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*"Mormonism Unveiled," p. 165.

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." *

* 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." *

* 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." *

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

While the Mormon leaders, Lorenzo Snow and others, were in the
Utah penitentiary after conviction under the Edmunds antipolygamy
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 generally 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. *

* Jepson'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.* 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.**

* 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.

** 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."

CHAPTER XI. Public Announcement Of The Doctrine Of Polygamy

Athough there was practically no concealment of the practice of
polygamy by the Mormons resident in Utah after their arrival
there, it was not until five years from that date that open
announcement was made by the church of the important
"revelation." This "revelation" constitutes Sec. 132 of the
modern edition of the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants," and bears
this heading: "Revelation on the Eternity of the Marriage
Covenant, including Plurality of Wives. Given through Joseph, the
Seer, in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, July 12, 1843." All
its essential parts are as follows:

"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 as
touching this matter:

"Therefore, prepare thy heart to receive and obey the
instructions which I am about to give unto you; for all those who
have this law revealed unto them must obey the same;

"For behold! I reveal unto you a new and an everlasting covenant;
and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one
can reject this covenant, and be permitted to enter into my
glory;

"For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law
which was appointed for that blessing, and the conditions
thereof, as were instituted from before the foundation of the
world:

"And as pertaining to the new and everlasting covenant, it was
instituted for the fullness of my glory; and he that receiveth a
fullness thereof, must and shall abide the law, or he shall be
damned, saith the Lord God.

"And verily I say unto you, that the conditions of this law are
these: All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows,
performances, connections, associations, or expectations, that
are not made, and entered into, and sealed, by the Holy Spirit of
promise, of him who is anointed, both as well for time and for
all eternity, and that too most holy, by revelation and
commandment through the medium of mine anointed, whom I have
appointed on the earth to hold this power (and I have appointed
unto my servant Joseph to hold this power in the last days, and
there is never but one on the earth at a time, on whom this power
and the keys of this Priesthood are conferred), are of no
efficacy, virtue, or force, in and after the resurrection from
the dead; for all contracts that are not made unto this end, have
an end when men are dead . . . .

"I am the Lord thy God, and I give unto you this commandment,
that no man shall come unto the Father but by me, or by my word,
which is my law, saith the Lord; . . .

"Therefore, if a man marry him a wife in the world, and he marry
her not by me, nor by my word; and he covenant with her so long
as he is in the world, and she with him, their covenant and
marriage are not of force when they are dead, and when they are
out of the world; therefore, they are not bound by any law when
they are out of the world;

"Therefore, when they are out of the world, they neither marry,
nor are given in marriage; but are appointed angels in heaven,
which angels are ministering servants, to minister for those who
are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight
of glory;

"For these angels did not abide my law, therefore they cannot be
enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation,
in their saved condition, to all eternity, and from henceforth
are not Gods, but are angels of God, for ever and ever.

"And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife, and
make a covenant with her for time and for all eternity, if that
covenant is not by me, or by my word, which is my law, and is not
sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, through him whom I have
anointed, and appointed unto this power--then it is not valid,
neither of force when they are out of the world, because they are
not joined by me, saith the Lord, neither by my word; when they
are out of the world, it cannot be received there, because the
angels and the Gods are appointed there, by whom they cannot
pass; they cannot, therefore, inherit my glory, for my house is a
house of order, saith the Lord God.

"And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife by my
word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant,
and it is sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise, by him
who is anointed, unto whom I have appointed this power, and the
keys of this Priesthood; and it shall be said unto them, ye shall
come forth in the first resurrection; and if it be after the
first resurrection, in the next resurrection; and shall inherit
thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all
heights and depths--then shall it be written in the Lamb's Book
of Life, that he shall commit no murder whereby to shed innocent
blood, and if ye abide in my covenant, and commit no murder
whereby to shed innocent blood, it shall be done unto them in all
things whatsoever my servant hath put upon them, in time, and
through all eternity, and shall be of full force when they are
out of the world; and they shall pass by the angels, and the
Gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all
things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall
be a fullness and a continuation of the seeds for ever and ever.

"Then shall they be Gods, because they have no end; therefore
shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they
continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are
subject unto them. Then shall they be Gods, because they have all
power, and the angels are subject unto them.

"Verily, verily I say unto you, except ye abide my law, ye cannot
attain to this glory; . . .

"And verily, verily I say unto you, that whatsoever you seal on
earth, shall be sealed in Heaven; and whatsoever you bind on
earth, in my name, and by my word, with the Lord, it shall be
eternally bound in the heavens; and whosesoever sins you remit on
earth shall be remitted eternally in the heavens; and whosesoever
sins you retain on earth, shall be retained in heaven.

"And again, verily I say, whomsoever you bless, I will bless, and
whomsoever you curse, I will curse, with the Lord; for I, the
Lord, am thy God . . . .

"Verily I say unto you, a commandment I give unto mine 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 hand,
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
pure, shall be destroyed, with the Lord God;

"For I am the Lord, thy God, and ye shall obey my voice; and I
give unto my servant Joseph that he shall be made ruler over many
things, for he hath been faithful over a few things, and from
henceforth I will strengthen him.

"And I command mine handmaid, Emma Smith, to abide and cleave
unto my servant Joseph, and to 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 will destroy her, if she abide not
in my law;

"But if she will not abide this commandment, then shall my
servant Joseph do all things for her, even as he hath said; and I
will bless him and multiply 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 crowns of eternal lives
in the eternal worlds.

"And again, verily I say, let mine handmaid forgive my servant
Joseph his trespasses; and then shall she be forgiven her
trespasses, wherein she has trespassed against me; and I, the
Lord thy God, will bless her, and multiply her, and make her
heart to rejoice . . . .

"And again, as pertaining to the law of the priesthood, if any
man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another, and the
first give her consent; and if he espouse the second, and they
are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then is he
justified; he cannot commit adultery, for they are given unto
him; for he cannot commit adultery. with that that belongeth unto
him and to no one else.

"And if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot
commit adultery, for they belong to him, and they are given unto
him, therefore is he justified.

"But if one or either of the ten virgins, after she is espoused,
shall be with another man; she has committed adultery, and shall
be destroyed; for they are given unto him to multiply and
replenish the earth, according to my commandment, and to fulfill
the promise which was given by my Father before the foundation of
the world; and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that
they may bear the souls of men; for herein is the work of my
Father continued, that he may be glorified.

"And again, verily, verily I say unto you, if any man have a wife
who holds the keys of this power, and he teacheth unto her the
law of my priesthood, as pertaining to these things, then shall
she believe, and administer unto him, or she shall be destroyed,
saith 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 in me, if she receive not this
law, for him to receive all things, whatsoever I, the Lord his
God, will give unto him, because she did not 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.

"And now, as pertaining to this law, verily, verily I say unto
you, I will reveal more unto you, hereafter; therefore, let this
suffice for the present. Behold, I am Alpha and Omega. Amen."

This jumble of doctrinal and family commands bears internal
evidence of the truth of Clayton's account of its offhand
dictation with a view to its immediate submission to the
prophet's wife, who was already in a state of rebellion because
of his infidelities.

The publication of the "revelation" was made at a Church
Conference which opened in Salt Lake City on August 28, 1852, and
was called especially to select elders for missionary work.* At
the beginning of the second day's session Orson Pratt announced
that, unexpectedly, he had been called on to address the
conference on the subject of a plurality of wives. "We shall
endeavor," he said, "to set forth before this enlightened
assembly some of the causes why the Almighty has revealed such a
doctrine, and why it is considered a part and portion of our
religious faith."

*For text of the addresses at this conference, see Deseret News,
extra, September 14, 1852.

He then took up the attitude of the church, as a practiser of
this doctrine, toward the United States government, saying:--

"I believe that they will not, under our present form of
government (I mean the government of the United States), try us
for treason for believing and practising our religious notions
and ideas. I think, if I am not mistaken, that the constitution
gives the privilege to all of the inhabitants of this country, of
the free exercise of their religious notions, and the freedom of
their faith and the practice of it. Then, if it can be proved to
a demonstration that the Latter-Day Saints have actually
embraced, as a part and portion of their religion, the doctrine
of a plurality of wives, it is constitutional. And should there
ever be laws enacted by this government to restrict them from the
free exercise of their religion, such laws must be
unconstitutional"

Thus, at this early date in the history of Utah, was stated the
Mormon doctrine of the constitutional foundation of this belief,
and, in the views then stated, may be discovered the reason for
the bitter opposition which the Mormon church is still making to
a constitutional amendment specifically declaring that polygamy
is a violation of the fundamental law of the United States.