all their pollutions and abominations were laid bare.

According to the book of creation, the human race proceeded from a single pair. The Creator did not see fit to provide a score of Eves for the one Adam, though the necessity of populating the earth would seem to have been as great then as at any subsequent period. The first bigamist or polygamist of whom we have any account was Lamech, a descendant of Cain, the first murderer, and himself an admitted homicide. Lamech belonged to that race whose enormous wickedness brought on their own destruction by a flood of waters. With no more than a secular knowledge of ecclesiastical history, we may easily see that the Jews possessed a peculiar genius, which could be exact in external ceremonies without any knowledge of their signification; and for the same reason, that they were the best adapted for the preservation of the word of the Old Testament in its integrity. As they were merely outward in all things of religion and worship, so, too, they were grossly licentious, and presented the lowest plane of human degradation into which the Divine could descend, and work out the salvation of the human ​family. In all these respects the Jews were a chosen people; but the idea that Christians are to revive the practices of Jewry would be as startling and absurd as to command the mature and fruit-bearing tree to sink back into its own roots.

Any degree of self-respect, however small, must preclude an argument with the Mormon champions on the fairness of the precedents by which they justify their licentiousness. One might as well debate the point with any other class of fanatics or designing impostors, as to whether they had the right to stone people to death for violating the Sabbath. For the murderer, the most legitimate argument is the halter; and for the bigamist, the most appropriate one is the penitentiary. There is no such thing as an argument where there is no common ground. The Bible, the common resting-place of all Christian minds, ceases to be mutual authority when a new revelation changes a permission into a command, and makes new readings and translations to suit the ideas, or pander to the lusts of the revelator; and truly, if the world has learned nothing real in regard to polygamy, or sacerdotal lust, after a period of 6000 years, it may be regarded as quite unteachable on any subject.

It may seem strange that so many persons have been converted to the Mormon faith, in the faith of such systematic prostitution. It is libel enough upon the integrity and intelligence of mankind that Mormonism, in any form, ever had an existence; but it is due to many to say, that they have been brought into the Church under the strongest assurances of the missionaries that polygamy did not exist among them. Smith ​had his pretended revelation on the subject July 12, 1843, from which, until the 29th of August, 1852, it existed as a secret institution. At the last-mentioned period, it was publicly justified in a sermon preached by Orson Pratt; and the revelation and sermon were, on the 14th of September following, published to the world in the "Deseret News extra." During this entire period of nine years, their missionaries were instructed to deny the existence of polygamy, and they have proved themselves prompt and ready liars on all occasions when the subject has been called in question. On this point the proofs are abundant.

In or about the year 1845, one John C. Bennett apostatized from Mormonism, and in his exposé alleged that the spiritual wife system was in vogue at Nauvoo. Parley P. Pratt, then and now of high authority in the Church, promptly denied that any such doctrine was "known, held, or practiced as a principle of the Latter-day Saints;" and urged that it was "but another name for whoredoms," "and that it was as foreign from the real principles of the Church as the devil is from God, or as sectarianism is from Christianity." (Millennial Star, vol. vi., p. 22.)

In "A Series of Pamphlets," published in 1851, the reader will find an account of a discussion between Elder John Taylor, another Mormon dignitary, and some persons in France, in July, 1850. One of the charges brought against the Mormons was, that polygamy was practiced among them. To refute this, Elder Taylor remarked, "We are accused here of polygamy, and actions the most indelicate, obscene, and disgusting, such as none but à corrupt heart could have con​trived. These things are too outrageous to admit of belief; therefore I shall content myself by reading our views of chastity and marriage from a work published by us, containing some of the articles of our faith." He then read from the Book of "Doctrines and Covenants" on the subject, containing the following marriage obligations:

"You both mutually agree to be each other's companion, husband and wife, observing the legal rights belonging to this condition; that is, keeping yourselves wholly for each other, and from all others, during your lives."

Also the following: "Inasmuch as this Church of Jesus Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication and polygamy, we declare that we believe that one man should have one wife, and one woman but one husband."

It will be recollected that polygamy was introduced by the prophet in August, 1843, nearly seven years before this discussion; and yet this sacerdotal villain quoted from the lying book of "Doctrines and Covenants" in denial of the charge. But this is not all: this unmitigated scamp was at that very period living in a state of adultery with a plurality of wives, so called. Perhaps his Mormon conscience justified him with the plea that he did not directly deny the charge himself—he only said it was too gross an accusation to be believed, and then quoted what he knew to be false from one of their sacred books! It is difficult to find terms in which to express the baseness of these falsehoods. We detest the man who tells a lie for the purpose of gain; we pity and despise the one who resorts ​to it to screen his guilt from detection. But in what estimation shall we hold these reverend panderers, who utter glib and polished falsehoods to entice weak-minded females into their ecclesiastical brothel? A witness who perjures himself in one point of his testimony is discredited in all; and the Latter-day Saints can not complain of the application of this rule to all their allegations and pretenses.

The Book of "Doctrines and Covenants," which has this standing falsehood upon its pages, is regarded as even superior to the Book of Mormon as an authority and guide. A new edition was printed in 1846, in which the same thing is repeated. Many simpleminded and honest people have been cajoled into Mormonism, who would have been saved from this pit of pollution had they known the truth on this point. Many have left after learning the truth; many are preparing to leave; and many others would leave, were not their means exhausted in support of the hierarchy, which now keeps them in bondage.

Polygamy, since its introduction, has branched into importance; and as an element of salvation, has become paramount to the atonement, and even to faith itself. Orson Pratt, in his sermon in justification, thus enlightens the world on this point:

"But, says the objector, we can not see how this doctrine can be embraced as a matter of religion and faith; we can hardly conceive how it can be embraced only as a kind of domestic concern, something that pertains to domestic pleasures, in no way connected with religion. In reply, we will show you that it is incorporated as a part of our religion, and necessary for our ​exaltation to the fullness of the Lord's glory in the eternal world. Would you like to know the reasons? Before you get through, we will endeavor to tell you why we consider it an essential doctrine to glory and exaltation to our fullness of happiness in the world to come." (Deseret News extra.)

What sublime efficacy! The descent, sufferings, and glorification of our Lord effected only the resurrection of the body, but a higher degree of salvation is secured by the efficient instrumentality of bigamy and adultery. The furies of the French Revolution abolished Christianity, and bowed themselves in mock adoration before the Goddess of Reason in the form of a strumpet. But the Mormon has improved upon this by taking the strumpet to his bosom—wallowing in the filth of the brothel as the grand panacea for the purification of society, and the elevation of himself to the attributes of Deity.

Polygamy, according to the Mormons, is a privilege belonging to the gods as well as to men. Their profanity on this subject exceeds belief. The spirits who enter the earthly tabernacles, they insist, are sons of the gods begotten in the usual course of generation. God has, nobody knows how many, wives or concubines—the words of the Psalmist, "Kings' daughters were among thy honorable women; upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir," being considered sufficient on this point. This doctrine is now as common at Salt Lake as "household words."

"God was married, or how could he beget his son Jesus Christ, and do the works of his father." (Deseret Almanac, 1853.)

​"The apostle says to the Hebrews, 'We have had fathers of our flesh, who corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits, and live?' Father of spirits, which are in shape and form of mortal beings, would lead us to infer that spirits not only have a father, but also a mother." (Deseret News, Dec, 25, 1852.)

Christ, as a spirit, was begotten in the heavens, and born of one of the celestial concubines. A tabernacle was begotten for him on earth by his father, similar to the affair of Jupiter and Europa. Christ, too, was married, and his wives were Mary and Martha; these females would not have ministered unto him in the way described (so they reason), had they not been his wives.

The pollution of the Latter-day polygamist is thorough and complete, mind and body. There is no degree of profanity and blasphemy that he can not compass with the coolness of an every-day occupation. Every thing sacred which he breathes upon or touches, is profaned and polluted, from the throne of the Eternal to the family altar, around which are usually garnered all the hopes and joys of Christian minds. All his doctrines are based on literalism and materialism—all his joys are carnal and selfish.

"If," says the Elder Lorenzo Snow, "you show me a man who is not selfish, you will show me no man at all; if you show me a woman who is not selfish, you will show me an idiot, and one who knows not the way to happiness or a crown of glory." (Deseret News, Nov. 6, 1842.)

The true follower of Smith can form no idea of ​earthly and heavenly happiness except what proceeds from, or is in some way connected with, the pleasures of the bodily senses. He knows nothing of spiritual ideas or pleasures. Disinterested benevolence has no place in the storehouse of his religious treasures. Every thing with him is matter; and mind is nothing, here and hereafter, except as it is made up of, and connected with matter. He is, in the strictest sense of the term, a materialist; this he not only openly avows, but strenuously contends that materialism furnishes the only key to happiness. He is of the earth, earthy; and earthy he desires and expects to be through all coming futurity. His future eternity is merely an elongation of time, and is to be spent upon the earth, after the general conflagration, in all the pomp of deified royalty, and in the gratification of every bodily lust. His supremest felicity is to consist in acting the glutton and the debauchee, free from bodily infirmities and a sense of satiety. He expects to live fast without wearing. The fires of his insatiable appetites are always to be supplied with fuel without consuming him. His body is not elevated into a mental sphere, and made subservient to the mandates of a pure, regenerated, spiritual master, but his mind is brought down into the filthy lusts of the body, and there wallows in the mire of sensuality. His religion resides only in the natural degree of his mind, and in the most sensual portion of such degree. Spiritual ideas are consequently above his comprehension. He can neither smell, touch, taste, hear, or see them, and, therefore, they have no existence in his universe. His intellectual is the bat of evening: he knows nothing ​of the "eagle towering in his pride of place." His residence is in the basement story of humanity; and the universal prevalence of his system would drag the mind down into a low plane, restore the reign of pantheism, the dance of satyrs, and the dalliances of syrens.

He exhibits to the world a present, active religious zeal, and compasses sea and land to make proselytes to his faith; but his mission is that of the swindler and the cheat: he goes with a lie in his mouth, and labors only to enlarge his own borders, and build up and strengthen his own dominions, and pander to his own pleasures. Selfish and sensual himself, he appeals to all that is selfish and sensual in those he hopes to make the victims of his duplicity, and the instruments of his ambition and pleasures. He belongs to the external and the ultimate: he is all rind—all kernel—all husk. He delights in literal constructions. The sentence of death passed upon Adam meant only the death of his external body, because Adam could be nothing unless in connection with this body. The way in which he speaks of the propagation of the Lord's Divine Human is natural and gross to a shocking degree. They have no spiritual idea of the production of a Human by "the virtue of the Most High," into which the Lord could enter, and with which he could form a complete union for the purposes of salvation. The Immaculate Conception was neither more nor less than an ordinary case of generation—nothing higher than the fabled intercourse of the heathen gods with the daughters of men. The god of his conception is carnal and sensual. The Jews were condemned for not doing the works of Abraham, ​and these consisted in having a plurality of wives and concubines. The heavens are nothing more than one or more earths purified by fire, and it has gone through this process merely that it may be a place for the propagation of spirits for earthly tabernacles elsewhere begotten. Thus time and eternity are but the unvarying cycles of the lusts of the flesh and of worldly grandeur, and earth and heaven but the vast receptacles of the debauchee and the strumpet; and as all who do "the works of Abraham" are to become gods, he is destined to be the greatest god who has the largest harem and claims paternity to the greatest number of bastards.