Joseph Smith Fought Polygamy
Volume 1
How Men Nearest
the Prophet Attached Polygamy to His Name
in Order to Justify Their Own Polygamous Crimes
By Richard and
Pamela Price |
"What a thing it is
for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven
wives,
when I can only find one"—Joseph Smith (LDS
History of the Church 6:411).
[ Joseph
Smith Fought Polygamy Index ]
Chapter 15
Dr. Bennett Persecuted Joseph and the Church
After Dr. John C. Bennett was expelled from the Church in 1842
and it became obvious that he could no longer be a prominent and
respected person in Nauvoo, he left the city and began a campaign
of persecution against Joseph Smith and the Saints which has never
been equaled in severity. So many significant events occurred
during that spring and summer, which involved the doctor and had
such important bearings upon the subject of polygamy, that they
need to be kept in mind in the order of their dates. Some of these
events were:
May
6—Lilburn Boggs, ex-governor of Missouri who had issued
the order to drive the Saints out of the state in 1838, was shot
and wounded in his home in Independence.
May 7—General
Bennett supervised a sham battle of the Nauvoo Legion, in which
it was believed that he intended to have Joseph assassinated (see
Cannon, Life of Joseph Smith, 393–394).
May 11—The
Church authorities voted to withdraw the hand of fellowship from
Dr. Bennett, and published the fact on June 15 (see
Times and Seasons 3:830).
May 17—Bennett
resigned as mayor (see Wasp 1 [May
21, 1842]: 3). He also made affidavit that Joseph "never
did teach to me in private that an illegal illicit intercourse
with females was, under any circumstances, justifiable; and that
I never knew him so to teach others" (Times
and Seasons 3 [July 1, 1842]: 840–841).
May 19—Joseph
Smith was elected mayor of Nauvoo and Bennett made an official
statement before the City Council in which he stated that Joseph
was "strictly virtuous" (ibid. [July 1, 1842]: 841;
[August 1, 1842]: 872).
May–June—The
Church authorities discovered that Bennett was continuing his
illicit activities (ibid., 872).
June 15—A
notice that Bennett had been disfellowshipped appeared in the
Times and Seasons, volume 3, page
830.
June 18—Joseph
preached a public sermon against Bennett and his false teachings
(see LDS History of the Church 5:34–35).
June 22—Bennett
went to Springfield, the capital of Illinois, and made an agreement
with Editor Simeon Francis to write letters exposing alleged crimes
of Joseph Smith for Francis to publish in the
Sangamo Journal (see New York Herald
[July 26, 1842], 2).
June 25—Joseph
published a lengthy article detailing Bennett's sins (see Wasp
1 [June 25, 1842]; Times and Seasons
3 [July 1,1842]: 839–843).
June 27—Bennett
returned to Nauvoo from Springfield and stayed at the home of
his devoted friend, George W. Robinson, where he had been boarding
(see Bennett, History of the Saints,
290–291). Robinson, whom Bennett had made a brevet major
general in the Nauvoo Legion, was Sidney Rigdon's son-in-law.
June 30—Bennett
was cashiered out of the Nauvoo Legion (see LDS History
of the Church 5:49).
July 1—Bennett
went to Carthage (see Bennett, History of
the Saints, 282). He remained there until July 10, writing
some of his infamous six letters against Joseph to be printed
in the Sangamo Journal.
July 13—Bennett
arrived in St. Louis and met with Martha Brotherton—who
in answer to Bennett's request, made an affidavit charging Joseph
with polygamy and related crimes (see Bennett,
History of the Saints, 236–240). Bennett also met
with newspaper editors and sought their support in having Joseph
extradited to Missouri for trial in the Boggs case.
August 8—Joseph
went into hiding to avoid extradition to Missouri.
August 29—While
conference was in session, Joseph suddenly appeared on the stand.
He requested that elders volunteer "to declare the truth"
in the case of Dr. John C. Bennett. Three hundred and eighty elders
volunteered (Cannon, Life of Joseph Smith,
410).
August 31—Joseph
defended himself by publishing a broadside entitled Affidavits
and Certificates Disproving Statements and Affidavits Contained
in John C. Bennett's Letters for the elders to distribute.
August 1842
through 1843—Bennett traveled to the East and gained widespread
notoriety by lecturing in New York City, Boston, and elsewhere—charging
those who attended his lectures a considerable fee.
October 1842—Bennett's
book entitled History of the Saints; or,
an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism, was published
(see New York Herald [October 21,
1842], 2).
Bennett Continued His Promiscuity
After the intense hearings before members of the High Council,
the City Council, and the Masonic Lodge, Dr. Bennett pretended
to repent on the one hand, but continued his spiritual wifery
on the other. At the same time he was plotting revenge against
Joseph. The Prophet and other officials had hoped that their charges
and Bennett's admission of guilt would cause him to repent and
leave Nauvoo without a public exposure. President William Law
tried to persuade him to go to Texas. Law said under oath:
On many occasions I heard him acknowledge his guilt, and beg
not to be destroyed in the eyes of the public, and that he would
never act so again, "So help him God." From such promises,
and oaths, I was induced to bear with him longer than I should
have done....
About the time that John C. Bennett was brought before the
Masonic Lodge ... I advised him to go to Texas, and when he
returned, if he would behave well we would reinstate him. He
said he had no means to take him to Texas, and still insisted
on B. Young and myself to intercede for him. (Times
and Seasons 3 [August 1, 1842]: 873)
Bennett hoped to be forgiven as in previous cases and to stay
in Illinois, where he had made a name for himself. After all,
he was a candidate for the Illinois House of Representatives,
a position he greatly desired—and a break with Joseph and
the Church would mean a loss of the election. But Joseph and Hyrum
discovered that Bennett was continuing his illicit activities
in spite of the severe reprimands and threats of public exposure.
Hyrum testified:
Still after all this we found him guilty of similar crimes
again, and it was found to our satisfaction that he was conspiring
against the peace and safety of the citizens of this state—after
learning these facts we exposed him to the public; he then immediately
left the place abruptly; threatening to drink the hearts blood
of many citizens of this place. (ibid., 872)
Because of the doctor's continuing promiscuity, Joseph began
publishing the truth about him, which made him even more determined
to wreak revenge upon the Prophet, and to clear his own name by
destroying Joseph's character. The Church officials published
a notice in the Times and Seasons for
June 15, 1842, stating they had withdrawn the hand of fellowship
from John C. Bennett.
Bennett Conspired with Editor Francis
When Bennett left Nauvoo, he knew that he could never obtain
his goals without a publisher to tell his story. The year of 1842
was an election year and the Whig Party was desperately trying
to win over the Democrats. At an earlier date, Editor Simeon Francis
of the Sangamo Journal, which was
published in the state capital at Springfield, had printed an
article against the Saints at Nauvoo in order to swing votes in
favor of the Whigs. Bennett, who was still mayor when that issue
of the Sangamo Journal arrived, answered
him in a long, scathing letter in the Wasp
for June 18. (Ironically, it was the same issue of the
Wasp which announced Bennett's expulsion
from the Church. Bennett's letter was probably written days earlier,
before he knew he was going to be exposed.)
After the hand of fellowship was withdrawn, the shrewd doctor
devised a diabolical scheme—he traveled to Springfield on
June 22 and entered into a pact with Editor Francis. Bennett agreed
to write letters against Joseph and the Saints. In turn, Francis
would publish the letters to swing votes to the Whig Party, and
both the editor and Bennett would profit financially. Therefore,
Bennett was able to publish six lengthy letters which still live
in infamy.
The truth of this matter was published by the editor of the
Illinois State Register, a political
opponent and competitor of Editor Francis. That paper published:
About two weeks ago Gen. Bennett, a master spirit among the
Mormons, was in this city. He was seen in conversation with
several of the leaders of the Junto [leaders of the Whig Party],
who made arrangements with him to make sundry awful disclosures
about the Mormons. (Illinois State
Register, July 8, 1842)
Two weeks prior to July 8 places this meeting with the Whig
politicians around June 22, six days after the notice of Bennett
being disfellowshipped was published, and three days after Joseph
had preached against him in the Grove near the Temple. The editor
of the Register explained the purpose
of the conspiracy between Bennett and Editor Francis:
We have no confidence in this exposition [by Bennett], because
it is designed to affect the approaching gubernatorial election....
The Mormon General Bennett is thrust from the temple at Nauvoo
as to unclean to mingle with those who minister there and forthwith
with the Springfield Junto, a herd of kindred spirits, send
for him—they hug him to their bosoms with a grin of infernal
joy. Promises, flattery and perhaps money are bestowed upon
him. Finally a plan of horrible disclosures is proposed and
agreed upon, and the [Sangamo] Journal,
miserable harlot of Junto, is made to bring forth to
the world, a litter of crippled and misshapen monsters, to frighten
half-witted men, women and children, and divert the attention
of the people from a sober consideration of the important interest
involved in the election. By such foul means—by such base
trickery the managers of the Whig party hope to elect the corrupt
Prince of town-lot speculators, Governor of the State of Illinois.
(ibid.; republished in the New York
Herald [July 26, 1842], 2)
The editor of the Register also
announced in his paper for July 14 that
Many thousands of copies of Bennett's letters have been struck
off at the expense of Gov. Duncan [to sway the election in favor
of the Whigs], as we have been credibly informed, and distributed
gratuitously everywhere.
The use of Bennett's six letters may have pleased the Whig Party,
but it greatly increased the persecution of the Saints. In spite
of this, the Democrats won the election.
The Writing of Bennett's Six Letters
When the doctor left Nauvoo, he did not have far to travel to
find sympathetic friends. He went sixteen miles southeast to Carthage,
where he found enemies of the Saints. Politicians in that village
feared that the ever-increasing number of Saints in Nauvoo would
vote as a block and control elections. Bennett's first letter,
which appeared in the Sangamo Journal for
July 8, was written on June 27 while he was still in Nauvoo; the
second was written in Carthage July 2; and the third one was dated
July 4, 1842. His fourth letter was dated July 15 in St. Louis,
where he met with Martha Brotherton, who made affidavit that Joseph
had tried to get her to become Brigham Young's plural wife. The
fifth letter was written on the river steamer Importer
and was dated July 23. This letter was first published
in the Louisville Journal. The sixth
letter (the most famous of all) was dated August 2, 1842, and
written aboard a boat on the Erie Canal, as Bennett was traveling
to the East. These letters were published in the Sangamo
Journal and were couched in the most vehement language,
charging Joseph with polygamy, seduction, murder, treason, and
other crimes.
Before leaving Carthage, Bennett filed for a divorce from his
wife, Mary Barker Bennett, of Ohio. The divorce was granted October
15, 1842. The record of this divorce, at the Hancock County Courthouse
at Carthage, verifies the findings which Bishop George Miller,
William Law, and Hyrum Smith reported when they investigated Bennett's
background in Ohio—that he was a married man at the time
he became engaged to a young Church woman at Nauvoo, "one
of our citizens," and taught and practiced spiritual wifery.
Only a few of the charges which Bennett made against Joseph
in his six letters can be treated here.
Bennett's Charge about the Danites
John Bennett returned to Nauvoo on June 27 and as previously
mentioned, stayed at the home of his supporter, George W. Robinson.
Bennett later wrote in his book that Joseph sent the "Danites"
to Robinson's home to kill him. (While the Church headquarters
was at Far West, a Dr. Sampson Avard had formed a secret organization,
named after Dan in the Old Testament, called Danites. Bennett
claimed that Joseph now maintained this group to kill his opponents.)
Bennett declared:
We shall have full disclosures [of alleged crimes against Joseph]
if the Danites don't catch me—they
are after me like prowling wolves, by Joseph's special orders.
(Sangamo Journal, July 15, 1842)
Bennett claimed that the Danites tried to kill him during his
last night in Nauvoo. He wrote:
on the evening of the 29th of June, the DESTROYING ANGEL approached
my boarding-house, (General Robinson's,) in Nauvoo, with their
carriage wheels wrapped with blankets, and their horses' feet
muffled with cloths, to prevent noise, about ten o'clock, for
the purpose of conveying me off for "sudden
destruction," or assassination, so as to make me
"silent," and thus prevent
disclosures. Dead men tell no tales! But, as I had an intimation
of the matter in the afternoon, I borrowed two pistols of General
Robinson, and one of Mr. Hunter, a merchant, and loaded them
with slugs. Besides these, I had two good Bowie-knives, and
some of my friends were, likewise, well armed,—well prepared
to give the ANGEL a warm reception. So, after prowling around
the house (the lights in which were extinguished) for some time,
the "hand of the Almighty"
withdrew! (Bennett, History of the Saints,
290–291)
Joseph and other Church leaders denied the existence of Danites
in Nauvoo or that Joseph had used any manner of threat or force
against Bennett (see The Wasp Extra [July
27, 1842], 2). On July 20, members of the Nauvoo City Council
made an affidavit denying Bennett's accusation by stating, "there
is no such thing as a Danite Society in this city" (Times
and Seasons 3 [August 1, 1842]: 870).
The Charge of Duress
Another charge which the devious doctor made was that Joseph
had forced him to make his affidavit on May 17, in which he declared
that
he never knew the said Smith to countenance any improper conduct
whatever, either in public or private; and that he never did
teach to me in private that an illegal illicit intercourse with
females was, under any circumstances, justifiable; and that
I never knew him so to teach others. (ibid. [July 1, 1842]:841)
Bennett also claimed that he was under duress when he made a
similar statement before the City Council on May 19. In his six
letters Bennett published that Joseph had taken him into a room
on May 17, locked the door, drew a pistol, and said:
The peace of my family requires that you should sign an affidavit,
and [also] make a statement before the next City Council, on
the 19th, exonerating me from all participation whatever, either
directly or indirectly, in word or deed, in the SPIRITUAL WIFE
DOCTRINE, or private intercourse with females
in general; and if you do not do it with
apparent cheerfulness, I will make CAT FISH-BAIT of you,
or deliver you over to the Danites for execution tonight. (Bennett,
History of the Saints, 287; Warsaw
Signal [July 23, 1842], 2)
Upon reading Bennett's charge of duress in the newspapers, Nauvoo
Church and civil authorities made affidavits to prove that Bennett
was not under duress when he made his affidavit of May 17 and
his statement on May 19, in which he stated that Joseph was virtuous.
Justice Daniel Wells, who witnessed Bennett's affidavit on May
17, declared that Bennett showed no signs of being under duress.
Wells asserted:
The door of the room was open and free for all or any person
to pass or repass.... During all this time if he was under duress,
or fear, he must have had a good faculty for concealing it,
for he was at liberty to go and come when and where he pleased....
I know that I saw him in different parts of the city, even after
he had made these statements, transacting business as usual.
(Times and Seasons 3 [August 1,
1842]: 873–874)
Wells was a resident of Nauvoo before the Saints located there,
and was not a member of the Church at the time he witnessed Bennett
sign the affidavit.
Members of the City Council also signed an affidavit in which
they declared that Bennett was not under duress at the time he
made a statement at their May 19 meeting, stating that Joseph
was virtuous (see ibid., 869–870).
The editor of the Nauvoo Wasp published:
In fact, until the whole City Council of Nauvoo are impeached,
the Doctor must stand before the public as a perjured man.—There
let him stand. (Wasp Extra [July
27, 1842], 2)
One factor that lends evidence toward Bennett not being under
duress was that he remained in Nauvoo for over five weeks after
he made the affidavit, and went about the city as usual. Being
a medical doctor he had patients to see. And Justice Daniel Wells
said under oath that Bennett completed some work in the mayor's
office, and performed work connected with the streets of Nauvoo
(see Times and Seasons 3 [August 1,
1842]: 874). If Joseph had threatened to murder Bennett, as he
claimed, the doctor surely would have left Nauvoo immediately.
The duress charge was a falsehood fabricated by Bennett.
Of course he found it necessary to make the charge of duress
in order to convince the public that he was the victim and not
the criminal. If he had not made the claim that he was under duress,
the public would not have believed any of his charges against
Joseph.
Bennett Claimed That Joseph Ordered the Assassination
of Boggs
During the same time that Bennett was being tried and disfellowshipped,
word came from Missouri that Lilburn Boggs, the former governor
of Missouri, had been shot and wounded. Bennett lost no time in
proclaiming that he had previously heard Joseph declare that he
was sending Orrin Porter Rockwell to Independence to kill Boggs.
From Carthage Bennett wrote:
I am now going over to Missouri to have Joe taken to justice;
and then I am going to New York to publish a book called "The
History of the Saints," in which I shall tell most of the
actings and doings at Nauvoo for the last two years, of most
of their great men, and some of their great women too; so look
out for the breakers. We shall have full disclosures if the
Danites don't catch me—they are after me like prowling
wolves, by Joe's special orders. (Sangamo
Journal, July 15, 1842)
In order to assist the Missourians in arresting Joseph Smith,
Dr. Bennett corresponded with Dr. Joseph O. Boggs of Independence,
Missouri, a brother of Lilburn Boggs (see Bennett,
History of the Saints, 151–152). In July Bennett
went to Missouri to promote the prosecution of Joseph. On August
27, 1842, he wrote:
I ... stand in readiness to obey the mandate of Missouri, to
testify in the premises. The Mormon Pontiff [Joseph] shall tremble
at the sight of gathering hosts, in the days of his captivity,
like an aspen leaf in the wilderness.... I will tear the ermine
of sanctity from the shoulders of His Pontifical Holiness, and
dim the glory of his mitred head.... Nothing short of an excision
of the cancer of Mormonism will effect a cure of that absorbing
delusion, and the strong arm of military power must perform
the operation at the edge of the sword, point of the bayonet,
and mouth of the cannon. (ibid., 151)
These statements reveal that Dr. Bennett was so intent on destroying
Joseph that he would even call for a military invasion of Nauvoo!
As a result of Bennett's efforts, Missouri authorities sent
a requisition to Illinois to have Joseph extradited to Missouri,
which made it necessary for the Prophet to avoid capture by going
into hiding from August 1842 to January 1843. Orrin Porter Rockwell
was captured and imprisoned in Independence. Alexander Doniphan,
the attorney who had often aided the Saints, defended him and
he was acquitted. In later years RLDS Historian Heman C. Smith
wrote:
We were surprised to find that Rockwell was not even indicted
for this crime, but the most serious indictment found against
him by the grand jury of Jackson County, Missouri, was for "breaking
jail." On this indictment he was found guilty as charged,
and sentenced to five minutes' imprisonment. That is all there
is to the story that has so long been circulated about O. P.
Rockwell shooting Ex-Governor Boggs, and Joseph Smith being
accessory before the fact. (Saints' Herald
66 [July 2, 1919]: 647)
Bennett Charged Joseph with Treason
The Saints were loyal to the United States Government during
the lifetime of Joseph Smith. They were mainly law-abiding and
peace-loving, and desired that all men might enjoy freedom. In
spite of this, John Bennett convinced multitudes that Joseph was
guilty of treason. For two years after he left Nauvoo, the doctor
proclaimed the treason charge. It was this same charge which held
Joseph and Hyrum in Carthage Jail on June 27, 1844—long
enough to be murdered.
Bennett taught that the Saints believed in Zion, the Kingdom
of God on earth, and purposefully projected it to mean a civil
and military kingdom with Joseph Smith as dictator and tyrant-king.
The idea of Zion (a spiritual government of the Saints, religiously
speaking) was construed by him to mean that Joseph intended to
raise an army and overthrow the American Government by force and
establish "a great Mormon empire." Bennett's charges
struck terror in the hearts of many. He published:
Joe Smith designs to abolish all human laws, and establish
a Theocracy, in which the word of
God, as spoken by his (Joe's)
mouth, shall be the only law.
(Bennett, History of the Saints,
149)
The States of Missouri, and Illinois, and the Territory of
Iowa, are the regions to which the Prophet has hitherto chiefly
directed his schemes of aggrandizement, and which were to form
the NUCLEUS of the great MORMON
EMPIRE. The remaining states were
to be licked up like salt, and fall into the immense labyrinth
of glorious prophetic dominion, like the defenceless lamb before
the mighty king of the forest! (ibid., 293)
Bennett Claimed That Joseph Was Practicing Polygamy
In his infamous six letters and his book, Dr. Bennett charged
Joseph with other crimes, including polygamy. General Bennett
declared that Joseph had introduced "a new degree of masonry
[in the Nauvoo Masonic Lodge] called, 'Order Lodge,' " in
which leading men of Nauvoo promoted their polygamous activities
(Quincy Whig, July 16, 1842).
Bennett also went into great detail in describing an alleged
women's lodge, which he said was connected with the Order Lodge.
He called it a "seraglio" (harem) and claimed that the
women who were in it were classified in three degrees (see Bennett,
History of the Saints, 220–225). He asserted that
the Female Relief Society, of which Emma Smith was president,
used devious means to recruit women to become a part of this harem
(ibid., 220). Bennett linked Emma with polygamy and used derogatory
names to describe her. In referring to her as part of the alleged
seraglio, Bennett described her as:
Emma, the Electa Syria of the Church,
and wife of the Holy Joe, the male Cassandra of the Mormon Hierarchy
... the delectable Emma, the Lady Abbess of the Seraglio, or
"Mother of the Maids." (ibid., 227)
Emma and other members of the Ladies Relief Society were furious
when they learned that Bennett was telling the world that the
members of the Relief Society were engaged in polygamy and recruiting
young women for polygamous relationships with the heads of the
Church. They took the following action:
The "Ladies Relief Society," also drew up a petition
signed by about one thousand Ladies speaking in the highest
terms of the virtue, philanthrophy, and benevolence of Joseph
Smith. (Times and Seasons 3 [August
1, 1842]: 869)
The one thousand women also published a declaration that no system
of polygamy existed in the Church. They declared:
We the undersigned members of the ladies' relief society ...
certify and declare that we know of no system of marriage being
practised in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
save the one contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants,
and we give this certificate to the public to show that J. C.
Bennett's "secret wife system" is a disclosure of
his own make.
Emma Smith, President ...
Eliza R. Snow, Secretary. (ibid. [October 1, 1842]: 940; RLDS
History of the Church 2:598)
The law in the Doctrine and Covenants, which the women referred
to, contained these words:
Inasmuch as this church of 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,
except in case of death, when either is at liberty to marry
again. (DC [1835 Edition] 101:4; RLDS DC [1950 Edition] 111:4b)
Bennett Named Women Whom He Claimed Joseph Tried
to Seduce
Doctor Bennett charged that Joseph had tried to seduce several
women who refused his advances. He named Sarah Pratt, wife of
Apostle Orson Pratt; Martha Brotherton; Emeline White, a nonmember;
and Nancy Rigdon, daughter of President Sidney Rigdon. The reader
needs to remember that Sarah Pratt, Emeline White, and Nancy Rigdon
had been subpoenaed by Chauncey Higbee as his witnesses when he
was to be tried in the Carthage Circuit Court. Sarah Pratt and
Nancy Rigdon had been a part of Bennett's clique in Nauvoo. Their
cases, as well as the case of Martha Brotherton, will be treated
in a later volume.
Conclusion
Bennett's efforts to have Joseph killed and the Saints scattered
by military force failed to bring the Prophet's immediate death,
as he had hoped. But those efforts had a lasting influence upon
the Restoration Movement—both in the perpetuation of the
polygamy doctrine among the Utah Mormons and in the misconception
of the origin of polygamy in the Church. Bennett's sixth letter
has helped shape the Mormon Church into what it is today. Bennett
claimed that it was "Joe Smith's Love Letter To Nancy Rigdon"
(New York Herald [August 31, 1842],
2). His efforts greatly aided the conspirators who brought about
the death of the Prophet only two years later.
It is obvious that Joseph was not a polygamist, because he had
no children by any woman other than Emma. The supposed purpose
of polygamy was for a man to be the father of as many children
as possible, to increase his kingdom and glory in the hereafter
(see LDS DC 132:29–31). Bennett compared Joseph to Solomon,
who had seven hundred wives (see Bennett,
History of the Saints, 218). If this were true, Joseph
would have had many children by other women. Members of the LDS
Church in Utah have searched for over one hundred and fifty years
to find a single descendant of Joseph from an alleged plural wife,
and have found none. As Joseph proclaimed a month before his death,
"What a thing it is for a man to be accused of ... having
seven wives, when I can only find one" (LDS History
of the Church 6:411).
[ Joseph
Smith Fought Polygamy Index ]

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