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History of Utah, 1540-1886, by Hubert Howe Bancroft, [1889], at sacred-texts.com
What is Mormonism?—Tenets of the Church—Sacred Books and Personages—Organization—Priesthood—First Presidency—the Twelve Apostles—Patriarchs—Elders, Bishops, Priests, Teachers, and Deacons—the Seventies—Stakes and Wards—Marriage—Temple Building—Tabernacle—Political Aspect—Polygamy As a Church Tenet—Celestial Marriage—Attitude and Arguments of Civilization—Polygamy's Reply—Ethics and Law—the Charge of Disloyalty—Proposed Remedies.
We are now prepared to ask the question with some degree of intelligence, What is Mormonism? In formulating an answer, we must consider as well the political as the religious idea. I will examine the latter first.
Mormonism in its religious aspect is simply the acceptation of the bible, the whole of it, literally, and following it to its logical conclusions.
As the Christian world has advanced in civilization and intelligence these two thousand years or so, it has gradually left behind a little and a little more of its religion, first of the tenets of the Hebraic record, and then somewhat even of those of the later dispensation. Long before religionists began to question as myths the stories of Moses, and Jonah, and Job, they had thrown aside as unseemly blood-sacrifice and burnt-offerings, sins of uncleanness, the stoning of sabbath-breakers, the killing in war of women, children, and prisoners, the condemnation of whole nations to perpetual bondage, and many other revolting customs of the half-savage Israelites sanctioned by holy writ.
[paragraph continues] This they did of their own accord, not because they were so commanded, but in spite of commandments, and by reason of a higher and more refined culture—a culture which had outgrown the cruder dogmas of the early ages. Then came the putting away of slavery and polygamy, the former but recently permitted in these American states, and the latter being here even now. Among the discarded customs taught and encouraged by the new testament are, speaking in tongues, going forth to preach without purse or scrip, laying on of hands for the healing of the sick, raising the dead, casting out devils, and all other miracles; and there will be further repudiations as time passes, further ignoring of portions of the scriptures by orthodox sects, a further weeding out of the unnatural and irrational from things spiritual and worshipful.
The tenets of the Mormon church are these:
The bible is the inspired record of God's dealings with men in the eastern hemisphere; the book of Mormon is the inspired record of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of this continent; the book of Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints consists of revelations from God concerning the present dispensation to Joseph Smith, who was inspired to translate the book of Mormon and organize the church of Christ anew. Joseph Smith to the present dispensation is as Moses was to Israel; there is no conflict, either in personages or books. The statements, assertions, promises, and prophecies of the books, and the precepts and practices of the personages, are accepted, all of them, and held to be the revealed will to man of one and the same God, whose will it is the duty and endeavor of his people to carry out in every particular to the best of their ability.
There are more gods than one. There are spiritual gifts. Not only must there be faith in Christ, but faith in the holy priesthood, and faith in continual
revelation. 1 Man is a free agent. The laying on of hands for ordination, and for the healing of the sick, descends from the early to the later apostles. 2 There will be a resurrection of the body and a second coming of Christ. Israel is a chosen people; there has been a scattering of Israel, and there will be a gathering. Joseph Smith was the fulfiller not only of bible prophecies, but of the book of Mormon prophecies, and of his own prophecies. Foreordination, election, and dispensation of the fulness of times are held. There was an apostasy of the primitive church, and now there is a return. There was the Jerusalem of the eastern hemisphere; on the continent of North America is planted the new Jerusalem. Miracles obtain; also visions and dreams, signs and tokens, and angels of light and darkness. There are free spirits and spirits imprisoned; the wicked will be destroyed, and there will be a millennial reign. The saints are largely of the house of Israel, and heirs to the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The aboriginal inhabitants of America and the Pacific isles were the
seed of Joseph, divided into numerous nations and tribes. The Lamanites were of the house of Manasseh.
We believe, say their articles of faith, in God the father, in Jesus Christ the son, and in the holy ghost. For their own sins, and not for any transgression of Adam, men will be punished; but all may be saved, through the atonement, by obedience to the ordinances of the gospel, which are: faith in Christ, repentance, baptism by immersion, 3 and laying on of
hands for the gift of the holy ghost. We believe in the same organization and powers that existed in
the primitive church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists; in the gift of tongues, 4
prophecy, revelation, and visions. In the scriptures is found the law of tithing, which law is now revived, and the keeping of it made one of the first duties of the saints. The ten commandments, and all other commandments, ordinances, promulgations, and possibilities, are in force now as at the time they were given. Marriage is a sacred and an eternal covenant. Plural marriage, sanctioned under the old dispensation and revived under the new, is open to all, and is, in some instances, commanded, when it becomes a sacred obligation.
Seldom does a good Mormon appear in a court of law arrayed against a brother Mormon. And this is why, as the saints allege, the twenty-five or fifty lawyers in Utah who are compelled to derive their living almost entirely from the gentiles, are so bitter against the saints. When two Mormons disagree, they present themselves before the president of the stake, who with twelve councillors, six facing six, their selection having been agreed to by the litigants, is ready to try the case without delay. Plaintiff and defendant, each with his witnesses, take their places before the president, and between the rows of councillors. Prayer is then offered, almighty aid being asked in bringing the affair to a righteous and amicable conclusion. The litigants state the case, each from his own standpoint; the witnesses are heard; the councillors decide. Prayer is again offered. The adversaries shake hands; there is nothing to pay. Until the gentiles came, there were in Utah no police or police courts; no houses of drinking, or of gambling, or of prostitution. Of the administration of justice among the saints I shall speak more at length in a later chapter.
The doctrine of blood atonement was early inculcated by the church, as a sacrifice necessary for salvation, and not, as many have asserted, in order to legalize murder. There were the altars and the offerings of the old testament, and the great god-man sacrifice of the new. Christ made the atonement for the sins of the world by the shedding of his blood. By the laws of the land, he who commits murder must atone for it by his own death. 5 There are sins of various degrees
of heinousness; some requiring only public confession and promised reformation by way of atonement, whilst others are characterized by an enormity so vast that pardon on earth is impossible. Of the first class are all minor offences against church discipline, breach of which has been publicly acknowledged by nearly every leader, from Joseph himself down to the humblest official.
For the proper carrying out of the instructions revealed in the sacred books, an organization has been effected in these latter days, based upon books and on former organizations. There are two principal priesthoods, the Melchisedek and the Aaronic, the latter including the Levitical. The Melchisedek is the higher, comprising apostles, patriarchs, high-priests, seventies, and elders. It holds the right of presidency, with authority to administer in all the offices, ordinances, and affairs of the church. It holds the keys of all spiritual blessings, receives the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, whose doors are ever open, and holds communion with God the father, Jesus Christ the mediator, Joseph Smith the prophet, and all departed saints. 6
The Aaronic is a subordinate priesthood, being an appendage to the Melchisedek, and acting under its
supervision. It comprises bishops, priests, teachers, and deacons, who hold the keys of the ministering angels, having power to administer in certain ordinances and in the temporal affairs of the church, baptizing and sitting as judges in Israel. The bishopric is the presidency of the Aaronic priesthood. The office of a bishop is to administer in temporal matters. First-born sons, lineal descendants of Aaron, and no others, have a legal right to the bishopric. But a high-priest of the order of Melchisedek may officiate in all lesser offices, including that of bishop, when no lineal descendant of Aaron can be found, and after he has been ordained to this power by the first presidency. There is also the patriarchal priesthood, 7
the patriarch to be the oldest man of the blood of Joseph or of the seed of Abraham. Likewise there are mothers in Israel. 8
Head over all is the First Presidency of the Church, known also as the First Presidency of the High-Priesthood, and consisting of a president and two councillors. 9 The first presidency presides over and governs
all the affairs of the church, temporal and spiritual; the first president is the prophet of God, seer, revelator, and translator.
Next in authority are twelve apostles, who are a travelling presiding high-council, and with whom, on the death of the president of the church, the supreme rulership rests until another first presidency is installed. 10 The president of the twelve, chosen in the
first instance by reason of seniority or ordination, usually becomes president of the church. The office of the twelve is to preach and teach throughout the world, regulating the affairs of the church everywhere under the direction of the first presidency, calling to their aid therein the seventies.
An apostle may administer in the several offices of the church, particularly in spiritual matters. 11 The office of a patriarch is to give patriarchal blessings; the office of a member of a seventy is to travel and preach the gospel; but a patriarch, a high-priest, a
member of a seventy, and an elder may, in common with an apostle, adtninister in other spiritual offices.
All superior officers are frequently called elders. Thus an apostle is an elder; and he may baptize, and ordain other elders, priests, teachers, and deacons. It is his calling to administer bread and wine, or bread and water, emblems of the flesh and blood of Christ; to confirm the baptized by the laying on of hands for the baptism of fire and the holy ghost; to teach, expound, exhort, and to lead in meetings as lie is led by the holy ghost.
A bishop who is a first-born and a lineal descendant of Aaron may sit as a common judge in the church without councillors, except in the trial of a president of the high-priesthood. But a bishop from the high-priesthood may not sit as a judge without his two councillors. Over all the bishops in the church there is a presiding bishop.
The duties of a priest are to preach, baptize, administer the sacrament, and visit families and pray with them. The duties of a teacher are to watch over and strengthen the church, and see that no iniquity creeps into it, and that every member performs his obligations and conducts himself without guile. The duties of the deacon are to assist the teacher and the bishop, attending to the temporal affairs of the church, looking after the houses of worship and the necessities of the poor. Teachers and deacons may instruct and exhort, but they are not authorized to baptize, lay on hands, or administer the sacrament. No one can hold office except by authoritative call and ordination, or by special appointment of God.
The seventies are organized into various councils of seventy, commonly called quorums. Each council of seventy has seven presidents, chosen out of the seventy, one of the seven presiding over the others and over the whole seventy. The seven presidents of the first council of seventies also preside over all the councils
of seventies. 12 According to Elder John Jaques, to whose little book on the priesthood I am indebted for this information, there were in 1882 seventy-six councils of seventies, with seventy members in each council when complete. Elders are organized in councils of ninety-six, each council having a president and two councillors. [Priests are organized in councils of forty-eight, each with a president—who must be a bishop—and two councillors. Teachers are organized in councils of twenty-four, and deacons in councils of twelve, each with a president and two councillors. 13
In the society of saints, there are territorial divisions into what are called Stakes of Zion. In Utah, these divisions correspond usually, but not necessarily, with the counties, each county being a stake.
[paragraph continues] Every stake has a president, with his two councillors, and a high-council, consisting of twelve high-priests. 14 The high-priests assemble in council, having its president and two councillors, at stated times, usually once a month, for conference and instruction. The president of a stake, with his two councillors, presides over the high-council of that stake, which has original and appellate jurisdiction, and whose decisions are usually, but not invariably, final. Appeals are had to a general assembly of the several councils of the priesthood, but such appeals are seldom taken. The jurisdiction of the several councils is ecclesiastical, affecting fellowship and standing only, the extreme penalty being excommunication.
Each stake is divided into wards, the number being according to territory and population; over each ward presides a bishop, with his two councillors. Each stake and each ward, as a rule, has its own meeting-house. There are about twenty-five stakes, divided into some three hundred wards. Salt Lake City is divided into twenty-one wards, each containing for the most part nine ten-acre blocks, though in the outskirts they are larger. Each stake holds a quarterly conference; and the church holds a general conference every April and October.
It will be observed that the orders of priesthood and organization of the church are copied essentially from the bible. As before remarked, the Mormons believe and practise what their sacred books teach, and all that they teach, without intended misinterpretation,
elimination, or repudiation. And as the book of Mormon is held to be a continuation of the historical portion of the bible, and equally with it the word of God; and as the ideas and instructions contained in the book of Doctrine and Covenants have been derived, for the most part, from a study and literal interpretation of the bible—though with something added—it is safe to say that in the main the Mormons believe what the bible teaches, and that Mormonism is the acceptation of the bible, the whole of it, literally, and following it to its logical conclusions.
Tithing, though enjoined by divine command, is a free-will offering. 15 The law of tithing in its
fulness requires the tenth of the surplus property of members coming to Zion to be paid into the church as a consecration, and after that one tenth of increase or earnings annually. This is to be used for the poor, for
building or other church purposes, and for the support of those engaged in church business. There are no salaried preachers. Tithing is paid in kind to the bishop, who renders a strict account, the whole financial
system being in the hands of the bishopric, but supervised by the trustee in trust through the aid of an auditing committee. The names of those who do not keep the law of tithing shall not be enrolled with the people of God; neither shall their genealogy be kept.
The doctrine of divine revelation is continued. God's ways are immutable; past and present to him are as one; what he has done, that he continues to do; what was right five thousand years ago is right now. If God spoke to Abraham and Solomon, and gave them more wives than one, even giving to David his neighbor's wives, there is no reason why he should not do the same with Joseph and Brigham. There is nothing which God has ever done and sanctioned that he may not do and sanction now; otherwise he is not an omniscient, omnipotent, unchangeable, all-wise, and perfect being. Every member of the church may hold communion with God relative to his own affairs; revelations for the church are only given through its head.
As through Christ alone man may be saved, in order that the souls of many millions who never heard of him may not be all of them lost, baptism for the dead, and thereby salvation, was revealed, as was also celestial marriage.
Nature is dual. An unmarried man or woman is and forever must be an imperfect creature. There are marriages for time and marriages for eternity. A celestial marriage is a marriage of God, and those thus
joined can never be divorced, except by the power of God. If a man's wife dies and he marries another, and she dies and he marries a third, believing in resurrection and a life of purity beyond the grave but repudiating polygamy, how will he manage with his plural wives in heaven? She who dies unmarried cannot enter into the full enjoyment of God; but as a man may be baptized for the dead and so save their souls, so he may be sealed to a husbandless woman in heaven. There is a difference between marriage and sealing; the former is secular, and the latter both secular and celestial, as it may be either for time or for eternity, in person or by proxy, and with the living or with the dead. A woman may be sealed to one man for time and to another for eternity, the former being still living. 16
A sacred duty is the constant effort to convert all men throughout the world to a belief in the divinity
of Joseph Smith's mission. To this end are sent forth proselyting ministers, elders of the church, selected by
the authorities and called by the saints assembled at the general semiannual conferences held in Salt Lake City. Neither age nor pecuniary condition governs the selection. They may be men or boys, rich or poor; but they must have faith and integrity, and go forth without purse or scrip, relying alone upon the hand of God to feed them. An elder is likewise selected by the church authorities to preside over each mission. Thus has been visited almost every quarter of the globe, the book of Mormon being meanwhile translated into many languages. And a Perpetual Emigration Fund Company has been established, which has advanced the funds to bring out thousands to Zion, the money being paid back by the immigrant after his arrival, as he has been able to earn it.
Temple building is a characteristic work, and is prompted by the belief that Jesus Christ will some day come suddenly to his temple. Hence the devotion and self-sacrifice practised by Christ's people in order to prepare for him a fitting place of reception. Wonders in this direction have been accomplished by a poor and wandering people, at Kirtland, at Nauvoo, at Salt Lake City, St George, Manti, and Logan.
In the north-west corner of Temple block, Salt Lake City, in which is the tabernacle, the smaller church building, and the new temple, stands a plain two-story adobe structure known as the Endowment House. Here are conducted the most secret and solemn mysteries of the church, which may be termed religio-masonic ceremonies, illustrative of the origin and destiny of man. Here also are performed the rites of baptism for the dead, anointing with oil, marriage, and other ceremonies, by which the convert is endowed with the special grace of God, receives his inheritance as a child of God, and is made a partaker of the fulness of all the blessings of religion. All these rites should properly be performed in the temple, which on its completion will supersede the endowment
house, and in which special apartments are being constructed for these purposes. 17
The order of exercises in the tabernacle, which seats seven thousand persons, is much the same as in orthodox evangelical churches, beginning and ending with prayer and singing, and sometimes singing and administering the sacrament in the middle of a discourse. The speaker seldom knows that he is to speak until called upon by the moderator, who regulates the services, and makes the selection under inspiration, announcing the name of the person sometimes without knowing whether he is in the house, or even in the city. The singing is very fine, the organ, constructed wholly by Mormon artisans, being the largest
and finest in America at the time it was built. The acoustic properties of the oval-shaped room and ceiling are wonderful; stationed at one point, a pin may be heard drop at the opposite end. The singers, thirty or forty in number, are stationed on the main stage, facing the audience in front of the organ. In front of them are the church officials, seated on a series of platforms according to their respective grades, the first presidency highest, next the twelve apostles, and finally the teachers, priests, and bishops, who have charge of administering the sacrament of the Lord's supper, which is done regularly every Sunday. In the first organization of the church, bread and wine were specified as the proper elements to be used, but it was soon after revealed that it makes no difference what the emblems are, and now bread and water are used. Tabernacle services are held Sunday afternoons; there are Sunday-schools at the ward meeting-houses Sunday mornings, and preaching at the same places in the evening by subordinate officials, who often repeat the main points of the morning tabernacle discourse. In the tabernacle, several rows of the best seats are reserved for gentile strangers, and are filled for the most part by travellers and tourists, American and European, who take no pains to hide their contempt for all about them, and return the courtesy extended by smiles and sneers, which, to say the least, is in bad taste for people pretending to a superior culture. 18
After all that can be said about Mormonism and polygamy in their social or moral relations, it is only when we come to consider them in their political aspect, in their relations to government and governing,
that we touch the core of the matter. Those who wax the hottest against the latter-day saints and their polygamous practices are not as a rule among the purest of our people. They care no more, indeed,
about the half-dozen wives of the Mormon than about the half-dozen mistresses of the congressman. As Judge Roseborough, in a very able dictation to my stenographer, remarks: "When I came here I was a
democrat. They pretended to be democrats, but, I found them such democrats as hell is full of. They are neither democrats nor republicans. I did not care about matters of belief, if they were American citizens.
[paragraph continues] They might worship the devil if they were citizens and discharged their duties as citizens. But I found that in a military way, in a political way, and in a judicial way they controlled matters; and nearly all of them
are aliens. I found that I had got out of the United States and come to Utah. I have never got over that feeling yet, and I think I will get out of Utah and back into the United States again."
Thus, notwithstanding the iniquities of the saints, together with their impudence and arrogance, as charged upon them by their enemies, the impossibility of others living with them as members of one community, of
one commonwealth, is the real difficulty—not their religion, their so-called blasphemies, their pretended revelations and miracles, their opposition bible, their latter-day dispensations, and the rest; nor yet their crimes and misdemeanors, their robberies and murders; nor even yet their secret ceremonies, their endowments, Danite bands, blood atonement, and the rest. The copy or counterpart of very many of these, in greater or smaller degree, is, or has been, practised by the gentiles; or if not, few care enough for any of them to go to war on their account. The trouble is this, and this will continue to be the trouble, in Utah or elsewhere in the United States, and that whether polygamy stands or falls—the saints are too exclusive, industrially and politically, for their neighbors.
The theory of government of this republic is numerical equality, each man and each hundred men being equal to every other man or every other hundred men as industrial and political factors. In this case, however, it is not so, and it never can be so. Spiritual manifestations and spiritual wives have nothing to do with it. A hundred or a thousand Mormons are a unit, socially, politically, and commercially, in a community organized theoretically upon the basis of only one man to the unit. And until the principles of the United States republic are remodelled, Mormons and gentiles cannot live together in peace and amity. It is folly for gentiles to enter a Mormon
community and think to rule, or to have any part in the government as at present existing, and following the line of law and order. This is why the people of Missouri and Illinois drove them out—not because of their religion or immorality, for their religion was nothing to the gentiles, and their morals were as good or better than those of their neighbors. It may as well be understood and agreed upon that, in the United States or out of the United States, the Mormons are, and ever will be, a people self-contained and apart.
Thus the matter continues to be discussed by the world at large, as a question of theology or morality, and not of active political and judicial control, or of the domination of a politico-religions organization, with aspirations and purposes diverse from those of the American people generally.
The theory and assumption of the Mormon church as a politico-religious organization is that the church is a government of God, and not responsible to any other government on earth conflicting with it, if not indeed bound from necessity to overturn and supplant all civil governments. This assumption lies at the very foundation of the Mormon creed; and from this point, in practical operation as well as in theory, there is a divergence between that organization and the United States government. Grant that any man believes what the Mormons believe, say their enemies, and where will his allegiance rest—with the government of the United States, or with this politico-religious organization which ought to and will, as they imagine, supplant all other governments? Many of them are alien born, and, from the treatment they receive on their arrival, learn to distrust the government of the United States, and to cling all the closer to the institutions of their sect.
"It is not consistent that the people of God," says Orson Pratt, "should organize or be subject to man-made governments. If it were so, they could never
be perfected. There can be but one perfect government,—that organized by God, a government by apostles, prophets, priests, teachers, and evangelists; the order of the original church of all churches acknowledged by God."
Early in this narrative we saw plainly, and remarked upon it as we proceeded, that it has been chiefly the political character and aspirations of the church that have brought it into all its difficulties everywhere—in Ohio, in Missouri, in Illinois. And its thirty years of isolation and independence in Utah, during which time it came in contact with the American people or with the government only in a limited degree, intensified its desire for control. The only way the Mormons can live in peace with gentile neighbors is for them to follow the example of their brethren, the Josephites—leave politics and government out of their ethics, and not combine for the purpose of controlling counties, states, or territories. But this strikes at the very root of their religion, which has already given them for an inheritance all counties and countries and peoples throughout the world, as they modestly claim.
There is here much more than the religious unity of ancient Israel. As a cooperative association, Mormonism has not its equal in the history of the world. In every conceivable relation, position, interest, and idea; in every sentiment of hope and fear, of joy and sorrow—there is mutual assistance and sympathy. It enters into all affairs, whether for time or eternity; there is an absolute unity in religion, government, and society, and to the fullest extent short of communism, internal assistance in agriculture, commerce, and manufactures. If a foreign convert wishes to come to America, he is helped hither; if he wants land, farming implements, seed, stock, he is helped to them; trade and manufactures are largely cooperative. And this bond of strength, whether it be called the holiness of saints or
the bigotry of fanatics, causes them to be feared and hated by their neighbors.
Polygamy, as a tenet of the Mormon church, is based upon scripture example, and if this is unlawful, it says, all is unlawful. Marriage is ordained of God, and essential to salvation. Christian sects hold up the patriarchs as examples in their sacred instruction, and yet condemn in these personages a practice which Christ nowhere condemns. While in polygamy, God blessed them and their polygamous seed, saying never a word about their plural wives. Polygamy was common in Asia at the time of the apostles; yet none of them preached against it, nor does John the revelator mention it, writing to the seven churches. In the days of Justin Martyr, the Jews practised polygamy. It is true that the emperor Theodosius, about A. D. 393, promulgated a law against polygamy, but it was repealed sixty years after by Valentinian. Nevertheless, as the civilized world, particularly Christian sects, regarded the practice with abhorrence, the prophet Joseph inquired of the Lord as to what he should do. And the Lord answered, commanding him to restore all things, the practice of polygamy among the rest. The revelation on this subject is given entire in note 19 of this chapter. The inferior order of wifehood, known in the sacred scriptures as concubinage, is not recognized in the Mormon church. By the marriage covenant, all are made wives, and all children are legitimate.
Celestial marriage and the plural-wife system, as incorporated parts of the Mormon religion, are essential to the fulness of exaltation in the eternal world. The space around us, it declares, is inhabited by spirits, thousands of years old, awaiting tabernacles in the flesh, which can be legitimately furnished them only by marriage and procreation; and bodies cannot be obtained for these spirits fast enough unless men have more wives than one. It is the will and glory of God
that these spirits have bodies as speedily as possible, that they become saints on earth and in his kingdom, those who keep this commandment thus to multiply being as gods; otherwise these spirits will take refuge in the bodies of unbelievers, and so sink to perdition.
But civilization has pronounced polygamy a curse and a crime, a retrogression, an offence against society and against morality, a beastly abomination, immoral, incestuous, degrading, a relic of barbarism, a sin, a shame, a vice, and as such has discarded it and passed laws against it. And the issue between polygamy and monogamy is one purely for civilization to determine; christianity has not a foot of ground to stand upon in the matter.
Culture cares nothing for religion; it is what a man does, not what he believes, that affects progress. It will not do to break the law in the name of religion. Suppose a man's religion authorizes him to commit murder: does that make it right? Civilization seeks the highest morality; and the highest morality, it says, is not that of the bible, of the book of Mormon, or of any other so-called holy book. The highest morality is based on nature, and by a study of nature's laws men may find it. Long before Christ, civilization awoke to the evils of this custom, which is not in accord with its morality. The religious reformer, Buddha, who died 470 years before Christ was born, and whose followers now number about one third of the whole human race, preached against polygamy. When Greece and Rome were the foremost nations of the world, they did not practise polygamy, nor has ever the highest civilization entertained it. Polygamy is to monogamy as Greece to China, or as England to India.
All very religious people, as well as science fanatics, are partially insane. This insanity may be passive and harmless, or aggressive and hurtful. We have innumerable instances of both kinds in the history of the Christian church. But as the world
progresses, religion becomes less dogmatic, and the insanity assumes more and more the milder form. Thus it is with the Mormons as with others; they would not feel justified in doing now some things which were done by their predecessors, any more than gentile Christians would wish to burn heretics, or slaughter millions in the name of the redeemer; or any more than they would accept Joseph Smith as a prophet from God, or believe in his metal book of Mormon, or his pretended revelations.
But admitting man's obligation to follow the precepts and example of the bible, which, if done literally, would lead him into all manner of contrarieties and absurdities, even as it does the Mormons to-day, the scriptural argument in support of polygamy does not go for much. Among the half-savage Israelites the custom obtained, but as they grew more civilized, it died out. The first apostles had none of them two wives, and St Paul maintained that it was best not to have any; the spirit of the new testament is all against plurality of wives, and, though it nowhere in so many words condemns the system, the books of Mormon and doctrine and covenants do.
Thus we see that holy books are contradictory and unreliable, not being consistent in themselves, or producing consistent followers. Codes of morality depending on the divine will are without foundation: are, indeed, not codes of morality, which to be genuine must be based on nature as the law-giver and punisher; for otherwise all men to whom the will of God has not been revealed, or who do not believe in any god or revelation, would be without any knowledge of right and wrong, or any standard of morality.
Innate perceptions, supernatural intuitions, or a conscience divinely given, instead of one evolved from the ever-increasing accumulation of human experiences, are not safe guides to right conduct, as the doctrines and doings of the Mormons clearly show. By the result of an act, not by supernatural revelation, we know
whether it is good or bad; and here, the result being bad, the act is wrong, immoral.
The result is bad because by reason of the act civilization takes a step backward, woman is degraded, and the progress of the race hampered. The mono-gamic is the highest type of family, and the highest type of society, yet evolved. Polygamy is better than promiscuity or polyandry, but it is not equal to monogamy. Polygamy springs from the desire to extend the sexual gratification at the expense of the better sense of the better part of the world's inhabitants. It is but a few removes from the old way among savages, where women were property, and bought by husbands to be used as slaves. To monogamy is due the fullest development of the emotions, of the higher sentiments, motherly tenderness, fatherly care, and the dutiful respect and obedience on the part of children. It is here that the passion of love assumes its most refined form; it is here that we find in family, social, and political relations, the greatest good to the greatest number.
For if we degrade woman, we degrade her children, her husband, and the whole community. Throughout all ages the position of woman has fixed the advancement of the nation in the scale of refinement and intelligence. Polygamy makes of woman, not the equal and companion of man, but his subordinate, if not indeed his serf or slave. The charm of her influence is gone; the family circle becomes incongruous and less cohesive; and there is an absence of those firm relations, filial and paternal, which, continued through successive generations, engender the highest type of society yet known. Make of American women Circassian slaves, and you will make of American men Turks.
The nations having the highest and best literature, laws, commerce, and religion, the nations that are enlightening the world with their books, telegraphs, steamboats, and railroads, are monogamic. Polygamy
encourages, if it does not necessitate, a domestic despotism, which, united with a religious and political despotism, constitutes one of the worst possible of social evils. It adds to the Mormons numbers and strength, banding them in a peculiar brotherhood, politically and socially.
The system is not an equitable one. There are born a tolerably even number of males and females, so that under this arrangement, where one man had a dozen wives, a dozen or so men would have none. Then, as to the relationships of the individual members, injustice is wrought, some of them being but little better than those existing among animals. There is an instinct in every woman which tells her that to be second or third is to be no wife at all. Neglect must exist. One man cannot properly care for so many women and children. Even if he is wealthy, he has not the time. Differences of origin and interests breed jealousies, foster selfishness, and are injurious to character. Then, when the reproductive age has passed, there is nothing left for the wife but a lonely and miserable old age.
Further than this, if reproduction be the chief incentive to the plural-wife system among the Mormons, and if it be true, as is often asserted, that as a rule the sexes are born numerically equal, then the system will in the end defeat its own object, for more children will be born and cared for where there is one man for every woman than where some women have to go without a husband, or with a fraction of one. It might pertinently be asked, in this connection, what is the benefit in multiplying the population? Are there not enough people already in the world? and is it not better to improve the stock than unduly to multiply it? This prevention is practised often for improper motives and by injurious methods; but millions do it because they think they cannot afford to raise children, and have no right to bring them into existence.
True, the evils of the practice are not so great under a theocratic and patriarchal system like that of the Mormons, as it would be if allowed to run riot round the world, giving libertines the widest opportunity to deceive and then desert women; in which case there would be no need of prostitution to satisfy men's passions, as the great barriers between the virtuous and the lewd would be for the most part broken down. Among the Mormons, this is prevented by strong religious feeling, and by the patriarchal influence of the leaders. But the majority of mankind in the great outside world are not controlled by religion or reason—they simply drift.
Whether for this reason or some other reason, Mormons are not loyal to the government, and the issue is between polygamic theocracy and American republicanism. Nor are the fears of the friends of the latter wholly groundless; for, as one writer said of it, "the Mormon church is one of the best organized systems in the world. The cunning of the devil and the sophistry of error are so mingled with truth as to make it one of the most powerful agencies to delude the ignorant." The truth is, the theocratic organization has already become absolute. Opposition stimulates propagandism, and persecution brings only defiance of federal authority and the moral sense of the nation. Legislation is defeated at every turn. The history of Utah is the history of the Mormon priesthood in its attempt to subordinate the state to the church, and make the authority of the priesthood superior to that of the United States government.
So says civilization.
In answer, polygamy reiterates scriptural example and divine command, and repudiates civilization wherever it interferes with religion. Culture and progress, which set at defiance God's law, are of the devil. There is no retrogression in keeping the commands of the most high. God blessed Abraham, and
[paragraph continues] David, and Solomon; polygamy is no curse. And that cannot be a sin which God commands; that cannot be a vice which has for its accomplishment only the highest and holiest purposes of the almighty; that cannot be against morality which is practised only by the righteous, and for the pure and eternal welfare of the human race. 19
Whatever may be the blessings attending civilization, they are insignificant as compared with the blessings of religion, a life of faith and holiness, and the pure worship of God. Civilization with its one-wife or no-wife system breeds licentiousness, fosters prostitution,
and brings much misery on the human race in this world, not to mention the world to come. The laws of God we know; civilization's laws we know not. Civilization has little to boast of in the
line of its moralities. It is true that monogamy was early enforced in Greece; but outside of marriage limits, there was gross indulgence in every form, which was as freely permitted and practised as among
the foremost nations of to-day. Plato even advocated plurality of wives, chiefly on patriotic grounds. In Rome, the one-wife system was more firmly established, though in the absence of marriage, chastity was little regarded. Marcus Aurelius, indeed, was eulogized by his biographer for bringing into his
house a concubine, upon the death of his wife, instead of inflicting upon his children a step-mother.
If monogamy is the only natural form of sexual relationship, how happens it that, throughout the lifetime of the race, there have been and still are so many other forms of relationship? From time immemorial polygamy has existed, and has been sanctioned by all religions. Bramin, Parsee, and Rajpoot all indulged in it. Though nothing is said of it in the new testament, we learn from the Talmud that it was lawful among the Jews about the time of Christ's coming. Among the early converts to christianity in Syria and Egypt were many polygamists who remained uncensured. The rabbies of the west prohibited it eight or nine centuries ago, but those of the east, where it is practised by nearly all nations, permit it even now. It is common to-day throughout a large part of the world. Take all the peoples of the earth, of all times and cultures, and those among whom plural wives obtained are far in excess of the others.
Pre-nuptial unchastity was scarcely censured either in Greece or Rome. "If there be any one," said Cicero, "who thinks that young men should be altogether restrained from the love of courtesans, he is indeed very severe." Even that most austere of Stoics, Epictetus, makes a wide distinction between what he regards as comparatively innocent pre-nuptial indulgences, and those which were regarded as adulterous and unlawful. While the utmost license was allowed the husband, the wife was held under close restrictions. Courtesans were the real companions of men, and the only free women in Athens. Apelles painted them; Pindar and Simonides sang their praises. Aspasia was worshipped before Pericles, and sage philosophers did not hesitate to pay homage at her shrine, and receive words of wisdom from her lips.
In imperial Rome, while the courtesan class never
attained to such distinction as in Greece, divorce was so easy and frequent as to render the marriage ceremony almost a nullity. There were periods when the term 'adultery' had no significance as applied to men; only women were punished for this crime. Persons five, ten, twenty times married and divorced were not uncommon. Though monogamy obtained, female life was lower there than in England under the restoration, or in France under the regency. Alexander Severus, the most persistent of all the Roman emperors, in vainly legislating against vice, provided his provincial governors, if unmarried, with a concubine as well as with horses and servants.
The privilege of royalty in having many mistresses, tolerated until all the people arose and usurped royalty, was but a modified form of polygamy, and is still secretly practised by individuals.
The question of sensualism has nothing to do with it. The polygamist, as a rule, is no more sensual than the monogamist. Your true sensualist does not marry at all. He holds himself free to taste pleasure as he can find it. The trammels of matrimony and the responsibilities of parentage he alike avoids. He is the most selfish of beings; for his own gratification he is willing to sacrifice society, debase manhood, and doom to perdition the highest inspirations and holiest affections of the race.
Beastliness is hardly a fit word to apply to the exercise of an animal impulse, the gratification of animal appetite. It too often maligns the brute creation. Eating and sleeping are in one sense beastly; while smoking and dram-drinking are worse than beastly. Beasts are natural in all things. In many respects they are less open to the charge of beastliness, as we commonly employ the term, than men; they indulge less in excess; they are sometimes gluttonish, but they do not intoxicate themselves; if they do not regulate intercourse by numbers, they do by seasons. Their passions are in subordination to the
laws of nature. Man's passions are not. Taking this charge of beastliness as it is meant, the polygamist is less beastly than the monogamist, who in the majority of cases is more beastly in his sexual intercourse than the beast, being less obedient to the laws of nature, less considerate for the health and strength of his one only wife. Millions of gentle, uncomplaining women have been killed by beastly husbands putting upon them more children than they should bear, not to mention innumerable cruelties of other kinds. In so far as any system is not in accordance with the laws of nature, nature will in due time assert her rights and put it down. It is said that the Mormon women are martyrs: so are other women; part of them because they are married, and part because they are not.
The readers must bear in mind that these are the assertions and arguments of polygamy, and must be prepared to take them for what they are worth, and answer them each according to the light of his own reason. I have already presented the current arguments against polygamy; these are the opinions and dogmas of the Mormons themselves, the doctrines they everywhere preach and print, teaching them to their children, inculcating them into the minds of young men and women, until they have fully imbibed them.
And thus they continue. How many husbandless women there are who drag out a miserable existence in the effort to sustain themselves without sin! how many fall into shame under the effort! Society lays no heavier burden on any of its members than on its poverty-stricken single women, reared in luxury, and unable to support themselves by work.
If you are so tender of woman, her position and morals, why not turn your batteries against the ten thousand of your own people of all classes, including preachers and legislators, who tamper with other men's wives, seduce and abandon innocent girls, keep mistresses, and frequent the haunts of prostitution?
That the race deteriorates under the polygamous system is not true, they say. The single wife is very often hurried to a premature grave by an inconsiderate or brutal husband, the offspring which she meanwhile bears being puny and ill-developed. And again, it is only the better class of men, the healthy and wealthy, the strongest intellectually and physically, who as a rule have a plurality of wives; and thus, by their becoming fathers to the largest number of children, the stock is improved.
The charge of immorality, as laid upon the Mormons as a community, is likewise untenable. Morality is the doctrine of right and wrong, the rule of conduct implying honesty and sobriety. In all honesty and sobriety the Mormons live up to their standard of right and wrong, they claim, more completely than any other people. They indulge in fewer vices, such as drunkenness, prostitution, gambling, and likewise fewer crimes. There is nothing necessarily immoral in the practice of polygamy; if it is not immoral for a man to take one wife, it is not for him to take twelve wives.
The Mormons are loyal to their consciences and convictions. They are essentially a moral people, moral in the highest sense of the term, more so, they claim, than the average American or European. They do not drink, cheat, or steal; adultery is scarcely known among them; they are not idle, profligate, or given to lying. They are true to themselves, true to their principles, and true to the world. Of what other society can you fairly say as much? They are honest in all things, and law-abiding when the law does not touch their rights or their religion; when it does, all who are not dastards will fight. Judge them by their fruits; if a sect is to be regarded from the standpoint of its imperfections and inconsistencies rather than from its results, what shall be said of christianity, which has butchered millions for the faith,
and has further committed all the wickedness flesh is heir to, or of which Satan could conceive?
It is not right to place the polygamist on a par with the bigamist. The one, without deception, and in conformity with the proclaimed tenets of his faith, takes to wife the second, or third, or twentieth—the more the better for all, it is said—promising to her the same life-long care and protection as to the first; the other breaks his contract with his first wife, and deserts her for another woman. Neither can the polygamist be justly placed on a level with the adulterer. Mormons abhor everything of the kind. The sacred ceremony of marriage signifies far more with them than with those who mark the difference between morality and immorality by a few insignificant rites.
The Mormons lay no small stress on the fact that there is always a large number of women who have no husbands, and can get none, on account of women being always so greatly in the preponderance. They deny that there are more men than women.
Whatever may be true with regard to the numerical equality or inequality of the sexes at birth, it is certain, dating back almost from the beginning, that there have always been more women than men in the world. Particularly in primitive times, owing to war or exposure, the death rate was much greater among the males than among the females. To obviate the evil—for it was early recognized that the sexes should be mated—in some instances the female children were killed, but more frequently the excess of women was divided among the men. Where wars were frequent and continuous, everything else being equal, the monogamous nation could not long stand before a polygamous neighbor.
Coming down to later times, it is safe to say that there are a million more women than men in christendom to-day; there are here five millions of women who would like to marry but cannot, being denied one of the fundamental rights of humanity by statutory law.
[paragraph continues] A large class of men refuse to take upon themselves the cost and cares of matrimony, preferring more free and cheaper indulgence. Of very many of these five millions thus left to themselves, unmated, unsupported, forbidden to become plural wives, Christian civilization makes prostitutes or paupers. And this is the orthodox idea of the elevation of woman! Make angels of light and happiness of one portion, while dooming the rest, under the hard heel of social despotism, to the depths of misery and despair. Nay, more: while the men are thus busied working upon the affections of women, taking advantage of their loneliness and poverty, and constantly adding to the numbers of the lost by seducing the pure from the paths of respectability, their sisters, mothers, wives, and daughters are applying the scourge with all their might to these unfortunates, hoping thereby to gain further favor with the men by showing how much better are they than their most foully wronged sisters.
Such are the men, such the society, in which the foulest wrongs to women are so universally and constantly committed—wrongs which would put to blush savages, yea, and all the devils of darkness; such are the men who wage war on the plural-wife system, which would give to this class and all classes of women home and honorable alliance.
Further than all this, polygamy claims that men or governments have no natural or moral right to forbid the practice, pass laws against it, and inflict punishments. Inherent human rights are above statutory law. Governments have no right to pass laws against gambling, prostitution, drunkenness, or any act of the individual resulting in injury only to himself. He who harms another may be punished, not he who harms himself; otherwise, who is to determine what is or what is not harmful? All men and women are every day doing things harmful to themselves, but which no one thinks of checking by legislation. By no line of logic can polygamy be rightly placed in the
criminal category. In its worst aspect, it can only be called a vice. Drunkenness is not a crime: it is a vice. Statutory law cannot justly make criminal that which by the law of human rights is only a vice. Governments may repress crime, but they never can uproot vice; and the sooner legislators realize and act upon this truth, the fewer failures they will have to record. Public sentiment and moral force are the only agencies which can be brought against this class of evils with any hope of success.
The right and wrong of the matter, as usually discussed, are not the right and wrong of nature and common sense, but of divine and human enactment, variously interpreted and viewed from different standpoints. The bible forbids prostitution, but permits polygamy; the supporters of the bible and its civilization forbid polygamy, but permit prostitution.
The Mormons are held to be a most unphilosophical sect, and yet the sentiment against them is more un-philosophical than their doctrines or practices. The American congress is not a Sunday-school, neither is it within the province of government to establish and enforce a code of ethics. Congress has no more right to legislate, against their consent, for the territories than it has for the states. I do not know that all Mormons hold to this opinion, but many of them do. The idea of political nonage is only an idea; it is not a fact. Murder, theft, breach of contract, malefeasance in office, unjust monopoly, cheating, slave-holding, adulteration, bigamy, etc., are crimes to be punished by law. Drunkenness, gambling, prostitution, and the like, are vices to be uprooted by precept and example. A crime is an injury to one's neighbor; a vice is an injury to one's self. I have no right to injure my neighbor, but I have the right to do as I will with my own and myself, howsoever foolish may be the act. Congress, indeed, would have its hands full were it to undertake to pass laws to keep men from making fools of themselves. If polygamy must be
placed in one category or the other, it must be denominated a vice, and not a crime. If one man and three women contract to live in a connubial relationship, neither God nor nature pronounces it a crime. In bigamy the marriage contract is broken; in polygamy it is kept. Admit that monogamy is best, that one man for one woman tends to the highest culture, it still does not prove that coercion in morals is better than precept and example. Is woman less chaste than in the days of feudalism, now that she is less watched? If the law has the right to limit a man to one wife, it may if it chooses deny him any wife, as many orders among the Greeks and Armenians, the heathens and christians, have declared. If one man is restricted by law to one woman, the least the law can do in common justice is to compel every man to marry one woman. Why does not the United States war upon the catholic priest or the unprincipled debauchee, who by refusing to take a wife repudiates the laws of nature, and sets an example which if universally followed would prove the strangulation of the race? Better punish those who denaturalize themselves rather than those who are too natural.
This is what Utah polygamy says to civilization. 20
In reply to the charge of disloyalty, of maintaining an anti-American attitude toward the people of America, of endeavoring by any illegal or indirect means to undermine the institutions of the country
and eventually usurp the government, the Mormons say that it is not true. It is not true that Mormons are not good citizens, law-abiding and patriotic. Even when hunted down and robbed and butchered by the
enemies to their faith, they have not retaliated.—On this point they are naturally very sore.—When deprived of those sacred rights given to them in common with all American citizens, when disfranchised, their
homes broken up, their families scattered, the husband and father seized, fined, and imprisoned, they have not defended themselves by violence, but have left their cause to God and their country.
Much has been said in terms of reproach against the unity and brotherhood of the Mormons, or as it is more often denominated, their exclusiveness or clannishness, as applied to their social, business, and religious relations. It is said that they hold to one another, band against all societies and interests except their own; that they hold all the agricultural lands, coöperate in commerce and manufactures, vote all one way, and so work into one another's hands in every way; that no other people can stand up in competition with them.
Grant it, they answer; is it a crime? May not people legally labor hard, practise frugality, worship God after their own fashion, and vote as they choose? Is this contrary to the free enlightenment of American institutions?
Of what are the people of the United States afraid, with their fifty millions of free, intelligent, progressive men and women, that they should deem it their duty to be seized with such a savage hate toward this handful of poor and despised religionists? In the evolution of society as an organism, the fittest is sure to remain. If this principle be true, it is perfectly safe to let the Mormons alone. Their evil practices, as well as those of their enemies, are sure in due time to be dissipated by the ever-increasing enlightenment of
civilization. The best will remain, while the rest will be destroyed.
As a remedy against the Mormon evil, many plans have been put forth. "Send an army and wipe them out," say the unthinking masses. An army was sent once, but when it came to Utah there was nothing at hand to wipe out. But should an army go and find them there, it would hardly be prepared to enter upon the wholesale slaughter of 140,000 men, women, and children while in pursuit of their daily vocations. Education has been urged. This means is already employed; but while there are gentile schools, the Mormons still teach Mormonism, and the more they educate, the stronger and more widely extended becomes their faith. Senator Hoar suggested seizing the perpetual emigration fund, but this appeared too much like robbery. Make marriage a civil compact, give the wife the right of dower, and so make her less dependent on the husband, some have said. Amend the constitution, prohibiting polygamy, others have urged. But if congressional enactment fails, what can constitutional amendment do? Admit Utah as a state, and let the people split into parties, and so fight out their own issues. But they will not split into parties, is the reply. If they were like other people, this might be the result; but they are not like other people. For the people to differ from their chiefs on matters of government, or on any other matters, would throw them outside the category of Mormons. Such a thing cannot be. Their government, ecclesiastical and civil, is a government of God; their chief is God's prophet and vicegerent, and his will is God's will and cannot be questioned.
By the Edmunds act, approved March 22, 1882, congress made polygamy punishable by disfranchisement, and a fine of not more than five hundred dollars, with imprisonment for not more than three years, the children to be deemed illegitimate. There have
been numerous convictions under this law, bringing serious injury upon individuals, and greatly alarming the entire brotherhood. Many other schemes have been urged. Cut up the territory and divide it among the adjacent states; permit the wife to testify against her husband; compel marriages to be registered; throw in more gentile population, establishing milliners' shops for the women and whiskey-shops for the men, so that the full force of civilization may be brought to bear upon them. A proposed remedy is for congress to assume the political powers, and govern the country by a commission of nine or thirteen members appointed for that purpose, and which, the majority being always gentiles, would adopt the necessary laws for the government of the territory, instead of congress or a legislature. Executive and judicial affairs would go on in the usual way; and as for the municipal, the commission as a legislature could make such regulations as they pleased, providing for the appointment of mayors by the governor if necessary. In such an event there would not be held ally elections of any kind. A board of five commissioners was appointed under act of congress of March 22, 1882, but nothing extraordinary came of it.
In conclusion, it is scarcely necessary to say that an intelligent and well-balanced mind, free from the bias of religion, and regarding the well-being and refinement of the race as most greatly to be desired, cannot look upon polygamy as conducive to the highest culture. On the other hand, it may as truthfully be said that coercion is not consistent with the highest type of morality, and that a social despotism, in the name of freedom and pure republicanism, can become the severest of tyrannies.
335:1 In 1853, Benjamin Brown, high-priest, and pastor of the London, Reading, Kent, and Essex conferences, published at Liverpool a tract entitled, Testimonies for the Truth; a Record of Manifestations of the Power of God, Miraculous and Providential, witnessed by him in his travels and experiences. The author was a native of New York, and born in 1794. He was a firm believer in latter-day revelations from God, and that the ancient gifts of the gospel still remained, long before he joined the Mormons. He labored long and in various places. He held property in Nauvoo when the saints were driven out, and was obliged to take $250 for what was worth $3,000. Afterward he underwent all the sufferings and vicissitudes of the overland journey to Salt Lake. Mr Brown was an earnest and honest man; his book is the record of his life, and is simple and attractive in style and substance.
335:2 Healing the sick. Joseph early laid it down as a rule that all diseases and sickness among them were to be cured by the elders, and by the use of herbs alone. Physicians of the world were denounced as enemies to mankind, and the use of their medicines was prohibited. Afterward, anointing with oil, prayer, and laying on hands were resorted to in addition to the first mentioned. Says Mrs Richards, 'In all sicknesses we used no medicines, with the exception of herb teas that we ourselves prepared, trusting exclusively to the efficacy of the anointing with oil and prayer.' Reminiscences, MS., 34. Joseph said, 'All wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man. Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof.' The use of flesh was not forbidden, but rather restricted to seasons of cold and famine. All grain was pronounced good for man, but wheat was particularly recommended with corn for the ox, oats for the horse, rye for fowls and swine, and barley for all useful animals, and for mild drinks; as also other grain. Times and Seasons, v. 736.
336:3 Baptism, a prerequisite to church membership, as well as to final salvation, to be of avail, must be by immersion, and performed by one of the sect. The person who is called of God, and has authority from Jesus Christ to baptize, shall go down into the water with the person to be baptized, and shall say, calling him or her by name: 'Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost. Amen.' Doctrine and Covenants, 115, 118. Baptisms are entered in the general church records, giving the name, place, and date of birth, quorum, date of baptism, first time or re-baptism, by whom baptized, when and by whom confirmed. Deseret News, Feb. 22, 1851. In 1844, complaints were made that members of the church, dismissed by the council, had been re-baptized by elders who were themselves excluded, and declaring such baptisms invalid. Times and Seasons, v. 458-9.
In 1836, Joseph introduced the ceremony of anointing with consecrated oil. He first anointed his father, who, having been blessed by the first presidency, anointed them in turn, beginning with the eldest. The bishops of Kirtland and Zion, together with their counsellors, were next anointed, and afterward the presiding officers of each quorum performed the ceremony on their subordinates, assisted in some instances by the Smith brothers. Joseph describes the ceremony of consecreting the oil, as follows: 'I took the oil in my left hand, Father Smith being seated before me, and the remainder of the presidency encircled him round about. We then stretched our right hands towards heaven, and blessed the oil, and consecrated it in the name of Jesus Christ.' Mil. Star, xv. 620. Olive-oil is commonly used. Mrs Richards, Reminiscences, MS., 34. Many remarkable cures are mentioned. A seaman, belonging to H. B. M. ship Terror, was rendered deaf and dumb by a stroke of lightning, at Bermuda. Several years after, he was baptized by elders in a canal in England, and instantly recovered both speech and hearing. Frontier Guardian, Jan. 23, 1850. In 1840, a young woman then living at Batavia, N.Y., who had been deaf and dumb for four and one half years, was first restored to her hearing by the laying on of the hands of the elders of the church, and a second ministration, some time afterward, enabled her to speak. Times and Seasons, ii. 516-17. During the building of Nauvoo, nearly every one was attacked with malarial fever, caused by breaking up the new land, and even the prophet himself succumbed for a time. But hearing the voice of the Lord calling on him, he arose and went through the camp healing all to whom he drew near. Woodruff (Mrs), Autobiog., 2-3. Brigham declares he was among the number healed at this time. Mil. Star, xxv. 646. While Joseph was in the midst of his sick, an unbeliever, living a few miles distant, came to him, beseeching him to come and heal his twin children, who were near death's door. The prophet was unable to go himself, but sent Wilford Woodruff in his place. Says the latter, 'He [Joseph] took a red silk handkerchief out of his pocket and gave it to me, and told me to wipe their faces with the handkerchief p. 337 when I administered to them, and they should be healed.' He also said unto me: "As long as you will keep that handkerchief, it shall remain a league between you and me." I went with the man, and did as the prophet commanded me, and the children were healed. I have possession of the handkerchief unto this day [1881].' Leaves from my Journal, 65. F.D. Richards, who had been sick for several months, was baptized, anointed, and confirmed; immediately after which he was restored to health. Some time afterward, being then an elder, he cured a severe toothache by touching the tooth with his finger. Narrative, MS., 15-16. Mrs Richards’ brother, afterward Elder Snyder, was raised from a sick-bed after having been baptized and administered to by Elder John E. Page. Mrs Richards was taken by her brother from a sick-bed to a lake from the surface of which ice more than a foot thick had been removed, and there baptized, whereupon she immediately recovered. Similar cases might be given by the score.
Baptism for the dead is first alluded to by the prophet, who, in a revelation dated Jan. 19, 1841, declares, 'A baptismal font there is not upon the earth, that they, my saints, may be baptized for those who are dead.' It is intimated that a reasonable time will be allowed in which to build a temple and a permanent font, and that during this time a temporary substitute for the font may be employed; but after the completion of the temple, no baptisms for the dead will be of avail unless conducted within the building. See Doctrine and Covenants, 392, 395. Brigham says he first heard of the new doctrine when he was in Europe (1840), and that he believed in it before anything was said or done about it in the church. Times and Seasons, vi. 954. Daniel Tyler says the doctrine was first taught in Nauvoo, although Joseph told some of the elders in Kirtland that it was part of the gospel, and would yet be practised as such. Juvenile Instructor, xv. 56. He also says that before other provision was made, many were baptized in the Mississippi River. The first baptismal font, a temporary structure, intended for use only until the completion of the temple, was erected in the basement of that building, and dedicated on Nov. 8, 1841, Joseph being present and Brigham delivering the address. Joseph thus describes the font: It is constructed of pine staves, tongued and grooved, and is oval-shaped, 'sixteen feet long east and west, and twelve feet wide, seven feet high from the foundation, the basin four feet deep; the mouldings of the cap and base are formed of beautiful carved work in antique style. The sides are finished with panel-work. A flight of stairs in the north and south sides lead up and down into the basin, guarded by a side railing. The font stands upon twelve oxen, four on each side and two at each end, their heads shoulders, and fore legs projecting out from under the font; they are carved out of oak plank, glued together, and copied after the most beautiful five-year-old steer that could be found in the country, and they are an excellent striking likeness of the original; the horns were geometrically formed after the most perfect horn that could be procured. The oxen and the mouldings were carved by Elder Elijah Fordham, from the city of New York, the work occupying eight months. The whole was enclosed in a temporary frame building. Mil. Star, xviii. 744. On Sept. 6, 1842, Joseph writes to the church that all baptisms must be recorded by a person appointed for the purpose, and whose duty it will be to note every detail of the ceremony in each case. One of the officials is to be appointed in each ward, and his returns properly certified to are to be forwarded to the general recorder, who will enter them on the church records, together with the names of all witnesses, etc., and finally add his own certificate as to the genuineness of the signature of the ward recorder. This detail is necessary for the proper identification hereafter of those baptized, for the authority for which the prophet quotes Revelations, xx. 12. 'And I saw the p. 338 dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened,' etc. He also states that it was revealed to him on Sept. 1, 1842, that a general recorder must be appointed. Mil. Star, xx. 5-6; Doctrine and Covenants, 409-13. For the ceremony itself, he finds warrant in 1st Cor., xv. 29. 'Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead?'
Confirmation follows baptism, with frequently an interval of a few days. Baptism may take place on any day in the week, and the confirmation be deferred until the church assembles on the following, or even a later, Sunday. Two or more elders commonly attend, all taking part in the ceremony. Mrs Stenhouse thus describes her own confirmation: 'Four elders placed their hands solemnly upon my head, and one of them said: "Fanny, by virtue of the authority vested in me, I confirm you a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints; and inasmuch as you have been obedient to the command of God, through his servants, and have been baptized for the remission of your sins, I say unto you that those sins are remitted. And in the name of God I bless you, and say unto you, that inasmuch as you are faithful and obedient to the teachings of the priesthood, and seek the advancement of the kingdom, there is no good thing that your heart can desire that the Lord will not give unto you. You shall have visions and dreams, and angels shall visit you by day and by night. You shall stand in the temple in Zion, and administer to the saints of the most high God. You shall speak in tongues and prophecy; and the Lord shall bless you abundantly, both temporally and spiritually. These blessings I seal upon your head, inasmuch as you shall be faithful; and I pray heaven to bless you; and say unto you, be thou blessed, in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost. Amen."' Englishwoman in Utah, 19-20.
338:4 The gift of tongues is the power to speak in a strange language, but not to translate. It first appeared about 1830, when it was pronounced of the devil. Howe says it was revived in the early part of 1833, and that at one meeting Joseph passed around the room laying his hand upon each one, and speaking as follows: 'Ak man, oh son, oh man, ah ne commene en holle goste en haben en glai hosanne en holle goste en esac milkea jeremiah, ezekiel, Nephi, Lehi, St John,' etc. Mormonism Unveiled, 132-6. In this year, it was suggested that 'no prophecy spoken in tongues should be made public, for this reason: many who pretend to have the gift of interpretation are liable to be mistaken, and do not give the true interpretation of what is spoken;… but if any speak in tongues a word of exhortation or doctrine, or the principles of the gospel, etc., let it be interpreted for the edification of the church.' Times and Seasons, vi. 865. The gift was not confined to men; many women were noted for eloquence when thus inspired. Says Mrs Stenhouse of a Sister Ellis: 'Her hands were clenched, and her eyes had that wild and supernatural glare which is never seen save in cases of lunacy or intense feverish excitement. Every one waited breathlessly, listening to catch what she might say; you might have heard a pin drop. They [her utterances] seemed to me chiefly the repetition of the same syllables, something like a child repeating la, la, la, le, lo; ma, ma, ma, mi, ma; dele, dele, dele, hela; followed, perhaps, by a number of sounds strung together, which could not be rendered in any shape by the pen.' Englishwoman in Utah, 27-8. Says Orson Hyde: 'We believe in the gift of the holy ghost being enjoyed now as much as it was in the apostles' days, and that it is imparted by the laying on of hands of those in authority; and that the gift of tongues, and also the gift of prophecy, are gifts of the spirit, and are obtained through that medium.' Frontier Guardian, Dec. 12, 1849. Mrs Stenhouse remarks that 'in later days, the exercise of this gift has been discouraged by the elders, and especially by Brigham.' Going to the Lion House one day, she was blessed by one of Brigham's wives, p. 339 and the blessing interpreted by another wife; the latter, however, cautioned her not to repeat what had occurred, for 'Brother Brigham does not like to hear of these things.' Englishwoman in Utah, 29. Tullidge mentions the names of many women who were distinguished as possessing this gift, and relates an instance of a party whose wagon was surrounded by Indians, escaping with their lives and property; the captors being induced to abandon their prize by Jane Grover, a girl of seventeen, who addressed them in their own language. Women of Mormondom, 474-8.
340:5 The theory of blood atonement is that for certain sins the blood of the transgressor must be shed to save his soul. Among these sins are apostasy, the shedding of innocent blood, and unfaithfulness to marriage obligations on the part of the wife. Says Brigham, in a discourse delivered in Salt Lake City: 'There are sins which then commit for which they cannot receive forgiveness in this world, or in that which is to come, and if they had their eyes open to their true condition, they would be perfectly willing to have their blood spilled upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to heaven as an offering for their sins; and the smoking incense would atone for their sins; whereas, if such is not the case, they will stick to them and remain upon them in the spirit world. I know, when you hear my brethren telling about cutting people off from the earth, that you consider it is strong doctrine; but it is to save them, not to destroy them…I do know that there are sins committed, of such a nature that if the people did understand the doctrine of salvation they would tremble because of their situation. And furthermore, I know that there are transgressors who, if they knew themselves and the only condition upon which they can obtain forgiveness, would beg of their brethren to shed their blood, that the smoke thereof might ascend to God as an offering to appease the wrath that is kindled against them, and that the law might have its course. I will say further: I have had men come to me and offer their lives to atone for their sins…There are sins that can be atoned for by an offering upon an altar, as in ancient days; and there are sins that the blood of a lamb, of a calf, or of turtle-doves cannot remit, but they must be atoned for by the blood of the man.' And at another time: 'All mankind love themselves, and let these principles be known by an individual, and he would be glad to have his blood shed. That would be loving themselves, even unto an eternal exaltation. Will you love your brothers or sisters likewise when they have committed a sin that cannot be alerted for without the shedding of their blood? Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed their blood? That is what Jesus Christ meant…I could refer you to plenty of instances where men have been righteously slain in order to atone for their sins. I have seen scores and hundreds of people for whom there would have been a chance in the last resurrection if their lives had been taken and their blood spilled on the ground as a smoking incense to the almighty…I have known a great many men who have left this church for whom there is no chance whatever for exaltation; but if their blood had been spilled it would have been better for them. This is loving our neighbor as ourselves; if he needs help, help him; and if he wants salvation, and it is necessary to spill his blood on the earth in order that he may be saved, spill it.' Deseret News, Oct. 1, 1856, Feb. 18, 1857. Following Brigham's lead, Heber C. Kimball and Jedediah M. Grant taught the same doctrine during the religious revival, or so-called reformation, in Utah, in 1856-7, of which more later, Grant being the most vehement of the three. The reader will find these discourses reported at length in the Deseret News. the doctrine is very clearly explained in Penrose's p. 341 Blood Atonement, passim. See also Lee's Morm., 282-3; Morm. Proph., 157-60; Young's Wife No. 19, 182-99; Paddock's La Tour, 305-8; Bertrand's Mem Morm., 139-72, 250-8, 296-316.
341:6 In regard to the two priesthoods, the Melchisedek and the Aaronic, or Levitical, all authority in the church is subordinate to the first, which holds the right of presidency and has power over all the offices in the church. The presidency of the high-priesthood of this order has the right; to officiate in all the offices of the church. High-priests are authorized to officiate m any lower positions in the church, as well as in their own office. Elders are of this priesthood, and are authorized to officiate instead of high-priests, in the absence of the latter. The twelve apostles are charged with the duty of ordaining all the subordinate officers of the church, and also with its missionary work. Together they form a quorum whose authority equals that of the first presidency, but action by either body must be unanimous. A majority may form a quorum when circumstances render it impossible to assemble the whole body. They also constitute a travelling, presiding high-council, under the direction of the presidency of the church, and it is their duty to ordain ministers in all large branches. The seventies are also missionaries—assistants to the twelve, and united they are equal in authority with the twelve.
342:7 About 1834, Joseph Smith had a revelation to the effect that it was the will of the Lord that every father should bless his own children, and that patriarchs should be set apart to bless those without a father in the church. This revelation was due to an expressed desire on the part of Brigham Young's father to bless his own children before dying, after the manner of the patriarchs of old. Young's Wife No. 19, 581. Several years before this, it had been directed that every member of the church having children should bring them to the elders before the church, who were to lay their hands upon them in the name of Jesus Christ, and bless them. Doctrine and Covenants, 72. During the life of the first patriarch—Jos. Smith, sen.—these blessings were nominally free to the recipients. A high-council held at Kirtland in Sept. 1835 decided that when the patriarch was occupied in blessing the church, he should be paid at the rate of ten dollars a week, and his expenses; also that Frederick G. Williams be appointed to attend blessing meetings, and record the proceedings, for which services he should receive the same compensation. The payment of twelve dollars for a book in which to record the blessings caused discussion in this council, and brother Henry Green, who had intimated that a suitable book could be procured for less money, was excluded from the church for his presumption. Mil. Star, xv. 308-9. In Jan. 1836, Smith, sen., was anointed with oil by the prophet, blessed by each of the presidency in turn, and was thenceforth known as Father Smith. Id., 620. In 1837, the pay of the patriarch was fixed at a dollar and fifty cents a day, and that of the recorder at ten cents for each 100 words. Mil. Star, xvi. 109. When Hyrum became patriarch, says the author of Young's Wife No. 19, 581, the demand for blessings had so increased that one dollar each was charged for them; and in 1875 the price had advanced to two dollars. Upon the death of his father in 1840, Hyrum Smith succeeded to the office of patriarch, pursuant to a revelation entailing it on the eldest son. The revelation is dated in Jan. 1841. Doctrine and Covenants, 305-6; Mil. Star, xviii. 363. The following notice appears in Times and Seasons, Nov. 1, 1841: 'The brethren are hereby notified that our well-beloved brother, Hyrum Smith, patriarch of the church, has erected a comfortable office opposite his dwelling-house [in Nauvoo], where himself, together with his scribe and recorder, James Sloan, will attend regularly every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, during the entire day, or upon any other day if urgent circumstances require it, to perform the duties of his high and holy calling. A copy of the blessings can be received immediately after being pronounced, so that the brethren who live p. 343 at a distance can have it to take with them.' Hyrum's successor was his brother William, who was disfellowshipped in 1845, John Smith, brother to the prophet, being ordained patriarch over the church, and holding that office until his death in 1854. In the following year Hyrum's son John was ordained patriarch, and since that date has been sustained in his office at each successive conference. A child is first blessed when eight days old, and again so soon as the mother is able to present her child on a regular fast-day. The first Thursday in each month is set apart for fasting. Mrs Richards’ Reminiscences, MS., 34-5. The second ceremony is usually attended by both parents, and in addition to a blessing, the child receives its name. Each birthday it is customary for the parents to hold a family gathering, when the child is again blessed, and prayers offered for its welfare. When eight years old, the child is baptized. See Horace's Migrations, MS., 37. The blessings are not only pronounced, but also written out. Id., 34. 'These blessings are rather wonderful affairs; they promise all sorts of things, in a vague, indefinite way, if only the recipient proves faithful. Some are assured they shall never taste death, but live until Christ comes, and be caught up to meet him in the air; others are assured that they are to have the privilege of redeeming their dead so far back that there shall not be a broken link in the chain. Absurd as this all seems, there are hundred of saints who believe that every word shall be fulfilled.' Young's Wife No. 19, 581.
343:8 Hall says there is a class of women, mothers in Israel, whose business it is to instruct females as to their duty in matters not suitable to be taught from the stand. Mormonism Exposed, 39-44.
343:9 Early in 1833 the first presidency was established, with Joseph Smith at the head, his associates in the management of affairs being Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams. The revelation creating this trium virate is dated March 8th, and in it Joseph's coadjutors are instructed first to finish the translation of the prophets, and afterward preside over the affairs of the church and the school. Times and Seasons, v. 736-7. William Hall, who was a member of the church for seven years, erroneously states that the presidency at first consisted of Smith, Rigdon, and William Law. Abominations, 8. At a conference held in Sept. 1837, Joseph appealed to the church to ascertain if he was still regarded as its head, when the vote was unanimous. He then introduced Rigdon and Williams as his councillors. According to the minutes of the conference, Williams was not accepted at first, but this action appears to have been rescinded afterward. Mil. Star, xvi. 56. Oliver Cowdery, Jos. Smith, sen., Hyrum Smith, and John Smith were accepted as assistant councillors, and these seven were henceforth to be regarded the heads of the church. At a general conference of the branch of the church at Far West in Nov. 1837, the action of the Kirtland conference was sustained so far as Smith and Rigdon were concerned, but Williams was rejected. Hyrum Smith was unanimously chosen in Williams’ place. Mil. Star, xvi. 106-7. At a conference held at Far West in April 1838, the first presidency was appointed to sign the licenses of the official members of the church. In Jan. 1841, Joseph had a revelation to the effect that he was presiding elder over all the church, translator, revelator, a seer, and prophet; and that his councillors were Sidney Rigdon and William Law. These three were to constitute p. 344 a quorum and first presidency, to receive the oracles for the whole church. Law's selection was to fill the vacancy caused by the appointment of Hyrum Smith to be patriarch. Mil. Star, xviii. 363. In this same month Joseph notified the recorder of Hancock county that he (Joseph) had been elected sole trustee of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints by the church at Nauvoo, to hold office during life. Id., 373. Smith, Rigdon, and Law were continued in office by the annual conference, convened in April 1843. After the murder of the Smiths in 1844, the first presidency lapsed, and for more than three years the church was governed by the quorum of the twelve apostles, of which Brigham was president. At a meeting of the twelve apostles, high-council, and high-priests at Nauvoo, in August 1844, Sidney Rigdon offered himself as guardian to the church, claiming that his action was in obedience to revelation. Young opposed Rigdon's claims, and the assembly decided that the twelve should govern the church, with Young at their head. Mil. Star, xxv. 215-17, 263-4. In Dec. 1847 Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Willard Richards were chosen to constitute the first presidency. Juv. Inst., xiv. 128. Young died in 1877, and the presidency remained vacant until October 1880, when John Taylor was chosen, with George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith as councillors. Marshall, Through America, 161. This conference lasted five days. S. L. Tribune, Oct. 11, 1880. On the death of the president the quorum is dissolved, and its members, as a presidency, have no status. Richards’ Narr., MS., 51.
344:10 On Feb. 14, 1835, the church at Kirtland met for the purpose of choosing and ordaining the twelve apostles. The business occupied several days. Briefly, the ceremonies were as follows: The assemblage consented to accept the names presented by the three witnesses who had been appointed to make the selection. P.P. Pratt says, in his Autobiog., 127-28, the ceremonies were performed by Smith, Whitmer, and Cowdery, and that they acted in accordance with the revelation of June 1829; but in the history of Jos. Smith, Mil. Star, Mar. and Apr. 1853, the three witnesses only are mentioned. Martin Harris' name does not appear in the revelation referred to. See Doctrine and Covenants, 190-2. In an article by 'R. A.' in the Juv. Inst., xiv. 128, the selection is accredited to the three witnesses, who are mentioned by name. As Pratt was one of the ordained, it would seem that his account should be reliable. Each candidate came forward as summoned, and in return received a blessing, and a charge from one of the three. The order of ordination was as follows: On Feb. 14th, Lyman E. Johnson, Brigham Young, and Heber C. Kimball. On the next day, Orson Hyde, David W. Patten, Luke Johnson, Wm E. McLellin, John F. Boynton, and William Smith. On Feb. 21st, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, and Thos B. Marsh, who were absent on a mission, were ordained upon their return to Kirtland, which occurred later. Mil. Star, xv. 206-12. Shortly after, the names were arranged according to seniority, when they stood, Marsh, Patten, Young, Kimball, Hyde, McLellin, P. P. Pratt, Luke Johnson, Smith, O. Pratt, Boynton, and L. E. Johnson. Four of the above apostatized in 1838, viz.: McLellin, the Johnsons, and Boynton; John Taylor, John E. Page, Wilford Woodruff, and Willard Richards were appointed instead. Shortly after this, Marsh, the p. 345 president of the twelve, apostatized, and in 1838 Patten was killed, which left Young at the head of the list, and he became president of the twelve. Geo. A. Smith was ordained in 1839, and Lyman Wight not long after. In 1844, according to Elder Phelps, the following names were on the roll: Young, Kimball, Parley P. Pratt, Hyde, Richards, Taylor, William Smith, Woodruff, George A. Smith, Orson Pratt, Page, and Wight. During this year Wm Smith and Page apostatized, and were replaced by Amasa M. Lyman and Ezra T. Benson. Early in 1845, Young, Kimball, and Richards were chosen to the first presidency, and Wight was disfellowshipped for apostasy; the vacancies thus caused were filled by appointing Chas C. Rich, Lorenzo and Erastus Snow, and Franklin D. Richards. In 1857, Geo. Q. Cannon was appointed, vice P. P. Pratt, deceased. In 1867, Lyman was dropped and Jos. F. Smith appointed. In 1868, Geo. A. Smith became one of the first presidency, and Brigham Young, jun., succeeded him. Albert Carrington was appointed in 1869 in place of Benson, deceased, and Moses Thatcher in 1879, vice Hyde, deceased in 1878; which left the twelve in the following order: John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Orson Pratt, Chas C. Rich, Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow, Franklin D. Richards, George Q. Cannon, Brigham Young, Joseph F. Smith, Albert Carrington, Moses Thatcher, Pratt being the only remaining member of the original twelve. Juv. Inst., xiv. 128-9. The vacancies caused by the elevation of John Taylor to the presidency in 1839, with George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith as councillors, were partially filled by the appointment of Francis M. Lyman and John H. Smith. S. L. Tribune, Oct. 11, 1880. Orson Pratt died Oct. 1881, and a year later Geo. Teasdale and Heber J. Grant were elected. Handbook of Ref., 89-90. Up to 1877, the twelve received no pay for their services; but the conference of Oct. voted $1,500 a year to each apostle. 'This is the first sum that has ever been publicly appropriated to any council of the church for the performance of their duties to the people. When I went to Europe in 1866, I borrowed the means and gave my note; on my return I had to pay back my indebtedness.' Richards’ Narr., MS., 59-60.
345:11 In 1845 was issued at New York and Liverpool, Proclamation of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; to all the Kings of the World; to the President of the Uuited States of Ammerica; to the Governors of the several states, and to the rulers and people of all nations, Greeting, 'Know ye that the kingdom of God has come,' etc. The tract goes on to say that 'Jehovah has been pleased once more to speak from the heavens,' by which means the apostleship of Christ has been restored, in preparation for his coming, which is now near at hand. Then are recited the leading points of faith, with allusions to the history of the church, and calls to repentance.
347:12 In February 1835, Joseph Smith, with the aid of the recently appointed apostles, proceeded to organize two quorums of the seventies, whose duties were to assist in the missionary work of the church. Each quorum had seven presidents, and these constituted the councils of the two organizations. Joseph Youngsen, who gives an account of the seventies, gives the names of the presidents of the first quorum only, as follows: Hazen Aldrich, Joseph Young, Levi W. Hancock, Leonard Rich, Zebedee Coltrin, Lyman Sherman, and Sylvester Smith. After noting the changes in the interval, he states that in 1878 the presidents were Young, sen., Hancock, Henry Herriman, Albert P. Rockwood, Horace S. Eldredge, Jacob Gates, and John Van Cott. Hist. of Organ. of Seventies, 1-8. In an account of the dedication of their hall at Nauvoo, in 1844, it is stated there were fifteen quorums—one thousand and fifty in all, if each quorum was full. Times and Seasons, vi. 794.
347:13 For act of incorporation of Mormon church, 1851, see Utah, Acts Legisl. (ed. 1866), 108; S.L.C. Contributor, ii. 270; number and wealth of churches, Seventh Census Rept, 1851-2, 45; prayer in the family, Robinson's Sinners and Sailors, 243-4; church property, and law regulating it, Richards’ Narr., MS., 83; church government, Ward's Husband in Utah, 16-17; Mil. Star, iii. 67; positions of church officials, Id., xv. 709. As showing the relative standing of the church dignitaries, the order of voting, as prescribed at the conference which elected Taylor to the presidency in 1880, is given. The twelve apostles and their councillor's; the patriarchs; presidents of stakes and their councillors, and the high-councils; the high-priests; the seventies; the elders; the bishops and their councillors; the lesser priesthood—priests, teachers, and deacons. The members of each order voted standing and with the right hand uplifted, and finally the congregation voted in tire same manner. S. L. City Tribune, Oct. 11, 1880. On faith and doctrine, see Jaques’ Church of Jesus Christ, passim; Hand-book of Reference, passim; Jaques’ Catechism, passim; Book of Doctrine and Covenants, passim; Richards’ and Little's Compendium, passim; Articles of Our Faith, passim; Pearl of Great Price, passim; Times and Seasons, passim; Millenial Star, passim; Deseret News, passim; Moffat's Catechism, passim; Pratt's Persecutions, passim; Pratt's Voice of Warning, passim; Reynolds’ Book of Abraham, passim; and many other books, pamphlets, and periodicals by various members and dignitaries of the church.
348:14 The standing high-council at the stakes of Zion forms a quorum equal in authority in the affairs of the church, in all its decisions, to the quorum of the presidency, or to the travelling high-council. Each order is governed as follows: the seventy, by seven presidents, one of whom presides over the other six; and as many additional seventies may be organized as the increase of the church shall demand. The president of the high-priests is to preside over the whole church; the president of the elders presides over ninety-six elders; the president of the Aaronic priesthood over forty-eight priests; the president of the teachers over twenty-four teachers, and the president of the deacons over twelve deacons. Should the president of the church transgress, he is to be tried before the common council of the church.
349:15 Upon the matter of tithing, Joseph Smith in 1831 had three several revelations, each containing a clause requiring money and other property to be set apart for general use in the church. The first was received in Feb., the second in May, and the last in Aug. See Times and Seasons, iv. 369; v. 416, 466. But it was not until several years later that an organized system was established, by revelation dated Far West, July 8, 1838. See Doctrine and Covenants, 382-3. During the progress of settlements at Far West, the question of taxation was brought up and referred to the prophet, who inquired of the Lord, and received answer that all surplus property must be turned over to the bishop as the first step, after which one lentil of each annual interest was also to be paid. These payments were to be devoted to the building of a place of worship, and for the debts of the presidency. In the Millennial Star, xxv. 474, it is denied that the priesthood receive any support from the tithing fund, and asserted that it is expended for general purposes solely, such as public buildings, roads, assisting immigration. The twelve apostles, in an epistle dated Nauvoo, Dec. 13, 1841, declare that the tithing required is 'one tenth of all any one possessed at the commencement of the building of the temple, and one tenth part of all his increase from that time till the completion of the same, whether it be money, or whatever he be blessed with. Many in this place are laboring every tenth day for the house, and this is the tithing of their income, for they have nothing else.' Times and Seasons, iii. 626. Says William Hall: 'When I came to Illinois, I gave, as was required, one tenth of the amount of my whole estate to be appropriated to the building of the temple. After this, annually, I gave one tenth of the products of my farm; even the chickens, cabbages, and other vegetables in kind were turned over, with a like share of the grain.' Mormonism Exposed, 6. Mrs Stenhouse, during her first winter in Salt Lake City, made bonnets for Brigham Young's wives, for which a bill of $250 was presented to Young, when the latter gave orders that the amount should be credited to the Stenhouses for tithing. Englishwoman in Utah, 187-8. There are two colonies of Mormons in Arizona that are free from territorial and county taxes. They are so isolated that the cost of collecting amounts to more than the taxes. They do not escape tithes, however. Elko (Nev.) Daily Independent, Jan. 28, 1882. During the construction of the railroad through Utah, Mormon agents collected tithings from the railroad laborers. Salt Lake Reporter, Feb. 9, 1869, in S. F. Times, Feb. 19, 1869. Should a laborer be idle thirty days, the tithing office claims three p. 350 days from him, on the grounds that he may do as he pleases with twenty-seven days, but he has no right to idle away three days belonging to the Lord. Vedette, in San José Mercury, Mar. 14, 1867. Says Richards: 'If they do not pay their tithes, nothing is done to compel them to do it; they are only reminded of the case, as with neglect to attend meeting, or of any other duty.' Narr., MS., 60-1. At the conference held at Salt Lake City on April 6, 1880, it was reported that the total tithing receipts for the year ending Dec. 31, 1879, were $458,333; which amount it had cost $13,956.75—paid the bishops—to collect. S. L. C. Tribune, April 7, 1880. This report includes only the branches of the church in Utah. Coyner, in a letter to the Boston Educational Journal, dated S. L. City, Nov. 20, 1878, states that the church lies an income of about $1,000,000 from tithing. Numerous complaints are made from the church's pulpits against delinquents who have failed to pay. In a book of travels, entitled My First Holiday, Boston, 1881, Caroline H. Dall wrongly asserts that the Scandinavian Mormons refuse to pay tithes. In almost any number of the Deseret News the reader may find a notice calling upon delinquents to pay their tithing. In the issue of May 14, 1853, the bishop within whose jurisdiction a saw-mill is in operation is reminded that lumber is wanted at the public yard; and in the number of July 20, 1854, the first presidency calls on every bishop throughout the territory to furnish at once lists showing who have paid and who still owe. In a speech by Brigham, April 7, 1873, he said: 'When I reached here I could not pay one tenth, I could not pay my surplus, I could not give my all, for I had nothing.' Deseret News, April 23, 1873. Finally, at the jubilee conference, held in celebration of the semi-centennial of the church's organization, one half of the delinquent tithes throughout the whole church, the amount being about $75,900, was remitted. The deserving poor of the church were further assisted on this occasion by the gift of 6,000 head of milch-cows and sheep, and a loan of about 34,000 bushels of wheat until after harvest, without interest. Circulars from the Twelve Apostles, S. L. City, Apr. 16, 1880.
If tithing dues are satisfied by manual labor, the workman is paid from the public stores at rates which, though fixed from time to time, are probably never so low as those paid in ready money elsewhere. Captain Burton copies a price-current list for 1860, too long for me to repeat here, but which will be referred to again elsewhere, and remarks that wheat is quoted at $1.50 per bushel, more than double its current value at the time in the valley of the Mississippi. City of the Saints, 389. Mrs Waite states that when the poor clamored, in 1862-3, because the tithing-office price of flour was $6 per hundred, they were assured that though flour would undoubtedly still advance in price, the cost to them would be no greater. But the following winter, when, owing to the demand from the mining regions of Idaho and elsewhere, flour rose rapidly in price, the tithing-office charged $12 per hundred. This caused so great an excitement that Brigham deemed it necessary to interfere, and the price was reduced to $6 again. It is complained in the Deseret News of Jan. 10, 1852, that merchants are paying 33 per cent more for butter than tithing-house rates, and that this action had drawn the saints away from the tithing-house, and thus forced the laborers on the temple to eat their bread without butter. This was in the midst of winter, when such action might not be altogether unexpected; but we find six months later another complaint, reporting that from March 29th to July 11th there had only been received 5,115 3/4 pounds of butter, 2,534½ of cheese, and 1,182½ dozens of eggs, and inquiring how fast the work would proceed at this rate of supply. Id., July 24, 1852. The revelation establishing tithing was followed p. 351 ten days later by another, in which it was declared that the church fund should be disposed of by a council composed of the first presidency, the bishop and his council, and the high-council. This revelation, which is not given in the earliest editions of Doctrine and Covenants, will be found, however, on p. 383 of the edition (if 1876, and also in the Mil. Star, xvi. 183. The twelve, in an epistle dated Nauvoo, Dec. 13, 1841, direct that all money and other property designed for tithings be paid to President Joseph Smith, trustee in trust. Times and Seasons, iii. 627. Smith had been chosen to this office some time before by a general conference, at Quincy, Ill. Id., ii. 579. After Smith, each president has held the position in turn. W. Richards, editor of the Deseret News, describes the system of accounts in use at the general tithing-office, in his number of Nov. 29, 1851. A debtor and credit account was kept on a ledger, with all persons who paid tithing. When an account was settled in full, the name was transferred to the general tithing record, or the book of 'The Law of the Lord,' and a certificate of non-in-debtedness given to the person paying, which was evidence in case of a demand from the bishop of his ward. Four kinds of certificates were issued at this time: one for property tithing due previous to Sept. 10, 1851; one for property tithing due in accordance with the vole of a conference of the date mentioned; and one each for labor and produce tithing. These were all for the year 1851, after which only the labor and produce tithes would be required until a future conference should authorize a new levy. the business of appraising property belongs of right to the presiding bishop, but he may send one of his clerks to attend to the matter. It has been charged against Joseph Smith that his entire wealth was acquired by the diversion of tithes. The prophet, at his own estimate, had property worth one million dollars about the time of his death. He was then at the head of affairs in planning and laying out the city of Nauvoo. His estimates, based upon his faith in the prosperity of the city, may have been not unreasonable; but with the crash of the falling walls of his temple came ruin to his estate. As the general conduct of the church under Brigham was peaceful, and therefore progressive compared with the disastrous rule of his predecessor, so opportunities increased, not only for augmenting private fortunes, but for the circulation of scandal. A writer in the Salt Lake Tribune of June 25, 1879, asserts that during Brigham's term of office he received about $13,000,000 in tithes, of which 'about $9,000,000 was squandered on his family,' and dying, left the remainder to be quarrelled over by his heirs and assigns, including the church. In July 1859 Horace Greeley visited Brigham, who said: 'I am the only person in the church who has not a regular calling apart from the church's service, and I never received one farthing from her treasury. If I obtain anything from the tithing-house, I am charged with and pay for it, just as any one else would…I am called rich, and consider myself worth $250,000; but no dollar of it was ever paid me by the church, nor for any service as a minister of the everlasting gospel. I lost nearly all I had when we were broken up in Missouri and driven from that state. I was nearly stripped again when Joseph Smith was murdered, and we were driven from Illinois; but nothing was ever made up to me by the church, nor by any one. I believe I know how to acquire property, and how to take care of it.' Overland Journey to California, 213-14. The governor, in his message to the legislature in 1882, stated that tithing should be prohibited. The message was referred to a committee, which reported that the question being one of a purely religious character did not call for legislative action. 'The payment of tithing, like contributions for missionary, charitable, p. 352 and other church purposes, by the members of other religious bodies, is clearly an ecclesiastical matter, with which, as law-makers, we have nothing whatever to do, so long as the free exercise thereof does not interfere with the rights and liberties of others. Tithing is not, as we understand it, a new doctrine, for, as a religious privilege and duty, Abraham paid tithes to Melchisedek about four thousand years ago. We are not aware, however, that exactions of tithings are made in this territory, even by ecclesiastical authority; but supposing they were, there is no law by which payment can be enforced, nor is it likely there ever will be, for it is a matter not within the constitutional province of legislative enactment. If any citizen in the territory feels aggrieved by reason of the payment of tithes or other church donations, he holds the remedy in his own hands by simply renouncing connection with any religious body requiring such donations.'
353:16 Gentile marriage and divorce are not recognized as valid in the Mormon church. In its early days, the church had no marriage ordinances of its own, and the requirements, conditions, and ceremonies incident to the rite were similar to those of the various protestant sects. Nor had it officials legally qualified to marry, other, perhaps, than a few such men as Sidney Rigdon, wire, having been duly appointed to preside over churches of other denominations, were still competent to join in legal marriage. In 1836, when the church was three years old and the Kirtland temple about to be dedicated, we find Joseph petitioning the court of Medina county, Ohio, for licenses permitting his elders to perform marriage ceremonies, which authority had been refused them by the Geauga county court. Mil. Star, xv. 708.
Later, when the church had gained power, the result of more complete organization, Joseph announced, as its belief respecting marriage, that it 'should be solemnized in a public meeting, or feast, prepared for that purpose,' and that the celebrant should be 'a presiding high-priest, bishop, elder, or priest.' But no prohibition was issued against marriage by any other authority. Neither were church-members forbidden to marry out of the church, though any so doing would be considered weak in the faith. In the edition of Doctrine and Covenants, published at S. L. City in 1876, a revelation of the prophet's purporting to explain 1st Cor., vii. 14, is construed as forbidding marriages between believers and unbelievers. Ann Eliza Webb, who was twice married according to Mormon practice, once by Brigham, and afterward to him, thus describes the ceremonies: After registration, which includes name, age, place of birth, with county, state, or country, 'we went before Brigham Young, who was waiting for us,' and who asked, 'Do you, Brother James Dee, take Sister Ann Eliza Webb by the right hand, to receive her unto yourself, to be your lawful and wedded wife, and you to be her lawful and wedded husband, for time and eternity, with a covenant and promise on your part that you will fulfil all the laws, rights, and ordinances pertaining to this holy matrimony, in the new and everlasting covenant, doing this in p. 354 the presence of God, angels, and these witnesses, of your own free will and accord?' 'Yes.' 'Do you, Sister Ann Eliza Webb take Brother James Dee by the right hand, and give yourself to him, to be his lawful and wedded wife, for time and for all eternity, with a covenant and promise on your part that you will fulfil all the laws, rights, and ordinances pertaining to this holy matrimony, in the new and everlasting covenant, doing this in the presence of God, angels, and these witnesses, of your own free will and accord?' 'Yes.' 'In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the authority of the holy priesthood, I pronounce you legally and lawfully husband and wife, for time and for all eternity. And I seal upon you the blessings of the holy resurrection, with power to come forth in the morning of the first resurrection, clothed with glory, immortality, and everlasting lives; and I seal upon you the blessings of thrones, and dominions, and principalities, and powers, and exaltations, together with the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And I say unto you, Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth, that you may have joy and rejoicing in your prosperity in the day of the Lord Jesus. All these blessings, together with all other blessings pertaining to the new and everlasting covenant, I seal upon your heads, through your faithfulness unto the end, by the authority of the holy priesthood, in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost. Amen.' 'The scribe then entered the date of the marriage, together with the names of my mother and the one or two friends who accompanied us.' When the marriage is a polygamous one, the wife stands on the left of her husband, and the bride at her left hand. The president then puts this question to the wife: 'Are you willing to give this woman to your husband, to be his lawful and wedded wife for time and for all eternity? If you are, you will manifest it by placing her right hand within the right hand of your husband.' The right hands of the husband and bride being thus joined, the wife takes her husband by the left arm, as in walking, and the ceremony then proceeds as in the manner quoted above. Young's Wife No. 19, 388. Mrs Stenhouse, who gave a polygamous wife to her husband, states that in her case the ceremony was performed at the altar, her husband kneeling on one side, and the two women opposite him; the wife being required to join the hands of the contracting parties as in the other case; but it does not appear that she afterward took her husband's arm. Indeed, the position of the three would render this impracticable. See Tell It All, 453-4. Of course, as these ceremonies took place in the endowment house, the temple robes were worn.
But apart from ordinary marriage as known among gentiles, remarriage of converts and polygamous unions, the church in its beneficence, by an additional marriage rite, secures to her children eternal salvation accompanied with permanent positions of rank. This is effected by the ceremony known as spiritual marriage, based upon the following tenets: No unmarried man or woman can be eternally saved. One woman can save one man only; but a man can be instrumental in the salvation of an indefinite number of women. Scaling may be either for the dead, or for those yet alive. Persons sealed on earth need not necessarily live together. Brigham, in a discourse delivered in Nauvoo, Apr. 6, 1845, announces the doctrine in the following language: 'And I would say, as no man can be perfect without the woman, so no woman can be perfect without a man to lead her. I tell you the truth as it is in the bosom of eternity; and I say so to every man upon the face of the earth: if he wishes to be saved, he cannot be saved without a woman by his side. This is spiritual wifeism, that is, the doctrine of spiritual wives.' Times and Seasons, vi. 955. 'No woman can be scaled to two husbands; she must choose which it shall be whom she will marry for eternity. The man can be scaled to as many wives as he pleases. If the husband will be baptized for a former husband who perhaps died out of the church, then it leaves the wife at liberty to make that choice. If she feels that her second husband is her preference, she can be baptized for some dead female, and have her sealed to her dead husband, so as to secure his conjugal happiness forever.' Mrs Richards’ Inner Facts, MS., 5. 'If a husband has lost his wife by death, before he had the opportunity of attending to this holy ordinance, and securing her as his lawful wife for eternity, then it is the duty of the second wife, first, t