|
13. How did plural marriage begin with the Saints?
There are many factors involved in the Latter-day Saints adopting
the practice of Plural Marriage.
A.
Polygamy was associated with Religious Reform
Carrying these traditions with them, many Europeans, especially
missionaries, greeted indigenous African and Native American
polygamy with horror, working to end this practice. Yet, though
some Native people accepted these teachings, others, including a
number of powerful leaders, met them with varying degrees of
resistance. At the same time, from the earliest years of the
Protestant Reformation, there had been a radical Protestant
endorsement, or at least tolerance, of polygamy in certain
circumstances. Radical millenarian reformers who took over the
German city of Münster in the 1530s apparently practiced
polygamy. Polygamy thus also became associated with religious
reform and political subversion. It also became the subject of
theological and social debates, as in the major controversies
provoked by the publication of Martin Madan’s pro-polygamy
treatise in England in 1780. Polygamy also formed a significant
aspect of Enlightenment thinking, especially about gender and
the position of women, the nature of religious and political
authority, population growth, and the variety of human
experiences around the globe. The status of women in polygamy
has been the subject of much historical (and contemporary)
debate. (Polygamy
and Bigamy - Oxford Bibliographies)
Mormon polygamy began in the nineteenth-century
climate of the Second Great Awakening which led to a
large-scale reexamination of society, property, and marriage, all
associated with an expectation of the “end-times.” In about 1817
in Maine, Jacob Cochran, one of the nation’s many utopian
idealists, advocated “spiritual matrimony” wherein “any man
or woman, already married or unmarried, might enter into [a union]
choosing at pleasure a spiritual wife or spiritual husband.”
Mormon missionary Orson Hyde, who proselytized in Maine in
1832, described the Cochranites’ “wonderful lustful spirit” as
manifested in their belief “in a ‘plurality of wives’ which they
call spiritual wives, knowing them not after the flesh but after
the spirit.” He added skeptically, “But by the appearance they
know one another after the flesh.” Nor were the Cochranites alone
in their marital experiments. Several hundred years of
discussion and experimentation with plural marriage preceded
those in nineteenth-century America. Utopian societies
like the Oneida Perfectionists, a group separate from the
Cochranites, embraced “complex marriage” with the goal of
minimizing individual separation. (The Forgotten Story of Nauvoo
Celestial Marriage, George D. Smith, Journal
of Mormon History, vol. 36, no. 4, p. 129-130)
B. The Cochranites
( From
Wikipedia)
Jacob Cochran (also Cochrane,
1782-1836) was a non-denominational preacher born in Enfield, New Hampshire,
United States who founded the Cochranites in Saco, Maine. Cochranite worship is
said to have resembled Shakerism, but which
also practiced a new doctrine called spiritual wifery.
Cochranism may have influenced the Mormon doctrines of plural marriage and the United Order, as well as the free love practice called complex marriage
once favored by the Oneida Community. . . .
Cochran dismissed traditional concepts of marriage, citing
passages in the bible where seven wives shared one man. As early
as 1818-1819 the group was referring to spiritual wifery.
Cochran would assign women to the men since legal marriages were
not considered valid. He would also shift these women between
men as he saw fit as their prophet. It was said that about half
of the women in the group were once assigned to him. . . .
Cochran has been called a " John the Baptist" for Mormonism
by Saco Valley historian G.T. Ridlon because so many Cochranites
were among those who converted to Mormonism and moved west. . .
.
Latter Day Saint historical sources indicate that Mormon
missionaries were laboring successfully to make converts among Maine's
Cochranites as early as 1832: at the Church conference held in Saco,
Maine on August 21, 1835, at least seven of the newly
ordained apostles were in attendance.
( From
Joseph Fought Polygamy, Vol 1, Chapter 3)
The above selections from the journals of Orson and Samuel
are sufficient to show that the Church's missionaries labored
extensively among the Cochranites. A vast amount of
information is available in libraries in many states,
including the LDS Church and RLDS Church archives, which shows
beyond a shadow of a doubt that polygamy entered the Church
through the Cochranite religion!
There were other polygamous societies in America and England
during the Kirtland-Nauvoo period, and they too contributed
toward polygamy entering the Church. But Cochranism was the
polygamists' primary mainspring into the Church. However, many
who joined the Church in Cochranite areas were not
polygamists, but stalwart Christians with excellent morals.
Among those faithful ones were two young women, Mary Bailey
and Agnes Coolbrith, who were baptized as a result of Orson
and Samuel's preaching. Samuel Smith, the Prophet's brother,
married Mary Bailey, and Don Carlos Smith, another brother,
married Agnes Coolbrith. Also from the midst of the
Cochranites came Arthur Milliken, who married Lucy Smith,
Joseph's youngest sister. Neither Mary nor Agnes embraced
polygamy, and Arthur Milliken was a faithful member of the
Church during the presidencies of Joseph the Martyr and his
son, Joseph III. Arthur and Lucy bitterly opposed polygamy.
Orson Hyde and Samuel Smith were not the only missionaries
who journeyed through the Cochranite areas. Other Church
ministers traveled and preached throughout the region with
great success during the Kirtland and Nauvoo eras. But Saco,
Maine, a Cochranite stronghold, was one of the most fruitful
fields for missionary work—so much so that a conference was
held in Saco on June 13, 1834 (The
Evening and the Morning Star 2 [August 1834]: 181;
RLDS History of the Church
1:521). The following year, "On August 21, 1835, nine of the
Twelve [apostles] met in conference at Saco, Maine" (Messenger
and Advocate 2 [October 1835]: 204207; RLDS History
of the Church 1:583). With nine of the twelve
apostles making their appearance in Saco, there is no doubt
that each one of them became well acquainted with the
doctrines of Cochranism, for at that time it was a popular
secular and religious news topic. Those evil dogmas must have
made a deep impression on the apostles, for of the twelve who
were in the apostolic quorum at the time of Joseph's death, at
least eleven became polygamists!
(From
Joseph Fought Polygamy, Vol 1, Chapter 4)
It would take volumes to tell the
complete story of Brigham's involvement in polygamy and how he
was instrumental in bringing it into the Church. Part of that
story is the account of how he requested to travel alone on
missions, met a married woman, Augusta Cobb, who was acquainted
with members of the Cochranite sect and their teachings, and
later took her to Nauvoo and married her as his polygamous
wife—before Joseph's death. When Joseph discovered the
polygamous practices of Brigham Young and others, he sought to
bring them to trial, but was assassinated before he could do so.
The polygamist party under Brigham Young then took control of
the Church, which assured the success of polygamy as a doctrine
among the Utah Saints.
Brigham's
Cochranite Connections
Brigham Young had a thorough
knowledge of Cochranism, for he made several missionary journeys
through the "Cochranite territory" from Boston to Saco, and
later married Augusta Cobb as previously noted. He attended the
1835 Church conference in Saco. Brigham chose to travel alone in
Cochranite territory instead of going with another elder, "two
by two" as the Scriptures direct (see RLDS DC 52:3c; 60:3a;
61:6b; and 75:5c–d; also LDS DC 52:10; 60:8; 61:35; 75:30–36).
The High Council met at Kirtland on
February 20, 1834, and its record states:
The council also decided that
Elder Brigham Young should travel alone it being his own
choice ... and that there should be a general conference held
in Saco, in the state of Maine, on the 13th day of June, 1834.
(Times and Seasons 6 [November 1,
1845]: 1022–1023; RLDS History of the
Church 1:434–435)
Why did Brigham insist upon
traveling alone in an area where adulterous temptations were
sure to befall any lonely elder?
The report for the June 1834 Church
conference at Saco stated that "a numerous concourse had
assembled" (Evening and Morning Star
2 [August 1834]: 181). Although Brigham did not go to the 1834
conference, he was on a mission to the eastern states from May
to September 1835 (Leonard J. Arrington, Brigham
Young: American Moses, Appendix A, 413).
Brigham continued to work in that
area and he reported that he also had been to a conference in
Maine on August 12, 13, and 14, 1836, where fifty-two members of
the Saco Branch attended (Messenger and
Advocate 2 [September 1836]: 381–382). Brigham's
presence in and around Saco during the Cochranite era is another
evidence that he was very familiar with Cochranite polygamy. . .
.
Between 1834 and 1844, Brigham
Young made a number of journeys into the Boston area, where the
Cochranite doctrine was prevalent. During this time he met
Augusta Adams Cobb. Augusta was baptized on June 29, 1832, by
Samuel Smith, as noted in a previous chapter (see Missionary
Journal of Samuel Harrison Smith—1832, and Journal of Orson
Hyde). Both journals show that Augusta Cobb requested baptism at
a meeting where at least two Cochranites were present. This
establishes the fact that Augusta was familiar with the
doctrines of the polygamous Cochranites when she met Apostle
Young. Augusta was an educated woman from a well-known Boston
family, married and living in luxury with her husband of
twenty-one years—Henry Cobb. According to Augusta's great
granddaughter, Mary Cable, Augusta and Henry were the parents of
seven children (American Heritage 16 [February 1965]: 50). In
the fall of 1843 Augusta deserted her husband and all of her
children but the two younger ones—Charlotte, six, and Brigham,
only a few months—and went with Brigham Young to Nauvoo to
become his plural wife (ibid., 52).
While on the journey to Nauvoo the infant, Brigham, became ill
and died at Cincinnati, Ohio. "She [Augusta] had it put in a tin
box and took it with her" to Nauvoo (ibid., 54). A Nauvoo
newspaper, the Nauvoo Neighbor of November 8, 1843, announced
the death of Brigham Cobb, age five months and twenty days. By
this time Brigham and Augusta were secretly married.
The question might be asked, why the five month old baby was named
Brigham? Augusta was still married to Henry Cobb when he was born.
C.
Revelations to Brigham and Lorenzo Snow in England
Brigham Young:
Brigham’s mission to England was
in 1839-40. Speaking of it in 1874, Young stated, “While we [he
and ten of the
Twelve] were in England, (in 1839 and 40) I think, the Lord
manifested to me by vision and his Spirit, things [concerning
“spiritual wifery’] that I did not then understand. I never
opened my mouth to any one concerning them, until I returned to
Nauvoo; Joseph had never mentioned this; there had never been a
thought of it in the Church that I ever knew anything about at
that time, but I had this for myself, and I kept it to myself.
And when I returned home, and Joseph revealed those things to
me, then I understood the reflections that were upon my mind
while in England. But this (communication with Joseph on the
subject) was not until after I had told him what I understood—
this was in 1841” (Brigham Young, Deseret News, July 1, 1874).
In a meeting with U.S. Vice
Presidential candidate Shuyler Colfax (June 17, 1865, Ulysses S.
Grant was the Presidential candidate), Young said he received the
polygamy revelation, not Joseph Smith. In his private journal,
Colfax recorded that Young brought up the subject of polygamy,
stating, “the revelations of the Doctrine and Covenants declared
for monogamy, but that polygamy was a later revelation commanded
by God to him and a few others, and permitted and advised to the
rest of the church” (Shuyler Colfax journal entry, quoted in The
Western Galaxy, Vol. I, p. 247).
Lorenzo Snow:
Lorenzo Snow 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, [1840]1843] and before
I left England I was perfectly satisfied in regard to
something connected with plural marriage” (Deseret
Semi-Weekly News, June 6, 1899).
Lorenzo Snow was single and
unmarried at the time Joseph spoke with him about Celestial
Marriage. Soon after Joseph's death in October 1844, Snow
married, for the first time, two sisters from England on the
same day. [If Joseph supported plural marriage why did many such
marriages take place soon after his death?] He admitted years
later that he became a believer in polygamy while serving his
mission in England. Interestingly, Young and Snow served part of
their missions at the same time in England. (Joseph Smith, A
Faithful Telling p. 252-253)
D. A Church plan to
care for the Widows
Joseph did take an action that might have started some of the
polygamist marriages. This is told by William King
who was a church member in Nauvoo. He was interviewed by Joseph
Smith III and Apostle Joseph Luff on July 26, 1901 in Los
Angeles, California. (FROM Joseph Smith Fought Polygamy, Vol. 3,
Chapter 13)
About the year '42 there were a great many poor widows living out
in the farther part of town—Nauvoo is laid off very large—and
there was a good deal of complaining, and they sometimes had to
suffer, as the roads were bad and they had no children large
enough to send to the bishop.
And at the conference Joseph Smith proposed that those poor widows
that lived out there, and had good faithful brethren living by
them, should be adopted into these brethren's families. There was
a vote taken on it at the conference, and I voted for it; thought
it was a good thing. It carried unanimously. Well they were
adopted, there were plenty of brethren that adopted them into
their families, and it went on very well for awhile. In place of
treating them as one of their families, they went to making what
was called spiritual wives of them. And Joseph Smith and [Nauvoo
Stake President] William Marks called the Church together, at the
Masonic Hall, and there the meeting was carried on for three days
and nights, speaking against it, and showing the consequences of
what they had done, and Joseph Smith's last speech was this,
"Brethren, you that had no hand in it, for God's sake never have,
for those that have had a hand in it are damned to all intents and
purposes."
Bro. Luff—At about what time was that discussion?
Ans.—Either in the fall of '43 or in the spring of '44.
Pres. Smith—Was it held in the Masonic Hall or in the Seventy's
Hall?
Ans.—It was in the Masonic Hall. The Seventy's Hall was not large
enough to hold such a throng of people as was gathered there.
Bro. Luff—Was William Marks connected with that denunciation, or
associated with Joseph Smith in that work?
Ans.—He was, he was, we had a great deal of confidence in William
Marks.
Brother Luff—Did he publicly talk about it?
Ans.—That was what the meeting was for, to put it down. He spoke
just the same as Joseph. They spoke time about [took turns
speaking]. The meeting continued three days and three nights.
Bro. Luff—Have you any knowledge as to whether any of those men
who have been prominent in Utah were present at those meetings?
Ans.—Lots of them were, but I could not now tell who.
Bro. Luff—Do you know any others who were there that you were
certain of?
Ans.—Old David Seely, who died up here at San Bernardino, was
there. He and I used to go [do Church work] together. I do not
recollect of any that are now living, but David Bennett, my
father-in-law was one of the members of the Church. He was there.
He heard it. Cyrus H. Wheelock was there, and many others.
Bro. Luff—Did Joseph Smith, during those speeches ever make any
direct statement to the effect that the conduct of those people
was foreign to the general intent of the adoption?
Ans.—That was the effect of his whole remarks, showing them where
they had transgressed the law of God, in doing the way they had
done.
Bro. Smith—Did you ever hear of polygamy or plural wifery in
Nauvoo, before Father's death?
Ans.—No sir, no sir, only that of which I was talking. (Stanley
Ivins Collection, Utah State Historical Society Library, Salt Lake
City, Utah; also Manuscript Collection, Community of Christ
Archives, Independence, Missouri)
This would seem to correlated with a statement by Joseph's brother
William Smith.
That the church funds have been misapplied, I have no hesitation
in asserting, for of necessity I have been made acquainted with
the fact, that several houses have been filled up with women who
have been secretly married to Brigham Young, H. C. Kimble [Heber
C. Kimball], and Willard Richards—women with little children in
their arms, who had no means of support except from the tithing
funds. (William Smith, A
Proclamation, Warsaw Signal, Warsaw, Illinois [October
1845])
(From
Joseph Fought Polygamy, Vol 2, Chapter 8)
Prior to March 1840, [Udney Hay]
Jacob wrote a long manuscript for a book to prove that women
should be completely subservient to men and that polygamy should
be practiced in order to bring peace to the earth. . . .
In the fall of 1842 while Joseph was
in hiding to avoid capture by the Missourians, and while he was
busy supervising the anti-Bennett crusade and attempting to care
for other Church and city business, workers at the Times
and Seasons printing office printed the pamphlet for
Jacob. On the cover they placed the words: "J. Smith, Printer."
Because of this, people have assumed to this day that Joseph knew
about the pamphlet and its polygamous contents before it was
printed, and that he approved of it being published. Over the
years since then, some have insisted that the Prophet had Udney
Jacob write and publish it as a "feeler" to see if the Saints
would accept polygamy in the Church.
But when Joseph saw a copy after it
came off the press, he was surprised and angry that his name was
associated with the polygamous pamphlet. He responded by
publishing in the Times and Seasons:
There was a book printed at my
office, a short time since, written by Udney H. Jacobs, on
marriage, without my knowledge; and had I been apprised of it, I
should not have printed it; not that I am opposed to any man
enjoying his privileges; but I do not wish my name associated
with the authors, in such an unmeaning rigmarole of nonsense,
folly, and trash.
JOSEPH SMITH.
(Times and Seasons 4 [December
1,1842]: 32)
. . . When the facts are examined, it can only be assumed that
they added Joseph's name purposefully to cause the Saints to
believe that Joseph supported polygamy. And, although Joseph was
standing firmly against that doctrine, they hoped to ensnare him
in a plural marriage web and eventually convince him to travel the
path which they were preparing to go.
F.
Misunderstandings about sealings and conflating Celestial Marriage
with polygamy
Lorenzo Snow, testifying in the Temple Lot case, stated:
[In 1843] I had a private interview with Joseph Smith.
In that private interview was the time when he told me he had
taken my sister [Eliza R Snow] as a wife. He did not say
she was taken as a wife and married to him, he said she
was sealed to him, sealed to him for eternity. I
was not acquainted with the practice of sealing at that time. I
had never heard of it before. I never saw the ceremony of sealing
performed in the days of Joseph Smith. I never knew
anything about the practice of sealing during the days of Joseph
Smith. He didn't tell me anything about it at the time
I had this conversation with him. (Abstract
Evidence Temple Lot Case U.S.C.C. p. 317)
Another example is found in the words of Samuel W. Richards during
the Temple Lot case. Richards, the nephew of apostle Willard
Richards, was asked what he knew about “the system of plural
marriage” in Nauvoo. He stated “I did not hear anything or see
anything direct from Joseph Smith himself while I was there in
Nauvoo but others who were his clerks and secretaries and such like
I had communication from them while I was living there on that
subject." He then specifically named his uncle Willard, who was one
of Joseph’s secretaries, as having been the one who taught him about
plural marriage. He further clarified:
I heard Joseph Smith teach the Quorum of Twelve
(perhaps not a full quorum) the principles of sealing.
I never heard him teach it publicly, nor to any considerable
number of people. He called it the order of celestial marriage,
sealing a man to his wife for eternity.
I never heard the principle of sealing taught
that a man could be sealed to another man's wife
for eternity; I never heard him teach that another man's wife
could be sealed to him for eternity. I never heard him
teach either publicly or privately that a man
could live with two women in this life as his wives at
the same time; never heard him teach that.
(Abstract
Evidence Temple Lot Case U.S.C.C. p. 390)
G. Brigham Young and
others were involved in plural marriage without Joseph's knowledge
Erlita Smith Inslee, a great-grand daughter of Joseph Smith Jr. wrote a letter to Evangelist James
A Thomas of Lamoni, Iowa. In it she relates a conversation
Brigham had in her ancestors home.
Brigham Young had come to her mother’s
home and explained the polygamist doctrine to her mother and
herself and as he left telling them “you must tell no one of
this, we must keep it quiet for as yet Bro. Joseph is not
with us.”
Sidney Rigdon accused the Twelve of carrying on spiritual wifery
less than four months after Joseph died.
It is a fact, so well known, that the Twelve and
their adherents have endeavored to carry on this spiritual wife
business in secret ... and have gone to the most shameful
and desperate lengths, to keep it from the public. ... How often
have these men and their accomplices stood up before the
congregation, and called God and all the holy Angels to witness,
that there was no such doctrine taught in the church ; and it has
now come to light, by testimony which cannot be gainsaid, that at
the time they thus dared heaven and insulted the world, they were
living in the practice of these enormities; and there were
multitudes of their followers in the congregation at the time who
knew it. (Sidney Rigdon, Messenger and Advocate 1 [October 15,
1844]: 14 (emphasis added) )
If Joseph Smith originated plural marriage in the church, why was
their a large increase in those marriages after he died. In the six
months of 1844 following Joseph’s death, Brigham Young increased his
plural wives from 4 to 15. Heber C Kimball increased from 1 to 10.
In the church at large, there were 56 new plural marriages in 1845.
And in 1846, there were an astonishing 255 new plural marriages. (Nauvoo
Roots of Mormon Polygamy, 1841-6, George D. Smith, Dialogue Vol.
34, No. 1, p. 154)
Additionally, there was hardly any children born to polygamous
unions while Joseph was alive.
According to an analysis by George D. Smith, there were a total of
42 alleged plural marriage unions involving 25 men (excluding Joseph
Smith’s alleged activity) while Joseph was alive. There were 5 such
unions in 1842, 21
in 1843, and 14 more before Joseph’s death in June 1844.
George Reynolds, a secretary to the First Presidency, hypothesized
about the low birth rate as follows:
"The facts that you refer to are almost as great a
mystery to us as they are to you; but the reason generally
assigned by the [plural] wives themselves is, that owing to the
peculiar circumstances by which they were surrounded, they were so
nervous and in such constant fear that they did not
conceive."(First Presidency Letterpress Copybooks , Letter to H.
Neidig June 7 1892.)
Reynolds does not dispute the lack of children. Instead he asserts
that conception was
simply prevented by fear. However, it seems implausible that nearly
all 40 women would be so
distressed over a period of 3 years that conceiving was virtually
impossible. As Bergara points
out, during this same period of time before Joseph’s death, there
were 14 children born by the
legal wives of the alleged polygamists.(Identifying
the Earliest Mormon Polygamists, 1841-44, Dialogue, Vol. 38. No.
3, p. 50)
|