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"What a thing it is
for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven
wives, [ Joseph Smith Fought Polygamy Index ] Joseph's Struggle against Polygamy in 1843
The year 1843 was a very important year in the life of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and in the life of the Church because Joseph was fighting to rid the Church of polygamy, which was an impossible task, and was attempting to prepare the Saints for his death. Eighteen forty-three was to be the last full year of his earthly life. During that entire year he never deviated in his stand against plural marriage in all forms. Eighteen forty-three is also significant because it is falsely alleged that in July of that year, the Prophet committed a polygamous revelation to writing, which his accusers claim he had received in the early 1830s. They also assert that he sent that document to the Church's High Council at Nauvoo for their acceptance. While the LDS Church with headquarters in Salt Lake City has documented its claims that Joseph had plural wives in 1843, the publications of the Church support Joseph's position as being that of a monogamist, and the testimonies of his accusers as being false. The Times and Seasons Attested to Joseph's Innocence Throughout 1843The first issue of the Times and Seasons in the year 1843 published a letter from Elder Orson Spencer in which he gave insight into Joseph's character and commitments. Elder Spencer portrayed the Prophet as being unafraid to express his beliefs or views on the interpretations of the Old and New Testaments. Viewing Joseph as one who had no fear of expressing his views on the Old Testament happenings is crucial to understanding that he did not follow the example set by Abraham, Jacob, David, and others in the Old Testament as has been claimed. Orson wrote of Joseph the Prophet:
So, one can conclude from Mr. Spencer's letter that Joseph was not afraid to use the Scriptures to defend his beliefs. This is not the description of a prophet who believes in plural marriage, and is so fearful of men and persecution that he will secretly practice that doctrine, and at the same time lie to his followers who trust him to tell the truth. And one can also conclude that the editors of the Times and Seasons agreed with Elder Spencer or they would not have published his letter. Apostle Orson Hyde Declared Accusations against Joseph Were FalseIt was feared that the false polygamous charges (and other false allegations) by John Bennett, Martha Brotherton, Elder Oliver Olney, Elder Harrison Sagers, and others would discourage the Saints from gathering to Nauvoo. Joseph was anxious for letters and articles to be printed which exonerated him, and condemned those who were maligning his character; therefore, he encouraged statements to be made in which he was exonerated. Apostle Orson Hyde responded to his request by writing a letter to the editor of the Church's newspaper in defense of Joseph. He wrote:
The lies and slanders referred to by Orson Spencer certainly included the highly publicized polygamous charges being made against Joseph. The plurality of wives system referred to during that period was also called spiritual wifery, polygamy, and celestial sealing and celestial marriage. Joseph Proclaimed that He Spoke the TruthIn November 1843, Joseph gave the editor of the Church's official publication a copy of a letter which he had written to James Arlington Bennett of New York. In the letter, Joseph declared that he himself was a truthful man. The Prophet published the following words over his signature:
Joseph Preached on the Subject of God's "Marriage" LawsOne important event that occurred in 1843, which had a bearing upon Joseph's stand against plural marriage, occurred at Paw Paw Grove, Illinois. It was there that Joseph was requested by nonmembers to preach a sermon in which he would give his views on the law of God respecting marriage. Joseph's Paw Paw Grove sermon was preached under unusual circumstances, while he was a prisoner of two law officials. It happened in June 1843 after Joseph and Emma and their children went on a journey to visit Emma's sister, Elizabeth Wasson and her family in Lee County, Illinois. Three of Elizabeth's children—Lorenzo, Harmon, and Clara—joined the Church (see The Memoirs of President Joseph Smith III (1832–1914), 336). Someone who knew of Joseph's visit informed Missouri law officers that Joseph was planning the visit to Dixon, and would be away from the protective arm of the Saints at Nauvoo on a certain date. Therefore, Sheriff Joseph H. Reynolds of Jackson County, Missouri, and Constable Harmon T. Wilson of Carthage, Illinois, set out to capture Joseph, which so far had proven an impossibility at Nauvoo. Reynolds and Harmon arrived in the Dixon community, and by pretending to be Mormon missionaries, were directed to the Wasson residence, which was about twelve miles from Dixon. They found Joseph outside, and were able to get close to him and have their pistols drawn on him before the Prophet realized he was being captured. He was ordered to a waiting carriage, and rushed away from Joseph's shocked and surprised family. His captors planned to take him to Missouri to stand trial on the old charges of treason and the attempted murder of Lilburn Boggs, the ex-governor of Missouri (see Times and Seasons 4 [July 1, 1843]: 242). Joseph was taken by his captors to Paw Paw Grove, Illinois, where they spent the night. Hearing of the Prophet's plight, citizens from Dixon and the general area gathered the next morning at the tavern where Joseph was held. Upon seeing Joseph, they requested him to preach to them on the subject of marriage as it is related to God's laws. Joseph evidently preached with much liberty, for he reported later that he spoke on the subject for an hour and a half. The LDS Church has published a brief account of the Paw Paw Grove sermon in the first person, as if Joseph personally recorded the following statement:
On June 30, after Joseph was back safely in Nauvoo, he addressed an audience of eight thousand people at the Grove, and made reference to his sermon at Paw Paw Grove. A report of Joseph's Nauvoo address gives almost identical wordage to that reported to have been from Joseph's journal. Joseph is quoted as having said:
It is only logical that the citizens of the Paw Paw Grove region requested Joseph to preach on the subject of marriage as it relates to God's laws, as a result of the widespread polygamous and celestial marriage claims of Dr. John C. Bennett, Udney Jacob, Harrison Sagers, and others. Those men's accusations raised the question in the minds of the people as to whether or not plural marriage was a part of Joseph's doctrinal beliefs, practices, and teachings. The citizens from the Paw Paw area wanted to hear directly from Joseph's own lips his scriptural-based beliefs on marriage. It is alleged by the Mormon Church that on July 12,1843, only twelve days after Joseph spoke to the eight thousand assembled at Nauvoo, that he dictated a plural marriage document which today is known as Section 132 in their Doctrine and Covenants. Is it not significant that Joseph preached the hour-and-a-half-long sermon at Paw Paw Grove on his views on the law of God respecting marriage, and a few days later, on June 30, told an audience of eight thousand at Nauvoo that, "My freedom commenced from that hour" of preaching on marriage? The audience at Paw Paw Grove were nonmembers, who in all sincerity requested the Prophet to state to them his doctrinal beliefs on marriage. Joseph's captor, Sheriff Joseph Reynolds of Jackson County, Missouri, was in that audience. If Joseph had preached plural marriage he would not have found his sermon acceptable. Those reporting the Prophet's sermon did not elaborate on what he said. However, it is certain that the crowd of eight thousand at Nauvoo were very interested in what Joseph declared on the subject of marriage at Paw Paw Grove. Joseph was not afraid to tell his Nauvoo audience that he had spoken on the law of marriage as it pertained to the law of God. As a prophet and spokesperson for God, he held the trust of the people, and therefore had the obligation to tell his Paw Paw audience his honest beliefs on marriage. If he was hiding a secret belief in plural or celestial marriage, he would have later avoided the subject before the crowd of eight thousand at Nauvoo. After mentioning that subject, he had to be prepared to answer some straightforward questions about the substance of his Paw Paw sermon. His statements of belief regarding the marriage law of God were acceptable to his audience at Paw Paw Grove and in the Nauvoo Grove, which is another witness that he did not advocate plural marriage. Joseph Wrote Often for the Times and Seasons in 1843John Taylor, who succeeded Joseph as editor of the Church's publication, published that after Joseph resigned as editor, he was a major contributor to the pages of the Times and Seasons. Editor Taylor wrote:
Joseph's participation in the publication before and after his retirement as editor suggests that he was interested in publishing the truth and begged the Saints to believe in his honesty. Joseph Published His History for Truth's SakeJoseph the Prophet began publishing his autobiography, entitled "History of Joseph Smith," in the Times and Seasons March 15, 1842, page 726. Joseph continued to publish his history serially throughout 1843, and until his death in June 1844. Others continued to publish it in the first person, as if Joseph had written it, after his death. However, it was not his work. The Prophet prefaced his history with a promise that he would write his history in "truth and righteousness," saying:
The editors and writers in the 1843 Times and Seasons certainly took a position against plural marriage, and since Joseph still had some influence in what appeared in its pages, that publication is a historical witness of Joseph Smith's innocence. The March 15 issue of the Times and Seasons also published a statement by Apostle Wilford Woodruff in which he stated that the writings in that paper were historically correct. Apostle Woodruff wrote:
An English Visitor ReportsIn the same issue of the Times and Seasons Editor Taylor printed a lengthy report from a man from England who visited Nauvoo during the summer of 1843 for the purpose of determining whether or not the rumors of polygamy and other crimes were true or false. After visiting at Nauvoo and mingling with the Saints, the visitor submitted extracts from his personal journal for publication in the Times and Seasons. The visitor wrote:
After meeting individually and with the Saints in their worship services, the visitor wrote that he "perceived that the people called Mormons are grossly abused and misrepresented" (see ibid., 354). He observed nothing that implicated Joseph in polygamy. Editor John Taylor, in publishing the English tourist's letter, gave the appearance of having taken that position also. Joseph Said the Times and Seasons Contained "Treasures"In that same issue of the Church's publication Joseph, who was striving to get the truth to the Saints, advised them to subscribe to the Times and Seasons. The Prophet wrote:
Joseph suggested that his written words, if heeded, would give them a "way mark," a guide for their lives. The Prophet promised also that his words, if studied, would be to them like "apples of gold in baskets of silver." Joseph took these words from Proverbs 25:11, which states, "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." Only by being honest could Joseph have made that promise. If he had been practicing and teaching plural marriage in secret, but denying it openly, he would have been a lying, deceitful, cowardly prophet. But none of these labels fit Joseph, who went to Carthage when he knew that he would never return alive. That act alone is enough to show that the Prophet was not cowardly, and did not fear death. Joseph also knew the penalty for lying, for it was he who was inspired to add these words of Christ, which do not appear in this chapter and verse in the King James Version:
Some Treasures Left by JosephDuring the period that Joseph was editor of the Times and Seasons, he could not entirely control what was published in the Church paper, and on the press, as the printing of Udney Hay Jacob's pamphlet proves (see Times and Seasons 4:32; see also Vision #40 [May 2002], 25). Some of the literary treasures which Joseph left to mark the way can be used to ascertain whether or not he was involved in the practicing of polygamy in 1843. Some treasures are found in Joseph's "History of Joseph Smith." The Prophet's writings in 1843 are very important because it is alleged that in July 1843 he dictated a revelation commanding the practicing of plural marriage, and the penalty for Saints not practicing plural, or celestial marriage as it has been called, is to be damned. That document, which was not made public until eight years after Joseph's death, introduced the doctrine of plural marriage for time and eternity, and declared that the new order of plural marriage is a new and everlasting covenant. That new order of marriage was to take precedence over all other scriptures on God's laws on marriage which are found in the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants. That document is Section 132 in the present LDS Doctrine and Covenants. It states:
It is interesting that Joseph had already printed in his "History of Joseph Smith" in the Times and Seasons, November 15,1842, page 12, a statement on the new and everlasting covenant: He wrote:
Another Treasure from Joseph—A Vision of Celestial GlorySection 132, to which Joseph's name is falsely attached, teaches inequality in celestial glory:
The doctrine of plural-marriage gods and inequality in celestial glory is contrary to the teachings of Joseph Smith as the following shows. On February 16, 1832, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon beheld a marvelous vision of celestial glory, in which they saw God the Father upon the throne, Jesus Christ at His right hand, and angelic hosts around them. With this marvelous vision there came divine revelation revealing conditions of celestial glory, and the witness that those who through righteousness obtain that state, were equal. Joseph declared:
In February 1843, eleven years after Joseph had beheld that vision of celestial glory, he wrote a poem entitled "A Vision," which contained seventy-eight stanzas. Joseph's poem was published in the Times and Seasons, and of celestial glory the Prophet stated:
Thus it is seen that in 1843 Joseph Smith taught celestial equality as he did in 1832, which is additional proof that the LDS doctrines of celestial inequality and exaltation to godhood, as found in Section 132, were added as doctrine after the Prophet was slain. Another Great Treasure Is DiscoveredOn May 26, 1844, Joseph is reported to have declared in a sermon:
But Joseph's so-called "faithful, and efficient clerks" were not always faithful. And after his death they took great liberties with the Prophet's diary and personal papers. His entry for October 5,1843, was changed drastically and is a startling example of how the martyred Prophet's history was changed by these clerks to suit their purposes. Clerks, under Brigham Young's leadership, changed Joseph's monogamous statement to favor plural marriage. It was also written in the first person as if Joseph had recorded the following polygamous statement:
But Joseph's diaries or manuscripts do not contain the above statement. The original quotation is in an "untitled journal of 278 manuscript pages," thought to be in the handwriting of Willard Richards, who was one of Joseph's scribes. Here is the correct statement:
(For a more complete discussion of Joseph's October 5,1843, statement see Joseph Smith Fought Polygamy volume 1, pages 106–107.) What a tremendous treasure to find that on October 5, 1843, only eight months before his death, Joseph the Prophet gave instructions to Apostle Willard Richards to "try those who were preaching, teaching, or practicing the doctrine of plurality of wives"! What did Richards do with that order given by the Prophet? The answer is that he refused to carry out Joseph's directives on that subject. Why did Richards disobey Joseph's order? Richards, who was a married man at the time, disregarded Joseph's instructions because he was a polygamist and he did not dare bring charges against others for fear of having his own crimes exposed. The Archive Record for Willard Richards states that he entered into plural marriage in January 1843. During that year he married Sarah [Sara] Longstroth, Nanny Longstroth, and Susannah Lee Liptrot Walker, which made him the husband of four wives by the end of that year (see Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, A Book of Mormons, 229; see also Salt Lake City, Utah, LDS Church Archives, Archive Record of Willard Richards). It is evident that Apostle Richards, a polygamist, refused to obey Joseph's instructions. Instead, Richards chose to conspire with his first cousin, Apostle Brigham Young, and others, to continue in their polygamy, and by false testimony and false documents, to convey the message to the Church and the world that the monogamous Prophet was the author of that false doctrine. Changing Joseph's history, as Richards did, was definitely part of a conspiracy to erase the true story of Joseph's fight against the doctrine which he fought valiantly to eradicate. The discovery that the Prophet instructed Richards to bring charges against those who were preaching, teaching, and practicing the doctrine of plurality of wives is consistent with Nauvoo Stake President William Marks' declaration that Joseph gave him similar instructions. Marks asserted:
As time passes more and more evidence is being uncovered to show that Joseph Smith fought polygamy.
[ Joseph Smith Fought Polygamy Index ]
Joseph Smith Fought Polygamy—Volume I, by Richard and Pamela Price, can be purchased at the Restoration Bookstore or from our online store. Articles on this subject continue to be published in Vision magazine, which also can be purchased at the Restoration Bookstore or online. It is planned that this additional material will be compiled into future volumes. For a general understanding of both the origins of polygamy among the Latter Day Saints and the several conspiracies to falsely implicate Joseph in polygamy, read the article on our Web site, "Joseph Smith: Innocent of Polygamy," by Richard Price. |
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